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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Utilizing the Quantum Zeno Effect in superconducting qubit based particle sensors

Superconducting qubit sensors are a compelling option for detecting faint signals from dark matter or low energy neutrino interactions. Improving their reach calls for both signal amplification and background suppression. The Quantum Zeno Effect (QZE)--which governs how entanglement reshapes a quantum system's time evolution--addresses both needs. By quantifying these modified time dynamics, we can better predict a qubit's response to a genuine particle event while suppressing coherence dips from other local disturbances. We present a new QZE-based protocol that could mitigate a dominant source of coherence fluctuations from Two Level Systems, show initial measurements of the QZE in superconducting qubits, and discuss additional opportunities where understanding and exploiting the effect are critical for building robust, high-sensitivity qubit detectors.

Seidel, Olivia [Fermilab]↗
DOE OSTI2023

Advances in machine-learning-based sampling motivated by lattice quantum chromodynamics

Sampling from known probability distributions is a ubiquitous task in computational science, underlying calculations in domains from linguistics to biology and physics. Generative machine-learning (ML) models have emerged as a promising tool in this space, building on the success of this approach in applications such as image, text, and audio generation. Often, however, generative tasks in scientific domains have unique structures and features—such as complex symmetries and the requirement of exactness guarantees—that present both challenges and opportunities for ML. This Perspective outlines the advances in ML-based sampling motivated by lattice quantum field theory, in particular for the theory of quantum chromodynamics. Enabling calculations of the structure and interactions of matter from our most fundamental understanding of particle physics, lattice quantum chromodynamics is one of the main consumers of open-science supercomputing worldwide. Here, the design of ML algorithms for this application faces profound challenges, including the necessity of scaling custom ML architectures to the largest supercomputers, but also promises immense benefits, and is spurring a wave of development in ML-based sampling more broadly. In lattice field theory, if this approach can realize its early promise it will be a transformative step towards first-principles physics calculations in particle, nuclear and condensed matter physics that are intractable with traditional approaches.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2026

A Cryogenic Muon Tagging System Integrated with a Superconducting Qubit Device for Radiation-Induced Error Mitigation

Superconducting qubits are highly sensitive to ionizing radiation, which can induce correlated errors and limit scalable fault-tolerant quantum computing. In particular, cosmic-ray muons can deposit energy in the substrate, generating phonon bursts that break Cooper pairs and produce quasiparticles, leading to correlated decoherence events across multiple qubits. We present the development of a cryogenic muon tagging system based on Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs) and its integration with superconducting quantum hardware. Originally developed within the ACE-SuperQ project and validated as a standalone detector, the system demonstrated a muon tagging efficiency of approximately 90% and excellent agreement with Monte Carlo simulations. Building on this validation, the tagging system has been integrated with a multi-qubit superconducting chip operated in a dilution refrigerator. The detector configuration consists of a multi-layer KID stack arranged above and below the quantum device, enabling time-coincident identification of muon-induced events within the same cryogenic environment. The integrated setup has been successfully commissioned, enabling simultaneous operation of the qubit chip and the muon tagging system. A first measurement campaign has been carried out, and preliminary data show time-correlated events between the muon tagging detectors and the qubit readout. A quantitative analysis of radiation-induced effects on qubit performance is currently ongoing. This work represents a step toward the implementation of event-level radiation tagging as a tool for characterizing and potentially mitigating correlated errors in superconducting quantum processors, while establishing a modular platform for future studies at the interface between particle physics and quantum information science.

Roy, Tanay [Fermilab] (ORCID:000000019442862X)↗
DOE OSTI2024

Precision Computations in Strongly Coupled Conformal Field Theories (Final Technical Report)

Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) are quantum field theories that are invariant under the conformal symmetry group (which includes translations and rotations, but also local rescalings of spacetime). They are building blocks of general quantum field theories, and appear in many areas of physics, including statistical physics, condensed matter physics, particle physics, and quantum gravity. Because of their extra symmetries, the mathematical structure of CFTs is tightly constrained, and this leads to the idea of the ``conformal bootstrap," which is to use these mathematical structures to constrain, and in some cases determine, CFT observables. A new numerical implementation of the conformal bootstrap idea appeared in 2008 with the work of Rattazzi, Rychkov, Tonni, and Vichi. Their observation was that certain bootstrap constraints (conformal symmetry and unitarity) could be combined to yield a convex optimization problem that constraints CFT data. By solving this convex optimization problem on a computer, one could obtain bounds on observables like critical exponents and operator product expansion (OPE) coefficients. Over the course of this award, the PI has improved numerical bootstrap techniques by optimizing known algorithms and finding new ones for performing the required convex optimization computations. The PI has applied these techniques to compute high-precision observables in several important strongly-coupled systems. The PI has also explored both analytical and numerical bootstrap methods for constraining the space of low energy effective field theories of quantum gravity, and developed new analytical techniques for CFT and QFT more broadly.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Mechanism for particle fractionalization and universal edge physics in quantum Hall fluids

