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Lecture notes in computer science

Solving Higher Order Binary Optimization Problems on NISQ Devices: Experiments and Limitations

Valentin Gilbert, Julien Rodriguez, Stéphane Louise, Renaud Sirdey

Published Jan 1, 2023• 5 citations
Publisher
DOI
10.1007/978-3-031-36030-5_18

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Abstract Quantum computers have strict requirements for the problems that they can efficiently solve. One of the principal limiting factor for the performances of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices is the number of qubits required by the running algorithm. Several combinatorial optimization problems can be solved with NISQ devices once that a corresponding quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) form is derived. Numerous techniques have been proposed to achieve such reformulations and, depending on the method chosen, the number of binary variables required, and therefore of qubits, can vary considerably. The aim of this work is to drastically reduce the variables needed for these QUBO reformulations in order to unlock the possibility to efficiently obtain optimal solutions for a class of optimization problems with NISQ devices. This goal is achieved by introducing novel tools that allow an efficient use of slack variables, even for problems with non-linear constraints, without the need to approximate the starting problem. We divide our new techniques in two independent parts, called the iterative quadratic polynomial and the master-satellite methods. Hence, we show how to apply our techniques in case of an NP-hard optimization problem inspired by a real-world financial scenario called Max-Profit Balance Settlement . We follow by submitting several instances of this problem to two D-wave quantum annealers, comparing the performances of our novel approach with the standard methods used in these scenarios. Moreover, this study allows to appreciate several performance differences between the D-wave Advantage and next-generation Advantage2 quantum annealers. We show that the adoption of our techniques in this context allows to obtain QUBO formulations with significantly fewer slack variables, i.e. around 90% less, and D-wave annealers provide considerably higher correct solution rates, which moreover do not decrease with the input size as fast as when adopting standard techniques.
Abstract Quantum computing is offering a novel perspective for solving combinatorial optimization problems. To fully explore the possibilities offered by quantum computers, the problems need to be formulated as unconstrained binary models, taking into account limitation and advantages of quantum devices. In this work, we provide a detailed analysis of the travelling salesman problem with time windows (TSPTW) in the context of solving it on a quantum computer. We introduce quadratic unconstrained binary optimization and higher-order binary optimization formulations of this problem. We demonstrate the advantages of edge-based and node-based formulations of the TSPTW problem. Additionally, we investigate the experimental realization of the presented methods on a quantum annealing device. The provided results pave the path for utilizing quantum computer for a variety of real-world tasks which can be cast in the form of travelling salesman problem with time windows.