发表机构
Fraunhofer Institute of Integrated Circuits IIS; University of Passau（弗劳恩霍夫集成电路研究所; 帕绍大学）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。AI 中文总结
本文提出基于离散时间量子行走的X射线投影模拟算法，将散射路径编码为量子态，实现散射感知成像，并验证其准确性，有望超越经典蒙特卡洛方法。
AI 中文摘要
X射线投影放射成像是一种用于医学诊断和工业检测的非侵入性成像技术。X射线投影的模拟通常用于在执行昂贵的扫描之前优化采集协议并提高图像质量。包含真实X射线散射物理的经典光子输运模拟计算成本高昂，因为它们需要对大量不同的散射路径进行采样。这限制了诸如束能量等参数空间的实际探索。量子计算通过利用叠加等量子特性，有望更快地解决高维问题。本工作引入了一种离散时间量子行走算法，用于模拟X射线光子通过非均匀体积的输运。该算法近似了X射线投影放射成像的物理过程，包括光电吸收和高阶散射（包括康普顿散射和瑞利散射）等过程。量子行走将所有允许的光子路径编码到单一量子态中，从而通过叠加原理同时传播所有散射历史。这种量子态表示能够灵活读取各种成像模态，包括初级（即未散射）图像，或仅包含指定阶次瑞利散射和康普顿散射的图像。与经典计算的参考模拟进行的定量比较表明，所提出的量子行走在底层物理模型的限制下能够准确再现放射投影。这些结果表明，用于X射线输运的量子电路能够生成准确的放射图像，并意味着随着量子硬件的扩展，这些算法在大规模、散射感知的虚拟成像研究中可能优于基于经典蒙特卡洛的方法。
英文摘要
X-ray projection radiography is a non-invasive imaging technique used in medical diagnostics and industrial inspection. The simulation of X-ray projections is commonly used to optimise acquisition protocols and improve image quality before performing costly scans. Classical photon transport simulations that include realistic X-ray scattering physics are computationally expensive because they require the sampling of a large number of distinct scattering paths. This limits the practical exploration of parameter spaces such as beam energy. Quantum computing offers the potential to solve high-dimensional problems faster by making use of quantum properties such as superposition. This work introduces a discrete-time quantum walk algorithm that simulates the transport of X-ray photons through heterogeneous volumes. It approximates the physics of X-ray projection radiography, including processes such as photoelectric absorption and higher-order scattering, including Compton and Rayleigh scattering. The quantum walk encodes all admissible photon paths into a single quantum state, enabling all scattering histories to be propagated simultaneously via the superposition principle. This quantum state representation enables flexible readout of various imaging modalities, including the primary, i.e., unscattered, image, or images exclusively containing Rayleigh and Compton scattering of specified orders. A quantitative comparison with classically computed reference simulations shows that the proposed quantum walk accurately reproduces radiographic projections, given the limitations of the underlying physical model. These results indicate that quantum circuits for X-ray transport can produce accurate radiographic images and imply that, as quantum hardware scales up, these algorithms could outperform classical Monte Carlo-based approaches in large-scale, scatter-aware virtual imaging studies.
Comments17 pages, 8 figures, 1 table
