Anisotropic Quantum Annealing Advantage

This paper investigates the performance of quantum annealing using spin-1 systems with a single-ion anisotropy term. It argues that this approach can lead to higher fidelity in finding the ground state compared to traditional spin-1/2 systems. The key is the ability to traverse the energy landscape more smoothly, lowering barriers and stabilizing the evolution, particularly beneficial for problems with ternary decision variables.