IBM's quantum computer simulated one of the key processes of elementary particle physics - ForkLog

# IBM Quantum Computer Simulated One of the Key Processes in Particle Physics

A researcher has used an IBM quantum processor for the first time to model one of the fundamental processes of quantum electrodynamics — the creation of a particle-antiparticle pair under the influence of a strong electric field. This is reported by The Quantum Insider.

Anthony Chiavarella, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, used 104 of the 156 qubits of the Heron processor on the IBM Quantum platform. Access to the equipment was provided through the Quantum Computer User Program.

The focus of the study was the breaking of a gluon string — a mechanism in which the bond between quarks breaks and a new quark-antiquark pair is born. This process is considered a key part of hadronization.

According to the article, the quantum simulation yielded results consistent with previous calculations on classical supercomputers.

At the same time, the calculation did not claim to be full-fledged quantum chromodynamics. The simulation was deliberately simplified: it was limited to one spatial dimension — that is, a one-dimensional model — and a strict limit on quarks.

Chiavarella sees the work as a foundation for larger quantum simulations: as hardware and algorithms develop, such approaches could help more accurately model processes related to experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

"In principle, we know the theory that describes hadronization, but we cannot make predictions using it because the calculations are too complex for a classical computer. However, with quantum hardware, we will be able to directly predict the details of the process, which will help in the search for new physics at colliders like the LHC," the researcher stated.

Recall that in June, experts tested the IBM Nighthawk quantum processor in calculating the interaction between a nucleon and an antinucleon in a simplified model of quantum chromodynamics, QCD2.