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Quantum simulated annealing

Steve Huntsman
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Abstract

The question of whether or not quantum computers can efficiently solve NP-complete problems is open, although indications are that BQP does not contain NP. Still, many of these problems are natural candidates for solution on quantum computers. We outline a thermodynamical formalism for the traveling salesman problem which allows for its expected polytime solution on a quantum computer with probability arbitrarily close to unity, given sufficient energy resources and subject to a weak nondegeneracy constraint on the distances. Applications to other problems are also discussed.

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Steve Huntsman. 2002-12-09. Quantum simulated annealing. https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0012112

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