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arXiv:2401.17138 · Physical Review C

Nuclear scattering via quantum computing

Peiyan Wang, Weijie Du, Zuo Wei, James P. Vary

Published Jun 26, 2024• 19 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We propose a hybrid quantum-classical framework to solve the elastic-scattering phase shift of two well-bound nuclei in an uncoupled channel. Within this framework, we develop a many-body formalism in which the continuum scattering states of the two colliding nuclei are regulated by a weak external harmonic-oscillator potential with varying strength. Based on our formalism, we propose an approach to compute the eigenenergies of the low-lying scattering states of the relative motion of the colliding nuclei as a function of the oscillator strength of the confining potential. Utilizing the modified effective range expansion, we extrapolate the elastic-scattering phase shift of the colliding nuclei from these eigenenergies to the limit when the external potential vanishes. In our hybrid approach, we leverage the advantage of quantum computing to solve for these eigenenergies from a set of many-nucleon Hamiltonian eigenvalue problems. These eigenenergies are inputs to classical computers to obtain the phase shift. We demonstrate our framework with two simple problems, where we implement the rodeo algorithm to solve the relevant eigenenergies with the IBM Qiskit quantum simulator. The results of both the spectra and the elastic-scattering phase shifts agree well with other theoretical results.

DOI
10.1103/physrevc.109.064623

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We propose a hybrid quantum-classical framework to solve the elastic-scattering phase shift of two well-bound nuclei in an uncoupled channel. Within this framework, we develop a many-body formalism in which the continuum scattering states of the two colliding nuclei are regulated by a weak external harmonic-oscillator potential with varying strength. Based on our formalism, we propose an approach to compute the eigenenergies of the low-lying scattering states of the relative motion of the colliding nuclei as a function of the oscillator strength of the confining potential. Utilizing the modified effective range expansion, we extrapolate the elastic-scattering phase shift of the colliding nuclei from these eigenenergies to the limit when the external potential vanishes. In our hybrid approach, we leverage the advantage of quantum computing to solve for these eigenenergies from a set of many-nucleon Hamiltonian eigenvalue problems. These eigenenergies are inputs to classical computers to obtain the phase shift. We demonstrate our framework with two simple problems, where we implement the rodeo algorithm to solve the relevant eigenenergies with the IBM Qiskit quantum simulator. The results of both the spectra and the elastic-scattering phase shifts agree well with other theoretical results.
Simulations of scattering processes are essential in understanding the physics of our universe. Computing relevant scattering quantities from ab initio methods is extremely difficult on classical devices because of the substantial computational resources needed. This work reports the development of an algorithm that makes it possible to obtain phase shifts for generic nonrelativistic elastic scattering processes on a quantum computer. This algorithm is based on extracting phase shifts from the direct implementation of the real-time evolution. The algorithm is improved by a variational procedure making it more accurate and resistant to the quantum noise. The reliability of the algorithm is first demonstrated by means of classical numerical simulations for different potentials and later tested on existing quantum hardware, specifically on IBM quantum processors.
There has been a fast-growing interest in quantum computation in the context of high energy and nuclear physics. One important motivation is calculating real-time evolution in large Hilbert spaces which can be prohibitive with classical computers. It is possible to deal with the rapid oscillations of real-time evolution using quantum computers with a so far limited number of qubits. We have been able to measure phase shifts during the scattering process with real-time evolution for the collision by calculating the time delay between models with and without an external potential. To explore scattering problems with more intricate potentials, we use the phase shift to calculate the transmission probability, to find resonances, and to compare with results obtained by finite volume spectroscopy. Quantum computing shows possible advantages in simulating large quantum systems, which means that we can construct a suitable model in IBM qiskit with quantum gates and circuits to explore more resonances.
