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A Comment on Li et al.
Published:
A recent paper by Li et al. introduced a variance minimization quantum algorithm. As one of their examples, they took a much-used nuclear physics case: A one-body model of the deuteron. Unfortunately, their presentation was a bit problematic, so I wrote a comment to submit to the journal (Physica Scripta) to try to correct the record. The comment was rejected by the editor, so I present the comment here instead, for the record - link at end of post. I would have put it on the arXiv, but they don’t publish comments of papers unless those papers are in the arXiv.
Quantum Computing: Shell model for Ni-58
Published:
We (Bharti Bhoy and I) have been working on developing quantum computing algorithms to tackle the nuclear shell model.
New Paper in Phys. Lett. B
Published:
A new paper appeared today in Physics Letters B, here, which features the work of now-graduated PhD student Iain Lee, on friction in heavy ion reactions. The reaction studied was 16O + 92Zr, prompted by a previous experimental study which suggested that the reaction mechanism was notably different to that of 16O + 90Zr because of the higher density of states caused by the two neutrons outside of the closed shell. I got involved in the calculations by providing some time-dependent Hartree-Fock calculations to see what this kind of microscopic approach said about the rate of developement of the neck during fusion. One unusual aspect of this paper is that it was submitted less than two weeks ago. The editors sent it out for review extremely quickly, and referee comments came back quickly. They were serious comments and the referee had clearly read the paper well, and was an expert in the area. My colleauge Alexis, who was the coresponding author, worked on the response straight away, and the editor and referee accepted the response, meaning that the paper was accepted within a week, and has since apperaed (as an uncorrected proof) today, less than two weeks since submission.
I have never experienced such a quick process in publishing a scientific research paper!
New Paper in Phys Rev C
Published:
Congratulations to Lance Li, my PhD student on the publication of his first paper. It shows how the quantum imaginary time evolution operator can be used to solve nuclear density functional theory on a quantum computer. Physical Review C published the paper today at Phys. Rev. C. 109, 044322 (2024). It’s open access so viewable by all.
Liverpool IoP Highlights
Published:
Last week I and many of my group attended the Institute of Physics joint High Energy Physics, Astroparticle Physics, and Nuclear Physics Conference in Liverpool. I was honoured to be asked to give a plenary talk to the whole conference on the subject of quantum computing in nuclear structure. My colleague in the UK nuclear theoretical physics community, Jacek Dobaczewski from the University of York, took this picture of me as I talked:
Group Coming to IoP Conference in Liverpool
Published:
The schedule for the upcoming joint HEPP / Astroparticle / Nuclear Physics IoP conference in Liverpool has been announced. My group is pretty well represented, and if you want to follow our work, the schedule is:
Paper updates in 2024
Published:
Our group has had a busy time writing up and submitting some of the work we have been doing, so I thought I’d highlight it here:
New preprint
Published:
This week my student Lance, along with Jim Al-Khalili and me as supervisors, has uploaded a new preprint to the arXiv. The work is a simulated quantum computing implementation of the imaginary time evolution algorithm to drive a quantum system from an initial trial wave function to its ground state. It’s a direct mapping of the classical algorithm, and we are able to see by comparison that the quantum version works correctly. We’ve applied it to the case of nuclear density functional theory, implemented in the wave function representation (i.e. the Kohn-Sham representation). Ultimately the problem is then represented by the single particle wave functions making up the nucleus. We chose the simplest case - spherical helium-4 in which there is only a single unique wave function to have to worry about. As a follow-on, we are working on the next-simplest case, oxygen-16, in which the nuclear density is made of two wave functions, at least in the simplified nuclear model we are considering.
New Website
Published:
I’ve (finally?) moved my website from the Unviersity of Surrey’s personal account server to github, where I’ve built it on top of the “academic pages” style. I must admit, I find it easier to write the bare HTML of my simple previous version of my professional home page, but this seems to be the future. I intend to use this “blog” facility for research-related news stories. See the blogger link in the side panel for my real nuclear physics blog!
publications
Publications
Published in , 1900
You can also find my publications at google scholar
research
Research
Nuclear Structure and Reactions
talks
Talks
Here is an (incomplete) list of talks and poster presentations
teaching
Teaching
, , 1900
I am module coordinator for, and teach the University of Surrey moduled PHYM071: Quantum Algorithms and PHY3068: Quantum Computation, and I teach the Quantum Simulation half of PHYM075: Applied Quantum Computing IV (Quantum Communications and Quantum Simulation).
I supervise projects on the the modules PHY3064: Modern Methods in Experiment and Modelling, PHY3002: Final Year Project (BSc), PHYM021: Research Project and Dissertation (MSc), on other MSc programmes in the University, and on the MPhys Research Year.