Embedding of a condensed matter system with an analog processor
Licensing management
D-Wave11023821 · 2021-06-01
Assignee
Inventors
- Richard G. Harris (North Vancouver, CA)
- Kelly T. R. Boothby (Coquitlam, CA)
- Andrew D. King (Vancouver, CA)
Cpc classification
G06N10/00
PHYSICS
International classification
Abstract
A system and method of operation embeds a three-dimensional structure in a topology of an analog processor, for example a quantum processor. The analog processor may include a plurality of qubits arranged in tiles or cells. A number of qubits and communicatively coupled as logical qubits, each logical qubit which span across a plurality of tiles or cells of the qubits. Communicatively coupling between qubits of any given logical qubit can be implemented via application or assignment of a first ferromagnetic coupling strength to each of a number of couplers that communicatively couple the respective qubits in the logical qubit. Other ferromagnetic coupling strengths can be applied or assigned to couplers that communicatively couple qubits that are not part of the logical qubit. The first ferromagnetic coupling strength may be substantially higher than the other ferromagnetic coupling strengths.
Claims
1. A method of simulating a physical material in an analog processor comprising a plurality of qubits, the method comprising: forming a set of logical qubits, one or more of the logical qubits formed by assigning a first ferromagnetic coupling strength to one or more couplers communicatively coupling at least one qubit in the plurality of qubits; forming a three-dimensional structure corresponding to a model of the physical material by coupling each logical qubit to at least one other logical qubit by assigning a second coupling strength to each of a first set of couplers communicatively coupling pairs of logical qubits based on the model of the physical material; evolving a state of the analog processor from a first state until a value of the annealing coefficient s reaches s*, wherein s is a coefficient that controls a rate of evolution from an initial Hamiltonian H.sub.i and a final Hamiltonian H.sub.f, according to H.sub.e=(1−s)H.sub.i+sH.sub.f wherein H.sub.e is an evolution Hamiltonian, and s* is an intermediate point in the evolution of the analog processor; pausing the evolution of the analog processor; applying a longitudinal flux to one or more of the plurality of qubits of the analog processor; resuming evolving the state of the analog processor to a second state; measuring one or more characteristics of the set of logical qubits at the second state; and determining a property of the physical material based on the one or more characteristics.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein applying a longitudinal flux to one or more of the plurality of qubits of the analog processor includes applying a longitudinal flux to one or more of the plurality of qubits of the analog processor based on a magnetic field represented in the model of the physical material.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein coupling each logical qubit to at least one other logical qubit further comprises assigning a first antiferromagnetic coupling strength to each of a second set of couplers communicatively coupling pairs of logical qubits based on a doping characteristic of the model of the physical material.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the doping characteristic comprises a probability that a given one of the second set of couplers is doped.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein coupling each logical qubit to at least one other logical qubit further comprises assigning a zero coupling strength to each of a second set of couplers communicatively coupling pairs of logical qubits based on a doping characteristic of the model of the physical material.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more characteristics comprise a magnetic susceptibility of at least one of the plurality of qubits.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the property of the physical material comprises a phase transition response of the simulated material to a simulated condition.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)
(1) In the drawings, identical reference numbers identify similar elements or acts. The sizes and relative positions of elements in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the shapes of various elements and angles are not necessarily drawn to scale, and some of these elements may be arbitrarily enlarged and positioned to improve drawing legibility. Further, the particular shapes of the elements as drawn, are not necessarily intended to convey any information regarding the actual shape of the particular elements, and may have been solely selected for ease of recognition in the drawings.
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION
(10) In the following description, certain specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of various disclosed implementations. However, one skilled in the relevant art will recognize that implementations may be practiced without one or more of these specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In other instances, well-known structures associated with computer systems, server computers, and/or communications networks have not been shown or described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring descriptions of the implementations.
(11) Unless the context requires otherwise, throughout the specification and claims that follow, the word “comprising” is synonymous with “including,” and is inclusive or open-ended (i.e., does not exclude additional, unrecited elements or method acts).
(12) Reference throughout this specification to “one implementation” or “an implementation” means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the implementation is included in at least one implementation. Thus, the appearances of the phrases “in one implementation” or “in an implementation” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same implementation. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more implementations.
(13) As used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. It should also be noted that the term “or” is generally employed in its sense including “and/or” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
(14) The headings and Abstract of the Disclosure provided herein are for convenience only and do not interpret the scope or meaning of the implementations.
