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  • Open Access

Vortex detection from quantum data

Chelsea A. Williams1,2, Annie E. Paine2, Antonio A. Gentile2, Daniel Berger3, and Oleksandr Kyriienko4

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QL, United Kingdom
  • 2PASQAL, 7 Rue Léonard de Vinci, 91300 Massy, France
  • 3Siemens AG, Gleiwitzer Strasse 555, 90475 Nürnberg, Germany
  • 4School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom

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Phys. Rev. A 112, 062409 – Published 5 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/mn3x-8ygh

Abstract

Quantum solutions to differential equations represent quantum data—states that contain relevant information about the system's behavior, yet are difficult to analyze. We propose an algorithm for reading out information from such data, where customized quantum circuits enable efficient extraction of flow properties. We concentrate on the process referred to as quantum vortex detection, where specialized operators are developed for pooling relevant features related to vorticity. Specifically, we propose approaches based on sliding windows and quantum Fourier analysis that provide a separation between patches of the flow field with vortex-type profiles. First, we show how contour-shaped windows can be applied, trained, and analyzed sequentially, providing a clear signal to flag the location of vortices in the flow. Second, we develop a parallel window extraction technique, such that signals from different contour positions are coherently processed to avoid looping over the entire solution mesh. We show that Fourier features can be extracted from the flow field, leading to classification of datasets with vortex-free solutions against those exhibiting Lamb-Oseen vortices. Our work exemplifies a successful case of efficiently extracting value from quantum data, and it points to the need for developing appropriate models for quantum data analysis that can be trained on them.

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Phys. Rev. A 112, 062409– Published 5 December, 2025
  • Received 4 August 2025
  • Accepted 22 October 2025
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