On the importance of scalability and resource estimation of quantum algorithms for domain sciences

The quantum information science community has seen a surge in new algorithmic developments across scientific domains. These developments have demonstrated polynomial or better improvements in computational and space complexity, incentivizing further research in the field. However, despite recent progress, many works fail to provide quantitative estimates on algorithmic scalability or quantum resources required -- e.g., number of logical qubits, error thresholds, etc. -- to realize the highly sought "quantum advantage." In this paper, we discuss several quantum algorithms and motivate the importance of such estimates. By example and under simple scaling assumptions, we approximate the computational expectations of a future quantum device for a high energy physics simulation algorithm and how it compares to its classical analog. We assert that a standard candle is necessary for claims of quantum advantage.