We show a superpolynomial oracle separation between the power of adiabatic quantum computation with no sign problem and the power of classical computation.
Since quantum computers are known to break the vast majority of currently-used cryptographic protocols, a variety of new protocols are being developed that are conjectured, but not proven to be safe against quantum attacks. Among the most promising i
s lattice-based cryptography, where security relies upon problems like the shortest vector problem. We analyse the potential of adiabatic quantum computation for attacks on lattice-based cryptography, and give numerical evidence that even outside the adiabatic regime such methods can facilitate the solution of the shortest vector and similar problems.
We propose a simple feedback-control scheme for adiabatic quantum computation with superconducting flux qubits. The proposed method makes use of existing on-chip hardware to monitor the ground-state curvature, which is then used to control the comput
ation speed to maximize the success probability. We show that this scheme can provide a polynomial speed-up in performance and that it is possible to choose a suitable set of feedback-control parameters for an arbitrary problem Hamiltonian.
Adiabatic quantum computation (AQC), which is particularly useful for combinatorial optimization, becomes more powerful by using excited states, instead of ground states. However, the excited-state AQC is prone to errors due to dissipation. Here we p
ropose the excited-state AQC started with the most stable state, i.e., the vacuum state. This counterintuitive approach becomes possible by using a driven quantum system, or more precisely, a network of Kerr-nonlinear parametric oscillators (KPOs). By numerical simulations, we show that some hard instances, where standard ground-state AQC with KPOs fails to find their optimal solutions, can be solved by the present approach, where nonadiabatic transitions are rather utilized. We also show that the use of the vacuum state as an initial state leads to robustness against errors due to dissipation, as expected, compared to the use of a really excited (nonvacuum) state as an initial state. Thus, the present work offers new possibilities for quantum computation and driven quantum systems.
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 en
ergy 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.
We consider the realization of universal quantum computation through braiding of Majorana fermions supplemented by unprotected preparation of noisy ancillae. It has been shown by Bravyi [Phys. Rev. A 73, 042313 (2006)] that under the assumption of pe
rfect braiding operations, universal quantum computation is possible if the noise rate on a particular 4-fermion ancilla is below 40%. We show that beyond a noise rate of 89% on this ancilla the quantum computation can be efficiently simulated classically: we explicitly show that the noisy ancilla is a convex mixture of Gaussian fermionic states in this region, while for noise rates below 53% we prove that the state is not a mixture of Gaussian states. These results were obtained by generalizing concepts in entanglement theory to the setting of Gaussian states and their convex mixtures. In particular we develop a complete set of criteria, namely the existence of a Gaussian-symmetric extension, which determine whether a state is a convex mixture of Gaussian states.