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(16) An L×L×L cubic lattice may be embedded by representing individual Ising spins using L.sup.3 strongly coupled chains of flux qubits—also referred to as logical qubits—and selecting a subset of inter-qubit couplers to represent the nearest neighbors of the cubic lattice. In this application and the appended claims, L is defined as the number of logical qubits communicatively coupled to one another in a given direction of the cubic lattice.
(17) Schematic diagram may be a portion of an analog processor 100, for example a quantum processor. The illustrated analog processor 100 or portion thereof comprises four cells 102-108 tiled over an area, where each cell has a fixed topology, and where each cell is next to at least one other cell.
(18) In
(19) Each cell 102-108 has a first set of qubits 110 and a second set of qubits 120 (the first and second set of qubits 110, 120 are called out for only one cell 102 to prevent clutter in the illustration). Each qubit in the first set of qubits 110 is parallel to one another along a respective longitudinal axis and each qubit in the set 120 is parallel to one another along a respective longitudinal axis. Each qubit in the first set of qubits 110 crosses a portion of the qubits in the second set of qubits 120. For the purpose of this application and the appended claims, the term ‘cross’, and variants thereof such as crosses or crossing, includes meet, underlie, overlie, overlap, come together or are proximate one another. In some implementations, the qubits in the first set of qubits 110 are orthogonal to the qubits in the second set of qubits 120.
(20) A coupler may be present proximate where one qubit in first set of qubits 110 crosses one qubit in second set of qubits 120 to provide tunable communicative coupling. In addition, couplers may be present where a first end of one qubit in first set of qubits 110 is proximate to a first end of a qubit in a respective first set of qubits 110 in an adjacent cell to provide tunable communicative coupling between cells. For example, coupler 134 provides communicative coupling between a first qubit in the first set of qubits 110 of first cell 102 and a first qubit in the first set of qubits 110 of second cell 104. Likewise, couplers may be present where one end of a qubit in the second set of qubits 120 is proximate to a first end of a qubit in a respective second set of qubits 120 of an adjacent cell. In some implementations, not all qubits and/or couplers may be functional or operational in an analog processor.
(21) To simulate a cubic lattice in an analog processor, or a portion of an analog processor, such as the portion of an analog processor 100, ferromagnetic coupling strengths may be assigned to a subset of the couplers to form logical chains of qubits, or logical qubits. In at least one implementation, a logical qubit is formed of four qubits, with a pair of intersecting qubits in one cell and two other qubits in two different cells.
(22) With reference to
(23) When one or more logical qubits are communicably coupled together a three dimensional structure may be formed.
(24) With reference to
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(27) Method 200 comprises acts 202-216. It will be appreciated that the depicted method 200 is exemplary and, in some implementations, certain acts may be omitted, further acts may be added, and/or the order of the acts may be changed. Method 200 may be executed by a hybrid computing system comprising an analog processor and at least one digital processor, where the digital processor may program the analog processor by assigning coupling strengths to the couplers and biases to the qubits. The analog processor may be a quantum processor.
(28) Method 200 starts at 202, for example in response to a call from another routine.
(29) At 204, a first ferromagnetic coupling strength is assigned or applied to a coupler (e.g., coupler 132 of
(30) At 206, the first ferromagnetic coupling strength is assigned or applied to a coupler (e.g., coupler 134 of
(31) At 208, the first ferromagnetic coupling strength is assigned or applied to a coupler (e.g., coupler 136 of
(32) At 210, a check is performed, for example by the hybrid computing system, to ensure that all logical qubits needed to embed the three dimensional structures have been constructed. If all the needed coupling strength have been assigned to form the needed number of logical qubit control passes to 212, otherwise to 204, where a different logical qubit is constructed. Alternatively, when for three-dimensional structures that require or benefit from logical qubits formed by more than 3 qubits, acts 204-208 need to be repeated as needed to form a logical qubit of any size.
(33) At 212, a second coupling strength is assigned or applied to a coupler (e.g., coupler 138 of
(34) At 214, a check is performed, for example by the hybrid computing system, to ensure that all logical qubits needed to embed the three dimensional structure have been communicatively coupled by assigning or applying the second coupling strength. If the three dimensional structure is complete, control passes to 216, otherwise to 212, where more couplers between logical qubits are programmed with the second coupling strength.
(35) At 216, method 200 terminates, until it is for example invoked again.
(36) Method 200 may be used to explore system dynamics and mitigate or attempt to mitigate the effects of degeneracy. For example, an embedding of a three dimensional structure may be used to measure magnetic susceptibility (χ) of a system. Such a system may be an analog processor, in particular a quantum processor.
