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Recent tests performed on the D-Wave Two quantum annealer have revealed no clear evidence of speedup over conventional silicon-based technologies. Here, we present results from classical parallel-tempering Monte Carlo simulations combined with isoenergetic cluster moves of the archetypal benchmark problem-an Ising spin glass-on the native chip topology. Using realistic uncorrelated noise models for the D-Wave Two quantum annealer, we study the best-case resilience, i.e., the probability that the ground-state configuration is not affected by random fields and random-bond fluctuations found on the chip. We thus compute classical upper-bound success probabilities for different types of disorder used in the benchmarks and predict that an increase in the number of qubits will require either error correction schemes or a drastic reduction of the intrinsic noise found in these devices. We outline strategies to develop robust, as well as hard benchmarks for quantum annealing devices, as well as any other computing paradigm affected by noise.
Recent advances in quantum technology have led to the development and manufacturing of experimental programmable quantum annealing optimizers that contain hundreds of quantum bits. These optimizers, named `D-Wave chips, promise to solve practical optimization problems potentially faster than conventional `classical computers. Attempts to quantify the quantum nature of these chips have been met with both excitement and skepticism but have also brought up numerous fundamental questions pertaining to the distinguishability of quantum annealers from their classical thermal counterparts. Here, we propose a general method aimed at answering these, and apply it to experimentally study the D-Wave chip. Inspired by spin-glass theory, we generate optimization problems with a wide spectrum of `classical hardness, which we also define. By investigating the chips response to classical hardness, we surprisingly find that the chips performance scales unfavorably as compared to several analogous classical algorithms. We detect, quantify and discuss purely classical effects that possibly mask the quantum behavior of the chip.
The non-integrability of quantum systems, often associated with chaotic behavior, is a concept typically applied to cases with a high-dimensional Hilbert space Among different indicators signaling this behavior, the study of the long-time oscillations of the out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) appears as a versatile tool, that can be adapted to the case of systems with a small number of degrees of freedom. Using such an approach, we consider the oscillations observed after the scrambling time in the measurement of OTOCs of local operators for an Ising spin chain on a nuclear magnetic resonance quantum simulator [J. Li,et al, Phys. Rev. X 7, 031011 (2017)]. We show that the systematic of the OTOC oscillations describes qualitatively well, in a chain with only 4 spins, the integrability-to-chaos transition inherited from the infinite chain.
Numerical optimization is used to design linear-optical devices that implement a desired quantum gate with perfect fidelity, while maximizing the success rate. For the 2-qubit CS (or CNOT) gate, we provide numerical evidence that the maximum success rate is $S=2/27$ using two unentangled ancilla resources; interestingly, additional ancilla resources do not increase the success rate. For the 3-qubit Toffoli gate, we show that perfect fidelity is obtained with only three unentangled ancilla photons -- less than in any existing scheme -- with a maximum $S=0.00340$. This compares well with $S=(2/27)^2/2 approx 0.00274$, obtainable by combining two CNOT gates and a passive quantum filter [PRA 68, 064303 (2003)]. The general optimization approach can easily be applied to other areas of interest, such as quantum error correction, cryptography, and metrology [arXiv:0807.4906, PRL 99 070801 (2007)].
It has been shown classically that combining two chaotic random walks can yield an ordered(periodic) walk. Our aim in this paper is to find a quantum analog for this rather counter-intuitive result. We study chaotic and periodic nature of cyclic quantum walks and focus on a unique situation wherein a periodic quantum walk on a 3-cycle graph is generated via a deterministic combination of two chaotic quantum walks on the same graph. We extend our results to even-numbered cyclic graphs, specifically a 4-cycle graph too. Our results will be relevant in quantum cryptography and quantum chaos control.
Motivated by recent work showing that a quantum error correcting code can be generated by hybrid dynamics of unitaries and measurements, we study the long time behavior of such systems. We demonstrate that even in the mixed phase, a maximally mixed initial density matrix is purified on a time scale equal to the Hilbert space dimension (i.e., exponential in system size), albeit with noisy dynamics at intermediate times which we connect to Dyson Brownian motion. In contrast, we show that free fermion systems -- i.e., ones where the unitaries are generated by quadratic Hamiltonians and the measurements are of fermion bilinears -- purify in a time quadratic in the system size. In particular, a volume law phase for the entanglement entropy cannot be sustained in a free fermion system.