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Hamiltonian truncation and quantum simulation of strong-field QED beyond tree level

Patrick Draper1,*, Luis Hidalgo1,†, and Anton Ilderton2,‡

  • *Contact author: pdraper@illinois.edu
  • †Contact author: luisdh2@illinois.edu
  • ‡Contact author: anton.ilderton@ed.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 056010 – Published 9 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/4lmx-psvz

Abstract

Quantum electrodynamics in strong background fields provides an interesting class of problems for classical and quantum simulation. In this paper we formulate simulations of polarization (helicity) flip for a photon colliding with a high-intensity plane wave. Polarization flip is a one-loop effect, which requires addressing new issues that do not arise in simulations of tree-level processes. Working in the momentum-space Fock basis, while convenient for the extraction of scattering amplitudes, requires tuning counterterms to cancel large cutoff effects. We compute analytic formulas for the counterterms at one loop. We then construct circuits for quantum simulations of the process, perform noiseless simulations on classical computers to assess discretization errors, and discuss resource estimates for future simulations on quantum hardware.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 056010– Published 9 March, 2026
  • Received 10 October 2025
  • Accepted 5 February 2026
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