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arXiv:1807.08970 · Physical Review Letters

Computational Speedups Using Small Quantum Devices

Vedran Dunjko, Yimin Ge, J. I. Cirac

Published Dec 18, 2018• 45 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Suppose we have a small quantum computer with only M qubits. Can such a device genuinely speed up certain algorithms, even when the problem size is much larger than M? Here we answer this question to the affirmative. We present a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm to solve 3-satisfiability problems involving n≫M variables that significantly speeds up its fully classical counterpart. This question may be relevant in view of the current quest to build small quantum computers.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.121.250501

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Suppose we have a small quantum computer with only M qubits. Can such a device genuinely speed up certain algorithms, even when the problem size is much larger than M? Here we answer this question to the affirmative. We present a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm to solve 3-satisfiability problems involving n≫M variables that significantly speeds up its fully classical counterpart. This question may be relevant in view of the current quest to build small quantum computers.
Recent works have shown that quantum computers can polynomially speed up certain SAT-solving algorithms even when the number of available qubits is significantly smaller than the number of variables. Here, we generalize this approach. We present a framework for hybrid quantum-classical algorithms which utilize quantum computers significantly smaller than the problem size. Given an arbitrarily small ratio of the quantum computer to the instance size, we achieve polynomial speedups for classical divide-and-conquer algorithms, provided that certain criteria on the time- and space-efficiency are met. We demonstrate how this approach can be used to enhance Eppstein’s algorithm for the cubic Hamiltonian cycle problem and achieve a polynomial speedup for any ratio of the number of qubits to the size of the graph.
Recent works have shown that quantum computers can polynomially speed up certain SAT-solving algorithms even when the number of available qubits is significantly smaller than the number of variables. Here, we generalize this approach. We present a framework for hybrid quantum-classical algorithms which utilize quantum computers significantly smaller than the problem size. Given an arbitrarily small ratio of the quantum computer to the instance size, we achieve polynomial speedups for classical divide-and-conquer algorithms, provided that certain criteria on the time- and space-efficiency are met. We demonstrate how this approach can be used to enhance Eppstein’s algorithm for the cubic Hamiltonian cycle problem and achieve a polynomial speedup for any ratio of the number of qubits to the size of the graph.
Recently, Dunjko et al.(PRL, 2018) proposed an algorithm for accelerating the solution of 3-satisfiability problems using a small-scale quantum computer. In this paper, we design a distributed quantum-classical hybrid algorithm for solving K-satisfiability problems. Under resource-constrained conditions, our algorithm achieves a significant acceleration in the core term of the exponential time complexity. The proposed algorithm is a generalization of the algorithm by Dunjko et al. Compared with their algorithm, our algorithm requires a smaller number of qubits. More importantly, the proposed algorithm does not rely on any quantum communication.
Computational quantum technologies are entering a new phase in which noisy intermediate-scale quantum computers are available, but are still too small to benefit from active error correction. Even with a finite coherence budget to invest in quantum information processing, noisy devices with about 50 qubits are expected to experimentally demonstrate quantum supremacy in the next few years. Defined in terms of artificial tasks, current proposals for quantum supremacy, even if successful, will not help to provide solutions to practical problems. Instead, we believe that future users of quantum computers are interested in actual applications and that noisy quantum devices may still provide value by approximately solving hard combinatorial problems via hybrid classical-quantum algorithms. To lower bound the size of quantum computers with practical utility, we perform realistic simulations of the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm and conclude that quantum speedup will not be attainable, at least for a representative combinatorial problem, until several hundreds of qubits are available.
Quantum computing (QC) is a new paradigm offering the potential of exponential speedups over classical computing for certain computational problems. Each additional qubit doubles the size of the computational state space available to a QC algorithm. This exponential scaling underlies QC’s power, but today’s Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices face significant engineering challenges in scalability. The set of quantum circuits that can be reliably run on NISQ devices is limited by their noisy operations and low qubit counts. This paper introduces CutQC, a scalable hybrid computing approach that combines classical computers and quantum computers to enable evaluation of quantum circuits that cannot be run on classical or quantum computers alone. CutQC cuts large quantum circuits into smaller subcircuits, allowing them to be executed on smaller quantum devices. Classical postprocessing can then reconstruct the output of the original circuit. This approach offers significant runtime speedup compared with the only viable current alternative—purely classical simulations—and demonstrates evaluation of quantum circuits that are larger than the limit of QC or classical simulation. Furthermore, in real-system runs, CutQC achieves much higher quantum circuit evaluation fidelity using small prototype quantum computers than the state-of-the-art large NISQ devices achieve. Overall, this hybrid approach allows users to leverage classical and quantum computing resources to evaluate quantum programs far beyond the reach of either one alone.
One of the challenges of quantum computers in the near- and mid- term is the limited number of qubits we can use for computations. Finding methods that achieve useful quantum improvements under size limitations is thus a key question in the field. In this vein, it was recently shown that a hybrid classical-quantum method can help provide polynomial speed-ups to classical divide-and-conquer algorithms, even when only given access to a quantum computer much smaller than the problem itself. In this work, we study the hybrid divide-and-conquer method in the context of tree search algorithms, and extend it by including quantum backtracking, which allows better results than previous Grover-based methods. Further, we provide general criteria for polynomial speed-ups in the tree search context, and provide a number of examples where polynomial speed ups, using arbitrarily smaller quantum computers, can be obtained. We provide conditions for speedups for the well known algorithm of DPLL, and we prove threshold-free speed-ups for the PPSZ algorithm (the core of the fastest exact Boolean satisfiability solver) for well-behaved classes of formulas. We also provide a simple example where speed-ups can be obtained in an algorithm-independent fashion, under certain well-studied complexity-theoretical assumptions. Finally, we briefly discuss the fundamental limitations of hybrid methods in providing speed-ups for larger problems.