Simulation of nuclear processes by a quantum computer
Luca Nigro, C. Barbieri, Enrico Prati · Journal of Physics Conference Series · 2025
Abstract Quantum computers have shown promise in simulating complex quantum systems, including nuclear processes that challenge even supercomputers. We summarize the key ingredients to demonstrate the feasibility of a full nuclear transition simulation, covering also ground and excited state preparation. The tritium nucleus has been used to model strong interactions between nucleons, with quantum circuits used to represent the initial and final states. Variational quantum algorithms aid in preparing such states, requiring four qubits to describe spin-isospin states. Our results show low relative errors in the energy estimation for the obtained eigenstates. Additionally, the transition probability between these states has been estimated as a function of dipole polarization angle. We also study the transition for the neutron capture d(n, γ)t and compare the result with the tritium de-excitation.