Characterizing the D-wave processor with Quantum Monte Carlo simulations

NSERC的这项建议旨在促进D-WAVE系统公司和滑铁卢大学罗杰·梅尔科教授小组之间的新伙伴关系。D-WAVE公司在开发“量子退火法”(QA)的硬件方面处于世界领先地位。“量子退火法”旨在通过量子力学比特或“量子比特”来提高效率，从而完成某些类型的计算。在过去的十年里，D-WAVE的生产工艺已经成功地制造了几代QA芯片，量子比特的数量不断增加。随着他们的最新一代，量子比特数足够大，需要非常先进的(传统的)计算机模拟来表征。加拿大计算量子多体物理研究主任梅尔科教授是此类模拟技术的国际领先者。他的团队专门从事 在最先进的量子蒙特卡罗(QMC)模拟中，能够直接表征D波芯片的许多特性。在他们的合作中，他们计划比较D波芯片在不同条件下的实验硬件输出，并使用Melko的QMC进行直接模拟。测量将集中在表征芯片输出的热分布，以确定它们是否对应于量子分布或经典分布。这些基准提供了有关D波量子退火演化和冻结过程及其最终分布质量的重要信息。这一经历还将发展梅尔科教授模拟质量保证体系结构的内部能力。这 合作伙伴关系将使QA开发的行业模拟合作完全在加拿大境内进行，这将有利于该国在量子计算和信息技术方面的更大努力。

This NSERC Engage proposal aims to facilitate a new partnership between D-wave Systems, Inc. and the group of Professor Roger Melko at the University of Waterloo. D-wave is the world leader in the development of hardware for "quantum annealing" (QA), which aims to perform certain types of computations with an efficiency heightened by quantum mechanical bits or "qubits". Over the last decade, D-wave's production process has successfully manufactured several generations of QA chip with increasing numbers of qubits. With their latest generation, qubit numbers are large enough to require highly advanced (conventional) computer simulations for characterization. Professor Melko, the Canada Research Chair in Computational Quantum Many-Body Physics, is an international leader in such simulation technology. His group specializes in state-of-the-art quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations, which are capable of direct characterization of many of the properties of the D-wave chip. In their partnership, they plan to compare the experimental hardware outputs of the D-wave chip under various conditions, to direct simulations using Melko's QMC. Measurements will focus on characterizing the thermal distributions of chip outputs, to determine whether they correspond to quantum or classical distributions. Such benchmarks provide important information about D-Wave quantum annealing evolution and freeze-out processes and the quality of its final distribution. The experience will also develop Prof. Melko's in-house capabilities for simulation of the QA architecture. This partnership will bring the industry-simulation cooperation for QA development entirely within Canada, which will benefit the country's larger effort in quantum computing and information technology.