The "minus sign problem" in quantum simulation refers to the fact that the probability amplitudes are not positive-definite, and it is my understanding that this leads to numerical instability when for example summing over paths, histories or configurations since large amplitudes of one phase can completely negate other large contributions but with the reverse phase. Without controlling this somehow, the sampling of alternative configurations has to be extremely dense, at least for situations where interference is expected to be important.
Assuming I haven't misunderstood it so far, my main question is when this is a show-stopper and when it can be ignored, and what the best workarounds are.
As an example, let's say that I want to simulate Compton scattering or something similar, numerically, to second order. I could evaluate the Feynman diagrams numerically to a certain resolution and sum them. I assume this won't work well. In Lattice QCD, complete field configurations are randomly generated and the action calculated and amplitude summed I guess (I have only superficial knowledge of Lattice QCD unfortunately).
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