Vasil S. Denchev Sergio Boixo Sergei V. Isakov Nan Ding Ryan Babbush Vadim Smelyanskiy John Martinis Hartmut Neven

Quantum annealing (QA) has been proposed as a quantum enhanced optimization heuristic exploiting tunneling. Here, we demonstrate how finite range tunneling can provide considerable computational advantage. For a crafted problem designed to have tall and narrow energy barriers separating local minima, the D-Wave 2X quantum annealer achieves significant runtime advantages relative to Simulated Annealing (SA). For instances with 945 variables this results in a time-to-99\%-success-probability that is $\sim 10^8$ times faster than SA running on a single processor core. We also compared physical QA with Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC), an algorithm that emulates quantum tunneling on classical processors. We observe a substantial constant overhead against physical QA: D-Wave 2X runs up to $\sim 10^8$ times faster than an optimized implementation of QMC on a single core. To investigate whether finite range tunneling will also confer an advantage for problems of practical interest, we conduct numerical studies on binary optimization problems that cannot yet be represented on quantum hardware. For random instances of the number partitioning problem, we find numerically that QMC, as well as other algorithms designed to simulate QA, scale better than SA and better than the best known classical algorithms for this problem. We discuss the implications of these findings for the design of next generation quantum annealers.

Mustafa A. Amin, Daniel Baumann

We provide a statistical framework for characterizing stochastic particle production in the early universe via a precise correspondence to current conduction in wires with impurities. Our approach is particularly useful when the microphysics is uncertain and the dynamics are complex, but only coarse-grained information is of interest. We study scenarios with multiple interacting fields and derive the evolution of the particle occupation numbers from a Fokker-Planck equation. At late times, the typical occupation numbers grow exponentially which is the analog of Anderson localization for disordered wires. Some statistical features of the occupation numbers show hints of universality in the limit of a large number of interactions and/or a large number of fields. For test cases, excellent agreement is found between our analytic results and numerical simulations. Donate to arXiv

Steven B. Giddings

Where does Hawking radiation originate? A common picture is that it arises from excitations very near or at the horizon, and this viewpoint has supported the "firewall" argument and arguments for a key role for the UV-dependent entanglement entropy in describing the quantum mechanics of black holes. However, closer investigation of both the total emission rate and the stress tensor of Hawking radiation supports the statement that its source is a near-horizon quantum region, or "atmosphere," whose radial extent is set by the horizon radius scale. This is potentially important, since Hawking radiation needs to be modified to restore unitarity, and a natural assumption is that the scales relevant to such modifications are comparable to those governing the Hawking radiation. Moreover, related discussion suggests a resolution to questions regarding extra energy flux in "nonviolent" scenarios, that does not spoil black hole thermodynamics as governed by the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Donate to arXiv

Jasdeep S. Bains, Mark P. Hertzberg, Frank Wilczek

In expanding FRW spacetimes, it is usually the case that homogeneous scalar fields redshift and their amplitudes approach limiting values: Hubble friction usually ensures that the field relaxes to its minimum energy configuration, which is usually a static configuration. Here we discover a class of relativistic scalar field models in which the attractor behavior is the field oscillating indefinitely, with finite amplitude, in an expanding FRW spacetime, despite the presence of Hubble friction. This is an example of spontaneous breaking of time translation symmetry. We find that the effective equation of state of the field has average value $\langle w\rangle=-1$, implying that the field itself could drive an inflationary or dark energy dominated phase. This behavior is reminiscent of ghost condensate models, but in the new models, unlike in the ghost condensate models, the energy-momentum tensor is time dependent, so that these new models embody a more definitive breaking of time translation symmetry. We explore (quantum) fluctuations around the homogeneous background solution, and find that low $k$-modes can be stable, while high $k$-modes are typically unstable. We discuss possible interpretations and implications of that instability. Donate to arXiv