Open-system modeling of quantum annealing: theory and applications

TL;DR

This paper develops theoretical models and numerical methods for simulating open quantum annealing systems, including reverse annealing, highlighting environmental interactions' potential benefits.

Contribution

It introduces effective simulation techniques for open quantum annealing, including reverse annealing, considering weak coupling and noise effects, advancing understanding of open-system quantum optimization.

Findings

Reverse annealing can benefit from environmental interactions.

Stochastic quantum trajectories are useful for studying feedback in QA.

Simulation methods accommodate weak coupling and 1/f noise effects.

Abstract

In this dissertation, we explore how quantum annealing (QA) and its applications behave in an open system setting. We give derivations and numerical recipes for effective parallel simulation methods for time-dependent open dynamics of quantum annealing devices. We consider the weak-coupling limit to an environment and also the case of $1/f$ noise. The stochastic time-dependent quantum trajectories technique can be utilized in studying weak measurements and feedback error correction in quantum annealing. Then we focus on opensystem descriptions of reverse annealing (RA), which is a promising variant and application of quantum annealing. We show that, with various simulation tools, reverse annealing can benefit from the interaction between the annealer and its environment.