Preparations for Quantum Computing in Hadron Physics

Quantum computers are coming online and will quickly impact hadron physics once certain fidelity, decoherence and memory thresholds are met, quite possibly within a decade. We review a selected number of topics where ab-initio Quantum Chromodynamics-level information about hadrons can be obtained with this computational tool that is hard to come by from other methods. This includes high baryon-density systems such as neutron-star matter (with a sign problem in lattice gauge theory); fragmentation functions; Monte Carlo generation of particles which accounts for quantum correlations in the final state; entropy production in jets; and generally, any application where time evolution in Minkowski space (as opposed to a Euclidean formulation) or where large chemical potentials play an important dynamical role. For other problems, such as the prediction of very highly excited hadron spectroscopy, they will not be a unique, but a complementary tool.