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An International Network on Quantum Annealing

The International Network on Quantum Annealing (INQA) will for the first time establish a mechanism by which four global collaborations come together to share technical and intellectual know-how and critically analyse developments in theoretical and experimental research in quantum annealing.

Upcoming Seminars

1 OctoberÌý2024Ìý| 08:00ÌýUTC | Manav BabelÌý|ÌýSTFC UKRI

Evaluating the Performance of Quantum Annealers and Classical Optimizers in the Aircraft Container Loading Problem: A Feasibility Study

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The aircraft load balancing problem refers to arranging aircraft cargo such that the centre of gravity (CoG) is in the optimal position. This problem is high-impact in terms of safety and profitability, but is currently solved manually, leading to potentially suboptimal solutions and long lead times. In this study, we investigate the performance of quantum annealing in solving the problem on randomly selected problem instances, comparing performance with classical solvers. Our experiments are distinct from earlier work by developing dedicated hardware-aware problem formulations and by incorporating reverse annealing. Our results indicate that annealing tends to fail for larger problems, because the embedding algorithm is unable to find a mapping. For smaller problems, the classical solvers are faster and return higher-quality solutions. However, the classical solver time increases more rapidly with problem size than the annealing solver time. This suggests that at a certain break-even problem size, we may be able to achieve quantum advantage in time to solution, depending on suitable embeddings of those larger problems on current device graphs. Overall, our findings show that quantum annealing is certainly a feasible method of solving the load optimization problem. The issue of the problem sizes is essential for future work: our preliminary experiments show that deliberate problem reformulation, especially incorporating domain-wall encoding and clique identification, can improve the performance.

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8 OctoberÌý2024Ìý| 16:00ÌýUTC | Jaka VodebÌý|ÌýÌý Forschungszentrum Jülich University

Stirring the false vacuum via interacting quantized bubbles on a 5564-qubit quantum annealer

False vacuum decay is a potential mechanism governing the evolution of the early Universe, with profound connections to non-equilibrium quantum physics, including quenched dynamics, the Kibble-Zurek mechanism, and dynamical metastability. The non-perturbative character of the false vacuum decay and the scarcity of its experimental probes make the effect notoriously difficult to study, with many basic open questions, such as how the bubbles of true vacuum form, move and interact with each other. Here we utilize a quantum annealer with 5564 superconducting flux qubits to directly observe quantized bubble formation in real time -- the hallmark of false vacuum decay dynamics. Moreover, we develop an effective model that describes the initial bubble creation and subsequent interaction effects. We demonstrate that the effective model remains accurate in the presence of dissipation, showing that our annealer can access coherent scaling laws in driven many-body dynamics of 5564 qubits for over $1\mu$s, i.e., more than 1000 intrinsic qubit time units. This work sets the stage for exploring late-time dynamics of the false vacuum at computationally intractable system sizes, dimensionality, and topology in quantum annealer platforms.

Visit past seminars to view a list of all of our past seminars and theirÌýabstracts.

If you miss any of our live seminars you can watch our previous sessions on our .

About INQA

The INQA network unifies the research activities ofÌýmajor global collaborations in quantum annealing in North America, Japan, the European Union and the United Kingdom.

By hosting weekly on-line seminars and annual international conferences and by funding exchange visits, the INQA network will address the key topics which will enable quantum annealing to move towards a true quantum scaling advantage over classical approaches to NP-hard computational problems.Ìý

TheÌýtopics INQA will focus on include:

• Exploiting quantum coherence
• Extending the order and degree of qubit interactions
• Strategies for error correctionÌý
• Exploiting diabaticity and non-stoquasticity in a systematic way

The network will be led by ProfessorÌýPaul Warburton of °×С½ãÂÛ̳, who is a co-investigator in the UK’s Quantum Computation and Simulation (QCS) Hub and in the recently-announced QEVEC project. He was also previously a co-investigator in the US-led QEO and QAFS collaborations.

Members of the management board include:Ìý

• Prof Paul Warburton (°×С½ãÂÛ̳, UK)
• Dr Pol Forn-Díaz (IFAE, Spain)
• Dr Shiro Kawabata (AIST, Japan)
• Prof Viv Kendon (University of Strathclyde, UK)
• Dr Jamie Kerman (MIT Lincoln Lab, USA)

INQA is supported by a International Network Grant from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.Ìý

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