Estimation of the number of logical qubits required for radiation transport calculations with a quantum computer

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum computers can accelerate radiation transport calculations by designing quantum circuits for simplified models and estimating the logical qubits needed for practical problems.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum circuit design for simplified radiation transport and estimates the logical qubits required for real-world applications.

Findings

Quantum circuits can potentially speed up radiation transport calculations.

Estimated qubits needed for practical problems are within feasible range.

Simplified models demonstrate the feasibility of quantum acceleration.

Abstract

As an application of fault-tolerant quantum computers, we consider radiation transport calculations in this study. Radiation transport calculation using Monte Carlo calculation can obtain a solution to even a problem difficult to solve analytically. However, it is time-consuming depending on the scale and precision of the problem. Because it is known that the computational complexity of Monte Carlo calculation can be square rooted by quantum amplitude estimation, acceleration can be expected if radiation transport calculation is run on a quantum computer. In this study, we designed and investigated a quantum circuit for a simplified transport calculation in which the reaction is only forward scattering or absorption and the energy and time do not change as well as showed the possibility of acceleration the calculation. Further, we estimated the number of logical qubits required to solve practical problems based on the quantum circuit.