Assessing the current state of adiabatic quantum computers in solving challenging computational problems

The present Thesis aims to achieve three main objectives. The first is to present and comment the experimental results obtained during my PhD, which show that performances of modern AQCs are steadily improving thanks to both hardware and software advancements, and are getting close to practical utility. The second objective is to provide the reader with an extensive literature review regarding the design, the use, the capabilities, and the possible applications of AQCs. Indeed, there is currently no document or book on AQCs that contains the comprehensive amount of commented and ordered references presented in this Thesis. Thus, I hope this work can serve as an introductory compendium to a good portion of the modern knowledge regarding this topic. The third objective is to provide the reader with a collection of the most popular and effective ways to manipulate an AQC at the software (middelware) level in order to enhance its performances.