Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121.

The organizing committee includes Malcolm Boshier (P-21), Lukasz Cincio (T-4), Diego Dalvit (T-4), Michael Di Rosa (C-PCS), Changhyun Ryu (P-21) , Nikolai Sinitsyn (T-4), Rolando Somma (T-4), Yigit Subasi (T-4), Christopher Ticknor (T-1), and Wojciech Zurek (T-4).

For more information, or to nominate a speaker, contact Yigit Subasi.

To add your name to the Quantum Lunch email list, contact Kacy Hopwood.

Friday September 30, 2016
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
CNLS Conference Room

Speaker: Federico Spedalieri (USC)

Technical Host: Diego Dalvit

TOPIC: Overcoming limitations of quantum annealers

Abstract
Quantum annealers offer a novel approach to solve combinatorial optimization problems. The D-Wave system is the first commercially available quantum annealer, with a current processor composed of 1,152 qubits. Quantum effects have been shown to be present in this device, and I will discuss one of the experiments that proved the presence of entanglement, which is believed to be a pre-requisite to expect any type of quantum advantage. On the other hand, engineering compromises always impose limitations on this kind of devices. The most common limitations are on size and connectivity. The D-Wave processor is no exception, where a fixed number of qubits with a restricted connectivity graph are used to solve particular instances of the Ising model.I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of several approaches designed to extend the applicability of this device to larger, more connected optimization problems.