A deceptive step towards quantum speedup detection*

There have been multiple attempts to design synthetic benchmark problems with the goal of detecting quantum speedup in current quantum annealing machines. To date, classical heuristics have consistently outperformed quantum-annealing based approaches. Here we introduce a class of problems based on frustrated cluster loops — deceptive cluster loops — for which all currently known state-of-the-art classical heuristics are outperformed by the DW2000Q quantum annealing machine. While there is a sizable constant speedup over all known classical heuristics, a noticeable improvement in the scaling remains elusive. These results represent the first steps towards a detection of potential quantum speedup, albeit without a scaling improvement and for synthetic benchmark problems.