(37) Susceptibility χ is a characteristic of some types of qubits, including flux qubits, which describes the degree of magnetization of a qubit in response to an applied magnetic field. This response may vary in different circumstances (e.g., depending on the strength and topology of its couplings with other qubits, the flux biases of other qubits). Thus, a qubit's susceptibility χ may be different for different problems. Therefore, it may be advantageous to measure or determined the susceptibility χ in order to attempt to mitigate degenerative effects for certain classes of problems.
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(39) As illustrated in
(40) At s*, the evolution of the analog processor is paused for a time Δt. During the time Δt a longitudinal flux ±ϕ.sub.// is applied to all qubits in the analog processor, as shown in
(41) After time Δt the evolution is ramped until s=1. The ramp operation advances the evolution quickly, for example in the order of 500 ns.
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(43) Evolution schedule 300a may be applied a plurality of times for different values of s* and the magnetization statics measured or determined as a function of s*.
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(45) Method 400 comprises acts 402-416. It will be appreciated that the depicted method 400 is exemplary and, in some implementations, certain acts may be omitted, further acts may be added, and/or the order of the acts may be changed. Method 400 may be executed by a hybrid computing system comprising an analog processor and at least one digital processor, where the digital processor may program the analog processor by assigning coupling strengths to the couplers and biases to the qubits. The analog processor may be a quantum processor.
(46) Method 400 starts at 402, for example in response to a call from another routine. Method 400 may receive a set of values s* as part of a set of input. The hybrid system may also receive an embedding of a three-dimensional structure, as disclosed above with reference to
(47) At 404, the hybrid computing system evolves the analog processor until a value s* of the annealing coefficient. The value s* may be determined by the digital processor, for example based on a class of problems, or received at 402 as part of a set of inputs.
(48) At 406, the hybrid computing system pauses the evolution of the analog processor for a time Δt. During Δt the value of the annealing coefficient remains constant to the value s*.
(49) At 408, the hybrid computing system applies a longitudinal flux ±ϕ.sub.// to the qubits in the analog processor. In some implementations, the value of ±ϕ.sub.// can be less than 100μΦ).
(50) At 410, the hybrid computing system resumes the evolution schedule after time Δt by ramping, e.g., annealing quickly, the evolution until s=1.
(51) At 412, the hybrid computing system measures or determines the difference in magnetization statistics of qubits in the analog processor for the value s*. The difference may be calculated by subtracting the magnetization observed with one longitudinal flux +ϕ.sub.// from the magnetization observed with the other longitudinal flux −ϕ.sub.//.
(52) At 414, the hybrid computing system determines whether to repeat acts 404 to 412 with different values of s*. A possible test to determine whether repeat the execution of method 400 is to determine whether all the values s* of interest have been considered. In this case, control passes to 416, otherwise to 404.
(53) At 416, method 400 terminates, until it is for example invoked again. Measurements taken via method 400 may be used to calculate or infer the susceptibility χ for the system and for the problem embedded into the analog processor for a given s*.
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(55) The susceptibility χ is plotted on the vertical axis and the annealing coefficient on the horizontal axis. The curve on graph 500 is representative of a value of doping p, where 0≤p≤1 represents the probability of antiferromagnetic ordering of spins and p=0 represents perfect antiferromagnetic ordering. (The particular p used for this plot was 0.30.) As illustrated in graph 500, the sharp peak in the curve is representative of a transition between two distinct magnetic phases. This transition may lead to degeneracy on certain problems. The peak on graph 500 is indicative of a critical value s.sub.c of the evolution coefficient s, where this phase transition is more likely. Thus, it may be desirable under certain conditions to pause or slow down the system evolution around the value s=s.sub.c.
(56) Graph 500 and/or method 400 may therefore be employed to discover or attempt to the discover a critical value of the annealing coefficient s. This result may be employed to attempt reduce degeneracy in a system. In particular, the teachings of International Patent Application No. US2016/059169 may be employed to modify annealing schedules to attempt to mitigate degeneracy.
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(58) In evolution schedule 600, an analog processor starts evolving from s=0 until a value s.sub.c−Δ, where s.sub.c is the critical value of the annealing coefficient s at which a phase transition between two distinct phases is likely. Optionally, the evolution until time s.sub.c−Δ may be a ramp evolution.
