Thermalization, Freeze-out, and Noise: Deciphering Experimental Quantum Annealers
Jeffrey Marshall, Eleanor G. Rieffel, Itay Hen · Physical Review Applied · 2017
Quantum annealing might be very useful for finding answers\dots{}but to which questions? A mechanistic understanding of how quantum annealers behave is crucial to identifying the tasks for which they are well suited. This study contrasts two annealers operating at different temperatures, to clarify the roles that thermal processes and analog errors play in their performance. Regrettably, the results show that present-day quantum annealers do $n\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}o\phantom{\rule{0}{0ex}}t$ function reliably as classical Boltzmann samplers. The insight from these experiments carries considerable implications for the design of future annealers, and the prospects for using them in machine learning and beyond.