Efficient Paths for Local Counter-Diabatic Driving

Adiabatic processes enable the preparation of quantum states with high fidelity, but generically require very long times. Counter-diabatic (CD) driving allows the instantaneous eigenstates to be followed exactly at any speed by the addition of a CD term to the Hamiltonian, but in general this requires the full spectrum and the implementation of highly non-local terms. However, approximate protocols can be obtained which require only local terms. In this work, we describe a systematic method for finding alternative paths in the coupling space along which local CD protocols are most efficient.