Snowmass White Paper: Quantum Computing Systems and Software for High-energy Physics Research

TL;DR

This white paper discusses the potential of quantum computing to revolutionize high-energy physics research by developing new algorithms, software, and hardware, while addressing current integration challenges.

Contribution

It identifies key challenges and opportunities for developing quantum computing tools tailored for high-energy physics within the next decade.

Findings

Quantum computing can enable novel modeling and data analysis methods for HEP.

Significant gaps exist in integrating quantum techniques into HEP research.

Focused development of algorithms and infrastructure is needed for practical applications.

Abstract

Quantum computing offers a new paradigm for advancing high-energy physics research by enabling novel methods for representing and reasoning about fundamental quantum mechanical phenomena. Realizing these ideals will require the development of novel computational tools for modeling and simulation, detection and classification, data analysis, and forecasting of high-energy physics (HEP) experiments. While the emerging hardware, software, and applications of quantum computing are exciting opportunities, significant gaps remain in integrating such techniques into the HEP community research programs. Here we identify both the challenges and opportunities for developing quantum computing systems and software to advance HEP discovery science. We describe opportunities for the focused development of algorithms, applications, software, hardware, and infrastructure to support both practical and theoretical applications of quantum computing to HEP problems within the next 10 years.