Abstract Advancing a microscopic framework that rigorously unveils the underlying topological hallmarks of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) fluids is a prerequisite for making progress in the classification of strongly-coupled topological matter. We present a second-quantization framework that reveals an exact fusion mechanism for particle fractionalization in FQH fluids, and uncovers the fundamental structure behind the condensation of non-local operators characterizing topological order in the lowest-Landau-level. We show the first exact analytic computation of the quasielectron Berry connections leading to its fractional charge and exchange statistics, and perform Monte Carlo simulations that numerically confirm the fusion mechanism for quasiparticles. We express the sequence of (bosonic and fermionic) Laughlin second-quantized states, highlighting the lack of local condensation, and present a rigorous constructive subspace bosonization dictionary for the bulk fluid. Finally, we establish universal long-distance behavior of edge excitations by formulating a conjecture based on the DNA, or root state, of the FQH fluid.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

Particle production by 𝛾−𝛾 interactions in future electron-ion colliders

The particle production in photon-photon (𝛾⁢𝛾) interactions present in electron-ion collisions is investigated. We present calculations for the total cross sections and event rates related to the production of light mesons [𝜂,𝜂′,𝑓 0 and 𝑓 2 ], charmonium [𝜂 𝑐 and 𝜒 𝑐 ], and charmoniumlike [𝑋⁡(3915), 𝑋⁡(3940), 𝑋⁡(4140), and 𝑋⁡(6900)] states, considering the Electron - Ion Collider, Electron - ion collider in China, Large Hadron electron Collider, and Future Circular Collider - electron hadron energies. Our predictions demonstrate that experimental studies of these processes are feasible and useful to constrain the properties of light mesons and quarkonium states and shed some light on the configuration of the considered charmoniumlike states.

Exotic mesons↗
DOE OSTI2024

High-Energy Collision of Quarks and Mesons in the Schwinger Model: From Tensor Networks to Circuit QED

With the aim of studying nonperturbative out-of-equilibrium dynamics of high-energy particle collisions on quantum simulators, we investigate the scattering dynamics of lattice quantum electrodynamics in 1 + 1 dimensions. Working in the bosonized formulation of the model and in the thermodynamic limit, we use uniform-matrix-product-state tensor networks to construct multiparticle wave-packet states, evolve them in time, and detect outgoing particles post collision. This facilitates the numerical simulation of scattering experiments in both confined and deconfined regimes of the model at different energies, giving rise to rich phenomenology, including inelastic production of quark and meson states, meson disintegration, and dynamical string formation and breaking. We obtain elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections, together with time-resolved momentum and position distributions of the outgoing particles. Furthermore, we propose an analog circuit-QED implementation of the scattering process that is native to the platform, requires minimal ingredients and approximations, and enables practical schemes for particle wave-packet preparation and evolution. Furthermore, this study highlights the role of classical and quantum simulation in enhancing our understanding of scattering processes in quantum field theories in real time.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Stability of the particle-hole Pfaffian state and the 5 2 -fractional quantum Hall effect

Here we present a method for the exact construction of the fully particle-hole symmetric Pfaffian (PH-Pfaffian) ground state and its charged excitations on a sphere. We adopt the Moore-Read state, but with a nonholomorphic pairing component as in previous studies, and project it to the lowest Landau level. We study the energetics as well as other properties of these states and find that in a pure system interacting with the Coulomb forces the PH-Pfaffian cannot compete with either the Moore-Read state or its particle-hole conjugate, the anti-Pfaffian state, as an explanation for the 5/2 effect.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2021

