  A circuit consisting of a network of coupled compound Josephson junction
rf-SQUID flux qubits has been used to implement an adiabatic quantum
optimization algorithm. It is shown that detailed knowledge of the magnitude of
the persistent current as a function of annealing parameters is key to
implementation of the algorithm on this particular type of hardware.
Experimental results contrasting two annealing protocols, one with and one
without active compensation for the growth of the qubit persistent current
during annealing, are presented in order to illustrate this point.
