Simulations of Subatomic Many-Body Physics on a Quantum Frequency Processor

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the use of a photonic quantum frequency processor to simulate complex subatomic many-body physics, including nuclear and meson interactions, marking a significant advancement in quantum simulation capabilities.

Contribution

It introduces the largest photonic quantum simulation to date, applying a quantum frequency processor to compute nuclear energies and sub-nucleon forces in a high-dimensional Hilbert space.

Findings

Successfully computed ground-state energies of light nuclei.

Performed sub-nucleon calculations of meson forces.

Showed feasibility of simulating subatomic physics with photonic quantum processors.

Abstract

Simulating complex many-body quantum phenomena is a major scientific impetus behind the development of quantum computing, and a range of technologies are being explored to address such systems. We present the results of the largest photonics-based simulation to date, applied in the context of subatomic physics. Using an all-optical quantum frequency processor, the ground-state energies of light nuclei including the triton ($^3$H), $^{3}$He, and the alpha particle ($^{4}$He) are computed. Complementing these calculations and utilizing a 68-dimensional Hilbert space, our photonic simulator is used to perform sub-nucleon calculations of the two-body and three-body forces between heavy mesons in the Schwinger model. This work is a first step in simulating subatomic many-body physics on quantum frequency processors---augmenting classical computations that bridge scales from quarks to nuclei.