  Current generation quantum annealers have already proven to be successful
problem-solvers. Yet, quantum annealing is still very much in its infancy, with
suboptimal applicability. For instance, to date it is still an open question
which annealing protocol causes the fewest diabatic excitations for a given
eigenspectrum, and even whether there is a universally optimal strategy.
Therefore, in this paper, we report analytical and numerical studies of the
diabatic excitations arising from nonlinear protocols applied to the transverse
field Ising chain, the exactly solvable model that serves as a quantum
annealing playground. Our analysis focuses on several driving schemes that
inhibit or facilitate the dynamic phases discussed in a previous work. Rather
remarkably, we find that the paradigmatic Kibble-Zurek behavior can be
suppressed with ``pauses'' in the evolution, both for crossing and for stopping
at the quantum critical point of the system.
