Search

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, has been a pivotal tool in advancing our understanding of fundamental physics. By colliding heavy ions (such as lead ions), the LHC recreates conditions similar to those just after the Big Bang. This allows scientists to study the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), a state of matter where quarks and gluons are not confined within protons and neutrons. These studies provide insights into the strong force and the early universe's behavior. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of recent significant findings from A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE) at LHC. The topics encompass measurements regarding to properties of the QGP, particle production, flow and correlations, dileptons, quarkonia and electromagnetic probes, heavy flavor, and jets. Additionally, we introduce future plans for detector upgrades of the ALICE experiment., Comment: 29 pages, 32 figures. This review is dedicated to Professor Wenqing Shen in honor of his leadership and significant impact on the Chinese heavy-ion physics community. All authors contributed equally to this work

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are powerful machine learning models that excel at analyzing structured data represented as graphs, demonstrating remarkable performance in applications like social network analysis and recommendation systems. However, classical GNNs face scalability challenges when dealing with large-scale graphs. This paper proposes frameworks for implementing GNNs on quantum computers to potentially address the challenges. We devise quantum algorithms corresponding to the three fundamental types of classical GNNs: Graph Convolutional Networks, Graph Attention Networks, and Message-Passing GNNs. A complexity analysis of our quantum implementation of the Simplified Graph Convolutional (SGC) Network shows potential quantum advantages over its classical counterpart, with significant improvements in time and space complexities. Our complexities can have trade-offs between the two: when optimizing for minimal circuit depth, our quantum SGC achieves logarithmic time complexity in the input sizes (albeit at the cost of linear space complexity). When optimizing for minimal qubit usage, the quantum SGC exhibits space complexity logarithmic in the input sizes, offering an exponential reduction compared to classical SGCs, while still maintaining better time complexity. These results suggest our Quantum GNN frameworks could efficiently process large-scale graphs. This work paves the way for implementing more advanced Graph Neural Network models on quantum computers, opening new possibilities in quantum machine learning for analyzing graph-structured data., Comment: 50 Pages, 22 Figures

While non-Hermitian physics has attracted considerable attention, current studies are limited to small or classically solvable systems. Quantum computing, as a powerful eigensolver, have predominantly been applied to Hermitian domain, leaving their potential for studying non-Hermitian problems largely unexplored. We extend the power of quantum computing to general non-Hermitian eigenproblems. Our approach works for finding eigenvalues without extra constrains, or eigenvalues closest to specified points or lines, thus extending results for ground energy and energy gap problems for Hermitian matrices. Our algorithms have broad applications, and as examples, we consider two central problems in non-Hermitian physics. Firstly, our approach is the first to offer an efficient quantum solution to the witness of spontaneous $PT$-symmetry breaking, and provide provable, exponential quantum advantage. Secondly, our approach enables the estimation of Liouvillian gap, which is crucial for characterizing relaxation times. Our general approach can also find applications in many other areas, such as the study of Markovian stochastic processes. These results underscore the significance of our quantum algorithms for addressing practical eigenproblems across various disciplines., Comment: 7+30 pages, 2+6 figures

Classical data encoding is usually treated as a black-box in the oracle-based quantum algorithms. On the other hand, their constructions are crucial for practical algorithm implementations. Here, we open the black-boxes of data encoding and study the Clifford$+T$ complexity of constructing some typical quantum access models. For general matrices, we show that both sparse-access input models and block-encoding require nearly linear circuit complexities relative to the matrix dimension, even if matrices are sparse. We also gives construction protocols achieving near-optimal gate complexities. On the other hand, the construction becomes efficient with respect to the data qubit when the matrix is the linear combination polynomial terms of efficient unitaries. As a typical example, we propose improved block encoding when these unitaries are Pauli strings. Our protocols are built upon improved quantum state preparation and a selective oracle for Pauli strings, which hold independent value. Our access model constructions offer considerable flexibility, allowing for tunable ancillary qubit number and offers corresponding space-time trade-offs., Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure

