US 12,353,958 B2
Constructing and programming quantum hardware for quantum annealing processes
Masoud Mohseni, Redondo Beach, CA (US); and Hartmut Neven, Malibu, CA (US)
Assigned to Google LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by Google LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Jan. 14, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/149,407.
Application 17/149,407 is a continuation of application No. 16/997,673, filed on Aug. 19, 2020, granted, now 10,922,619.
Application 16/997,673 is a continuation of application No. 16/853,463, filed on Apr. 20, 2020, granted, now 10,789,541, issued on Sep. 29, 2020.
Application 16/853,463 is a continuation of application No. 16/683,149, filed on Nov. 13, 2019, granted, now 10,755,194, issued on Aug. 25, 2020.
Application 16/683,149 is a continuation of application No. 15/914,689, filed on Mar. 7, 2018, granted, now 10,510,015, issued on Dec. 17, 2019.
Application 15/914,689 is a continuation of application No. 15/109,600, granted, now 9,934,468, issued on Apr. 3, 2018, previously published as PCT/US2014/072962, filed on Dec. 31, 2014.
Claims priority of provisional application 61/985,348, filed on Apr. 28, 2014.
Claims priority of provisional application 61/924,207, filed on Jan. 6, 2014.
Prior Publication US 2021/0224680 A1, Jul. 22, 2021
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06N 10/70 (2022.01); G06F 15/82 (2006.01); G06F 17/11 (2006.01); G06N 7/01 (2023.01); G06N 10/00 (2022.01); G06N 10/20 (2022.01); G06N 10/40 (2022.01); G06N 10/60 (2022.01); G06N 20/00 (2019.01); H10N 60/10 (2023.01); H10N 60/12 (2023.01); H10N 60/80 (2023.01)
CPC G06N 10/70 (2022.01) [G06F 15/82 (2013.01); G06F 17/11 (2013.01); G06N 7/01 (2023.01); G06N 10/00 (2019.01); G06N 10/20 (2022.01); G06N 10/40 (2022.01); G06N 10/60 (2022.01); G06N 20/00 (2019.01); H10N 60/12 (2023.02); H10N 60/128 (2023.02); H10N 60/805 (2023.02)] 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer implemented method comprising:
determining, by a control system of quantum annealing hardware, values of control parameters for programming the quantum annealing hardware to implement a quantum annealing schedule, wherein the control parameters comprise coupling strengths of programmable inductive couplers between superconducting qubits in a quantum system included in the quantum annealing hardware, wherein the superconducting qubits comprise logical superconducting qubits for use in computation and control superconducting qubits for use in assisting the computation without being computational units, the determining comprising:
obtaining information representing energy states of a total Hamiltonian, wherein the total Hamiltonian characterizes dynamics of the quantum system, the quantum system comprising a quantum annealing subsystem and a quantum governor subsystem that comprises the control superconducting qubits;
calculating an average phonon energy of a bath in which the quantum system is located;
selecting a probability mass function for a ground state fidelity of the quantum annealing subsystem;
determining a quantum-governor distribution of an energy spectrum for the quantum governor subsystem based on i) the information representing the energy states of the total Hamiltonian, ii) the average phonon energy, and iii) the probability mass function; and
selecting the values of the control parameters from the quantum-governor distribution; and
programming, by the control system, the quantum system included in the quantum annealing hardware using the determined values of the control parameters, comprising:
initializing the quantum system according to initialization parameters that encode an optimization problem into an energy spectrum of the total Hamiltonian; and
applying a magnetic field along a z direction to adjust the coupling provided by the inductive couplers between the logical superconducting qubits and the control superconducting qubits included in the quantum annealing hardware according to the determined values of the control parameters;
implementing the quantum annealing schedule to drive the quantum system programmed by the determined values of the control parameters to a ground state of the quantum system; and
measuring an energy of the ground state, wherein the energy encodes a solution to the optimization problem.