Physics Colloquium

Zohreh Davoudi, University of Maryland 

Quantum-computing frontiers in nuclear and particle physics

Abstract: How does matter evolve after the Big Bang or in particle colliders? What does the phase diagram of strongly interacting matter look like? What is the dynamical response of a large nucleus to probes of new physics? A large, reliable quantum computer holds the promise of addressing these questions by enabling first-principles simulations of matter. In this talk, I will motivate the need for a quantum-computational nuclear- and particle-physics program, describe a journey toward quantum simulation of systems governed by the fundamental interactions of the Standard Model or their effective descriptions, and present current resource estimates for solving various problems of interest. I will also showcase examples that demonstrate remarkable progress in quantum-hardware implementations and theory-algorithm-experiment codesign efforts. Altogether, these advances will help position the field to take advantage of increasingly capable quantum computers as they become available.