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Quantum computers can simulate the behaviour of high-energy particles<\/p>\n
Google Quantum AI, designed by Sayo Studio<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Quantum computers<\/a> are beginning to become powerful tools for studying some of the most fundamental forces in the universe \u2013 and some of the trickiest to understand. Two experiments have used them to pave a new way forward for nuclear and particle physics.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have this sort of grand scheme where we eventually want to do quantum computing for high-energy physics,\u201d says Torsten Zache<\/a> at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. \u201cThere\u2019s a strong consensus that large-scale quantum computers will actually be able to solve problems that are otherwise intractable.\u201d<\/p>\n He and his colleagues used a quantum computer to simulate how excited particles \u2013 those with lots of energy \u2013 behave in quantum fields, a situation akin to the conditions they experience in particle accelerators. Pedram Roushan<\/a> at Google and his colleagues ran a similar simulation on a different quantum computer.<\/p>\n While conventional computers can typically only capture snapshots of particles\u2019 behaviour, the new simulations show how they behave over time, a bit like making a movie.<\/p>\n Roushan says it all starts with quantum fields, which extend through space and exert forces on particles. His team wanted to simulate the electromagnetic field, but there was an added challenge of ensuring that the simulated field didn\u2019t just apply everywhere, but also that it correctly affected particles when zooming in on just a few.<\/p>\n Roushan\u2019s and Zache\u2019s teams each simulated a version of this local structure based on a simplification of the standard model of particle physics<\/a> \u2013 our best theory for how all particles and the forces acting upon them behave.<\/p>\n Zache and his colleagues used a quantum computer made from extremely cold atoms<\/a> controlled by lasers and electromagnetic pulses, which was produced by the quantum computing firm QuEra. Roushan\u2019s team worked with Google\u2019s Sycamore quantum computer<\/a>, which uses tiny superconducting circuits.<\/p>\n Both teams simulated two particles in the quantum field that were first confined to move in concert, and then broke away from each other. In that scenario, particles behave as if connected by a string of energy that vibrates and eventually snaps. Within the standard model, this string breaking is important for quarks, which make up the nuclei of atoms and are held together by the strong force<\/a>. It is also key to matter and antimatter particle<\/a> pairs.<\/p>\n While conventional computers can accurately simulate this phenomenon at one instance in time, or when energies are relatively low, they can only capture the whole process for very small systems. \u201cFor decades, we have been paying attention to static physics, but what if you want a dynamical situation? We visualised it for the first time,\u201d says Roushan.<\/p>\n What they saw doesn\u2019t contradict the standard model and is in line with state-of-the-art conventional computer simulations, but using only a slightly bigger quantum computer would push this work into unknown territory, says Jad Halimeh<\/a> at the University of Munich in Germany. He says the new experiments bring quantum computers \u201cneck and neck\u201d with the best traditional computers.<\/p>\n Anthony Ciavarella<\/a> at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California says string-breaking for quarks is where there are the most open theoretical questions, and, just a few years ago, researchers could barely use quantum computing hardware to simulate the process.<\/p>\n But now, says Halimeh, quantum computers are slated to be \u201cthe major player\u201d in understanding what happens in the hearts of particle colliders.<\/p>\n When very energetic ions get smashed together in a collider, they produce showers of particles that hit detectors \u2013 the data is like the last few frames of a movie, and physicists can use it to reverse engineer what happened in the frames before. But quantum computers could let us start with the collision and understand what happens next, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cI absolutely believe in this [approach],\u201d says Zache. \u201cEventually, I think it will become a tool that will play a very important role.\u201d<\/p>\n To get there, researchers will have to run their simulations on larger quantum computers and in three instead of two spatial dimensions. Roushan says his team is working with the realities and limitations of some of the best existing quantum computers, and that there isn\u2019t one magic trick that can fast-track their simulations \u2013 both the hardware and the way in which simulations are programmed<\/a> must keep improving.<\/p>\n But for now, he says, simulations like these can also help researchers understand less extreme particle physics, such as the ways excited particles behave in exotic quantum materials.<\/p>\n Topics:<\/p>\n particle physics<\/a>\/quantum computing<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quantum computers can simulate the behaviour of high-energy particles Google Quantum AI, designed by Sayo Studio Quantum computers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[64,63,257,1984,2292,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-24904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-computing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-computing","11":"tag-particle-physics","12":"tag-quantum-computing","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}