Trapped-ion has shown great advantages in building quantum computers. While high fidelity entangling-gate has been realized for few ions, how to maintain the high fidelity for large scale trapped-ions still remains an open problem.Here, we present an analysis on arbitrary scale ion chain and focus on motional-related errors, reported as one of the leading error sources in state-of-the-art experiments. We theoretically analyze two-qubit entangling-gate infidelity in a large ion crystal. To verify our result, we develop an efficient numerical simulation algorithm that avoids exponential increases of the Hilbert space dimension. For the motional heating error, We derive a much tighter bound of gate infidelity than previously estimated $O(N\Gamma\tau)$, and we give an intuitive understanding from the trajectories in the phase space of motional modes. Our discoveries may inspire the scheme of pulse design against incoherent errors and shed light on the way toward constructing scalable quantum computers with large ion crystals., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures

Time-dependent Hamiltonian simulation (TDHS) is a critical task in quantum computing. Existing algorithms are generally biased with a small algorithmic error $\varepsilon$, and the gate complexity scales as $O(\text{poly}(1/\varepsilon))$ for product formula-based methods and could be improved to be polylogarithmic with complicated circuit constructions. Here, we develop an unbiased random compiler for TDHS by combining Dyson expansion, an unbiased continuous sampling method for quantum evolution, and leading order rotations, and it is free from algorithmic errors. Our method has the single- and two-qubit gate complexity $O(\Lambda^2)$ with a constant sampling overhead, where $\Lambda$ is the time integration of the Hamiltonian strength. We perform numerical simulations for a spin model under the interaction picture and the adiabatic ground state preparation for molecular systems. In both examples, we observe notable improvements of our method over existing ones. Our work paves the way to efficient realizations of TDHS., Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures

We improve the centrality definition in impact parameter in PACIAE model responding the fact reported by the ALICE, ATLAS, and CMS collaborations that the maximum impact parameter in heavy ion collisions should be extended to 20 $fm$. Meanwhile the PACIAE program is updated to a new version of PACIAE 2.2.2 with convenience of studying the elementary nuclear collisions, proton-nucleus collisions, and the nucleus-nucleus collisions in one unified program version. The new impact parameter definition together with the optical Glauber model calculated impact parameter bin, $N_{part}$, and $N_{coll}$ in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at relativistic energies are consistent with the improved MC-Glauber model ones within the error bar. The charged-particle pseudorapidity and the transverse momentum distributions in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV simulated by PACIAE 2.2.2 well reproduce the ALICE experimental data., Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, 5 tables

The lepton charge asymmetry in $W^\pm$ production in the nuclear collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV is investigated with a parton and hadron cascade model PACIAE. Recently published ALICE and the ATLAS data of lepton charge asymmetry are well reproduced. An interesting linear scaling behavior is observed in the lepton charge asymmetry as a function of the collision system valence quark number asymmetry among the different size of nuclear collision systems at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV. This linear scaling behavior may serve as an additional constraint on the PDF (nPDF) extractions., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2201.09525

Variational quantum algorithms are the centerpiece of modern quantum programming. These algorithms involve training parameterized quantum circuits using a classical co-processor, an approach adapted partly from classical machine learning. An important subclass of these algorithms, designed for combinatorial optimization on currrent quantum hardware, is the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA). It is known that problem density - a problem constraint to variable ratio - induces under-parametrization in fixed depth QAOA. Density dependent performance has been reported in the literature, yet the circuit depth required to achieve fixed performance (henceforth called critical depth) remained unknown. Here, we propose a predictive model, based on a logistic saturation conjecture for critical depth scaling with respect to density. Focusing on random instances of MAX-2-SAT, we test our predictive model against simulated data with up to 15 qubits. We report the average critical depth, required to attain a success probability of 0.7, saturates at a value of 10 for densities beyond 4. We observe the predictive model to describe the simulated data within a $3\sigma$ confidence interval. Furthermore, based on the model, a linear trend for the critical depth with respect problem size is recovered for the range of 5 to 15 qubits., Comment: REVTeX, 6+2 pages, 4 figures

