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Quantum Computing for Lattice Field Theory and High-Energy Physics
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National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton
National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton
Southampton, UK
Description
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Spring Workshop:
Quantum Computing for Lattice Field Theory and High-Energy Physics
In recent years, quantum computational techniques have emerged as powerful tools for tackling fundamental challenges in lattice field theories and gauge theories, as well as in high-energy physics more broadly. These approaches offer novel methods for simulating quantum field theories, studying non-perturbative phenomena, and probing the foundations of quantum mechanics in collider experiments. As quantum hardware and algorithms continue to develop, their potential to revolutionize both theoretical and experimental physics is becoming increasingly clear.
This workshop will bring together a diverse group of academics from various sectors of fundamental physics, including lattice field theory, gauge theories, high-energy physics, and condensed matter physics, alongside experts in quantum algorithms and computer science. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, the workshop aims to consolidate expertise and establish a roadmap towards robust and reliable quantum computation for lattice field theories and gauge theories, with applications to high-energy physics.
Through focused discussions and interactive sessions, participants will explore:
- state-of-the-art quantum techniques
- their implementation on near-term quantum hardware
- their role in advancing our understanding of fundamental physics.
The workshop will provide a platform for exchanging ideas, identifying key challenges, and shaping the future of quantum simulation in these fields.
Contact
Participants
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09:00
Registration / Arrival
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09:20
Welcome
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Invited Speakers
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1
Quantum simulation of hadron scattering with NISQ devices
Hamiltonian simulation of lattice gauge theories (LGTs) offers novel avenues for studying scattering processes in gauge theories. With the advent of quantum computers, it has become a reality. We present a digital quantum algorithm for simulating scattering in a 1+1D Z2 LGT on quantum hardware. The algorithm begins by preparing an initial scattering state composed of multiple well-separated wavepackets of hadrons. The hadronic eigenstates in this confined theory are constructed using an order-by-order improvable ansatz. We demonstrate the viability of our algorithm for the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) hardware by preparing initial scattering states for system sizes up to 27 qubits on commercially available trapped-ion based quantum computers. We then implement a Trotterized time evolution algorithm to simulate the hadronic collision dynamics. Despite noise effects, symmetry-based noise mitigation during the post-processing provided results with significantly high fidelity, exceeding device benchmark expectations. Our results highlight the potential of quantum algorithms, enhanced by noise mitigation techniques, for simulating scattering processes, paving the way toward studying hadron scattering in gauge theories like QCD.
Speaker: Dr Saurabh V. Kadam (University of Washington, Seattle) -
2
TBDSpeaker: Prof. Sergii Strelchuk (University of Oxford)
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1
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10:40
Coffee Break
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Invited Speakers and Contributions
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3
Maths-to-code: domain-specific compiler architecture
This talk is not about quantum computing, nor physics: it’s about software tools that generate code from the maths. I want to show you some examples of what is possible. The big idea is to capture an abstract model of the computation that makes hard optimisations easy. My aim is to seed conversations about how to do this for the applications at this workshop.
Speaker: Prof. Paul Kelly (Imperial College London) -
4
Versatile cross-platform compilation toolchain for Schrödinger-style quantum circuit simulation
While existing quantum hardware resources have limited availability and reliability, there is a growing demand for exploring and verifying quantum algorithms. Efficient classical simulators for high-performance quantum simulation are critical to meeting this demand. However, due to the vastly varied characteristics of classical hardware, implementing hardware-specific optimizations for different hardware platforms is challenging. To address such needs, we propose CAST (Cross-platform Adaptive Schrödinger-style Simulation Toolchain), a novel compilation toolchain with cross-platform (CPU and Nvidia GPU) optimization and high-performance backend supports. CAST exploits a novel sparsity-aware gate fusion algorithm that automatically selects the best fusion strategy and backend configuration for targeted hardware platforms. CAST also aims to offer versatile and high-performance backend for different hardware platforms. To this end, CAST provides an LLVM IR-based vectorization optimization for various CPU architectures and instruction sets, as well as a PTX-based code generator for Nvidia GPU support. We benchmark CAST against IBM Qiskit, Google QSimCirq, Nvidia cuQuantum backend, and other high-performance simulators. On various 32-qubit CPU-based benchmarks, CAST is able to achieve up to 8.03x speedup than Qiskit. On various 30-qubit GPU-based benchmarks, CAST is able to achieve up to 39.3x speedup than Nvidia cuQuantum backend.
