An explorer at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Anthony Chiavarell, first used an IBM quantum processor to model the fundamental process of quantum electrodynamics - the formation of a particle-antiparticle pair under the influence of a strong electric field. In the experiment, 104 of 156 Heron CPUs were used on the IBM Quantum platform. Access to equipment was provided through the Quantum Computer User Program.

The aim of the study was the process of breaking down a glion string - a mechanism in which the link between quarks is broken and a new quark-antique pair is born. This phenomenon is considered to be a key element of adrianization, the process of forming hadrons from free quarks. Quantum simulation results are consistent with previous calculations on classic supercomputers. The model was deliberately simplified: calculations were performed in one spatial dimension with a limited number of quarks, which does not allow for a complete simulation of quantum chromodynamics.

Chiavarella sees this work as a first step toward more complex quantum simulations. As equipment and algorithms develop, such methods may help in modeling processes associated with experiments on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. We know the theory of adrianization, but classical computers cannot do the necessary calculations. Quantum equipment will allow directly predicting the details of the process, which will accelerate the search for a new physicist , - noted the researcher.