Quantum annealers are special-purpose quantum computers that primarily target solving Ising optimization problems. Theoretical work has predicted that the probability of a quantum annealer ending in a ground state can be dramatically improved if the spin driving terms, which play a crucial role in the functioning of a quantum annealer, have different strengths for different spins; that is, they are inhomogeneous. In this paper we describe a time-shift-based protocol for inhomogeneous driving and demonstrate, using an experimental quantum annealer, the performance of our protocol on a range of hard Ising problems that have been well-studied in the literature. Compared to the homogeneous-driving case, we find that we are able to improve the probability of finding a ground state by up to 10 7 × for Weak–Strong–Cluster problem instances, and by up to 10 3 × for more general spin-glass problem instances. In addition to being of practical interest as a heuristic spee...

中文翻译：

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量子退火炉中的不均匀驱动会导致性能提高几个数量级

量子退火器是专用的量子计算机，其主要目标是解决伊辛优化问题。理论工作已经预测，如果在量子退火炉功能中起关键作用的自旋驱动项对于不同的自旋具有不同的强度，则可以大大提高量子退火炉以基态结束的可能性。也就是说，它们是不均匀的。在本文中，我们描述了一种用于非均匀驱动的基于时移的协议，并使用实验性的量子退火仪论证了我们的协议在一系列已在文献中充分研究的硬伊辛问题上的性能。与同质驱动的情况相比，我们发现对于弱-强-聚类问题实例，我们能够将找到基态的可能性提高多达10 7×，对于更一般的自旋玻璃问题实例，最大可达10 3×。除了具有启发性的实用价值外，...