Relation of classical non-equilibrium dynamics and quantum annealing

8th STATPHYS-KOLKATA

Nishimori, Hidetoshi^1

Department of Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Oh-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo

152-8551, Japan^1

关键词: Classical dynamics;    Combinatorial optimization problems;    Non-equilibrium dynamics;    Optimization problems;    Quantum annealing;    Quantum mechanical process;    Stochastic elements;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/638/1/012016/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1742-6596/638/1/012016

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Non-equilibrium dynamics of the Ising model is a classical stochastic process whereas quantum mechanics has no stochastic elements in the classical sense. Nevertheless, it has been known that there exists a close formal relationship between these two processes. We reformulate this relationship and use it to compare the efficiency of simulated annealing that uses classical stochastic processes and quantum annealing to solve combinatorial optimization problems. It is shown that classical dynamics can be efficiently simulated by quantum- mechanical processes whereas the converse is not necessarily true. This may imply that quantum annealing may be regarded as a more powerful tool than simulated annealing for optimization problems.