How to Reshape a Chiral Model for Quantum Computing
Mentor:
Michael J. Cervia (INSPIRE-HEP, email: cervia@uw.edu)
Prerequisites:
Students will need to have studied intermediate-level quantum mechanics. Some basic programming experience will be helpful but not required.
What Students Will Learn:
Students will learn about lattice field theory, how computational techniques like tensor networks and quantum computation can come into play with nuclear and particle physics, and how to authentically program in Python, C++, or Julia to study lattices.
Expected Project Length:
6-12 months
Project Description:
The strong nuclear force is experienced by quarks and mediated by gluons, all of which are known to carry a quantum number analogous to electric charge but with three possible values or “colors” [1]. Hence the related interactions that emerge from this force are modeled most generally as a quantum field theory (QFT) known as quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The principal chiral model is one of the most approachable QFTs, solvable in 1+1 dimensions, and yet it shares some crucial similarities with QCD [2]. As such, computational approaches can be tested against exact results when applied to this model in order to help us determine how we can develop new tools to study QCD. Among these tools is a fuzzy regularization [3], which has been proposed to effectively render finite the infinite, bosonic degrees of freedom in a QFT. This project will test how this scheme may be used to simulate chiral models, as a stepping stone to ‘fitting’ QCD on a quantum computer.
References:
[1] D. Griffiths. Introduction to Elementary Particles. John Wiley & Sons, New York, USA, 1987.
[2] S. Scherer and M.R. Schindler. A Primer for Chiral Perturbation Theory. Lecture Notes in Physics. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2011.
[3] Andrei Alexandru, Paulo F. Bedaque, Henry Lamm, and Scott Lawrence. σ models on quantum computers. Phys. Rev. Lett., 123:090501, Aug 2019.