Cyclic quantum annealing: searching for deep low-energy states in 5000-qubit spin glass
AI Breakdown
Get a structured breakdown of this paper — what it's about, the core idea, and key takeaways for the field.
Abstract
Quantum computers promise a qualitative speedup in solving a broad spectrum of practical optimization problems. The latter can be mapped onto the task of finding low-energy states of spin glasses, which is known to be exceedingly difficult. Using D-Wave’s 5000-qubit quantum processor, we demonstrate that a recently proposed iterative cyclic quantum annealing algorithm can find deep low-energy states in record time. We also find intricate structures in a low-energy landscape of spin glasses, such as a power-law distribution of connected clusters with a small surface energy. These observations offer guidance for further improvement of the optimization algorithms.