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arXiv:2405.13898 · Physical Review Research

Bias-field digitized counterdiabatic quantum optimization

Alejandro Gomez Cadavid, Archismita Dalal, Anton Simen, E. Solano, Narendra N. Hegade

Published Apr 9, 2025• 10 citations

Abstract

We introduce a method for solving combinatorial optimization problems on digital quantum computers, where we incorporate auxiliary counterdiabatic (CD) terms into the adiabatic Hamiltonian, while integrating bias terms derived from an iterative digitized counterdiabatic quantum algorithm. We call this protocol bias-field digitized counterdiabatic quantum optimization (BF-DCQO). Designed to effectively tackle large-scale combinatorial optimization problems, BF-DCQO demonstrates resilience against the limitations posed by the restricted coherence times of current quantum processors and shows clear enhancement even in the presence of noise. Additionally, our purely quantum approach eliminates the dependency on classical optimization required in hybrid classical-quantum schemes, thereby circumventing the trainability issues often associated with variational quantum algorithms. Through the analysis of an all-to-all connected general Ising spin-glass problem, we exhibit a polynomial scaling enhancement in ground-state success probability compared to traditional DCQO and finite-time adiabatic quantum optimization methods. Furthermore, it achieves scaling improvements in ground-state success probabilities, increasing by up to two orders of magnitude, and offers an average 1.3 × better approximation ratio than the quantum approximate optimization algorithm for the problem sizes studied. We validate these findings through experimental implementations on both trapped-ion quantum computers and superconducting processors, tackling a maximum weighted independent set problem with 36 qubits and a spin glass on a heavy-hexagonal lattice with 100 qubits, respectively. These results mark a significant advancement in gate-based quantum computing, employing a fully quantum algorithmic approach.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevresearch.7.l022010

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We introduce a method for solving combinatorial optimization problems on digital quantum computers, where we incorporate auxiliary counterdiabatic (CD) terms into the adiabatic Hamiltonian, while integrating bias terms derived from an iterative digitized counterdiabatic quantum algorithm. We call this protocol bias-field digitized counterdiabatic quantum optimization (BF-DCQO). Designed to effectively tackle large-scale combinatorial optimization problems, BF-DCQO demonstrates resilience against the limitations posed by the restricted coherence times of current quantum processors and shows clear enhancement even in the presence of noise. Additionally, our purely quantum approach eliminates the dependency on classical optimization required in hybrid classical-quantum schemes, thereby circumventing the trainability issues often associated with variational quantum algorithms. Through the analysis of an all-to-all connected general Ising spin-glass problem, we exhibit a polynomial scaling enhancement in ground-state success probability compared to traditional DCQO and finite-time adiabatic quantum optimization methods. Furthermore, it achieves scaling improvements in ground-state success probabilities, increasing by up to two orders of magnitude, and offers an average 1.3 × better approximation ratio than the quantum approximate optimization algorithm for the problem sizes studied. We validate these findings through experimental implementations on both trapped-ion quantum computers and superconducting processors, tackling a maximum weighted independent set problem with 36 qubits and a spin glass on a heavy-hexagonal lattice with 100 qubits, respectively. These results mark a significant advancement in gate-based quantum computing, employing a fully quantum algorithmic approach.

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Branch-and-bound algorithms effectively solve combinatorial optimization problems, relying on the relaxation of the objective function to obtain tight lower bounds. While this is straightforward for convex objective functions, higher-order formulations pose challenges due to their inherent non-convexity. In this work, we propose branch-and-bound digitized counterdiabatic quantum optimization (BB-DCQO), a quantum algorithm that addresses the relaxation difficulties in higher-order unconstrained binary optimization (HUBO) problems. By employing bias fields as approximate solutions to the relaxed problem, we iteratively enhance the quality of the results compared to the bare bias-field digitized counterdiabatic quantum optimization (BF-DCQO) algorithm. We refer to this enhanced method as BBB-DCQO. In order to benchmark it against simulated annealing (SA), we apply it on sparse HUBO instances with up to

156

qubits using tensor network simulations. To explore regimes that are less tractable for classical simulations, we experimentally apply BBB-DCQO to denser problems using up to 100 qubits on IBM quantum hardware. We compare our results with SA and a greedy-tuned quantum annealing baseline. In both simulations and experiments, BBB-DCQO consistently achieved higher-quality solutions with significantly reduced computational overhead, showcasing the effectiveness of integrating counterdiabatic quantum methods into branch-and-bound to address hard non-convex optimization tasks.

