Can quantum Monte Carlo simulate quantum annealing?

Understand

Recent theoretical and experimental studies have suggested that quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulation can behave similarly to quantum annealing (QA).

• The theoretical analysis was based on calculating transition rates between local minima, in the large spin limit using WentzelKramers-Brillouin (WKB) approximation, for highly symmetric systems of ferromagnetically coupled qubits.
• The rate of transition was observed to scale the same in QMC and incoherent quantum tunneling, implying that there might be no quantum advantage of QA compared to QMC other than a prefactor.
• Quantum annealing is believed to provide quantum advantage through large scale superposition and entanglement and not just incoherent tunneling.