Lipkin model on a quantum computer

Atomic nuclei are important laboratories for exploring and testing new insights into the universe, such as experiments to directly detect dark matter or explore properties of neutrinos. The targets of interest are often heavy, complex nuclei that challenge our ability to reliably model them (as well as quantify the uncertainty of those models) with classical computers. Hence there is great interest in applying quantum computation to nuclear structure for these applications. As an early step in this direction, especially with regards to the uncertainties in the relevant quantum calculations, we develop circuits to implement variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithms for the Lipkin-Meshkov-Glick model, which is often used in the nuclear physics community as a testbed for many-body methods. Here, we present quantum circuits for VQE for two and three particles and discuss the construction of circuits for more particles. Implementing the VQE for a two-particle system on the IBM Quantum Experience, we identify initialization and two-qubit gates as the largest sources of error. We find that error mitigation procedures reduce the errors in the results significantly, but additional quantum hardware improvements are needed for quantum calculations to be sufficiently accurate to be competitive with the best current classical methods.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Conditioned quantum-assisted deep generative surrogate for particle-calorimeter interactions

Particle collisions at accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), recorded by experiments such as ATLAS and CMS, enable precise standard model measurements and searches for new phenomena. Simulating these collisions significantly influences experiment design and analysis but incurs immense computational costs, projected at millions of CPU-years annually during the high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) phase. Currently, simulating a single event with Geant4 consumes around 1000 CPU seconds, with calorimeter simulations especially demanding. To address this, we propose a conditioned quantum-assisted generative model, integrating a conditioned variational autoencoder (VAE) and a conditioned restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM). Our RBM architecture is tailored for D-Wave’s Pegasus-structured advantage quantum annealer for sampling, leveraging the flux bias for conditioning. This approach combines classical RBMs as universal approximators for discrete distributions with quantum annealing’s speed and scalability. We also introduce an adaptive method for efficiently estimating effective inverse temperature, and validate our framework on Dataset 2 of CaloChallenge.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Variational Adiabatic Gauge Transformation on Real Quantum Hardware for Effective Low-Energy Hamiltonians and Accurate Diagonalization

Effective low-energy theories represent powerful theoretical tools to reduce the complexity in modeling interacting quantum many-particle systems. However, common theoretical methods rely on perturbation theory, which limits their applicability to weak interactions. Here we introduce the Variational Adiabatic Gauge Transformation (VAGT), a nonperturbative hybrid quantum algorithm that can use nowadays quantum computers to learn the variational parameters of the unitary circuit that brings the Hamiltonian to either its block-diagonal or full-diagonal form. If a Hamiltonian can be diagonalized via a shallow quantum circuit, then VAGT can learn the optimal parameters using a polynomial number of runs. The accuracy of VAGT is tested through numerical simulations, as well as simulations on Rigetti and IonQ quantum computers.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2026

No Quantum Utility from Hadron Masses? No, Quantum Utility from Hadron Masses!

Is there a quantum utility in establishing the masses of hadrons? Here we show that the best response is that of Farrés, Capó, and Davis: perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. This is interesting given the general case that particle physics demands quantum computers. For stable hadrons, classical LQCD has achieved sub-percent precision with no sign problem, and quantum computers offer no advantage. For resonances, the Maiani-Testa theorem is an obstruction that quantum simulation is immune to. For nuclei, Wick contractions and signal-to-noise are genuine classical barriers. Underlying these cases is a unified picture connecting the sign problem to Wigner negativity and T gate cost. This manuscript was drafted from extensive interaction with \textsc{Claude}.

Lamm, Henry [Fermilab] (ORCID:0000000330330791)↗
DOE OSTI2022

Simulating quantum mechanics with a $\theta$-term and an ’t Hooft anomaly on a synthetic dimension

A topological θ-term in gauge theories, including quantum chromodynamics in 3 +1 dimensions, gives rise to a sign problem that makes classical Monte Carlo simulations impractical. Quantum simulations are not subject to such sign problems and are a promising approach to studying these theories in the future. In the near term, it is interesting to study simpler models that retain some of the physical phenomena of interest and their implementation on quantum hardware. For example, dimensionally reducing gauge theories on small spatial tori produces quantum mechanical models which, despite being relatively simple to solve, retain interesting vacuum and symmetry structures from the parent gauge theories. We consider quantum mechanical particle-on-a-circle models, related by dimensional reduction to the 1 + 1d Schwinger model, that possess a θ-term and realize an ’t Hooft anomaly or global inconsistency at θ = π. These models also exhibit the related phenomena of spontaneous symmetry breaking and instanton-anti-instanton interference in real time. We propose an experimental scheme for the real-time simulation of a particle on a circle with a θ-term and a $\mathbb{Z}_n$ potential using a synthetic dimension encoded in a Rydberg atom. Simulating the Rydberg atom with realistic experimental parameters, we demonstrate that the essential physics can be well captured by the experiment, with expected behavior in the tunneling rate as a function of θ. Similar phenomena and observables can also arise in more complex quantum mechanical models connected to higher-dimensional non-Abelian gauge theories by dimensional reduction.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2020

