Efficient quantum implementations for individual plasma models

Develop efficient quantum implementations of individual plasma models, together with methods for coupling multiscale and multiphysics models and treating complex geometries, interfaces, and boundary conditions in realistic fusion-device simulations.

Background

Realistic plasma simulations couple fluid, Monte Carlo, kinetic, particle-in-cell, electromagnetic-wave, and other models across disparate physical scales. The paper emphasizes that many existing quantum algorithms rely on Fourier or other structured representations that are most natural for simple or periodic domains.

General boundaries and interfaces can require finite-difference discretizations, which produce larger and less structured operators and increase encoding overhead. Consequently, efficient quantum treatment of individual models is a prerequisite for integrating realistic multiscale and multiphysics fusion simulations.

References

Efficient quantum implementations of many individual plasma models remain an open technical challenge, and integrating multiscale and multiphysics models therefore requires addressing additional issues.

— Quantum computing for plasma physics in magnetic-confinement fusion  (2610.25885 - Zhu et al., 19 Oct 2026) in Section 4.1, “Algorithmic challenges in quantum computing for plasma simulation”

In summary, practical quantum advantage in plasma physics remains an open direction.

— Quantum computing for plasma physics in magnetic-confinement fusion  (2610.25885 - Zhu et al., 19 Oct 2026) in Section 4.2, “Promising problems for quantum advantage”