Transfer of knowledge through reverse annealing: a preliminary analysis of the benefits and what to share

Being immersed in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era, current quantum annealers present limitations for solving optimization problems efficiently. To mitigate these limitations, D-Wave Systems developed a mechanism called reverse annealing, a specific type of quantum annealing designed...

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Main Authors: Eneko Osaba, Esther Villar-Rodriguez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2025-04-01
Series:Frontiers in Physics
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Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2025.1468348/full
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author Eneko Osaba
Esther Villar-Rodriguez
author_facet Eneko Osaba
Esther Villar-Rodriguez
author_sort Eneko Osaba
collection DOAJ
description Being immersed in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era, current quantum annealers present limitations for solving optimization problems efficiently. To mitigate these limitations, D-Wave Systems developed a mechanism called reverse annealing, a specific type of quantum annealing designed to perform local refinement of good states found elsewhere. Despite the research activity around reverse annealing, no study has theorized about the possible benefits related to the transfer of knowledge under this paradigm. This work moves in that direction and is driven by experimentation focused on answering two key research questions: i) is reverse annealing a paradigm that can benefit from knowledge transfer between similar problems? and ii) can we infer the characteristics that an input solution should meet to help increase the probability of success? To properly guide the tests in this paper, the well-known knapsack problem has been chosen for benchmarking purposes, using a total of 34 instances composed of 14 and 16 items.
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spelling doaj-art-e54c20c5e5e848d1b25d1aae4aaf167d2025-08-20T02:24:49ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Physics2296-424X2025-04-011310.3389/fphy.2025.14683481468348Transfer of knowledge through reverse annealing: a preliminary analysis of the benefits and what to shareEneko OsabaEsther Villar-RodriguezBeing immersed in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era, current quantum annealers present limitations for solving optimization problems efficiently. To mitigate these limitations, D-Wave Systems developed a mechanism called reverse annealing, a specific type of quantum annealing designed to perform local refinement of good states found elsewhere. Despite the research activity around reverse annealing, no study has theorized about the possible benefits related to the transfer of knowledge under this paradigm. This work moves in that direction and is driven by experimentation focused on answering two key research questions: i) is reverse annealing a paradigm that can benefit from knowledge transfer between similar problems? and ii) can we infer the characteristics that an input solution should meet to help increase the probability of success? To properly guide the tests in this paper, the well-known knapsack problem has been chosen for benchmarking purposes, using a total of 34 instances composed of 14 and 16 items.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2025.1468348/fullquantum annealingreverse annealingD-wavequantum optimizationtransfer optimization
spellingShingle Eneko Osaba
Esther Villar-Rodriguez
Transfer of knowledge through reverse annealing: a preliminary analysis of the benefits and what to share
Frontiers in Physics
quantum annealing
reverse annealing
D-wave
quantum optimization
transfer optimization
title Transfer of knowledge through reverse annealing: a preliminary analysis of the benefits and what to share
title_full Transfer of knowledge through reverse annealing: a preliminary analysis of the benefits and what to share
title_fullStr Transfer of knowledge through reverse annealing: a preliminary analysis of the benefits and what to share
title_full_unstemmed Transfer of knowledge through reverse annealing: a preliminary analysis of the benefits and what to share
title_short Transfer of knowledge through reverse annealing: a preliminary analysis of the benefits and what to share
title_sort transfer of knowledge through reverse annealing a preliminary analysis of the benefits and what to share
topic quantum annealing
reverse annealing
D-wave
quantum optimization
transfer optimization
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphy.2025.1468348/full
work_keys_str_mv AT enekoosaba transferofknowledgethroughreverseannealingapreliminaryanalysisofthebenefitsandwhattoshare
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