Quantum state preparation is an important subroutine for quantum computing. We show that any $n$-qubit quantum state can be prepared with a $\Theta(n)$-depth circuit using only single- and two-qubit gates, although with a cost of an exponential amount of ancillary qubits. On the other hand, for sparse quantum states with $d\geqslant2$ non-zero entries, we can reduce the circuit depth to $\Theta(\log(nd))$ with $O(nd\log d)$ ancillary qubits. The algorithm for sparse states is exponentially faster than best-known results and the number of ancillary qubits is nearly optimal and only increases polynomially with the system size. We discuss applications of the results in different quantum computing tasks, such as Hamiltonian simulation, solving linear systems of equations, and realizing quantum random access memories, and find cases with exponential reductions of the circuit depth for all these three tasks. In particular, using our algorithm, we find a family of linear system solving problems enjoying exponential speedups, even compared to the best-known quantum and classical dequantization algorithms., Comment: 6+18 pages, 1+7 figures. Revise some claims in Sec. VIII A of Supplementary Material

In this paper, the centrality dependent $\Zn$ and $\Wpm$ production and the isospin effect in $\Wpm$ production are investigated with a parton and hadron cascade model PACIAE in Pb--Pb collisions at $\sNN=5.02$~TeV. ALICE data of $\Zn$ production in Pb--Pb collisions at $\sNN=5.02$~TeV are found to be reproduced fairly well. The prediction on $\Wpm$ production in the same collision system is given as well. An interesting isospin effect is observed in exploring the charge asymmetry between $\Wp$ and $\Wm$ as a function of the asymmetry between number of valence $u$- and $d$-quarks varied from small to large collision systems at center-of-mass energy 5.02 TeV. The results serve as a important benchmarks for understanding the initial conditions of heavy-ion collisions., Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2002.00344

Quantum target detection is an emerging application that utilizes entanglement to enhance the sensing of the presence of an object. Although several experimental demonstrations for certain situations have been reported recently, the single-shot detection limit imposed by the Helstrom limit has not been reached because of the unknown optimum measurements. Here we report an experimental demonstration of quantum target detection, also known as quantum illumination, in the single-photon limit. In our experiment, one photon of the maximally entangled photon pair is employed as the probe signal and the corresponding optimum measurement is implemented at the receiver. We explore the detection problem in different regions of the parameter space and verify that the quantum advantage exists even in a forbidden region of the conventional illumination, where all classical schemes become useless. Our results indicate that quantum illumination breaks the classical limit for up to 40%, while approaching the quantum limit imposed by the Helstrom limit. These results not only demonstrate the advantage of quantum illumination, but also manifest its valuable potential of target detection.

A crucial subroutine for various quantum computing and communication algorithms is to efficiently extract different classical properties of quantum states. In a notable recent theoretical work by Huang, Kueng, and Preskill [Nat. Phys. 16, 1050 (2020)], a thrifty scheme showed how to project the quantum state into classical shadows and simultaneously predict $M$ different functions of a state with only $\mathcal{O}(\log_2 M)$ measurements, independent of the system size and saturating the information-theoretical limit. Here, we experimentally explore the feasibility of the scheme in the realistic scenario with a finite number of measurements and noisy operations. We prepare a four-qubit GHZ state and show how to estimate expectation values of multiple observables and Hamiltonians. We compare the measurement strategies with uniform, biased, and derandomized classical shadows to conventional ones that sequentially measure each state function exploiting either importance sampling or observable grouping. We next demonstrate the estimation of nonlinear functions using classical shadows and analyze the entanglement of the prepared quantum state. Our experiment verifies the efficacy of exploiting (derandomized) classical shadows and sheds light on efficient quantum computing with noisy intermediate-scale quantum hardware., Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables

