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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.18079 |
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| _version_ | 1866911074217885696 |
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| author | Barrows, Frank Pelofske, Elijah Sathe, Pratik Caravelli, Francesco Nisoli, Cristiano |
| author_facet | Barrows, Frank Pelofske, Elijah Sathe, Pratik Caravelli, Francesco Nisoli, Cristiano |
| contents | Quantum annealing leverages quantum tunneling for non-local searches, thereby minimizing memory effects that typically arise from metastabilities. Nonetheless, recent work has demonstrated robust hysteresis in large-scale transverse-field Ising systems implemented on D-Wave's analog quantum hardware. The quantum nature of these intriguing results remains to be understood at a deeper level. Here, we present a conceptual framework that explains the observed behavior by combining two-level Landau-Zener transitions via a first-order piecewise-constant propagator with semiclassical domain-wall kinetics. We test this approach experimentally on a quantum annealer, where we observe clear coercivity even in one-dimensional rings with periodic boundary conditions comprising up to 4,906 qubits-regimes where classical hysteresis is forbidden, but quantum hysteresis is not. Our framework reproduces the measured kink densities, hysteresis loop shapes, and longitudinal sweep-rate scaling trends observed in data from three different D-Wave quantum annealers. In particular, it captures striking non-monotonic features and transiently negative susceptibilities, identifying them as genuine quantum memory effects. These results establish programmable quantum annealers as powerful testbeds for exploring memory-endowed non-equilibrium dynamics in quantum many-body systems. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_18079 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Magnetic Memory and Hysteresis from Quantum Transitions: Theory and Experiments on Quantum Annealers Barrows, Frank Pelofske, Elijah Sathe, Pratik Caravelli, Francesco Nisoli, Cristiano Quantum Physics Statistical Mechanics Quantum annealing leverages quantum tunneling for non-local searches, thereby minimizing memory effects that typically arise from metastabilities. Nonetheless, recent work has demonstrated robust hysteresis in large-scale transverse-field Ising systems implemented on D-Wave's analog quantum hardware. The quantum nature of these intriguing results remains to be understood at a deeper level. Here, we present a conceptual framework that explains the observed behavior by combining two-level Landau-Zener transitions via a first-order piecewise-constant propagator with semiclassical domain-wall kinetics. We test this approach experimentally on a quantum annealer, where we observe clear coercivity even in one-dimensional rings with periodic boundary conditions comprising up to 4,906 qubits-regimes where classical hysteresis is forbidden, but quantum hysteresis is not. Our framework reproduces the measured kink densities, hysteresis loop shapes, and longitudinal sweep-rate scaling trends observed in data from three different D-Wave quantum annealers. In particular, it captures striking non-monotonic features and transiently negative susceptibilities, identifying them as genuine quantum memory effects. These results establish programmable quantum annealers as powerful testbeds for exploring memory-endowed non-equilibrium dynamics in quantum many-body systems. |
| title | Magnetic Memory and Hysteresis from Quantum Transitions: Theory and Experiments on Quantum Annealers |
| topic | Quantum Physics Statistical Mechanics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.18079 |