Speaker: Yuncheng Lu (Imperial College London) -
5
Exponential inefficiency in quantum simulation of bosons, and its cure
Hamiltonian quantum simulation of bosons on digital quantum computers requires truncating the Hilbert space to finite dimensions. We highlight that naive schemes, such as Fock basis truncation, can result in an exponentially large number of Pauli strings in the truncated Hamiltonian, with regard to the number of qubits Q assigned to each boson. Even a small departure from the diagonal form can lead to a significant complexity in the Pauli string expansion. This, in turn, can lead to an exponential increase in the complexity of the quantum circuit. Essentially the same problem can appear in different forms, such as a necessity of building oracles in certain algorithms that require exponentially large resources on classical computers. However, this problem can easily be avoided using the universal framework advocated by Halimeh et al. that combines truncations in coordinate and momentum bases, with the two bases connected through a quantum Fourier transform. For Yang-Mills theory and QCD, this problem can be addressed by utilizing the orbifold lattice Hamiltonian. In contrast, we do not find a suitable resolution when using the Kogut-Susskind Hamiltonian because of the lack of a quantum Fourier transform. In the continuum limit of the lattice Hamiltonian, the value of Q must be large, and this difference can lead to a parametrically large advantage for the orbifold lattice Hamiltonian. Specifically, the difference is a logarithm versus an impractically large power concerning the ultraviolet cutoff scale. We also point out a potential exponential increase in the resource requirement for formulations based on gauge-invariant Hilbert space, which can eliminate any quantum advantage.
Speaker: Masanori Hanada -
6
Phase transition of non-Hermitian systems using variational quantum techniques
The motivation for studying non-Hermitian systems and the role of {PT}-symmetry is discussed. We investigate the use of a quantum algorithm to find the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians, with applications to quantum phase transitions. We use a recently proposed variational algorithm.
Speaker: James Hancock (University of Plymouth)
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3
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12:45
Lunch Break
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Invited Speakers and Contributions
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7
Towards scalable quantum simulation on heterogeneous computing clusters
I will present our recent work on developing a scalable quantum simulator prototype using the open-source QuEST toolkit. We tackle two major scalability challenges: increasing the number of qubits in simulations and enhancing simulation speed. Initially focusing on optimization, we refactored QuEST’s core data structure to improve cache locality and multithreaded performance on single-node, homogeneous systems. Recognizing that traditional OpenMP scheduling does not address memory locality, we implemented NUMA-aware allocation and a manual task scheduler, ensuring threads are bound to their respective NUMA nodes for optimal memory access. Additional performance improvements were achieved through the integration of AVX-512 SIMD instructions, FMA operations, and prefetching techniques. These optimizations resulted in up to 97% speedup for single-qubit gates and more than a twofold acceleration for the QFT circuit. In this talk I will discuss how these advances lay the foundation for extending our approach to heterogeneous clusters and accelerator-based systems such as GPUs and FPGAs. This work not only contributes to the field of quantum computing but also provides valuable insights for HPC computing, making it relevant to researchers across computer science disciplines.
Speaker: Ali Rezaei (University of Edinburgh) -
8
Qubit Approach of Quantum ElectrodynamicsSpeaker: Zong-Gang Mou (University of Southampton)
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9
Dynamics of non-Abelian lattice gauge theories: a Loop-String-Hadron (LSH) approachSpeaker: Emil Mathew (BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus)
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10
UNESCO's International Year of Quantum Science and TechnologySpeaker: Graham Van Goffrier (University of Southampton)
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7
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15:35
Coffee Break
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Invited Speakers and Contributions
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11
Quantum error suppression for quantum simulation
In this talk, I will provide a brief introduction to quantum error correction and mitigation, emphasising their requirements and applicability in quantum simulation. I will then discuss the interplay between these techniques in the emerging early fault-tolerant era, highlighting how quantum error mitigation can be effectively applied to sampling-based algorithms such as quantum phase estimation, which was previously thought to be impossible.
Speaker: Zhenyu Cai (University of Oxford) -
12
Quantum many-body scars in 2+1D gauge theories
Gauge theories are fundamental to the Standard Model of particle physics, and their non-perturbative aspects have traditionally been studied through classical simulations of a theory formulated on a space-time lattice. However, these simulations are often computationally expensive, and many observables remain entirely inaccessible. Quantum simulators present an exciting alternative, where formulating gauge theories as quantum many-body Hamiltonians opens the door to studying their dynamics over time. Examples of such real-time quantities are quantum many-body scars, where a system starting from small subset of initial states fails to thermalize even after long evolution times. The quantum many-body scars have been observed in simple gauge theories and reveal rich underlying physics. In this talk, I will introduce gauge theories in the Hamiltonian formalism and discuss recent results on quantum many-body scars in 2+1 dimensional lattice gauge theories. These insights can help guide near-term experimental efforts to characterize novel phenomena in gauge theories.
