Modeling Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics using Quantum Computing
By Abhinav Angirekula, Rohan Kompella
Within a hadron - a title for a group that includes the likes of protons, neutrons, and more - there are quarks. The force holding these quarks together is incredibly strong, strong because it needs to be in order to keep the quarks within the hadron. This strength earned said force the name of “the strong nuclear force,” often abridged to simply “the strong force.” This force is explained in a theory called quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and this theory asserts that the strong force is perpetuated by gluons; we now have an understanding of QCD. What, then, is Lattice QCD? There is a complicated explanation to it, but we’re still trying to understand it, so for now, suffice it to say that it is a means of calculating results to understand how QCD works.
People have explored computational approaches like Lattice QCD extensively. The conventional approach on classical computers is to use Markov chain Monte Carlo methods on classical computers to simulate QCD(Ichihara et al., 2014). However, when coupling constants get large, finding the values of the path integrals involved in these calculations, it becomes impossible to get very accurate results without the use of a supercomputer. However, recently, people have been considering whether or not a quantum computer could help resolve these issues(Kan & Nam, 2022).
From our brief literature review, it seems that a comprehensive implementation has yet to be fully executed and applied. Even Kan 2022 explicitly states in their introduction that they only “provide a complete layout of computational instructions at a gate-by-gate level to be run on a quantum computer, to efficiently simulate quantum electrodynamics (QED) and quantum chromodynamics (QCD), in the hopes that it will serve as a stepping stone to future scientific and technological developments.” With a bit of luck, determination, and cold emailing, we hope to bring about the future developments they described.
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