  Hopfield networks are a variant of associative memory that recall information
stored in the couplings of an Ising model. Stored memories are fixed points for
the network dynamics that correspond to energetic minima of the spin state. We
formulate the recall of memories stored in a Hopfield network using energy
minimization by adiabatic quantum optimization (AQO). Numerical simulations of
the quantum dynamics allow us to quantify the AQO recall accuracy with respect
to the number of stored memories and the noise in the input key. We also
investigate AQO performance with respect to how memories are stored in the
Ising model using different learning rules. Our results indicate that AQO
performance varies strongly with learning rule due to the changes in the energy
landscape. Consequently, learning rules offer indirect methods for
investigating change to the computational complexity of the recall task and the
computational efficiency of AQO.
