Customized quantum annealing schedules

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how superconducting circuits, specifically capacitively shunted flux qubits, can be used to design customized quantum annealing schedules that potentially enhance success probabilities in quantum optimization tasks.

Contribution

The authors introduce a method to map circuit flux biases to Pauli coefficients, enabling the creation of tailored annealing schedules within superconducting quantum annealing systems.

Findings

Customized annealing schedules can be designed using circuit control biases.

Proposals suggest improved quantum annealing performance with tailored schedules.

Mapping circuit biases to Pauli coefficients facilitates schedule optimization.

Abstract

In a typical quantum annealing protocol, the system starts with a transverse field Hamiltonian which is gradually turned off and replaced by a longitudinal Ising Hamiltonian. The ground state of the Ising Hamiltonian encodes the solution to the computational problem of interest, and the state overlap with this ground state gives the success probability of the annealing protocol. The form of the annealing schedule can have a significant impact on the ground state overlap at the end of the anneal, so precise control over these annealing schedules can be a powerful tool for increasing success probabilities of annealing protocols. Here we show how superconducting circuits, in particular capacitively shunted flux qubits (CSFQs), can be used to construct quantum annealing systems by providing tools for mapping circuit flux biases to Pauli coefficients. We use this mapping to find customized annealing schedules: appropriate circuit control biases that yield a desired annealing schedule, while accounting for the physical limitations of the circuitry. We then provide examples and proposals that utilize this capability to improve quantum annealing performance.