Adiabatic Quantum Computer to count the number of groundstates of a quantum Hamiltonian

M. Novotny
Mississippi State University,
United States

Keywords: adiabatic quantum computer, groundstate degeneracy

Summary:

Quantum computers have the possibility of performing computations that no classical computer can perform. The difference is that conventional computers use bits (a state is either O or 1), while a quantum computer uses qubits (which can simultaneously be a superposition of the states O and 1 ). An adiabatic quantum computer (AQC) works by slowly changing a Hamiltonian (the interactions between the qubits) to ultimately enable performance of a measurement of the desired quantities on a problem Hamiltonian. All Adiabatic Quantum Computers (AQCs) to date have been designed to obtain a groundstate (lowest energy state) of the problem Hamiltonian. We propose a #AQC machine to count the number of groundstates in the problem Hamiltonian.