The Transverse-Field Ising Spin Glass Model on the Bethe Lattice with an Application to Adiabatic Quantum Computing

In this Ph.D. thesis we examine the Adiabatic Quantum Algorithm from the point of view of statistical and condensed matter physics. We do this by studying the transverse-field Ising spin glass model defined on the Bethe lattice, which is of independent interest to both the physics community and the quantum computation community. Using quantum Monte Carlo methods, we perform an extensive study of the the ground-state properties of the model, including the R\'enyi entanglement entropy, quantum Fisher information, Edwards--Anderson parameter, correlation functions. Through the finite-size scaling of these quantities we find multiple independent and coinciding estimates for the critical point of the glassy phase transition at zero temperature, which completes the phase diagram of the model as was previously known in the literature. We find volumetric bipartite and finite multipartite entanglement for all values of the transverse field considered, both in the paramagnetic and in the glassy phase, and at criticality. We discuss their implication with respect to quantum computing. By writing a perturbative expansion in the large transverse field regime we develop a mean-field quasiparticle theory that explains the numerical data. The emerging picture is that of degenerate bands of localized quasiparticle excitations on top of a vacuum. The perturbative energy corrections to these bands are given by pair creation/annihilation and hopping processes of the quasiparticles on the Bethe lattice. The transition to the glassy phase is explained as a crossing of the energy level of the vacuum with one of the bands, so that creation of quasiparticles becomes energetically favoured. We also study the localization properties of the model by employing the forward scattering approximation of the locator expansion, which we compute using a numerical transfer matrix technique. We obtain a lower bound for the mobility edge of the system. We find a localized region inside of the glassy phase and we discuss the consequences of its presence for the Adiabatic Quantum Algorithm.