Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1901.08927 · Optics Express

Annealing by simulating the coherent Ising machine

Egor S. Tiunov, Alexander E. Ulanov, Alexander I. Lvovsky

Published Mar 28, 2019• 89 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The coherent Ising machine (CIM) enables efficient sampling of low-lying energy states of the Ising Hamiltonian with all-to-all connectivity by encoding the spins in the amplitudes of pulsed modes in an optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The interaction between the pulses is realized by means of measurement-based optoelectronic feedforward, which enhances the gain for lower-energy spin configurations. We present an efficient method of simulating the CIM on a classical computer that outperforms the CIM itself, as well as the noisy mean-field annealer in terms of both the quality of the samples and the computational speed. It is furthermore advantageous with respect to the CIM in that it can handle Ising Hamiltonians with arbitrary real-valued node coupling strengths. These results illuminate the nature of the faster performance exhibited by the CIM and may give rise to a new class of quantum-inspired algorithms of classical annealing that can successfully compete with existing methods.

DOI
10.1364/oe.27.010288

Related papers

Emulating the coherent Ising machine with a mean-field algorithm

Andrew D. King, William Bernoudy, James A. King +2 more

The coherent Ising machine is an optical processor that uses coherent laser pulses, but does not employ coherent quantum dynamics in a computational role. Core to its operation is the iterated simulation of all-to-all spin coupling via mean-field calculation in a classical FPGA coprocessor. Although it has been described as "operating at the quantum limit" and a "quantum artificial brain", interaction with the FPGA prevents the coherent Ising machine from exploiting quantum effects in its computations. Thus the question naturally arises: Can the optical portion of the coherent Ising machine be replaced with classical mean-field arithmetic? Here we answer this in the affirmative by showing that a straightforward noisy version of mean-field annealing closely matches CIM performance scaling, while running roughly 20 times faster in absolute terms.

arXiv:1806.08422•Jun 21, 2018•30 citations

100,000-spin coherent Ising machine

Toshimori Honjo, Tomohiro Sonobe, Kensuke Inaba +9 more

Computers based on physical systems are increasingly anticipated to overcome the impending limitations on digital computer performance. One such computer is a coherent Ising machine (CIM) for solving combinatorial optimization problems. Here, we report a CIM with 100,512 degenerate optical parametric oscillator pulses working as the Ising spins. We show that the CIM delivers fine solutions to maximum cut problems of 100,000-node graphs drastically faster than standard simulated annealing. Moreover, the CIM, when operated near the phase transition point, provides some extremely good solutions and a very broad distribution. This characteristic will be useful for applications that require fast random sampling such as machine learning.

Science Advances•Sep 29, 2021•340 citations

Mean-field coherent Ising machines with artificial Zeeman terms

Mastiyage Don Sudeera Hasaranga Gunathilaka, Yoshitaka Inui, Satoshi Kako +2 more

Coherent Ising Machine (CIM) is a network of optical parametric oscillators that solve combinatorial optimization problems by finding the ground state of an Ising Hamiltonian. In CIMs, a problem arises when attempting to realize the Zeeman term because of the mismatch in size between interaction and Zeeman terms due to the variable amplitude of the optical parametric oscillator pulses corresponding to spins. There have been three approaches proposed so far to address this problem for CIM, including the absolute mean amplitude method, the auxiliary spin method, and the chaotic amplitude control (CAC) method. This paper focuses on the efficient implementation of Zeeman terms within the mean-field CIM model, which is a physics-inspired heuristic solver without quantum noise. With the mean-field model, computation is easier than with more physically accurate models, which makes it suitable for implementation in field programmable gate arrays and large-scale simulations. First, we examined the performance of the mean-field CIM model for realizing the Zeeman term with the CAC method, as well as their performance when compared to a more physically accurate model. Next, we compared the CAC method to other Zeeman term realization techniques on the mean-field model and a more physically accurate model. In both models, the CAC method outperformed the other methods while retaining similar performance.

arXiv:2309.04043•Journal of Applied Physics•Dec 20, 2023•10 citations

A coherent Ising machine based on a network of 100,000 degenerate optical parametric oscillator pulses

Toshimori Honjo, Kensuke Inaba, Takahiro Inagaki +3 more

Coherent Ising machines (CIMs) are increasingly anticipated as a new computer that can solve combinatorial optimization problems. CIMs use degenerate optical parametric oscillator pulses as artificial spins. We constructed a 100,512-spin coherent Ising machine, the world's largest. Our CIM can find good solutions to maximum cut problems of 100,000-node graphs ~1000 times faster than simulated annealing. Furthermore, it provides both very good scores and a broad distribution when we operate it near the phase transition point.

