Quantum annealing and the Schrödinger-Langevin-Kostin equation

Diego de Falco, Dario Tamascelli

Published 2008-12-03Version 1

We show, in the context of quantum combinatorial optimization, or quantum annealing, how the nonlinear Schr\"odinger-Langevin-Kostin equation can dynamically drive the system toward its ground state. We illustrate, moreover, how a frictional force of Kostin type can prevent the appearance of genuinely quantum problems such as Bloch oscillations and Anderson localization which would hinder an exhaustive search.