Adiabatic process

Quantum dynamics

Open quantum system

Computer science

Computation

Quantum computer

Quantum algorithm

Theoretical physics

Quantum mechanics

Adiabatic quantum computation

Algorithm

Statistical physics

Quantum process

Quantum operation

Quantum

Quantum information

Physics

Reviews of Modern Physics

The simple act of slowly varying the parameters of a quantum system so that it remains always in its ground state is extremely rich from an information processing point of view. For an ideal, closed system, this adiabatic evolution is equivalent to full quantum computation, and it is convenient for establishing quantum algorithms for optimization. This review presents adiabatic quantum algorithms, proves the closed-system equivalence of the adiabatic and circuit models of quantum computation, reviews the placement of adiabatic quantum computation in the more general classification of computational complexity theory, and discusses the case of ``stoquastic'' quantum evolutions.