Work

Large time-step discretization of adiabatic quantum dynamics

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Adiabatic quantum computing is a general framework for preparing eigenstates of Hamiltonians on quantum devices. However, its digital implementation requires an efficient Hamiltonian simulation subroutine, which may introduce extra computational overhead or complicated quantum control logic. In this work, we show that the time-step sizes in time discretization can be much larger than expected, and the overall complexity is greatly reduced. Remarkably, regardless of the general convergence order of the numerical method, we can choose a uniform time-step size independent of tolerated error and evolution time for sufficiently accurate simulation. Furthermore, with the boundary cancellation condition where the continuous diabatic errors are exponentially suppressed, we provide strong evidence for a superpolynomial convergence of first-order Trotter with uniform time-step size. We apply our analysis to the example of adiabatic unstructured search and show several preferable features of the Trotterized adiabatic approach: It can match the Grover lower bound, it does not require knowledge of the number of marked states, and its performance can be asymptotically comparable with that of the quantum approximate optimization algorithm.

Source: Physical Review Research

DOI: 10.1103/kh4h-m8z9

Authors: Dong An, Pedro C. S. Costa, Dominic W. Berry

Institutions: Peking University, University of Maryland, College Park, Macquarie University

Language: English

Topic: Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture

Subfield: Artificial Intelligence

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,625

Funders: U.S. Department of Defense, Peking University, Australian Research Council, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities