"Quantum Annealing and the D-Wave devices"
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Quantum annealing - a finite temperature version of the quantum
adiabatic algorithm - combines the classical technology of slow thermal cooling
with quantum mechanical tunneling, to try bring a physical system towards its
ground state. The Canadian company D-Wave systems has recently built and sold
programmable devices that are designed to use this effect to find solutions to
hard optimization problems. I will present results of experiments designed to
shed light on crucial questions about these controversial devices: are these
devices quantum or classical? Are they faster than classical devices? What is
their potential?