Understanding the physics of D-Wave annealers: From Schrödinger to Lindblad to Markovian Dynamics

This study examines how well the sampling behaviour of D-Wave quantum annealers can be reproduced with numerical models. Experimental results from standard and fast annealing protocols are compared with Bloch-equation simulations for single-qubit problems and with Lindblad and Markovian master equations for two-qubit systems. The comparison investigates the role of thermal and quantum effects in the observed device behaviour and helps clarify which aspects of current annealers require a quantum-mechanical description and which can be captured by simpler dynamical models.