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Quantum computing hadron fragmentation functions in light-front chromodynamics

J. J. Gálvez-Viruet, Felipe J. Llanes-Estrada, and Nicolás Martínez de Arenaza

María Gómez-Rocha

T. J. Hobbs

  • Departamento de Física Atómica, Molecular y Nuclear and Instituto Carlos I de Física Teórica y Computacional, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 054021 – Published 10 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/4grj-x7xv

Abstract

We deploy quantum chromodynamics in light-front quantization (and gauge), discretized and truncated in both Fock and momentum spaces with a particle-register encoding suited for quantum simulation; we show for the first time how to calculate fragmentation functions, a problem heretofore untractable in general from ab initio approaches. We provide a classical-simulator-based proof of concept by computing the charm-to-charmonium fragmentation, c→J/ψ, in a simplified setup, an interesting case where we can (reasonably) compare with the known 1993 perturbative evaluation (and a more recent one at next-to-leading order) within nonrelativistic QCD.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 054021– Published 10 September, 2026
  • Received 29 October 2025
  • Revised 16 April 2026
  • Accepted 13 July 2026
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