Abstract

The debate around the potential superiority of quantum annealers over their classical counterparts has been ongoing since the inception of the field by Kadowaki and Nishimori close to two decades ago. Recent technological advancements in the field, which have led to the manufacture of experimental prototypes of quantum annealing optimizers with sizes approaching the practical regime have reignited this discussion. However, the demonstration of quantum annealing speedups remains to this day an elusive albeit coveted goal. Here, we examine the power of quantum annealers to provide quantum enhancements when used as samplers from distributions of bit configurations rather than as ground state optimizers. We study, both numerically by simulating stoquastic and as non-stoquastic quantum annealing processes, and experimentally using the D-Wave Two putative quantum annealing optimizer, the ability …

Date

2016

Authors

Itay Hen, Victor Martin-Mayor, Brian Zhang

Journal

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts

Volume

2016

Pages

IN11D-1639