Light-Front Field Theory on Current Quantum Computers

We present a quantum algorithm for simulation of quantum field theory in the light-front formulation and demonstrate how existing quantum devices can be used to study the structure of bound states in relativistic nuclear physics. Specifically, we apply the Variational Quantum Eigensolver algorithm to find the ground state of the light-front Hamiltonian obtained within the Basis Light-Front Quantization (BLFQ) framework. The BLFQ formulation of quantum field theory allows one to readily import techniques developed for digital quantum simulation of quantum chemistry. This provides a method that can be scaled up to simulation of full, relativistic quantum field theories in the quantum advantage regime. As an illustration, we calculate the mass, mass radius, decay constant, electromagnetic form factor, and charge radius of the pion on the IBM Vigo chip. This is the first time that the light-front approach to quantum field theory has been used to enable simulation of a real physical system on a quantum computer.

Automated summary

A quantum algorithm is presented for simulating quantum field theory in the light-front formulation, utilizing existing quantum devices to study the structure of bound states in relativistic nuclear physics. The algorithm applies the Variational Quantum Eigensolver to find ground states of the light-front Hamiltonian obtained within the Basis Light-Front Quantization framework. This research demonstrates the feasibility of using the light-front approach to quantum field theory for simulating real physical systems on a quantum computer, with calculations performed on the IBM Vigo chip.