Speaker: Marina Krstic Marinkovic (ETH Zurich) -
13
Quantum computing for real-time dynamics of (2+1)-d quantum link modelsSpeaker: Anthony Gandon (ETH Zürich / IBM Quantum Zürich)
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14
Complementary approaches to SO(3) quantum link models in 1+1D and 2+1DSpeaker: Graham Van Goffrier (University of Southampton)
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11
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18:30
Dinner
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09:00
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Invited Speakers and Contributions
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15
Quantum variational methods for supersymmetric quantum mechanics
Supersymmetric models propose a symmetry linking bosons and fermions, but the infamous sign problem obstructs lattice studies of non-perturbative aspects like spontaneous supersymmetry breaking and real-time evolution, a limitation absent in quantum computing.
The lattice supersymmetric quantum mechanics model provides a valuable testbed for exploring key challenges in quantum computing, such as state preparation, ground state search, and time evolution. In this talk, we discuss the challenges of encoding fermionic and bosonic degrees of freedom on a gate-based quantum computer. We then explore quantum variational methods to directly measure supersymmetry breaking or preservation, with a focus on the Variational Quantum Eigensolver and Variational Quantum Deflation, while examining the intricate interplay between quantum ansätze and classical optimizers.
Speaker: Emanuele Mendicelli (University of Liverpool (United Kingdom)) -
16
Algorithms for preparing good quantum number states
TBD
Speaker: Subhayan Roy Moulik (University of Cambridge) -
17
Leveraging quantum hardware for improved simulations of lattice field theories
Simulating lattice field theories on quantum hardware presents significant challenges, particularly in state preparation and the efficient representation of mixed degrees of freedom. In this talk, I will discuss how quantum optimal control techniques can be used to mitigate barren plateaus in standard gate-based state preparation, enabling more efficient initialization of quantum states relevant for lattice models. Additionally, I will explore the potential of trapped ion quantum computers to simulate theories with both fermionic and bosonic degrees of freedom. Trapped ion platforms naturally support hybrid simulations that integrate bosonic and fermionic dynamics by utilizing collective ion modes to represent continuous variables and ion spins as qubits. This approach provides a powerful framework for advancing quantum simulations of lattice field theories beyond the capabilities of classical methods.
Speaker: Jack Y. Araz (Stony Brook University)
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15
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10:30
Coffee Break
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10:50
Roadmap Session
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12:40
Lunch Break
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Keynote AddressConvener: Prof. Shailesh Chandrasekharan (Duke University)
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14:35
Coffee Break
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Invited Speakers and Contributions
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18
TBDSpeaker: Dr Dorota Maria Grabowska (University of Washington (US))
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19
Real-time scattering processes with continuous-variable quantum computers
In this talk, I will present a framework for simulating the real-time dynamics of quantum field theories (QFTs) using continuous-variable quantum computing (CVQC). Focusing on (1+1)-dimensional phi4 scalar field theory, the approach employs the Hamiltonian formalism to map the theory onto a spatial lattice, with fields represented as quantum harmonic oscillators. Measurement-based quantum computing techniques enable the implementation of non-Gaussian operations necessary for QFT simulations on CQVC platforms. I will discuss methods for preparing well-defined initial states and evolving them under the interacting phi4 Hamiltonian. Key observables, such as two-point correlation functions, validate the framework against analytical expectations, while scattering simulations provide insights into the effects of mass and coupling strength on field dynamics and energy redistribution. These results highlight the scalability of CVQC for larger lattice systems and its potential for simulating more complex QFTs.
Speaker: Simon Jonathan Williams (Institute of Particle Physics Phenomenology, University of Durham) -
20
Investigating solving optimization problems on a circuit based quantum computer
We present a status report of our work on developing algorithms to use circuit based quantum computers to solve Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problems. The QUBO problems are from two practical use cases. The first example is the optimal placement of wind turbines within a windfarm to maximize the power production (arXiv:2312.13123). The second QUBO problem we investigated is the Nurse scheduling problem and in this study we used Pauli Correlation encoding that allows bigger systems to be simulated. The Qiskit software from IBM was used on the HPC system at the University of Plymouth and the performance compared to classical algorithms in the Gurobi solver.
Speaker: Dr Craig McNeile (Plymouth University) -
21
Quantum machine learning in particle physics
I provide an overview of quantum machine learning and its possible applications to experimental particle physics analysis tasks, highlighting work done by my research group. I cover reconstruction, anomaly detection, image processing, kernel methods and geometric learning.
Speaker: Marcin Jastrzebski (UCL) -
22
Quantum inspired application into battery cell manufacturingSpeaker: Dr Biswaranjan Senapati (University of Arkansas)
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18
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