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arXiv:2212.01857 · Physical Review A

Approximate Boltzmann distributions in quantum approximate optimization

Phillip C. Lotshaw, George Siopsis, James Ostrowski, Rebekah Herrman, Rizwanul Alam, Sarah Powers, Travis S. Humble

Published Oct 12, 2023• 18 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Approaches to compute or estimate the output probability distributions from the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) are needed to assess the likelihood it will obtain a quantum computational advantage. We analyze output from QAOA circuits solving 7200 random MaxCut instances, with $n=14--23$ qubits and depth parameter $p\ensuremath{\le}12$, and find that the average basis state probabilities follow approximate Boltzmann distributions: The average probabilities scale exponentially with their energy (cut value), with a peak at the optimal solution. We describe the rate of exponential scaling or effective temperature in terms of a series with a leading-order term $T\ensuremath{\sim}{C}_{\mathrm{min}}/n\sqrt{p}$, with ${C}_{\mathrm{min}}$ the optimal solution energy. Using this scaling, we generate approximate output distributions with up to 38 qubits and find these give accurate accounts of important performance metrics in cases we can simulate exactly.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.108.042411

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Approaches to compute or estimate the output probability distributions from the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) are needed to assess the likelihood it will obtain a quantum computational advantage. We analyze output from QAOA circuits solving 7200 random MaxCut instances, with n=14−−23n=14--23n=14−−23 qubits and depth parameter p\ensuremath≤12p\ensuremath{\le}12p\ensuremath≤12, and find that the average basis state probabilities follow approximate Boltzmann distributions: The average probabilities scale exponentially with their energy (cut value), with a peak at the optimal solution. We describe the rate of exponential scaling or effective temperature in terms of a series with a leading-order term T\ensuremath∼Cmin/npT\ensuremath{\sim}{C}_{\mathrm{min}}/n\sqrt{p}T\ensuremath∼Cmin​/np​, with Cmin{C}_{\mathrm{min}}Cmin​ the optimal solution energy. Using this scaling, we generate approximate output distributions with up to 38 qubits and find these give accurate accounts of important performance metrics in cases we can simulate exactly.
The Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) is a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm to solve binary-variable optimization problems. Due to its expected robustness to systematic errors and the short circuit depth, it is one of the promising candidates likely to run on near-term quantum devices. We project the performance of QAOA applied to the Max-Cut problem and compare it with some of the best classical alternatives, both for exact or approximate solution. When comparing approximate solvers, their performance is characterized by the computational time taken to achieve a given quality of solution. Since QAOA is based on sampling, we introduce performance metrics based on the probability of observing a sample above a certain quality. In addition, we show that the QAOA performance varies significantly with the graph type. By selecting a suitable optimizer for the variational parameters and reducing the number of function evaluations, QAOA performance improves by up to 2 orders of magnitude compared to previous estimates. Especially for 3-regular random graphs, this setting decreases the performance gap with classical alternatives.
Variational quantum algorithms (VQAs) have demonstrated considerable potential in solving NP-hard combinatorial problems in the contemporary noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era. The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) is one such algorithm, used in solving the maximum cut (Max-Cut) problem for a given graph by successive implementation of L quantum circuit layers within a corresponding Trotterized ansatz. The challenge of exploring the cost function of VQAs arising from an exponential proliferation of local minima with increasing circuit depth has been well documented. However, fewer studies have investigated the impact of circuit depth on QAOA performance in finding the correct Max-Cut solution. Here we employ basin-hopping global optimization methods to navigate the energy landscapes for QAOA ansätze for various graphs, and analyze QAOA performance in finding the correct Max-Cut solution. The structure of the solution space is also investigated using discrete path sampling to build databases of local minima and the transition states that connect them, providing insightful visualizations using disconnectivity graphs. We find that the corresponding landscapes generally have a single funnel organization, which makes it relatively straightforward to locate low-lying minima with good Max-Cut solution probabilities. In some cases below the adiabatic limit the second lowest local minimum may even yield a higher solution probability than the global minimum. This important observation has motivated us to develop broader metrics in evaluating QAOA performance, based on collections of minima obtained from basin-hopping global optimization. Hence we establish expectation thresholds in elucidating useful solution probabilities from local minima, an approach that may provide significant gains in elucidating reasonable solution probabilities from local minima. