NRQM Scattering on a quantum computer

This project is a part of an term paper project in my 9th semester course HE381 (Quantum Field theory on a quantum computer) instructed by Prof. Aninda Sinha and Ujjwal Basumatary at IISc Bangalore. The project mostly concerned itself with studying non-relativistic quantum mechanical (NRQM, 0+1D) scattering of gaussian wavepackets in simple local potentials, extracting resonance lifetimes and phase shifts, while connecting it with the formal S-matrix scatering definitions used in QFT. A small abstract is presented below:

“We present a unified study of quantum scattering and resonance phenomena for simple (0 + 1) dimensional quantum field theory, such as the double barrier and Morse potential. Using both analytical methods and numerical quantum simulations, we extract resonance lifetimes and phase shifts, relating these results to scattering definitions in quantum field theory (QFT). We further explore the feasibility of implementing such simulations on state-of-the-art IBM quantum hardware, analyzing the effects of various noise sources. We also explore the idea of understanding scattering via bipartite von Neumann entanglement entropy as a measure. Finally, we outline extensions to non-trivial potentials with exotic spectral structures.”