← Atlas

Algorithms · Optimization · time-dependent Hamiltonian

Quantum adiabatic evolution

An optimization pattern that slowly deforms an easy ground state into the ground state of a problem Hamiltonian.

Strong empiricalUpdated

Open on the mapView frozen graph

q[0]q[1]Step 1 of 3 · Prepare |++⟩ · on q[0], q[1]Prepare |++⟩Step 2 of 3 · H₀ RX step · on q[0], q[1]H₀ RX stepStep 3 of 3 · Hₚ RZZ step · on q[0], q[1]Hₚ RZZ step

3 steps across 2 wires. Hover a step, or press play to go through them in order.

Expected outcomes

  • Ground-state sector85%
  • Excited / diabatic leakage15%
  • Steps3
  • Wires2
  • Qubits2 in the toy interpolation
  • Schedules = 0 → 1 over 20 steps
  • Problem termZ₀Z₁ coupling
  • Papers1

The adiabatic path uses H(s) = (1−s)H₀ + sHₚ. If the schedule is slow compared with the inverse square of the minimum gap, the state can track the ground state; near a small gap, the required runtime can grow sharply. A gate-model implementation approximates each short interval and must still measure final success, so a smooth schedule is only a construction check until the gap and diabatic error are evaluated.

References

  • Quantum Computation by Adiabatic Evolution

    Edward Farhi, Jeffrey Goldstone, Sam Gutmann, Michael Sipser · 2000

    Defines the adiabatic computation model and relates runtime to the spectral gap of the interpolation.

Strong empirical
  • Verified by construction
  • Small-instance agreement
  • Invariant & structural checks
  • Peer-reviewed paper
Method
The initial and problem Hamiltonians are interpolated with a monotone schedule and decomposed into short RX/RZZ steps. A two-qubit toy instance is checked for the intended endpoints and schedule ordering.
Result
Pass · the sketch starts from the easy |++⟩ state and applies a monotone H(s) interpolation toward the ZZ problem term.
Caveat
Adiabatic success depends on the minimum spectral gap and total runtime; a visually smooth schedule is not evidence of a useful gap.
Quantum Computation by Adiabatic Evolution ↗
Kind
curated reference
Reviewed by
Leona Quantum curation pass
License
CC BY 4.0-compatible reference metadata
adiabaticoptimizationhamiltonianannealing
  • Constraint and combinatorial optimization encodings
  • Quantum annealing and adiabatic hardware studies
  • Small spectral-gap and schedule benchmarks

Atlas stars stay in the public catalog. Saving this entry to your workspace starts an unstarred private copy.