Scattering probes the internal structure of quantum systems. We calculate the two-particle elastic scattering phase shift for a short-ranged interaction on a quantum computer. Short-ranged interactions with a large scattering length or shallow bound state describe a universality class that is of interest in atomic, condensed matter, nuclear, and particle physics. The phase shift is calculated by relating it to the ground-state energy of the interacting particles in a harmonic trap. The relaxation method is used as the variational quantum eigensolver for the ground-state calculation. Schmidt decomposition is used to reduce quantum circuits nominally requiring tens of qubits to two-qubit circuits, thus reducing the noise in quantum measurements. Calculations in multiparticle systems with many-body interactions would benefit from this reduction of qubits in noisy quantum processors.
Background: Solving nuclear many-body problems with an ab initio approach is widely recognized as a computationally challenging problem. Quantum computers offer a promising path to address this challenge. There are urgent needs to develop quantum algorithms for this purpose. Objective: In this work, we explore the application of the quantum algorithm of adiabatic state preparation with quantum phase estimation in ab initio nuclear structure theory. We focus on solving the low-lying spectra (including both the ground and excited states) of simple nuclear systems. Ideas: The efficiency of this algorithm is hindered by the emergence of small energy gaps (level crossings) during the adiabatic evolution. In order to improve the efficiency, we introduce techniques to avoid level crossings: 1) by suitable design of the reference Hamiltonian; 2) by insertions of perturbation terms to modify the adiabatic path. Results: We illustrate this algorithm by solving the deuteron ground state energy and the spectrum of the deuteron bounded in a harmonic oscillator trap implementing the IBM Qiskit quantum simulator. The quantum results agree well the classical results obtained by matrix diagonalization. Outlook: With our improvements to the efficiency, this algorithm provides a promising tool for investigating the low-lying spectra of complex nuclei on future quantum computers.
Abstract The nuclear binding energy problem is one of the fundamental challenges of the nuclear many-body problem, as calculating the corresponding binding energies by various approximate methods remains computationally challenging for a wide range of nuclei. In this work, a binding energy model derived from quantum computational approaches to nuclear physics is proposed and implemented in a quantum computer simulator to address the nuclear binding energy problem. The goal is to develop a framework capable of calculating the binding energies of multiple nuclei within a unified scheme. To this end, appropriate potential expressions are selected and tuned to accommodate varying nuclear properties. The defined Hamiltonian is parameterized and transformed into a form suitable for implementation on a quantum computer. Depending on the number of nucleons, the program is run on 2 to 12 qubits to obtain the minimum eigenvalue of the Hamiltonian corresponding to the ground state energy (binding energy of the nucleus) according to the variational principle of quantum mechanics. This framework provides, the binding energies of the first 29 nuclei with a total deviation of 16.86% ( 2 H, 3 H, 3 He, 4 He, 6 He, 8 He, 6 Li, 7 Li, 8 Li, 9 Li, 11 Li, 7 Be, 8 Be, 9 Be, 10 Be, 11 Be, 12 Be, 8 B, 9 B, 10 B, 11 B, 12 B, 9 C, 10 C, 11 C, 12 C, 11 N, 12 N, 12 O) obtained by quantum computation following the steps of Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE). These results support the feasibility of the proposed approach for nuclear binding energy calculations. In this sense, this work contributes to quantum computing and nuclear physics by providing a model able to calculate the binding energies for the first 29 nuclei using quantum computer simulator and offers a promising route for future large-scale applications.
Scattering of charged particles is ubiquitous in nuclear physics. We calculate the proton-proton sss-wave phase shift at low energy relevant to solar physics. The phase shift is calculated from the ratio of the regular and irregular solutions to the radial Schrödinger equation on a hard spherical wall boundary for the ground state. The ground state energy is calculated using a hybrid quantum-classical variational algorithm. A theory with short-ranged nuclear interaction in the presence of the long-ranged Coulomb force is used to describe the scattering. The theory is discretized on a spatial lattice for adaptation to the quantum computer in the second quantized language. The phase shifts at low momenta are accurately reproduced.