David Mateos, ICREA researcher at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona, has been awarded a Google Initiated Grant for his project “High Energy Physics and Cosmology with a Quantum Processor” for a value of 150,000USD.
Quantum computing is widely regarded as a transformative technology, but one of the field's central challenges remains identifying practical problems that can be effectively addressed with current and near-term quantum devices. High-energy physics and cosmology offer particularly promising opportunities, as many of their most fundamental questions are inherently quantum in nature. However, unlocking this potential requires significant conceptual and technical advances to reformulate these problems for quantum-computing platforms. Achieving this goal demands close collaboration between experts in quantum computing, high-energy physics, and cosmology.
The scientific goal of this research project is to identify promising applications of quantum computing to high-energy physics and cosmology, and then to design and implement the corresponding quantum experiments. A full implementation of some of these applications — for example, the realization of false-vacuum decay and the study of mechanisms such as bubble nucleation and bubble dynamics — may require improved quantum processors and fault tolerance (which is the ability of a quantum computer to detect and correct errors while it is running, so that the final result remains reliable). However, highly informative first demonstrations of principle are already possible with current technology.
The project will therefore pursue two complementary directions. The first is to design experiments that can be implemented on current and near-term quantum processors, such as one- and two-dimensional spin models with up to 100 qubits. The second is to develop longer-term proposals for fully fault-tolerant, large-scale quantum computers, including applications to 3+1-dimensional gauge theories, which are our best way to describe fundamental particles and forces in our Universe.
The award reflects the increasing international recognition of the expertise developed at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) in theoretical physics and quantum technologies. By supporting this project, Google is investing in research that could help identify some of the first scientifically meaningful applications of quantum computers to fundamental questions about the Universe.
