State preparation and detection for quantum simulation of particle collisions

Quantum Physics arXiv:2607.26142 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 28 Jul 2026] Title:State preparation and detection for quantum simulation of particle collisions Authors:Federica Maria Surace, Sary Bseiso, John Preskill View a PDF of the paper titled State preparation and detection for quantum simulation of particle collisions, by Federica Maria Surace and 2 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Simulating the real-time dynamics of particle collisions is a promising application of quantum simulators, because classical methods such as tensor networks struggle to capture the highly entangled states generated in high-energy scattering. Realizing such simulations requires both the preparation of incoming wave packets and the detection of the outgoing scattering products. In this work, we propose protocols that address both challenges on programmable analog and digital quantum simulation platforms. Our state-preparation scheme uses a weakly coupled auxiliary qubit - or, more generally, a customized local quench - to inject a single quasiparticle with well-defined momentum. Because it relies only on conservation of energy, this scheme requires no fine-tuning or prior knowledge about particle eigenstates, making it robust against errors in calibration and implementation. The momenta of scattering products are then extracted, using only local measurements, from the interference pattern that arises when particles are reflected at the system's boundary. We validate our protocols through numerical simulations, first in a simple single-particle model and subsequently in two interacting many-body systems: a Rydberg atom chain and an Ising chain in a mixed field. We demonstrate how high-energy regimes, necessary to access inelastic scattering processes, can be reached through an adiabatic ramp, and how the wave packet shape can be optimized by spatially modulating the Hamiltonian. Finally, we show how the protocol can be generalized to systems with more than one spatial dimension. Our proposal provides a versatile approach to the quantum simulation of scattering phenomena, and is compatible with several quantum simulation platforms that are already experimentally available. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Quantum Gases (cond-mat.quant-gas); Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech); High Energy Physics - Lattice (hep-lat) Cite as: arXiv:2607.26142 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2607.26142v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2607.26142 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Federica Maria Surace [view email] [v1] Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:00:04 UTC (4,635 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled State preparation and detection for quantum simulation of particle collisions, by Federica Maria Surace and 2 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-07 Change to browse by: cond-mat cond-mat.quant-gas cond-mat.stat-mech hep-lat References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)