NESSi : The N on- E quilibrium S ystems S imulation package

The nonequilibrium dynamics of correlated many-particle systems is of interest in connection with pump–probe experiments on molecular systems and solids, as well as theoretical investigations of transport properties and relaxation processes. Nonequilibrium Green’s functions are a powerful tool to study interaction effects in quantum many-particle systems out of equilibrium, and to extract physically relevant information for the interpretation of experiments. Here, we present the open-source software package NESSi (The Non-Equilibrium Systems Simulation package) which allows to perform many-body dynamics simulations based on Green’s functions on the L-shaped Kadanoff–Baym contour. NESSi contains the library libcntr which implements tools for basic operations on these nonequilibrium Green’s functions, for constructing Feynman diagrams, and for the solution of integral and integro-differential equations involving contour Green’s functions. The library employs a discretization of the Kadanoff–Baym contour into time points and a high-order implementation of integration routines. The total integrated error scales up to $\mathcal{O}(N^{-7})$, which is important since the numerical effort increases at least cubically with the simulation time. A distributed-memory parallelization over reciprocal space allows large-scale simulations of lattice systems. We provide a collection of example programs ranging from dynamics in simple two-level systems to problems relevant in contemporary condensed matter physics, including Hubbard clusters and Hubbard or Holstein lattice models. The libcntr library is the basis of a follow-up software package for nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory calculations based on strong-coupling perturbative impurity solvers.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

Thermalization and criticality on an analogue–digital quantum simulator

Abstract Understanding how interacting particles approach thermal equilibrium is a major challenge of quantum simulators 1,2 . Unlocking the full potential of such systems towards this goal requires flexible initial state preparation, precise time evolution and extensive probes for final state characterization. Here we present a quantum simulator comprising 69 superconducting qubits that supports both universal quantum gates and high-fidelity analogue evolution, with performance beyond the reach of classical simulation in cross-entropy benchmarking experiments. This hybrid platform features more versatile measurement capabilities compared with analogue-only simulators, which we leverage here to reveal a coarsening-induced breakdown of Kibble–Zurek scaling predictions 3 in theXYmodel, as well as signatures of the classical Kosterlitz–Thouless phase transition 4 . Moreover, the digital gates enable precise energy control, allowing us to study the effects of the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis 5–7 in targeted parts of the eigenspectrum. We also demonstrate digital preparation of pairwise-entangled dimer states, and image the transport of energy and vorticity during subsequent thermalization in analogue evolution. These results establish the efficacy of superconducting analogue–digital quantum processors for preparing states across many-body spectra and unveiling their thermalization dynamics.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2025

New physics search at the CEPC: a general perspective

A next generation, high-intensity electron-positron collider “Higgs factory”, such as the Circular Electron-Positron Collider (CEPC), is among the highest priority for the global high energy collider physics community. The CEPC can provide unprecedented opportunities for making fundamental discoveries and providing decisive insights in the quest for a “New Standard Model (SM)” of nature’s fundamental interactions. The CEPC could: 1) Identify the origin of matter, especially the mechanism related to the first-order phase transition in the early Universe, which could produce a detectable gravitational wave signal. 2) Discover dark matter, particularly dark matter particles with a mass between one tenth and 100 times the proton mass. 3) Observe an array of new physics smoking guns, with sensitivities orders of magnitude better than those of existing facilities. The SM of Particle Physics is a triumph of the past half a century, as it predicts and interprets almost all the phenomena observed in experiments from the highest energies with colliders to low energy “tabletop” studies. On the other hand, deep mysteries exist concerning the most fundamental interactions of matter and the space-time fabric of the Universe, including the nature of dark matter, the origin of “visible” matter, the vast hierarchy of elementary particle masses, the quantum nature of gravity, and the mechanism of inflation. These mysteries challenge us to look for “new physics” beyond the SM and General Relativity. Indeed, physicists believe that the SM is simply a low-energy effective theory that reflects aspects of the more profound theory that answers the aforementioned mysteries. Uncovering this “New SM”, the profound theory who supports the SM is the primary mission for particle physics in the post-Higgs boson era.

Ai 艾, Xiaocong 小聪 [Zhengzhou University (China); e↗