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International Conference on Information, Intelligence, Systems & Applications (IISA)

Genetic Algorithm Based Quantum Circuits Optimization for Quantum Computing Simulation

Wei Lü, Zhong Ma, Yuqing Cheng, Qianyu Liu

Published Jul 12, 2021• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Quantum computing simulation platform can simulate the computation results of the quantum computer based on traditional computers, which is an effective way to promote the development of quantum computing software, algorithms and hardware at the current immature stage of the real quantum computer. Since quantum computers have exponential calculation acceleration compared with traditional computers, the main problems in implementing quantum computing simulation on traditional computers are low computational efficiency and long time-consuming. A quantum circuit which is a sequence of quantum gates acting on a collection of qubits is the general quantum computing model. So by the means of quantum circuit optimization, the calculation speed can be significantly increased while keeping the calculation result unchanged. The existing empirical rules of quantum circuit optimization methods have limitations and there is no common and automatic quantum circuit optimization method. In this paper, a general and automatic quantum circuit optimization method based on the genetic algorithm is proposed, by which the equivalent optimal quantum circuit is obtained through a finite number of searching in a large searching space. This method is not limited by the hardware of the quantum computing simulation and the composition of the quantum circuit. The experimental results show that for the QFT algorithm of 29 qubits, the running time can be shortened by 41.4% and for the variational circuit of 6 qubits, the running time can be shortened by 18.8% compared with the state-of-the-art quantum circuit optimization method. So this method can improve the quantum computing simulation capability and operating efficiency and provide a rapid development way for quantum algorithms and applications.

