MilestoneTheory & algorithmsConfirmed

Farhi and colleagues propose computing by slowly changing a quantum system

Jan 28, 2000

Edward Farhi and colleagues propose an algorithm that starts a quantum system in an easy-to-prepare state and slowly changes it until its lowest-energy state encodes a solution. The required running time remains unknown in general.

Why it matters

Adiabatic computation introduces an alternative to sequences of quantum logic gates and helps frame later attempts to solve optimization problems with quantum machines.

Edward Farhi · Jeffrey Goldstone · Sam Gutmann · Michael Sipser · MIT

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