Simulating High Energy Physics with Quantum Photonics

This project aims to use photonic quantum simulators to investigate key open questions in particle physics involving, separately, neutrinos and mesons. The project will tackle the existence of 'sterile' flavours of neutrino, how flavour oscillations are modified by neutrino interactions, and neutral B-meson oscillations (between themselves and their antiparticle) that violate CP symmetry by a greater degree than allowed by the Standard Model.

Photonics is a versatile platform for simulating fermionic and anyonic statistics, and non-Hermitian Hamiltonians. Quantum photonics experiments have progressed to the point where >100 photons can be generated, coherently manipulated, and detected. Leveraging the mature fabrication capabilities of the telecoms and microelectronics industries has allowed ~1000 optical components to be co-integrated into a single photonic quantum processor.

In this project we aim to use the reconfigurability afforded by photonics to map complex systems studied in particle physics into the controllable and well understood platform of quantum photonics. Such analogue quantum simulators, where there is a one-to-one mapping between the dynamics of both systems, have been shown to be a promising avenue to useful but specific quantum computation without a fault tolerant quantum computer.

Bristol University hosts an esteemed group in particle physics with longstanding links to the LHCb and CERN; the university also hosts extensive and world leading expertise and infrastructure in photonic quantum technologies. This project aims to foster interdisciplinary research, bringing the benefits of quantum computing and simulation to the high energy and particle physics community.

Our ambition is for new fundamental physics to be discovered by UK particle physics researchers through modelling carried out on UK quantum computing and simulation technologies.