A crucial subroutine in quantum computing is to load the classical data of $N$ complex numbers into the amplitude of a superposed $n=\lceil \log_2N\rceil$-qubit state. It has been proven that any algorithm universally implementing this subroutine would need at least $\mathcal O(N)$ constant weight operations. However, the proof assumes that only $n$ qubits are used, whereas the circuit depth could be reduced by extending the space and allowing ancillary qubits. Here we investigate this space-time tradeoff in quantum state preparation with classical data. We propose quantum algorithms with $\mathcal O(n^2)$ circuit depth to encode any $N$ complex numbers using only single-, two-qubit gates and local measurements with ancillary qubits. Different variances of the algorithm are proposed with different space and runtime. In particular, we present a scheme with $\mathcal O(N^2)$ ancillary qubits, $\mathcal O(n^2)$ circuit depth, and $\mathcal O(n^2)$ average runtime, which exponentially improves the conventional bound. While the algorithm requires more ancillary qubits, it consists of quantum circuit blocks that only simultaneously act on a constant number of qubits and at most $\mathcal O(n)$ qubits are entangled. We also prove a fundamental lower bound $\mit\Omega(n)$ for the minimum circuit depth and runtime with arbitrary number of ancillary qubits, aligning with our scheme with $\mathcal O(n^2)$. The algorithms are expected to have wide applications in both near-term and universal quantum computing., Comment: 6+12 pages, 3+3 figures

Over the past decade, time-domain astronomy in optical bands has developed rapidly with the operations of some wide-field survey facilities. However, most of these surveys are conducted with only a single band, and simultaneous color information is usually unavailable for the objects monitored during the survey. Here we present introductions to the system of Tsinghua University-Ma Huateng Telescopes for Survey (TMTS), which consists of an array of four optical telescopes installed on a single equatorial mount. Such a system is designed to get multiband photometry simultaneously for stars and transients discovered during the survey. The optics of each telescope is a modified Hamilton-Newtonian system, covering the wavelengths from 400 to 900 nm, with a field of view (FoV) of about 4.5 deg2 and a plate scale of 1.86"/pixel when combining with a 4K*4K QHY4040 CMOS detector. The TMTS system can have a FoV of about 9 deg2 when monitoring the sky with two bands (i.e., SDSS g and r filters) at the same time, and a maximum FoV of ~18 deg2 when four telescopes monitor different sky areas in monochromatic filter mode. For an exposure time of 60 s, the average 3{\sigma} detection limit of the TMTS system can reach at ~19.4 mag in Luminous filter and at ~18.7 mag in SDSS r filter. The preliminary discovery obtained during the first few months' survey is briefly discussed. As this telescope array is located at the Xinglong Observatory of NAOC, it can have an excellent synergy with the spectroscopic survey by the LAMOST (with a FoV of about 20 deg2) at the same site, which will benefit the studies of stellar and binary physics besides the transient sciences., Comment: 27 pages, 21 figures

Efficient error-mitigation techniques demanding minimal resources is key to quantum information processing. We propose a generic protocol to mitigate quantum errors using detection-based quantum autoencoders. In our protocol, the quantum data are compressed into a latent subspace while leaving errors outside, the latter of which is then removed by a measurement and post-selection. Compared to previously developed methods, our protocol on the one hand requires no extra qubits, and on the other hand has a near-optimal denoising power, in which under reasonable requirements all errors detected outside of the latent subspace can be removed, while those inside the subspace cannot be removed by any means. Our detection-based quantum autoencoders are therefore particularly useful for near-term quantum devices in which controllable qubits are limited while noise reduction is important., Comment: 6+13 pages, 4+10 figures

In this paper, production of ${\rm W}^{\pm}$ and ${\rm Z}^{0}$ vector bosons in p-p, p-Pb (Pb-p), and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV is dynamically simulated with a parton and hadron cascade model PACIAE. ALICE data of ${\rm Z}^{0}$ production is found to be reproduced fairly well. A prediction for ${\rm W}^{\pm}$ production is given in the same collision systems, at the same energy and at the same energy. An interesting isospin-effect is observed in the sign-change of $\mu^{\pm}$ charge asymmetry in pp, pn, np, and nn collisions and in minimum bias p-Pb, Pb-p and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV, respectively.