The SSSV model is a simple classical model that achieves excellent correlation with published experimental data on the D-Wave machine’s behavior on random instances of its nativeproblem, thus raising questions about how „quantum“ the D-Wave machine is at large scales. In response, a recent preprint by Vinci et al. proposes a particular set of instances on which the D-Wave machine behaves differently from the SSSV model. In this short note, we explain how a simple modeling of systematic errors in the machine allows the SSSV model to reproduce the behavior reported in the experiments of Vinci et al.
Recently there has been intense interest in claims about the performance of the D-Wave machine. Scientifically the most interesting aspect was the claim in Boixo et al., based on extensiveexperiments, that the D-Wave machine exhibits large-scale quantum behavior. Their conclusion was based on the strong correlation of the input-output behavior of the D-Wave machine with a quantum model called simulated quantum annealing, in contrast to its poor correlation with two classical models: simulated annealing and classical spin dynamics. In this paper, we outline a simple new classical model, and show that on the same data it yields correlations with the D-Wave input-output behavior that are at least as good as those of simulated quantum annealing. Based on these results, we conclude that classical models for the D-Wave machine are not ruled out. Further analysis of the new model provides additional algorithmic insights into the nature of the problems being solved by the D-Wave machine.