IEEE International Conference on Nanotechnology (IEEE-NANO)•Jul 4, 2022•6 citations

Synchronously-pumped OPO coherent Ising machine: benchmarking and prospects

Ryan Hamerly, Takahiro Inagaki, Peter L. McMahon +4 more

The coherent Ising machine (CIM) is a network of optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) that solves for the ground state of Ising problems through OPO bifurcation dynamics. Here, we present experimental results comparing the performance of the CIM to quantum annealers (QAs) on two classes of NP-hard optimization problems: ground state calculation of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (SK) model and MAX-CUT. While the two machines perform comparably on sparsely-connected problems such as cubic MAX-CUT, on problems with dense connectivity, the QA shows an exponential performance penalty relative to CIMs. We attribute this to the embedding overhead required to map dense problems onto the sparse hardware architecture of the QA, a problem that can be overcome in photonic architectures such as the CIM.

AI and Optical Data Sciences•Feb 24, 2020•4 citations

Quest for quantum advantage: Monte Carlo wave-function simulations of the Coherent Ising Machine

Manushan Thenabadu, Run Yan Teh, Jia Wang +3 more

The Coherent Ising Machine (CIM) is a quantum network of optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) intended to find ground states of the Ising model. This is an NP-hard problem, related to several important minimization problems, including the max-cut graph problem. In order to enhance its potential performance, we analyze the coherent coupling strategy for the CIM in a highly quantum regime. To explore this limit, without assuming gaussianity, we employ accurate numerical simulations. Due to the inherent complexity of the system, the maximum network size is limited. While master equation methods can be used, their scalability diminishes rapidly for larger systems. Instead, we use Monte Carlo wave-function methods, which scale as the wave-function dimension, and use large numbers of samples. These simulations involve Hilbert spaces exceeding $10^{7}$ dimensions. To evaluate success probabilities, we use quadrature probabilities. We demonstrate the potential for quantum computational advantage by reducing the time required to reach maximum success probability in a low-dissipation regime enabled by initial quantum superpositions and entanglement. Furthermore, we demonstrate that tailored time-dependent couplings can amplify these quantum effects. Comparisons with classical CIM models give evidence that quantum tunneling effects in this strong coupling limit can overcome trapping in false minima. This can greatly increase success rates, indicating a potential for quantum advantage. Finally, we perform a coherence analysis based on the state purity to examine the role of quantum coherence in CIM performance and to determine how state purity correlates with improved optimization outcomes.

