Self-Consistent Fields Emulate Quantum Annealing Catalysts on Chips

Researchers at Michigan State University have devised a method for emulating quantum annealing catalysts using self-consistent transverse fields, potentially overcoming a significant hurdle in building more effective quantum computers. Fully-connected transverse interactions have long been theorized to accelerate quantum annealing by avoiding problematic phase transitions, but proving difficult to implement in existing hardware. The protocol requires only the ability to measure qubits in the transverse basis, a capability recently demonstrated on D-Wave quantum annealers, beyond standard transverse-field annealing. Simulations of a spin model show that this protocol yields identical dynamics in the large-system limit, and study the approach to that limit in numerical simulations of the uniform spin model, establishing self-consistent transverse fields as a viable…