Researchers from CERN, DESY, IBM Quantum and more than 30 other organisations have published a white paper identifying activities in particle physics that could benefit from quantum-computing technologies. By Kristiane Bernhard-Novotny.
Quantum computing is very promising, but not every problem in particle physics is suited to this model of computing,
Alberto Di Meglio, head of IT Innovation at CERN
40 page-long paper is the outcome of a working group set up at the QT4HEP conference held at CERN last November, which identified topics in theoretical and experimental high-energy physics where quantum algorithms may produce significant insights and results that are very hard or even not accessible by classical computers.
Neutrino oscillations in extreme environments, such as supernovae, are one promising example given. In the context of quantum computing, neutrino oscillations can be considered strongly coupled many-body systems that are driven by the weak interaction.
In experimental physics, potential applications range from simulations to data analysis and include jet physics, track reconstruction and algorithms used to simulate the detector performance. One key advantage here is the speed up in processing time compared to classical algorithms. Quantum-computing algorithms might also be better at finding correlations in data, while Monte Carlo simulations could benefit from random numbers generated by a quantum computer. Super interesting read!
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