Undergraduate Research at Jefferson Lab

The Role of Boundary Conditions in Quantum Computations of Scattering Observables

Student: Alexandru Sturzu

School: New College of Florida

Mentored By: Raul Briceno

It has been proposed that Quantum Computers may offer the opportunity to access finite volume correlation functions with a Minkowski time signature. This would allow for potentially more accurate calculations of dynamic quantities of interest such as scattering observables. Here we look to quantify the volume effects of Minkowski signature finite-volume correlation functions and investigate the prospects for extracting scattering amplitudes from such correlators. We considered both hadronic and Compton-like amplitudes for two to two particle scattering events in a 1+1D toy model. We show that the scattering amplitudes are heavily distorted by volume effects that cannot be resolved with a naïve approach. However, we were also able to overcome this obstacle by averaging over carefully chosen momenta.

[Watch the presentation on YouTube]