Current Seminars

A Hamiltonian lattice formulation of lattice gauge theories opens the possibility for quantum simulations of the non-perturbative dynamics of QCD. By parametrizing the gauge invariant Hilbert space in terms of plaquette degrees of freedom, we show how the Hilbert space and interactions can be expanded in inverse powers of Nc. At leading order in this expansion, the Hamiltonian simplifies dramatically, both in the required size of the Hilbert space as well as the type of interactions involved. Adding a truncation of the resulting Hilbert space in terms of local energy states we give explicit constructions that allow simple representations of SU(3) gauge fields on qubits and qutrits to leading order in large N. This enabled a simulation of the real time dynamics of a SU(3) lattice gauge theory on a 8x8 lattice with a superconducting quantum processor.

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The structure of low-density nuclear matter is of great importance to the physics of neutron star crusts. One of the most significant aspects of this structure is the transition from roughly spherical neutron rich nuclei to uniform matter. Models for both of these extremes exist but the transition is less easily understood. In this presentation I will show that using variational Monte Carlo to optimize neural-network quantum states, based on a Pfaffian architecture, I find ground states which are improvements on standard auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo ground state calculations within this density region. This is especially true for the lowest densities where the AFDMC results dramatically under-predict clustering. The results to be shown come from calculations at several densities and proton fractions using a pionless effective field theory Hamiltonian. From these results I will show predictions for clustering, symmetry energy, and proton fraction for the beta-equilibrated ground state.

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