Random matrix approach to quantum adiabatic evolution algorithms
A. Boulatov, Vadim Smelyanskiy
We analyze the power of the quantum adiabatic evolution algorithm (QAA) for solving random computationally hard optimization problems within a theoretical framework based on random matrix theory (RMT). We present two types of driven RMT models. In the first model, the driving Hamiltonian is represented by Brownian motion in the matrix space. We use the Brownian motion model to obtain a description of multiple avoided crossing phenomena. We show that nonadiabatic corrections in the QAA are due to the interaction of the ground state with the ``cloud'' formed by most of the excited states, confirming that in driven RMT models, the Landau-Zener scenario of pairwise level repulsions is not relevant for the description of nonadiabatic corrections. We show that the QAA has a finite probability of success in a certain range of parameters, implying a polynomial complexity of the algorithm. The second model corresponds to the standard QAA with the problem Hamiltonian taken from the RMT Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE). We show that the level dynamics in this model can be mapped onto the dynamics in the Brownian motion model. For this reason, the driven GUE model can also lead to polynomial complexity of the QAA. The main contribution to the failure probability of the QAA comes from the nonadiabatic corrections to the eigenstates, which only depend on the absolute values of the transition amplitudes. Due to the mapping between the two models, these absolute values are the same in both cases. Our results indicate that this ``phase irrelevance'' is the leading effect that can make both the Markovian- and GUE-type QAAs successful.
Physical Review A•May 6, 2005•4 citations