{"347901":{"#nid":"347901","#data":{"type":"event","title":"ARC Colloquium and ACO Student Seminar: Umesh Vazirani - U. C. Berkeley","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETitle:\u003Cbr \/\u003EHow \u201cQuantum\u201d is the D-Wave Machine?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAbstract:\u003Cbr \/\u003EA special purpose \u0022quantum computer\u0022 manufactured by the Canadian company D-Wave has led to intense excitement in the mainstream media (including a Time magazine cover dubbing it \u0022the infinity machine\u0022) and the computer industry, and a lively debate in the academic community. Scientifically it leads to the interesting question of whether it is possible to obtain quantum effects on a large scale with qubits that are not individually well protected from decoherence. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWe propose a simple and natural classical model for the D-Wave machine - replacing their superconducting qubits with classical magnets, coupled with nearest neighbor interactions whose strength is taken from D-Wave\u0027s specifications. The behavior of this classical model agrees remarkably well with posted experimental data about the input-output behavior of the D-Wave machine. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFurther investigation of our classical model shows that despite its simplicity, it exhibits novel algorithmic properties. Its behavior is fundamentally different from that of its close cousin, classical heuristic simulated annealing. In particular, the major motivation behind the D-Wave machine was the hope that it would tunnel through local minima in the energy landscape, minima that simulated annealing got stuck in. The reproduction of D-Wave\u0027s behavior by our classical model demonstrates that tunneling on a large scale may be a more subtle phenomenon than was previously understood. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn this talk I will try to make these results accessible to a general computer science audience, as well as discuss future prospects for quantum annealing based quantum computers. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBased on joint work with Seung Woo Shin, Graheme Smith, and John Smolin.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"How \u201cQuantum\u201d is the D-Wave Machine?"}],"uid":"27466","created_gmt":"2014-11-20 17:27:22","changed_gmt":"2017-04-13 21:21:03","author":"Dani Denton","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2014-11-21T12:00:00-05:00","event_time_end":"2014-11-21T13:00:00-05:00","event_time_end_last":"2014-11-21T13:00:00-05:00","gmt_time_start":"2014-11-21 17:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2014-11-21 18:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2014-11-21 18:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50875","name":"School of Computer Science"},{"id":"70263","name":"ARC"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1795","name":"Seminar\/Lecture\/Colloquium"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78751","name":"Undergraduate students"},{"id":"78761","name":"Faculty\/Staff"},{"id":"78771","name":"Public"},{"id":"174045","name":"Graduate students"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003Edenton at cc dot gatech edu\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}