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arXiv:1208.3515 · Scientific Reports

Decoherence induced deformation of the ground state in adiabatic quantum computation

Qiang Deng, D. V. Averin, Mohammad H. Amin, Peter Smith

Published Mar 26, 2013• 19 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Despite more than a decade of research on adiabatic quantum computation (AQC), its decoherence properties are still poorly understood. Many theoretical works have suggested that AQC is more robust against decoherence, but a quantitative relation between its performance and the qubits' coherence properties, such as decoherence time, is still lacking. While the thermal excitations are known to be important sources of errors, they are predominantly dependent on temperature but rather insensitive to the qubits' coherence. Less understood is the role of virtual excitations, which can also reduce the ground state probability even at zero temperature. Here, we introduce normalized ground state fidelity as a measure of the decoherence-induced deformation of the ground state due to virtual transitions. We calculate the normalized fidelity perturbatively at finite temperatures and discuss its relation to the qubits' relaxation and dephasing times, as well as its projected scaling properties.

DOI
10.1038/srep01479

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Despite more than a decade of research on adiabatic quantum computation (AQC), its decoherence properties are still poorly understood. Many theoretical works have suggested that AQC is more robust against decoherence, but a quantitative relation between its performance and the qubits' coherence properties, such as decoherence time, is still lacking. While the thermal excitations are known to be important sources of errors, they are predominantly dependent on temperature but rather insensitive to the qubits' coherence. Less understood is the role of virtual excitations, which can also reduce the ground state probability even at zero temperature. Here, we introduce normalized ground state fidelity as a measure of the decoherence-induced deformation of the ground state due to virtual transitions. We calculate the normalized fidelity perturbatively at finite temperatures and discuss its relation to the qubits' relaxation and dephasing times, as well as its projected scaling properties.
We have studied the decoherence properties of adiabatic quantum computation (AQC) in the presence of in general non-Markovian, e.g., low-frequency, noise. The developed description of the incoherent Landau-Zener transitions shows that the global AQC maintains its properties even for decoherence larger than the minimum gap at the anticrossing of the two lowest-energy levels. The more efficient local AQC, however, does not improve scaling of the computation time with the number of qubits nnn as in the decoherence-free case. The scaling improvement requires phase coherence throughout the computation, limiting the computation time and the problem size nnn.
The success of adiabatic quantum computation (AQC) depends crucially on the ability to maintain the quantum computer in the ground state of the evolution Hamiltonian. The computation process has to be sufficiently slow as restricted by the minimal energy gap. However, at finite temperatures, it might need to be fast enough to avoid thermal excitations. The question is, how fast does it need to be? The structure of evolution Hamiltonians for AQC is generally too complicated for answering this question. Here we model an adiabatic quantum computer as a (parametrically driven) harmonic oscillator. The advantages of this model are (1) it offers high flexibility for quantitative analysis on the thermal effect, (2) the results qualitatively agree with previous numerical calculation, and (3) it could be experimentally verified with quantum electronic circuits.
Abstract Incorporating protection against quantum errors into adiabatic quantum computing (AQC) is an important task due to the inevitable presence of decoherence. Here, we investigate an error-protected encoding of the AQC Hamiltonian, where qubit ensembles are used in place of qubits. Our Hamiltonian only involves total spin operators of the ensembles, offering a simpler route towards error-corrected quantum computing. Our scheme is particularly suited to neutral atomic gases where it is possible to realize large ensemble sizes and produce ensemble-ensemble entanglement. We identify a critical ensemble size Nc where the nature of the first excited state becomes a single particle perturbation of the ground state, and the gap energy is predictable by mean-field theory. For ensemble sizes larger than Nc, the ground state becomes protected due to the presence of logically equivalent states and the AQC performance improves with N, as long as the decoherence rate is sufficiently low.
