Track clustering with a quantum annealer for primary vertex reconstruction at hadron colliders

Understand

Clustering of charged particle tracks along the beam axis is the first step in reconstructing the positions of hadronic interactions, also known as primary vertices, at hadron collider experiments.

• We use a 2036 physical qubit D-Wave quantum annealer to perform track clustering in a limited capacity on artificial events where the positions of primary vertices and tracks resemble those measured by the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider.
• The algorithm, which is not a classical-quantum hybrid but relies entirely on quantum annealing, is tested on a variety of event topologies.
• We demonstrate a deterministic graph-embedding of the problem on the D-Wave Chimera architecture, a method for optimizing the coupling strengths within logical qubits, and a method for optimizing annealing time.