arXiv:2501.02681•Jan 5, 2025•0 citations
The coherent Ising machine (CIM) enables efficient sampling of low-lying energy states of the Ising Hamiltonian with all-to-all connectivity by encoding the spins in the amplitudes of pulsed modes in an optical parametric oscillator (OPO). The interaction between the pulses is realized by means of measurement-based optoelectronic feedforward, which enhances the gain for lower-energy spin configurations. We present an efficient method of simulating the CIM on a classical computer that outperforms the CIM itself, as well as the noisy mean-field annealer in terms of both the quality of the samples and the computational speed. It is furthermore advantageous with respect to the CIM in that it can handle Ising Hamiltonians with arbitrary real-valued node coupling strengths. These results illuminate the nature of the faster performance exhibited by the CIM and may give rise to a new class of quantum-inspired algorithms of classical annealing that can successfully compete with existing methods.
The coherent Ising machine is an optical processor that uses coherent laser pulses, but does not employ coherent quantum dynamics in a computational role. Core to its operation is the iterated simulation of all-to-all spin coupling via mean-field calculation in a classical FPGA coprocessor. Although it has been described as "operating at the quantum limit" and a "quantum artificial brain", interaction with the FPGA prevents the coherent Ising machine from exploiting quantum effects in its computations. Thus the question naturally arises: Can the optical portion of the coherent Ising machine be replaced with classical mean-field arithmetic? Here we answer this in the affirmative by showing that a straightforward noisy version of mean-field annealing closely matches CIM performance scaling, while running roughly 20 times faster in absolute terms.
Computers based on physical systems are increasingly anticipated to overcome the impending limitations on digital computer performance. One such computer is a coherent Ising machine (CIM) for solving combinatorial optimization problems. Here, we report a CIM with 100,512 degenerate optical parametric oscillator pulses working as the Ising spins. We show that the CIM delivers fine solutions to maximum cut problems of 100,000-node graphs drastically faster than standard simulated annealing. Moreover, the CIM, when operated near the phase transition point, provides some extremely good solutions and a very broad distribution. This characteristic will be useful for applications that require fast random sampling such as machine learning.
Coherent Ising Machine (CIM) is a network of optical parametric oscillators that solve combinatorial optimization problems by finding the ground state of an Ising Hamiltonian. In CIMs, a problem arises when attempting to realize the Zeeman term because of the mismatch in size between interaction and Zeeman terms due to the variable amplitude of the optical parametric oscillator pulses corresponding to spins. There have been three approaches proposed so far to address this problem for CIM, including the absolute mean amplitude method, the auxiliary spin method, and the chaotic amplitude control (CAC) method. This paper focuses on the efficient implementation of Zeeman terms within the mean-field CIM model, which is a physics-inspired heuristic solver without quantum noise. With the mean-field model, computation is easier than with more physically accurate models, which makes it suitable for implementation in field programmable gate arrays and large-scale simulations. First, we examined the performance of the mean-field CIM model for realizing the Zeeman term with the CAC method, as well as their performance when compared to a more physically accurate model. Next, we compared the CAC method to other Zeeman term realization techniques on the mean-field model and a more physically accurate model. In both models, the CAC method outperformed the other methods while retaining similar performance.
Coherent Ising machines (CIMs) are increasingly anticipated as a new computer that can solve combinatorial optimization problems. CIMs use degenerate optical parametric oscillator pulses as artificial spins. We constructed a 100,512-spin coherent Ising machine, the world's largest. Our CIM can find good solutions to maximum cut problems of 100,000-node graphs ~1000 times faster than simulated annealing. Furthermore, it provides both very good scores and a broad distribution when we operate it near the phase transition point.
The coherent Ising machine (CIM) is a network of optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) that solves for the ground state of Ising problems through OPO bifurcation dynamics. Here, we present experimental results comparing the performance of the CIM to quantum annealers (QAs) on two classes of NP-hard optimization problems: ground state calculation of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (SK) model and MAX-CUT. While the two machines perform comparably on sparsely-connected problems such as cubic MAX-CUT, on problems with dense connectivity, the QA shows an exponential performance penalty relative to CIMs. We attribute this to the embedding overhead required to map dense problems onto the sparse hardware architecture of the QA, a problem that can be overcome in photonic architectures such as the CIM.
The Coherent Ising Machine (CIM) is a quantum network of optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) intended to find ground states of the Ising model. This is an NP-hard problem, related to several important minimization problems, including the max-cut graph problem. In order to enhance its potential performance, we analyze the coherent coupling strategy for the CIM in a highly quantum regime. To explore this limit, without assuming gaussianity, we employ accurate numerical simulations. Due to the inherent complexity of the system, the maximum network size is limited. While master equation methods can be used, their scalability diminishes rapidly for larger systems. Instead, we use Monte Carlo wave-function methods, which scale as the wave-function dimension, and use large numbers of samples. These simulations involve Hilbert spaces exceeding 10710^{7}107 dimensions. To evaluate success probabilities, we use quadrature probabilities. We demonstrate the potential for quantum computational advantage by reducing the time required to reach maximum success probability in a low-dissipation regime enabled by initial quantum superpositions and entanglement. Furthermore, we demonstrate that tailored time-dependent couplings can amplify these quantum effects. Comparisons with classical CIM models give evidence that quantum tunneling effects in this strong coupling limit can overcome trapping in false minima. This can greatly increase success rates, indicating a potential for quantum advantage. Finally, we perform a coherence analysis based on the state purity to examine the role of quantum coherence in CIM performance and to determine how state purity correlates with improved optimization outcomes.