Update release script

[LuisAlfredoNu]

Context:
The release 0.43.0 was the first release where the automation of the release was tested. We found a few corrections.

Description of the Change:

• Lightning test should use the rc branch from Catalyst in the FF IMPORTANT CHANGE
• root path from pwd to .
• check jq, existence before start run
• add git push action before creating PR in docs
• update salt in MPI test
• bump PR need dependency pennylane to be {X} not {X+1}
• bump PR need to update pyproject.toml as well
• update # Lightning Kokkos with CUDA and MPI to # Lightning Kokkos and MPI
• Correct path for the downloaded wheels files
• Select the correct json field in the function download_artifacts_gh to download the artifacts from the GitHub Actions runs
• Create the sdit for all the backends
• PRs have changelog updates
• Fix branch name underscore issue when no suffix is provided
• compare_changelog_commits.sh improve author formatting
• Remove sed 's/sevent_name == 'release'/event_name == 'pull_request'/

Benefits:

Possible Drawbacks:

Related GitHub Issues:

[sc-100891]

[github-actions]

Hello. You may have forgotten to update the changelog!
Please edit .github/CHANGELOG.md with:

• A one-to-two sentence description of the change. You may include a small working example for new features.
• A link back to this PR.
• Your name (or GitHub username) in the contributors section.

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR updates the release automation script to incorporate lessons learned from the 0.43.0 release testing. The changes focus on improving Lightning-Catalyst integration, fixing branch naming issues, enhancing artifact handling, and streamlining the release process.

Key changes include:

• Lightning test workflows now use the RC branch from Catalyst for release builds instead of the main branch
• Fixed branch naming logic to handle cases where no suffix is provided
• Updated artifact downloading to use correct JSON fields and file paths
• Streamlined version bumping and dependency management

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 16 out of 16 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

File	Description
scripts/create_lightning_rc.sh	Main release script with fixes for branch naming, dependency management, artifact handling, and workflow improvements
scripts/compare_changelog_commits.sh	Improved author formatting and comparison output
.github/workflows/*.yml	Added Catalyst RC branch switching logic for Lightning release tests across all workflow files

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[codecov]

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 93.60%. Comparing base (5a4b84d) to head (e6272b8).
⚠️ Report is 1 commits behind head on master.

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##           master    #1285      +/-   ##
==========================================
- Coverage   94.47%   93.60%   -0.88%     
==========================================
  Files         241      185      -56     
  Lines       42443    30379   -12064     
==========================================
- Hits        40100    28437   -11663     
+ Misses       2343     1942     -401     

Flag	Coverage Δ
unit_tests	93.60% <100.00%> (-0.88%)	⬇️

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[jzaia18]

Looks good, just 1 comment

[jzaia18]

Seems good! Will be happy to test these in action next release 🫡

[josephleekl]

LGTM, thanks @LuisAlfredoNu