Videos

Andrew Baczewski - An approach for calculating astrophysical opacities on quantum computers

Presenter
February 20, 2026
Abstract
Recorded 20 February 2026. Andrew Baczewski of Sandia National Laboratories presents "An approach for calculating astrophysical opacities on quantum computers" at IPAM's Bridging the Gap Between NISQ and FTQC Workshop. Abstract: I will describe a quantum algorithmic protocol for calculating astrophysical opacities. It relies on the discretization and simulation of interacting atomic and photonic subsystems. By inferring the opacity from frequency-resolved measurements of the photon register, we can efficiently adapt the resolution to span from single features to entire spectra by adding more qubits. Detailed error budgets and resource estimates will be considered for the classically challenging problem of the opacity of solar iron. This is joint work with Shivesh Pathak and Alina Kononov at Sandia National Labs (SNL). SNL is managed and operated by NTESS under DOE NNSA contract DE-NA0003525. Learn more online at: https://www.ipam.ucla.edu/programs/workshops/bridging-the-gap-between-nisq-and-ftqc/