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) is an approach for near-term quantum computers to potentially demonstrate computational advantage in solving combinatorial optimization problems. However, the viability of the QAOA depends on how its performance and resource requirements scale with problem size and complexity for realistic hardware implementations. Here, we quantify scaling of the expected resource requirements by synthesizing optimized circuits for hardware architectures with varying levels of connectivity. Assuming noisy gate operations, we estimate the number of measurements needed to sample the output of the idealized QAOA circuit with high probability. We show the number of measurements, and hence total time to solution, grows exponentially in problem size and problem graph degree as well as depth of the QAOA ansatz, gate infidelities, and inverse hardware graph degree. These problems may be alleviated by increasing hardware connectivity or by recently proposed modifications to the QAOA that achieve higher performance with fewer circuit layers.
Abstract The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) is a hybrid quantum–classical algorithm to solve binary-variable optimization problems. Due to the short circuit depth and its expected robustness to systematic errors it is a promising candidate likely to run on near-term quantum devices. We simulate the performance of QAOA applied to the Max-Cut problem and compare it with some of the best classical alternatives. When comparing solvers, their performance is characterized by the computational time taken to achieve a given quality of solution. Since QAOA is based on sampling, we utilize performance metrics based on the probability of observing a sample above a certain quality. In addition, we show that the QAOA performance varies significantly with the graph type. In particular for three-regular random graphs, QAOA performance shows improvement by up to two orders of magnitude compared to previous estimates, strongly reducing the performance gap with classical alternatives. This was possible by reducing the number of function evaluations per iteration and optimizing the variational parameters on small graph instances and transferring to large via training. Because QAOA’s performance guarantees are only known for limited applications and contexts, we utilize a framework for the search for quantum advantage which incorporates a large number of problem instances and all three classical solver modalities: exact, approximate, and heuristic.
κκκ-Parametrized Boltzmann Distribution Sampling on Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm
Generative models use training data to produce new samples that resemble the original, with applications in classification and recommendation systems. Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs) are at the core of generative models but suffer from the computational intractability of training, which relies on sampling an unknown Boltzmann Distribution (BD). The Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) can assist RBM training, potentially providing benefits over strictly classical strategies. One particular problem is determining the quantum circuit depth for an arbitrary problem size that yields the expected sampling results. In this study, we evaluate QAOA-assisted sampling of BDs using Qiskit's Aer Simulator by analysing the inverse effective temperature of the distribution, κκκ, for tractable problem sizes. The results provide numerical evidence, based on Qiskit Aer simulations, that parameterized annealing-scheduled QAOA (PAQ-QAOA) can approximate RBM Boltzmann sampling for the tractable instances considered, while hardware performance and scaling remain open questions.
The Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) is a promising approach for programming a near-term gate-based hybrid quantum computer to find good approximate solutions of hard combinatorial problems. However, little is currently know about the capabilities of QAOA, or of the difficulty of the requisite parameters optimization. Here, we study the performance of QAOA on the MaxCut combinatorial optimization problem, optimizing the quantum circuits on a classical computer using automatic differentiation and stochastic gradient descent, using QuantumFlow, a quantum circuit simulator implemented with TensorFlow. We find that we can amortize the training cost by optimizing on batches of problems instances; that QAOA can exceed the performance of the classical polynomial time Goemans-Williamson algorithm with modest circuit depth, and that performance with fixed circuit depth is insensitive to problem size. Moreover, MaxCut QAOA can be efficiently implemented on a gate-based quantum computer with limited qubit connectivity, using a qubit swap network. These observations support the prospects that QAOA will be an effective method for solving interesting problems on near-term quantum computers.