Jordan, S.
, Lee, K.
and Preskill, J.
(2014),
BQP-completeness of Scattering in Scalar Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Information & Computation
(Accessed October 22, 2025)
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
BQP-completeness of Scattering in Scalar Quantum Field Theory
Published
Author(s)
, Keith S. Lee, John Preskill
Abstract
Recent work has shown that quantum computers can in polynomial time compute scattering probabilities in massive quantum field theories. One can translate this task into a corresponding formal problem in computational complexity theory. Here, we establish that this is a BQP-hard problem. In other words, by solving it, one can solve any problem that can be solved in polynomial time by a quantum computer. Hence, these scattering probabilities cannot be obtained by any classical polynomial-time algorithm unless BQP=BPP. Our construction works by encoding a quantum circuit into a spacetime-varying source term in the quantum field theorys Lagrangian.Citation
Quantum Information & Computation
Volume
14
Issue
11&12
Pub Type
Journals
Keywords
quantum information, computational complexity
Citation
Issues
If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact [email protected].
Created September 1, 2014, Updated February 19, 2017