Quantum Walk Inspired Dynamic Adiabatic Local Search

Abstract: We investigate the irreconcilability issue that raises in translating the search algorithm from the Continuous-Time Quantum Walk (CTQW) framework to the Adiabatic Quantum Computing (AQC) framework. For the AQC formulation to evolve along the same path as the CTQW requires a constant energy gap in the former Hamiltonian throughout the AQC schedule. To resolve the issue, we modify the CTQW-inspired AQC catalyst Hamiltonian with a $Z$ oracle operator. Through simulation we demonstrate that the total running time for the proposed approach remains optimal. Inspired by this solution, we further investigate adaptive scheduling for the catalyst Hamiltonian and its coefficient function in the adiabatic path to improve the adiabatic local search.