We present a new quantum adiabatic theorem that allows one to rigorously bound the adiabatic timescale for a variety of systems, including those described by originally unbounded Hamiltonians that are made finite-dimensional by a cutoff. Our bound is geared towards the qubit approximation of superconducting circuits and presents a sufficient condition for remaining within the
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Quantum annealing and computation: challenges and perspectives’.