Events

Quantum simulation of materials in extreme conditions

Andrew Baczewski, Sandia National Lab

Warm dense matter (WDM) is a thermodynamic regime typified by quantum degeneracy in the presence of significant thermal excitation. It occurs in certain astrophysical objects, planetary interiors, and inertial confinement fusion targets on their way to ignition. In fact, the properties of materials in these extreme conditions play a critical role in the hydrodynamic instabilities that limit the performance of inertial fusion energy designs. However, creating and studying WDM requires access to expensive and specialized experimental facilities that produce short-lived and non-uniform samples at low repetition rates. Thus computer simulations of WDM are especially valuable and they occupy a significant fraction of the operating cycles on some of the world’s largest supercomputers. However, even the best classical simulations are subject to severe uncertainties due to uncontrolled approximations that are difficult to quantify.
In this talk, I will discuss work aimed at understanding the prospects for using fault-tolerant quantum computers to simulate WDM with accuracy exceeding the classical state of the art. I will focus primarily on a recent result describing a quantum algorithm and constant-factor resource estimates for calculating electronic stopping powers, of relevance to inertial fusion models (https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2317772121) . I will also briefly describe some early work on applications in astrophysics and planetary science.

Date

Nov 13 2024
Expired!

Time

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm

Location

C520 Physics and Astronomy Building
C520 Physics and Astronomy Building
UW, 15th and Pacific, Seattle
Website
https://phys.washington.edu/

Other Locations

Cyber Space
Cyber Space
Category

Organizer

Niklas Mueller
Niklas Mueller
Email
niklasmu@uw.edu