(59) At s.sub.c−Δ the evolution of the analog processor is slowed until the annealing coefficient reaches value s.sub.c+Δ, after which the evolution may resume with the same rate as before s.sub.c−Δ, or with a different rate. A person skilled in the art will understand that the size of the interval (s.sub.c−Δ, s.sub.c+Δ) is shown in
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(61) Method 700 comprises acts 702-710. It will be appreciated that the depicted method 700 is exemplary and, in some implementations, certain acts may be omitted, further acts may be added, and/or the order of the acts may be changed. Method 700 may be executed by a hybrid computing system comprising an analog processor and at least one digital processor, where the digital processor may program the analog processor by assigning coupling strengths to the couplers and biases to the qubits. The analog processor may be a quantum processor. The qubits and couplers on the analog processor may be configured so as to simulate a three-dimensional structure as disclosed above with reference to
(62) Method 700 starts at 702, for example in response to a call from another routine.
(63) At 704, the hybrid computing systems starts the evolution of the analog processor until a value of the annealing coefficient s.sub.c−Δ. As illustrated in
(64) At 706, the hybrid computing system slows the evolution of the analog processor until the annealing coefficient reaches value s.sub.c+Δ.
(65) At 708, the hybrid computing system resumes the evolution of the analog processor until s=1. After s.sub.c+Δ, the analog processor may evolve with the same rate as from s=0 to s.sub.c−Δ or with a different rate.
(66) Method 700 terminates at 710, until it is for example invoked again.
(67) The above described method(s), process(es), or technique(s) could be implemented by a series of processor readable instructions stored on one or more nontransitory processor-readable media. Some examples of the above described method(s), process(es), or technique(s) method are performed in part by a specialized device such as an adiabatic quantum computer or a quantum annealer or a system to program or otherwise control operation of an adiabatic quantum computer or a quantum annealer, for instance a computer that includes at least one digital processor. The above described method(s), process(es), or technique(s) may include various acts, though those of skill in the art will appreciate that in alternative examples certain acts may be omitted and/or additional acts may be added. Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the illustrated order of the acts is shown for exemplary purposes only and may change in alternative examples. Some of the exemplary acts or operations of the above described method(s), process(es), or technique(s) are performed iteratively. Some acts of the above described method(s), process(es), or technique(s) can be performed during each iteration, after a plurality of iterations, or at the end of all the iterations.
(68) Applications of the systems and methods described above include, for example, materials simulation. For instance, an analog processor may simulate the properties of a three-dimensional system of molecules with magnetic moment axes (such as a three-dimensional quantum spin glass material or a ferromagnet) by representing the material as a three-dimensional cubic lattice as described above. The processor may further simulate the material being in a magnetic field, for instance by applying per-qubit flux biases corresponding to the strength of the magnetic field (and thereby applying a physical magnetic field in a flux-qubit-based analog processor). In the case of a quantum processor, simulating a magnetic field (and/or certain other conditions) can potentially induce quantum fluctuations in the simulated material, which may affect its phase boundaries and/or critical points.
(69) Doping of simulated materials may be simulated by setting couplers between certain logical qubits to an antiferromagnetic (AFM) or zero coupling. Simulating doping may allow for simulating materials with impurities, structural irregularities, and/or other physical characteristics. Doped couplings may be set randomly or pseudo-randomly, for example based on a doping ratio p. For instance, p=0.5 may indicate that each coupler has a 50% probability of being doped (and a corresponding 50% probability of being set to the [ferromagnetic] second coupling strength discussed above with reference to
(70) As noted above, the susceptibility χ of qubits can undergo phase transitions during the evolution of the processor. By producing susceptibility values for various annealing coefficient values s, transverse fields Γ, and/or temperatures T, the processor can provide a user with empirical data on phase transitions for the simulated material under various simulated conditions. Such techniques are not limited to materials represented by cubic lattices, and may be applied to models of physical materials with other topologies.
(71) The above description of illustrated implementations, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the implementations to the precise forms disclosed. Although specific implementations of and examples are described herein for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure, as will be recognized by those skilled in the relevant art. The teachings provided herein of the various implementations can be applied to other methods of quantum computation, not necessarily the exemplary methods for quantum computation generally described above.
(72) The various implementations described above can be combined to provide further implementations. All of the commonly assigned US patent application publications, U.S. patent applications, foreign patents, and foreign patent applications referred to in this specification and/or listed in the Application Data Sheet are incorporated herein by reference, in their entirety, including but not limited to: International Patent Application No. US2016/059169, International Patent Application WO2006066415, U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,170,278, 9,178,154, and U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 62/451,518.
(73) These and other changes can be made to the implementations in light of the above-detailed description. In general, in the following claims, the terms used should not be construed to limit the claims to the specific implementations disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should be construed to include all possible implementations along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. Accordingly, the claims are not limited by the disclosure.