dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaHow to Make the Quantum Adiabatic Algorithm Fail
| Authors | Edward Farhi, Jeffrey Goldstone, Sam Gutmann, Daniel Nagaj |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | quant-ph/0512159 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0512159 |
| Journal | International Journal of Quantum Information, Vol. 6, No. 3 (2008), 503-516 |
Abstract
The quantum adiabatic algorithm is a Hamiltonian based quantum algorithm designed to find the minimum of a classical cost function whose domain has size N. We show that poor choices for the Hamiltonian can guarantee that the algorithm will not find the minimum if the run time grows more slowly than square root of N. These poor choices are nonlocal and wash out any structure in the cost function to be minimized and the best that can be hoped for is Grover speedup. These failures tell us what not to do when designing quantum adiabatic algorithms.
{
"annotation_id": "8fd0d734-99e1-4fe4-afb9-bcc78f22a53b",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:02:23.955000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:02:23.955000Z",
"file_hash": "6538aa84e7a1769b2f88d5b4c3a142952c2d7f89c178403f99bbc9870efcc96a",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "The quantum adiabatic algorithm is a Hamiltonian based quantum algorithm\ndesigned to find the minimum of a classical cost function whose domain has size\nN. We show that poor choices for the Hamiltonian can guarantee that the\nalgorithm will not find the minimum if the run time grows more slowly than\nsquare root of N. These poor choices are nonlocal and wash out any structure in\nthe cost function to be minimized and the best that can be hoped for is Grover\nspeedup. These failures tell us what not to do when designing quantum adiabatic\nalgorithms.",
"arxiv_id": "quant-ph/0512159",
"authors": [
"Edward Farhi",
"Jeffrey Goldstone",
"Sam Gutmann",
"Daniel Nagaj"
],
"categories": [
"quant-ph"
],
"journal_ref": "International Journal of Quantum Information, Vol. 6, No. 3\n (2008), 503-516",
"title": "How to Make the Quantum Adiabatic Algorithm Fail",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0512159"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "f71fb6be-0640-4195-97d7-5ce74bd598b4",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}