We investigate an extended version of the quantum Ising model which includes beyond-nearest neighbour interactions and an additional site-dependent longitudinal magnetic field. Treating the interaction exactly and using perturbation theory in the lon
gitudinal field, we calculate the energy spectrum and find that the presence of beyond-nearest-neighbour interactions enhances the minimal gap between the ground state and the first excited state, irrespective of the nature of decay of these interactions along the chain. The longitudinal field adds a correction to this gap that is independent of the number of qubits. We discuss the application of our model to implementing specific instances of 3-satisfiability problems (Exact Cover) and make a connection to a chain of flux qubits.
