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arXiv:2502.18059 · Conference on Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum (Confinement)

Quantum Wishlist: Lessons from Parton Showers

Masahito Yamazaki

Published Oct 24, 2025• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We discuss general criteria that could guide us in applying quantum algorithms/computers to problems in high-energy physics. We then discuss the particular example of parton showers with quantum interference. We summarize the basic ideas behind the classical and quantum parton shower Monte Carlo algorithms and highlight the importance of quantum/classical hybrid algorithms. Our finding in quantum parton showers could serve as a useful case study for further exploration of quantum algorithms/computers in high-energy physics.

DOI
10.22323/1.483.0260

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We discuss general criteria that could guide us in applying quantum algorithms/computers to problems in high-energy physics. We then discuss the particular example of parton showers with quantum interference. We summarize the basic ideas behind the classical and quantum parton shower Monte Carlo algorithms and highlight the importance of quantum/classical hybrid algorithms. Our finding in quantum parton showers could serve as a useful case study for further exploration of quantum algorithms/computers in high-energy physics.
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Quantum computing has emerged as a promising framework for addressing computationally demanding problems in collider physics. In recent years, a growing number of quantum algorithms have been proposed for applications ranging from event generation and parton shower simulation to the evaluation of scattering amplitudes, loop and phase-space integration, and optimization problems relevant to experimental analysis. We provide a concise overview of the main ideas behind these developments, with emphasis on the potential advantages of quantum approaches in comparison with classical methods, as well as on the current limitations imposed by noisy intermediate-scale quantum hardware.
Abstract High-quality simulated data is crucial for particle physics discoveries. Therefore, parton shower algorithms are a major building block of the data synthesis in event generator programs. However, the core algorithms used to generate parton showers have barely changed since the 1980s. With quantum computers’ rapid and continuous development, dedicated algorithms are required to exploit the potential that quantum computers provide to address problems in high-energy physics. This paper presents a novel approach to synthesising parton showers using the Discrete QCD method. The algorithm benefits from an elegant quantum walk implementation which can be embedded into the classical toolchain. We use the ibm_algiers device to sample parton shower configurations and generate data that we compare against measurements taken at the ALEPH, DELPHI and OPAL experiments. This is the first time a Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) device has been used to simulate realistic high-energy particle collision events.
The efficient simulation of accurate collider data at modern collider experiments will be crucial for the detection of Beyond the Standard Model signatures in the search for new physics. Simulation of collision processes at hadron colliders like the LHC are carried out by Monte Carlo event generators which simulate the evolution from an initial hard scattering event, downwards in energy scales, towards the formation of long lived particles. However, as we enter a new era of higher luminosity experiments, accurate simulations of these pseudo-event generated data will become further computationally intensive with the vast amounts of data to generate. With the rapid development of quantum computing hardware, quantum computation offers itself as an alternative computing paradigm that may be harnessed to provide a natural framework to model several physical processes in high-energy physics, where the inherent quantum features of the device may be exploited to provide speedups or enhance current simulations. In this thesis, we present general and extendable quantum algorithms for two crucial parts of event generation: the calculation of matrix elements for the hard interaction and the QCD parton shower stage. First, a novel algorithm is proposed for the calculation of helicity amplitudes by outlining a proposal of constructing helicity spinors directly on a quantum circuit and manipulating the spinors to compute helicity amplitudes. This was used to calculate multiple helicity amplitudes for simple tree level scattering processes simultaneously as a proof-of-principle demonstration. The second algorithm outlines a proposal for a Monte Carlo-inspired parton shower algorithm which was used to simulate two shower steps of a simplified QCD model. The final algorithm extends the quantum parton shower algorithm onto a quantum walk framework which demonstrates significant scaling improvements, simulating more realistic shower depths. These algorithms utilise the quantum computers’ ability to remain in a quantum state throughout the computation and represents a first step towards a quantum computing algorithm describing full collision events at the LHC.
Quantum computers use the quantum interference of different computational paths to enhance correct outcomes and suppress erroneous outcomes of computations. A common pattern underpinning quantum algorithms can be identified when quantum computation is viewed as multiparticle interference. We use this approach to review (and improve) some of the existing quantum algorithms and to show how they are related to different instances of quantum phase estimation. We provide an explicit algorithm for generating any prescribed interference pattern with an arbitrary precision.