Systems of mesoscopic Josephson junctions are at present among the leading candidates for development of practical qubits for quantum information devices. Although different qubit structures have been realized with Josephson junctions, their common feature is the design that is optimized to overcome the problem of decoherence by the low-frequency noise that exists in all solid-state structures. In the presented dissertation research, we propose and study an alternative approach of direct suppression of noise by a feedback loop based on the low-frequency quantum measurements. The minimal noise induced in the qubit by such a feedback loop is calculated under the conditions of continuous quantum-limited measurements. Another obstacle facing the quantum Josephson junction circuits is the information transfer between the circuit elements. Here we study the quantum dynamics of dual-rail arrays of nSQUIDs characterized by a negative inductance between its arms, which hold promise for quantum information transfer. The scaling and decoherence properties of these arrays are analyzed. Information transfer along nSQUID arrays can also be used to implement adiabatic quantum computation (AQC), an alternative to the gate-model approach to quantum computation that is expected to be more stable against the decoherence. Here we suggest fidelity of the ground state as the quantitative measure of the ultimate effect of decoherence on AQC. We show that decoherence-induced deformation of the ground state of an AQC algorithm is characterized by the same noise correlators as those that determine the decoherence time in the gate-model approach. Results for fidelity of a 16-qubit array at finite temperatures are obtained numerically. | 117 pages
Quantum annealing represents an essential milestone towards the goal of adiabatic quantum computing. In quantum annealing, the computation involves finding the ground state of a classical Ising-like Hamiltonian realized as interactions between qubits. Quantum fluctuations are introduced to allow the wavefunction of the qubits to explore the energy landscape, the hope being that the wavefunction finds a minimum energy configuration and possibly giving the result of the computation. While quantum annealing likely may not be as powerful as adiabatic quantum computing, it is possible that it may be better at optimization compared to analogous classical algorithms. In physical realizations of quantum annealing, there are still questions as to the role of quantum fluctuations in the operation of a device given the short coherence times of the individual qubits. These questions have consistently posed a serious theoretical challenge making it difficult to verify experimental results. Here we simplify the problem by considering a system of qubits with ferromagnetic interactions, modeling the decoherence effects as classical noise in the transverse-field of each qubit. We compare the calculations to data collected from a system of manufactured qubits produced by D-wave Systems by performing a finite-size scaling analysis that captures the competition between quantum fluctuations of the transverse-field and bit-flip errors from the noise. We argue that on time-scales larger than the single-qubit decoherence time, the device produces the expected quantum fluctuations for the many-body system. Using this finite-size scaling, one can diagnose sources of noise in the system. Hopefully, in the near future, these devices will not only be realizing coherent quantum annealing but will likely be useful as another example of synthetic quantum matter.
Recent experiments with increasingly larger numbers of qubits have sparked renewed interest in adiabatic quantum computation, and in particular quantum annealing. A central question that is repeatedly asked is whether quantum features of the evolution can survive over the long time scales used for quantum annealing relative to standard measures of the decoherence time. We reconsider the role of decoherence in adiabatic quantum computation and quantum annealing using the adiabatic quantum master-equation formalism. We restrict ourselves to the weak-coupling and singular-coupling limits, which correspond to decoherence in the energy eigenbasis and in the computational basis, respectively. We demonstrate that decoherence in the instantaneous energy eigenbasis does not necessarily detrimentally affect adiabatic quantum computation, and in particular that a short single-qubit T2{T}_{2}T2​ time need not imply adverse consequences for the success of the quantum adiabatic algorithm. We further demonstrate that boundary cancellation methods, designed to improve the fidelity of adiabatic quantum computing in the closed-system setting, remain beneficial in the open-system setting. To address the high computational cost of master-equation simulations, we also demonstrate that a quantum Monte Carlo algorithm that explicitly accounts for a thermal bosonic bath can be used to interpolate between classical and quantum annealing. Our study highlights and clarifies the significantly different role played by decoherence in the adiabatic and circuit models of quantum computing.