We experimentally demonstrate that the bias-field digitized counterdiabatic quantum optimization (BF-DCQO) algorithm, implemented on IonQ's fully connected trapped-ion quantum processors, offers an efficient approach to solving dense higher-order unconstrained binary optimization (HUBO) problems. Specifically, we tackle protein folding on a tetrahedral lattice for up to 12 amino acids, representing the largest quantum hardware implementations of protein folding problems reported to date. Additionally, we address MAX 4-SAT instances at the computational phase transition and fully connected spin-glass problems using all 36 available qubits. Across all considered cases, our method consistently achieves optimal solutions, highlighting the powerful synergy between non-variational quantum optimization approaches and the intrinsic all-to-all connectivity of trapped-ion architectures. Given the expected scalability of trapped-ion quantum systems, BF-DCQO represents a promising pathway toward practical quantum advantage for dense HUBO problems with significant industrial and scientific relevance.

The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) has proved to be an effective classical-quantum algorithm serving multiple purposes, from solving combinatorial optimization problems to finding the ground state of many-body quantum systems. Since the QAOA is an Ansatz-dependent algorithm, there is always a need to design Ans\"atze for better optimization. To this end, we propose a digitized version of the QAOA enhanced via the use of shortcuts to adiabaticity. Specifically, we use a counterdiabatic (CD) driving term to design a better Ansatz, along with the Hamiltonian and mixing terms, enhancing the global performance. We apply our digitized-CD QAOA to Ising models, classical optimization problems, and the

P

-spin model, demonstrating that it outperforms the standard QAOA in all cases we study.

We report the largest trapped-ion hardware demonstration of lattice protein-folding optimization to date, using bias-field digitized counterdiabatic quantum optimization (BF-DCQO) on a fully connected 64-qubit Barium development system similar to the forthcoming IonQ Tempo line. Six peptide sequences with 14-16 amino-acid residues are encoded using a coarse-grained tetrahedral lattice model, yielding higher-order spin-glass Hamiltonians with long-range interactions involving up to five-body terms and mapped to 46-61 qubits. The resulting instances are demanding for near-term quantum hardware because low-energy configurations must satisfy backbone-geometry constraints while optimizing dense residue-contact interactions. BF-DCQO uses a non-variational bias-feedback mechanism, where low-energy samples from each round define longitudinal fields that guide subsequent quantum evolutions. Across the studied instances, BF-DCQO shifts raw sampled energy distributions toward lower energies than uniform random sampling, with the strongest improvements appearing in residue-contact variables. To preserve this signal, we introduce a consensus-based post-processing pipeline that combines quantum-learned contact information with feasible backbone geometries. The resulting hybrid workflow reaches the classical reference energy in multiple instances and improves over the corresponding random-seeded pipeline. These results show that BF-DCQO can generate structured samples for dense protein-folding Hamiltonians at previously unexplored trapped-ion scales.

We propose a faster digital quantum algorithm for portfolio optimization using the digitized counterdiabatic quantum optimization paradigm in the impulse regime, that is, where the counterdiabatic terms are dominant. Our approach notably reduces the circuit depth requirement of the algorithm and enhances the solution accuracy, making it suitable for current quantum processors. We apply this protocol to a real-case scenario of portfolio optimization with 20 assets, using purely quantum and hybrid classical-quantum paradigms. We demonstrate the advantages of our protocol using up to 20 qubits on an IonQ trapped-ion quantum computer. By benchmarking our method against the standard quantum approximate optimization algorithm and finite-time digitized adiabatic algorithms, we obtain a significant reduction in the circuit depth by factors of 2.5 to 40, while minimizing the dependence on the classical optimization subroutine. Besides portfolio optimization, the proposed method is applicable to a large class of combinatorial optimization problems.