Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Le, An, Baldwin, Christopher L.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.16735
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866917096435220480
author Le, An
Baldwin, Christopher L.
author_facet Le, An
Baldwin, Christopher L.
contents Adiabatic reverse annealing (ARA) is an improvement to conventional quantum annealing (QA) that uses an initial guess at the desired ground state to circumvent problematic phase transitions. Despite encouraging results in the closed-system setting, Ref. [1] has suggested on the basis of numerical simulations that ARA may lose its advantage in the presence of decoherence. Here, we revisit this problem from a more analytical perspective. Using the $p$-spin model as a solvable example, together with the adiabatic master equation to describe the effects of the environment (valid at weak coupling), we show that ARA can in fact succeed in open systems but that the temperature of the environment plays a key role. We first demonstrate that, in the adiabatic limit, the system will follow the instantaneous equilibrium state as long as the protocol does not pass through any (finite-temperature) phase transitions. Given this, there are two distinct mechanisms by which ARA can break down at high temperature: either there are no paths that avoid transitions, or the equilibrium state itself is disordered. When the temperature is sufficiently low that neither of these occur, then ARA succeeds. Remarkably, there are even situations in which the environment benefits ARA: we find parameter values for which no transition-avoiding paths exist at zero temperature but such paths appear at non-zero temperature.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_16735
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Adiabatic reverse annealing is robust to low-temperature decoherence
Le, An
Baldwin, Christopher L.
Quantum Physics
Statistical Mechanics
Adiabatic reverse annealing (ARA) is an improvement to conventional quantum annealing (QA) that uses an initial guess at the desired ground state to circumvent problematic phase transitions. Despite encouraging results in the closed-system setting, Ref. [1] has suggested on the basis of numerical simulations that ARA may lose its advantage in the presence of decoherence. Here, we revisit this problem from a more analytical perspective. Using the $p$-spin model as a solvable example, together with the adiabatic master equation to describe the effects of the environment (valid at weak coupling), we show that ARA can in fact succeed in open systems but that the temperature of the environment plays a key role. We first demonstrate that, in the adiabatic limit, the system will follow the instantaneous equilibrium state as long as the protocol does not pass through any (finite-temperature) phase transitions. Given this, there are two distinct mechanisms by which ARA can break down at high temperature: either there are no paths that avoid transitions, or the equilibrium state itself is disordered. When the temperature is sufficiently low that neither of these occur, then ARA succeeds. Remarkably, there are even situations in which the environment benefits ARA: we find parameter values for which no transition-avoiding paths exist at zero temperature but such paths appear at non-zero temperature.
title Adiabatic reverse annealing is robust to low-temperature decoherence
topic Quantum Physics
Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.16735