DOI
10.1109/iisa52424.2021.9555575

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Quantum computing simulation platform can simulate the computation results of the quantum computer based on traditional computers, which is an effective way to promote the development of quantum computing software, algorithms and hardware at the current immature stage of the real quantum computer. Since quantum computers have exponential calculation acceleration compared with traditional computers, the main problems in implementing quantum computing simulation on traditional computers are low computational efficiency and long time-consuming. A quantum circuit which is a sequence of quantum gates acting on a collection of qubits is the general quantum computing model. So by the means of quantum circuit optimization, the calculation speed can be significantly increased while keeping the calculation result unchanged. The existing empirical rules of quantum circuit optimization methods have limitations and there is no common and automatic quantum circuit optimization method. In this paper, a general and automatic quantum circuit optimization method based on the genetic algorithm is proposed, by which the equivalent optimal quantum circuit is obtained through a finite number of searching in a large searching space. This method is not limited by the hardware of the quantum computing simulation and the composition of the quantum circuit. The experimental results show that for the QFT algorithm of 29 qubits, the running time can be shortened by 41.4% and for the variational circuit of 6 qubits, the running time can be shortened by 18.8% compared with the state-of-the-art quantum circuit optimization method. So this method can improve the quantum computing simulation capability and operating efficiency and provide a rapid development way for quantum algorithms and applications.
Automatic quantum circuit design is motivated by the difficulties in manual design, because quantum algorithms are highly non-intuitive and practical quantum computer hardware is not yet available. Thus, quantum computers have to be simulated on classical hardware which naturally entails an exponential growth of computational costs and allows only to simulate small quantum systems, i. e., with only few qubits. Huge search spaces render evolutionary approaches nearly unable to achieve breakthrough solutions in the development of new quantum algorithms. Consequently, at present we must be content to evolve essentially already existing (black-box) quantum algorithms. This thesis presents empirical results on the evolution of quantum circuits using genetic programming. For that purpose, a linear and a linear-tree GP system (allowing intermediate measurements) with integrated quantum computer simulator were implemented. Their practicality in evolving quantum circuits is shown in different experiments for 1-SAT (solutions act like Hogg's algorithm) and the Deutsch-Jozsa problem. These experiments confirm that the evolution of quantum circuits is practically feasible only for sufficiently small problem instances. In this context, scalability and the detection of scalability becomes very important. It is shown that scalable quantum circuits are evolvable to a certain degree: a general quantum circuit can be inferred manually from the evolved solutions for small instances of the given problem. Besides, further experiments indicate that 're-evolution' is effective for the evolution of scalable quantum circuits. With this method the start population of a problem instance is inoculated with evolved solutions for a smaller problem instance. Furthermore, investigations of fitness landscapes and selection strategies are made, with the aim of improving the efficiency of evolutionary search. A notable result is that using the crossover operator damages rather than benefits evolution of quantum circuits.
This paper explores the application of genetic algorithms (GAs) to optimize quantum circuits. The core claim is that GA can effectively improve the efficiency and accuracy of quantum computation by strategically modifying the topology and control parameters of quantum circuits. The proposed mechanism treats a quantum circuit as a genetic individual, leveraging the principles of genetic algorithms – including crossover, mutation, and selection – to iteratively enhance circuit performance. This approach represents a novel method for quantum circuit optimization, offering a potentially robust and adaptable solution compared to traditional optimization techniques. We present a framework for implementing this approach, focusing on the algorithmic steps and considerations for successful application. The exploration will cover the challenges and potential benefits of integrating evolutionary algorithms with the unique characteristics of quantum computation. ---
Due to the non- intuitive nature of Quantum algorithms, it becomes difficult for a classically trained person to efficiently construct new ones. So rather than designing new algorithms manually, lately, Genetic algorithms (GA) are being implemented for this purpose. GA is a technique to automatically solve a problem using principles of Darwinian evolution. This has been implemented to explore the possibility of evolving an n-qubit circuit when the circuit matrix has been provided using a set of single, two and three qubit gates. Using a variable length population and universal stochastic selection procedure, a number of possible solution circuits, with different number of gates can be obtained for the same input matrix during different runs of GA. The given algorithm has also been successfully implemented to obtain two and three qubit Boolean circuits using Quantum gates. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the GA procedure even when the search spaces are large.
Optimizing and simulating quantum circuits at scale are critical bottlenecks in realizing the full potential of quantum computing. This thesis delivers a comprehensive suite of systems to overcome these limitations, spanning both physical compilation and classical simulation. For quantum circuit optimization, we first automate the discovery and verification of transformation rules by introducing Equivalence Circuit Class (ECC) sets and an efficient generation algorithm for arbitrary gate sets. We deploy these rules within the superoptimizer Quartz, which utilizes a cost-based backtracking search to escape local minima that trap traditional rule-based methods. To eliminate the exponential runtime penalties inherent to pure search, we introduce QALM, a hybrid optimization framework. By unifying search-based exploration with greedy rule-based exploitation in an interleaved control loop, QALM dynamically escapes local minima without exhaustive backtracking. Evaluated across a large benchmark suite of 248 diverse circuits, QALM outperforms existing search-based optimizers in final circuit quality while operating with the computational efficiency of rule-based systems. While the prior two approaches aim for global optimization, this problem is intrinsically QMA-hard, creating a bottleneck for large programs. To circumvent this issue and scale up, we introduce OAC, a cut-and-meld circuit optimization algorithm. OAC cuts a circuit into subcircuits, applies an existing oracle optimizer independently, and seamlessly melds the results. This algorithm operates with a linear number of oracle calls while attaining local optimality. Empirical evaluation shows that OAC significantly improves the efficiency of state-of-the-art optimizers while enhancing overall quality. Beyond physical execution, the scalable simulation of quantum circuits on classical hardware presents another major challenge. To address this, we present Atlas, a distributed GPU-based simulator that hierarchically partitions circuits to exploit data parallelism while minimizing communication overhead. By leveraging integer linear programming to allocate structurally related gates to nearby GPUs and dynamic programming for kernel scheduling, Atlas runs significantly faster than prior state-of-the-art GPU simulators. Together, these frameworks provide a robust toolchain, improving both the execution of quantum circuits on physical devices and their scalable classical simulation.
Abstract Designing compact and efficient quantum circuits that are compatible with Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) hardware remains a central challenge in quantum computing. Most existing optimization approaches rely on fidelity-based fitness functions that require computing the full unitary matrix of the circuit. However, this quickly becomes computationally intractable beyond 10–12 qubits due to the exponential memory and time complexity O(22n)O(2^{2n})O(22n) . In this work, we propose a scalable multi-objective genetic algorithm for quantum circuit optimization tailored to NISQ devices. Although evolutionary algorithms have demonstrated strong potential for circuit synthesis, current methods generally depend on full-unitary fidelity evaluation, which severely limits scalability. To address this bottleneck, we introduce two complementary strategies: (1) an independent block-based evaluation using graph partitioning, and (2) an overlapping sliding-window decomposition approach. Both strategies reduce computational complexity from O(22n)O(2^{2n})O(22n) to O(22k)O(2^{2k})O(22k) , where k≪nk \ll nk≪n , making it possible to optimize circuits with more than 20 qubits in practice. Our methods are integrated into the NSGA-II multi-objective framework, enabling simultaneous optimization of fidelity, circuit depth, and gate cost, while maintaining structural compatibility with NISQ hardware–without requiring full-unitary simulation. Experimental results on benchmark circuits demonstrate high fidelity (above 0.94 for small circuits up to 8 qubits, above 0.85 for medium-scale circuits of 10–16 qubits, and above 0.80 for large-scale circuits up to 32 qubits), up to 45%45\%45% reduction in circuit depth, and a 10×10\times10× speedup compared to exact evaluation at 14 qubits.
This paper demonstrates an application of an evolutionary approach for solving a class of non-trivial, hardware-design problems. Array processing features of the computer language APL simplify the implementation of an evolutionary solution in which simulation is performed by a genetic algorithm on a population of candidate solutions until one or more are satisfactory quantum algorithms. The objective of the simulation model is the automatic discovery of quantum computer algorithms. The algorithms are expressed in a circuit model that specifies the sequences in which quantum operators are to be applied. The automatically configured circuits operate as quantum computers that for the present have their domains of application limited to evaluation of only a few specific functions. The simulations use a small collection of basic and relatively low-level operators to obtain perfect results for five different target functions. These functions were chosen to demonstrate how, on a personal computer, an evolutionary method is able to discover novel designs of computing hardware. The results establish that it is feasible to use genetic algorithms in an evolutionary method to invent correct hardware designs. The progress of simulated evolution is directed by input/output constraints and a fitness function. Alternative configurations of circuit models can obtain algorithms with promise for future quantum computers. Current simulations yield primitive quantum algorithms with a total of twelve or fewer inputs and outputs. The discovered algorithms produce the correct results for evaluating the five selected logical and arithmetic functions.