On the optimal schedule of adiabatic quantum computing

Chen-Fu Chiang, Paul M. Alsing

We investigate the irreconcilability issue that arises when translating the search algorithm from the Continuous Time Quantum Walk (CTQW) framework to the Adiabatic Quantum Computing (AQC) framework. For the AQC formulation to evolve along the same path as the CTQW, it requires a constant energy gap in the Hamiltonian throughout the AQC schedule. To resolve the constant gap issue, we modify the CTQW-inspired AQC catalyst Hamiltonian from an XZ operator to a Z oracle operator. Through simulation, we demonstrate that the total running time for the proposed approach for AQC with the modified catalyst Hamiltonian remains optimal as CTQW. Inspired by this solution, we further investigate adaptive scheduling for the catalyst Hamiltonian and its coefficient function in the adiabatic path of Grover-inspired AQC to improve the adiabatic local search.

Chen-Fu Chiang, Paul M. Alsing

Abstract We use the mapping between two computation frameworks, Adiabatic Grover Search (AGS) and Adiabatic Quantum Computing (AQC), to translate the Grover search algorithm into the AQC regime. We then apply Trotterization on the schedule-dependent Hamiltonian of AGS to obtain the values of variational parameters in the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) framework. The goal is to carry the optimal behavior of Grover search algorithm into the QAOA framework without the iterative machine learning processes.

Ari Mizel

Xiaodong Yang, Ran Liu, Jun Li +1 more

Designing proper time-dependent control fields for slowly varying the system to the ground state that encodes the problem solution is crucial for adiabatic quantum computation. However, inevitable perturbations in real applications demand us to accelerate the evolution so that the adiabatic errors can be prevented from accumulation. Here, by treating this trade-off task as a multiobjective optimization problem, we propose a gradient-free learning algorithm with pulse smoothing technique to search optimal adiabatic quantum pathways and apply it to the Landau-Zener Hamiltonian and Grover search Hamiltonian. Numerical comparisons with a linear schedule, local adiabatic theorem induced schedule, and gradient-based algorithm searched schedule reveal that the proposed method can achieve significant performance improvements in terms of the adiabatic time and the instantaneous ground-state population maintenance. The proposed method can be used to solve more complex and real adiabatic quantum computation problems.

Ari Mizel