Abstract
Quantum computing, along with quantum metrology and quantum communication, are disruptive technologies that promise, in the near future, to impact different sectors of academic research and industry. Among the computational challenges with great interest in science and industry are the inversion problems. These kinds of numerical procedures can be described as the process of determining the cause of an event from measurements of its effects. In this paper, we apply a recursive quantum algorithm to a D-Wave quantum annealer to solve a small scale seismic inversions problem. We compare the obtained results from the quantum computer to those derived from a classical algorithm. The accuracy achieved by the quantum computer is at least as good as that of the classical computer.
Highlights
Seismic geophysics relies heavily on subsurface modeling based on the numerical analysis of data collected in the field
We obtained the the condition number relates the error associated with t, εs, and the error of the solution s, εs. In this particular application of seismic inversion, where distances are generally in the scale of 103m, it is reasonable to assume that the figures are accurate up to the order of ≈ 10m, with the order of magnitude (1m) giving the scale of the error εt
We have solved a seismic inversions in a D-Wave quantum annealer
Summary
Seismic geophysics relies heavily on subsurface modeling based on the numerical analysis of data collected in the field. The computational processing of a large amount of data generated in a typical seismic experiment can take an large amount of time before a consistent subsurface model is produced. Electromagnetic reservoir data, like CSEM (Controlled Source Electromagnetic), petrophysical techniques, such as electrical resistivity and magnetic resonance on multi-wells, and engineering optimization problems like reservoir flux simulators, well field design and oil production maximization need a strong computational apparatus for analysis. A concrete example of such progress is the so-called quantum supremacy, that has been recently demonstrated using specific purpose quantum computers [1,2,3]. The Geoscience field and related industries, such as the hydrocarbon industry, are strong candidates to benefit from those advances brought by quantum computing
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