Physics inspired quantum algorithm for QCD splitting functions
Abstract
We introduce a modular quantum circuit primitive to model entanglement dynamics in QCD parton splitting and use it as a composable building block for data-driven, physics-consistent modelling of parton-shower kinematics. For the pure-gluon channel, we derive an analytic expression for the helicity entanglement generated at the splitting vertex, quantified via the concurrence, and construct a two-qubit circuit whose σ3 expectation values encode the momentum shared between outgoing gluons. The circuit reproduces the QCD-predicted concurrence by construction, which fixes a two-qubit correlator that the momentum fractions alone do not determine. Iterating the primitive, the concurrence obeys a product rule across successive splittings. Calibrating the circuit parameters to LHC jet substructure data relates the reconstructed momentum-sharing fractions directly to circuit rotation angles. Composing multiple splitting primitives yields multi-prong momentum-fraction distributions; we compare the three- and four-prong cases against experimental data, reproducing the core of the distributions. For the three-prong configuration, we execute the circuit on superconducting quantum hardware, recover the momentum-fraction distributions after a device-bias correction calibrated on a held-out subset, and study how noise alters the entanglement-dependent observable. This work provides a concrete framework for quantum-native parton-shower modules that encode quantum correlations at the level of splitting dynamics, and offers physics-informed ansätze for future quantum algorithms for QCD.
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BibTeX
@misc{rouxinol2026physics,
title = {{Physics inspired quantum algorithm for QCD splitting functions}},
author = {Gabriel Rouxinol and Yacine Haddad and Cenk Tüysüz and Sofia Vallecorsa and Michele Grossi},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.06789},
eprint = {2605.06789},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.06789},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Physics inspired quantum algorithm for QCD splitting functions
AU - Gabriel Rouxinol
AU - Yacine Haddad
AU - Cenk Tüysüz
AU - Sofia Vallecorsa
AU - Michele Grossi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/18
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.06789
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.06789
AB - We introduce a modular quantum circuit primitive to model entanglement dynamics in QCD parton splitting and use it as a composable building block for data-driven, physics-consistent modelling of parton-shower kinematics. For the pure-gluon channel, we derive an analytic expression for the helicity entanglement generated at the splitting vertex, quantified via the concurrence, and construct a two-qubit circuit whose σ_3 expectation values encode the momentum shared between outgoing gluons. The circuit reproduces the QCD-predicted concurrence by construction, which fixes a two-qubit correlator that the momentum fractions alone do not determine. Iterating the primitive, the concurrence obeys a product rule across successive splittings. Calibrating the circuit parameters to LHC jet substructure data relates the reconstructed momentum-sharing fractions directly to circuit rotation angles. Composing multiple splitting primitives yields multi-prong momentum-fraction distributions; we compare the three- and four-prong cases against experimental data, reproducing the core of the distributions. For the three-prong configuration, we execute the circuit on superconducting quantum hardware, recover the momentum-fraction distributions after a device-bias correction calibrated on a held-out subset, and study how noise alters the entanglement-dependent observable. This work provides a concrete framework for quantum-native parton-shower modules that encode quantum correlations at the level of splitting dynamics, and offers physics-informed ansätze for future quantum algorithms for QCD.
ER -