Abstract: The first half of the talk will give an overview introduction to quantum annealing (QA), an approach to quantum computation that is different from the more familiar quantum Gate Model (GM) approach. The underlying computational model (Adiabatic Quantum Computing) is universal and equivalent to Gate Model up to polynomial transformation. However, physical quantum annealers manufactured by D-Wave are deployed in a way that emphasizes performance at (heuristically and approximately) solving NP-hard optimization problems.
The second half will present recent benchmarking work using newest-model Advantage QPUs, which contain 5000+ qubits. Previous-generation QPUs could not support demonstrations of superior performance over classical competition, because of small size and high overhead of ``chip programming time'' to set up the quantum computation: problems small enough to fit on the QPU could be solved classically before the quantum anneal could begin. Advantage is the first D-Wave system large enough that demonstrations of superior quantum performance over state of the art classical approaches have become possible (in some limited scenarios) even when overhead costs are considered.
Short Bio: Catherine McGeoch received her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon in 1987. She is currently on the benchmarking team at D-Wave, which is charged with evaluating performance of its quantum systems and related software. Before joining D-Wave she held a chaired position in the computer science department at Amherst College, and for thirty years was engaged in research on developing sound experimental methods for evaluating algorithm and heuristic performance. She co-founded the (SIAM) ALENEX meetings on algorithms and experiments; co-founded the DIMACS Challenge series; and is past Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Journal on Experimental Algorithmics. She is the author of two books, one on experimental algorithmics, and one on quantum annealing and adiabatic quantum computing.
Nowadays she lives and works in Amherst and in non-pandemic years makes frequent trips to D-Wave headquarters in Vancouer BC.