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Updated: Mar 1, 2026
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Optimized Setup and Protocol for Magnetic Domain Imaging with In Situ Hysteresis Measurement
Published on: November 7, 2017
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Magnetic hysteresis experiments performed on quantum annealers
Elijah Pelofske1, Frank Barrows2,3, Pratik Sathe2,4
1Information Systems and Modeling, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
Science Advances
|February 27, 2026
Summary
Researchers explored magnetic hysteresis using quantum annealers, observing unique behaviors like disorder-induced steps. This demonstrates quantum annealers
Area of Science:
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Quantum Computing
- Statistical Mechanics
Background:
- Quantum annealers are advanced platforms for studying correlated spin systems.
- Magnetic memory and hysteresis phenomena are crucial but underexplored in quantum tunneling hardware.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and implement a general protocol for studying magnetic hysteresis on programmable quantum annealers.
- To investigate the behavior of ferromagnetic and disordered Ising models under hysteresis conditions.
Main Methods:
- A novel protocol for magnetic hysteresis experiments was designed and implemented.
- Experiments were conducted on three D-Wave superconducting qubit quantum annealers.
- The study involved systems with up to thousands of spins, exploring various graph topologies.
Main Results:
- Observed hysteresis loops with areas that depend nonmonotonically on quantum fluctuations.
- Identified unique features, including disorder-induced steps and nonmonotonic behaviors in hysteresis.
Conclusions:
- Quantum annealers are established as a viable platform for probing nonequilibrium emergent magnetic phenomena.
- This work expands the utility of analog quantum computers in addressing fundamental condensed matter physics questions.
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