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Computer Science and Mathematical Modelling

The D-Wave quantum computer – advantages and disadvantages of moving away from the circuit model

Kacper Lenkiewicz, Joanna Wiśniewska

Published Jun 30, 2021• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The paper is based on a thesis with the same title. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse D-Wave devices using quantum effects. The research focuses on demonstrating the advantages and disadvantages of a company moving away from the circuit model in its computers. The subject of the research is the used adiabatic model of quantum computing based on the mechanism of quantum annealing. The research is based on publicly available, comprehensive documentation of D-Wave Systems. On the basis of scientific papers, conferences and information contained in websites, controversies, disadvantages and advantages of the solutions adopted have been described.

DOI
10.5604/01.3001.0015.2734

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The paper is based on a thesis with the same title. The purpose of this thesis is to analyse D-Wave devices using quantum effects. The research focuses on demonstrating the advantages and disadvantages of a company moving away from the circuit model in its computers. The subject of the research is the used adiabatic model of quantum computing based on the mechanism of quantum annealing. The research is based on publicly available, comprehensive documentation of D-Wave Systems. On the basis of scientific papers, conferences and information contained in websites, controversies, disadvantages and advantages of the solutions adopted have been described.
On May 2011, D-Wave Systems Inc. announced "D-Wave One", as "the world's first commercially available quantum computer". No wonder this adiabatic quantum computer based on 128-qubit chip-set provoked an immediate controversy. Over the last 40 years, quantum computation has been a very promising yet challenging research area, facing major difficulties producing a large scale quantum computer. Today, after Google has purchased "D-Wave Two" containing 512 qubits, criticism has only increased. In this work, we examine the theory underlying the D-Wave, seeking to shed some light on this intriguing quantum computer. Starting from classical algorithms such as Metropolis algorithm, genetic algorithm (GA), hill climbing and simulated annealing, we continue to adiabatic computation and quantum annealing towards better understanding of the D-Wave mechanism. Finally, we outline some applications within the fields of information and image processing. In addition, we suggest a few related theoretical ideas and hypotheses.
A central goal in quantum computing is the development of quantum hardware and quantum algorithms in order to analyse challenging scientific and engineering problems. Research in quantum computation involves contributions from both physics and computer science; hence this article presents a concise introduction to basic concepts from both fields that are used in annealing-based quantum computation, an alternative to the more familiar quantum gate model. We introduce some concepts from computer science required to define difficult computational problems and to realise the potential relevance of quantum algorithms to find novel solutions to those problems. We introduce the structure of quantum annealing-based algorithms as well as two examples of this kind of algorithms for solving instances of the max-SAT and Minimum Multicut problems. An overview of the quantum annealing systems manufactured by D-Wave Systems is also presented.
The exploitation of quantum mechanical principles seems to provide a decisive advantage over classical computation technologies. In the recent years there has been big progress in realizing different quantum computer architectures, especially by the Canadian company D-Wave Systems, which developed the first commercially available adiabatic quantum annealer. By adiabatic evolution of quantum mechanical systems it can solve NP-hard discrete optimization problems probabilistically. Due to the restrictions of the hardware architecture the directly mappable problems are limited to quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problems over a so called Chimera interaction graph. After briefly introducing the physical and quantum computational background including the diffculties in determining the run time and success probability of the D-Wave machine, the presentation will focus on the mapping of more general problems onto their specific problem structure. In addition to the reductions to QUBOs the main part here is the minor embedding with the distribution of the weight of the original node onto several hardware nodes.
Several emerging companies are making claims about their quantum computing capabilities. The Department of Defense needs these claims evaluated against known models to objectively compare available systems. This thesis examines the results of tests of quantum circuits on the ibmqx2 and compares them to our own calculations. This thesis provides a bridge between the quantum circuit model as presented in Quantum Computing for Computer Scientists and the compiled circuits provided by IBM. The study is limited to algorithms that can be run with a maximum of five quantum bits.
Vehicle Routing Problem is a well-known optimization issue, which has many extensions resulting from practical appliances. The problem is NP-hard, therefore it may be impossible to find an optimal solution for big instances, with traditional computation methods. Recent development of quantum technology, may be a response for this challenge, which however requires a different formulation of the model. The problem is then modeled using Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) equations. Such model can be run using quantum annealers (QA), designed specifically for optimization purposes. This paper is a systematic survey of Vehicle Routing Problem models that are formulated using QUBO, to be solved on quantum computers. The main goal of the paper is to check research gaps in this subject, compare and explain different approaches of modeling various problem extensions with QUBO. The results obtained in reviewed papers will be presented and analyzed. Moreover, the theoretical basis for quantum computation will be presented, with focus on D-Wave company solutions.