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IEEE Access

Multiscale Quantum Gradual Approximation Algorithm: An Optimization Algorithm With a Step-by-Step Approximation Strategy

Kun Cheng, Peng Wang, Zhendong Li

Published Jan 1, 2020• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

In quantum swarm intelligence algorithms, the tunneling effect of the particles is determined by the potential energy acting on the particles. The tunneling effect of the particles affects the global search ability and convergence speed of the algorithm. Quantum algorithms with a single potential energy are prone to premature convergence under certain complex test functions. In this paper, we propose a multiscale quantum gradual approximation algorithm (MQGAA), which simply uses different approximation strategies to obtain different potential energy functions, to solve the premature problem of the optimization algorithm. In the MQGAA, particles undergo a transition from an unconstrained state to a constrained state at each scale. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, experiments are carried out with several common and effective stochastic algorithms on N-dimensional double-well potential functions and classical benchmark functions. We also use the Wilcoxon rank test to detect the performance of MQGAA. The experimental results show that the algorithm using a step-by-step approximation strategy achieves a better optimization performance on some complex test functions.

DOI
10.1109/access.2020.2986243

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In quantum swarm intelligence algorithms, the tunneling effect of the particles is determined by the potential energy acting on the particles. The tunneling effect of the particles affects the global search ability and convergence speed of the algorithm. Quantum algorithms with a single potential energy are prone to premature convergence under certain complex test functions. In this paper, we propose a multiscale quantum gradual approximation algorithm (MQGAA), which simply uses different approximation strategies to obtain different potential energy functions, to solve the premature problem of the optimization algorithm. In the MQGAA, particles undergo a transition from an unconstrained state to a constrained state at each scale. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, experiments are carried out with several common and effective stochastic algorithms on N-dimensional double-well potential functions and classical benchmark functions. We also use the Wilcoxon rank test to detect the performance of MQGAA. The experimental results show that the algorithm using a step-by-step approximation strategy achieves a better optimization performance on some complex test functions.
A multi-scale quantum harmonic oscillator algorithm (MQHOA) is a quantum population-based algorithm proposed recently. It utilizes the quantum wave function to locate the global optimum of a global numerical optimization problem. As the MQHOA employs the elitism to replace the worst particle in each iteration cycle, it reduces one of the particles in each run, which will cripple the diversity of the population and slow down the convergence speed. Therefore, the particles will be easily trapped into local optima. In this paper, we suggest a new MQHOA with truncated mean stabilization (TS-MQHOA) policy to alleviate the above-mentioned problems. The theoretical and experimental analyses indicate that the truncated mean stabilization strategy helps to diversify the populations and improve the convergence efficiency. The proposed TS-MQHOA is evaluated on a number of dimension-wise unimodal and multimodal CEC benchmark functions, and the computational results are compared with several popular population-based algorithms. The experimental results on complex test problems demonstrate that the proposed TS-MQHOA, in most function evaluations, is able to obtain better convergence toward the global optimum compared with several renowned heuristic algorithms based on swarm intelligence. Meanwhile, the comparative results reveal the competitiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithm, especially on high-dimensional function evaluations.
Multi-scale Quantum Oscillator Harmonic Algorithm( MQHOA) has good characteristics of global convergence and adaptability. For analyzing the specific performance of MQHOA on solution precision and speed, the comparisons of theoretical models and experiments were completed among the MQHOA, the classic Quantum Particle Swarm Optimization( QPSO) algorithm adopting the quantum-behaved model and having been widely used, and the QPSO with Random Mean best position( QPSO-RM) through solving the integer nonlinear programming problems. In simulation experiments, MQHOA achieved 100% success rate in solving seven unconstrained integer nonlinear programming problems, and was faster than QPSO and QPSO-RM in most cases. MQHOA was a little slower than QPSO and QPSO-RM in solving the two constrained integer nonlinear programming problems, but could obtain 100% success rate which was higher than the latter. Through the comparison of the convergence process of QPSO, QPSO-RM, MQHOA was faster and earlier on converging to the global optimal solution. The experimental results show that MQHOA can effectively adapt to solving the integer programming problems, and can avoid falling into the local optimal solution so as to obtain the global optimal solution. MQHOA is better than the contrast algorithms of QPSO and QPSO-RM in accuracy and convergence rate.
This paper proposes a novel adaptive multi-scale quantum harmonic oscillator algorithm based on evolutionary strategies (AMQHOA-ES) for global numerical optimization. Since the original Multi-scale Quantum Harmonic Oscillator Algorithm (MQHOA) utilizes a fixed contraction factor to narrow the search scale, the searching step decreases too fast at the later stage of the evolution and is more likely to suffer premature convergence and stagnation. To improve the convergence performance, an adaptive attenuation mechanism of scaling is proposed to dynamically adjust the exploration and exploitation properties. Evolutionary strategies such as selection, crossover and DE/rand/1 mutation are implemented in the proposed algorithm to enhance the exploration and exploitation abilities. Experimental results evaluated on several unimodal and multimodal benchmark functions indicate the significant improvement of the proposed algorithm to the original MQHOA. Meanwhile, the experimental results compared with several state-of-the-art optimizers show the superiority or competitiveness of the proposed algorithm.
This paper presents a variant of multiscale quantum harmonic oscillator algorithm for multimodal optimization named MQHOA-MMO. MQHOA-MMO has only two main iterative processes: quantum harmonic oscillator process and multiscale process. In the two iterations, MQHOA-MMO only does one thing: sampling according to the wave function at different scales. A set of benchmark test functions including some challenging functions are used to test the performance of MQHOA-MMO. Experimental results demonstrate good performance of MQHOA-MMO in solving multimodal function optimization problems. For the 12 test functions, all of the global peaks can be found without being trapped in a local optimum, and MQHOA-MMO converges within 10 iterations.
The multiscale quantum harmonic oscillator algorithm (MQHOA) is inspired by the physical meaning of quantum wavefunction. Particles have no efficient interaction and share a wavefunction during the evolution process. In this paper, a multi-harmonic oscillator strategy is introduced, which employs multiple wavefunctions to generate new particles. The external population information can be utilized in the process of evolution. The proposed method enhances the cooperation and interaction for particles by a local collaborative operation. Moreover, an adaptive weight operator is employed in the proposed algorithm, which makes a fine-tune of solutions to keep the diversity of particles. The proposed algorithm is verified on standard benchmark functions. Wilcoxon rank sum test is adopted to ascertain the superiority of the proposed algorithm. The experiments have been conducted with several renowned heuristic algorithms. The numerical results reveal that the proposed algorithm outperforms the comparison algorithms for numerical optimization.
We introduce a quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) for continuous optimization. The algorithm is based on the dynamics of a quantum system moving in an energy potential which encodes the objective function. By approximating the dynamics at finite time steps, the algorithm can be expressed as alternating evolution under two non-commuting Hamiltonians. We show that each step of the algorithm updates the wavefunction in the direction of its local gradient, with an additional momentum-dependent displacement. For initial states in a superposition over many points, this method can therefore be interpreted as a coherent version of gradient descent, i.e., 'gradient descent in superposition.' This approach can be used for both constrained and unconstrained optimization. In terms of computational complexity, we show how variants of the algorithm can recover continuous-variable Grover search, and how a single iteration can replicate continuous-variable instantaneous quantum polynomial circuits. We also discuss how the algorithm can be adapted to solve discrete optimization problems. Finally, we test the algorithm through numerical simulation in optimizing the Styblinski-Tang function.