Quantum Computation and Information Seminar 

22/04/2005, 15:00 — 16:00 — Room P4.35, Mathematics Building
Andris Ambainis, U Waterloo

Adiabatic theorem and adiabatic quantum algorithms

Adiabatic quantum algorithms are a new approach to quantum computation. While being equivalent to standard quantum circuit model, they present a very different way of thinking about quantum algorithms. Adiabatic algorithms are based on the adiabatic theorem of quantum mechanics. Informally, the adiabatic theorem says that, when a Hamiltonian of a physical system is slowly transformed to a different Hamiltonian, the lowest energy state of the first Hamiltonian is transformed to the lowest energy state of the second Hamiltonian. In this talk, I will introduce the adiabatic approach and then present a new proof of quantum adiabatic theorem.