International Year of Quantum: Guided by Quantum Information

Fundamental particles and interactions in nature, which are at the core of nuclear- and particle-physics phenomena, are described by the Standard Model, via the relativistic and quantum framework of quantum field theory. Exploring Standard-Model physics and beyond continues to be an active and growing field of research and discovery: What does the phase diagram of matter governed by strong interactions, such as the interior of neutron stars, look like? How does matter evolve and thermalize after energetic processes, such as after the Big Bang or in particle colliders? How do elementary particles and their interactions give rise to the complex structure of a proton or a nucleus? What is the nature of dark matter and dark energy, and of quantum gravity, and can we study these with new tools? While many successful formal, analytical, and computational paradigms have been developed over the years to address these questions, many of them are not yet answered, and the solutions sometimes need extreme computing. Can a large reliable quantum simulator/computer eventually enable studies of matter governed by the fundamental interactions? What does a quantum simulator have to offer to simulate (beyond-the-)Standard-Model dynamics, and how far away are we from such a dream? In this talk, I will describe a vision for how we may go on a journey toward quantum simulating Standard Model and beyond, will motivate the need for novel theoretical, algorithmic, and hardware approaches to quantum simulating this unique problem, and will provide examples of the early steps taken to date in establishing a quantum-computational nuclear- and particle-physics program.