Quantum Annealing and Computation

TL;DR

This paper reviews quantum annealing as an analog computation method that leverages quantum tunneling to efficiently find ground states in complex energy landscapes, highlighting its potential advantage for solving hard optimization problems.

Contribution

It provides a concise overview of quantum annealing, emphasizing the role of quantum tunneling in enhancing search efficiency for complex systems.

Findings

Quantum tunneling aids in escaping local minima.

Quantum annealing can outperform classical methods in certain problems.

The paper discusses physical implementation aspects.

Abstract

We introduce and review briefly the phenomenon of quantum annealing and analog computation. The role of quantum fluctuation (tunneling) in random systems with rugged (free) energy landscapes having macroscopic barriers are discussed to demonstrate the quantum advantage in the search for the ground state(s) through annealing. Quantum annealing as a physical (analog) process to search for the optimal solutions of computationally hard problems are also discussed.