Simulations of the Ising Model on a Shastry-Sutherland Lattice by Quantum Annealing

The Ising Hamiltonian offers a versatile model for studying the microscopic behavior of several material systems. We study an Ising Hamiltonian on a geometrically-frustrated Shastry-Sutherland lattice, which has been used to explain the magnetic properties of the rare-earth tetraborides. Variants of this model can produce a complex phase diagram with emergent fractional magnetization plateaus. We present a novel embedding of the lattice into the D-Wave 2000Q processor and use forward and reverse annealing to compute the phase diagram and probe the magnetization plateaus in the classical limit of zero transverse field. Empirical results enable us to calculate the static structure factor in the different phases and critical regimes opening opportunities for direct comparisons to reciprocal-space experimental techniques. Using quantum Monte-Carlo calculations to validate our results, this work indicates that quantum annealing provides a versatile method of material simulation that can accelerate scientific discovery.