Quantum Algorithms Database
Adiabatic Quantum Computation
A general-purpose model of quantum computation (closely related to quantum annealing) that encodes a problem's answer as the lowest-energy state of a carefully designed quantum system.
Year
2000 (Farhi, Goldstone, Gutmann & Sipser)
Inventor(s)
Farhi, Goldstone, Gutmann & Sipser
Speedup Type
Heuristic (No Proven Speedup)
Difficulty
★★★★☆
The Problem
Solving general computational problems by slowly evolving a quantum system from an easy starting configuration toward one encoding the desired answer.
How It Works
Starts the system in an easily prepared low-energy state and gradually changes its governing equations so that, if done slowly enough, the system stays in its lowest-energy state — which is engineered to represent the problem's solution.
Real-World Impact
Proven theoretically equivalent in computational power to standard gate-based quantum computing, and forms the theoretical basis for quantum annealing hardware like D-Wave's systems.