Partonic collinear structure by quantum computing

We present a systematic quantum algorithm that combines hadronic state preparation with the evaluation of real-time light-front correlators to investigate the parton distribution function (PDF) and light cone distribution amplitude (LCDA). As a proof of concept, we simulate both the PDF and LCDA in the 1+1 dimensional Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. The results obtained from exact diagonalization and quantum computation on classical hardware show strong agreement, validating the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. Our findings highlight the promising potential for calculating partonic collinear structure on current and near-term quantum devices. This quantum algorithm is anticipated to have broad applications in high-energy particle and nuclear physics.