Thermodynamic computing has emerged as a promising paradigm for accelerating computation by harnessing the thermalization properties of physical systems. This work introduces a novel approach to solving quadratic programming problems using thermodynamic hardware. By incorporating a thermodynamic subroutine for solving linear systems into the interior-point method, we present a hybrid digital-analog algorithm that outperforms traditional digital algorithms in terms of speed. Notably, we achieve a polynomial asymptotic speedup compared to conventional digital approaches. Additionally, we simulate the algorithm for a support vector machine and predict substantial practical speedups with only minimal degradation in solution quality. Finally, we detail how our method can be applied to portfolio optimization and the simulation of nonlinear resistive networks.
Thermodynamic computing has emerged as a promising paradigm for accelerating computation by harnessing the thermalization properties of physical systems. This work introduces a novel approach to solving quadratic programming problems using thermodynamic hardware. By incorporating a thermodynamic subroutine for solving linear systems into the interior-point method, we present a hybrid digital-analog algorithm that outperforms traditional digital algorithms in terms of speed. Notably, we achieve a polynomial asymptotic speedup compared to conventional digital approaches. Additionally, we simulate the algorithm for a support vector machine and predict substantial practical speedups with only minimal degradation in solution quality. Finally, we detail how our method can be applied to portfolio optimization and the simulation of nonlinear resistive networks.
Thermodynamic computing has emerged as a promising paradigm for accelerating computation by harnessing the thermalization properties of physical systems. This work introduces a novel approach to solving quadratic programming problems using thermodynamic hardware. By incorporating a thermodynamic subroutine for solving linear systems into the interior-point method, we present a hybrid digital-analog algorithm that outperforms traditional digital algorithms in terms of speed. Notably, we achieve a polynomial asymptotic speedup compared to conventional digital approaches. Additionally, we simulate the algorithm for a support vector machine and predict substantial practical speedups with only minimal degradation in solution quality. Finally, we detail how our method can be applied to portfolio optimization and the simulation of nonlinear resistive networks.
The emergence of huge-scale, data-intensive linear optimization (LO) problems in applications such as machine learning has driven the need for more computationally efficient interior point methods (IPMs). While conventional IPMs are polynomial-time algorithms with rapid convergence, their per-iteration cost can be prohibitively high for dense large-scale LO problems. Quantum linear system solvers have shown potential in accelerating the solution of linear systems arising in IPMs. In this work, we introduce a novel almost-exact quantum IPM, where the Newton system is constructed and solved on a quantum computer, while solution updates occur on a classical machine. Additionally, all matrix-vector products are performed on the quantum hardware. This hybrid quantum-classical framework achieves an optimal worst-case scaling of O(n2) for fully dense LO problems. To ensure high precision, despite the limited accuracy of quantum operations, we incorporate iterative refinement techniques both within and outside the proposed IPM iterations. The proposed algorithm has a quantum complexity of O(n1.5κAlog(ε1)) queries to QRAM and O(n2log(ε1)) classical arithmetic operations. Our method outperforms the worst-case complexity of prior classical and quantum IPMs, offering a significant improvement in scalability and computational efficiency.
The growing demand for solving large-scale, data-intensive linear and conic optimization problems, particularly in applications such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, has highlighted the limitations of classical interior point methods (IPMs). Despite their favorable polynomial-time convergence, conventional IPMs often suffer from high per-iteration computational costs, especially for dense problem instances. Recent advances in quantum computing, particularly quantum linear system solvers, offer promising avenues to accelerate the most computationally intensive steps of IPMs. However, practical challenges such as quantum error, hardware noise, and sensitivity to poorly conditioned systems remain significant obstacles. In response, a series of Quantum IPMs (QIPMs) has been developed to address these challenges, incorporating techniques such as feasibility maintenance, iterative refinement, and preconditioning. In this work, we review this line of research with a focus on our recent contributions, including an almost-exact QIPM framework. This hybrid quantum-classical approach constructs and solves the Newton system entirely on a quantum computer, while performing solution updates classically. Crucially, all matrix-vector operations are executed on quantum hardware, enabling the method to achieve an optimal worst-case scalability w.r.t dimension, surpassing the scalability of existing classical and quantum IPMs.
Quantum linear system algorithms (QLSAs) have the potential to speed up algorithms that rely on solving linear systems. Interior point methods (IPMs) yield a fundamental family of polynomial-time algorithms for solving optimization problems. IPMs solve a Newton linear system at each iteration to compute the search direction; thus, QLSAs can potentially speed up IPMs. Due to the noise in contemporary quantum computers, quantum-assisted IPMs (QIPMs) only admit an inexact solution to the Newton linear system. Typically, an inexact search direction leads to an infeasible solution, so, to overcome this, we propose an inexact-feasible QIPM (IF-QIPM) for solving linearly constrained quadratic optimization problems. We also apply the algorithm to ℓ1-norm soft margin support vector machine (SVM) problems, and demonstrate that our algorithm enjoys a speedup in the dimension over existing approaches. This complexity bound is better than any existing classical or quantum algorithm that produces a classical solution.
Thermodynamic computing harnesses the relaxation dynamics of physical systems to perform matrix operations. A key limitation of such approaches is the often long thermalization time required for the system to approach equilibrium with sufficient accuracy. Here, we introduce a hybrid digital-thermodynamic algorithm that substantially accelerates relaxation through optimized initializations inspired by the Mpemba effect. In the proposed scheme, a classical digital processor efficiently computes an initialization that suppresses slow relaxation modes, after which the physical system performs the remaining computation through its intrinsic relaxation dynamics. We focus on overdamped Langevin dynamics for quadratic energy landscapes, analyzing the spectral structure of the associated Fokker-Planck operator and identifying the corresponding optimal initial covariances. This yields a predictable reduction in thermalization time, determined by the spectrum of the encoded matrix. We derive analytic expressions for the resulting speedups and numerically analyze thermodynamic implementations of matrix inversion and determinant computation as concrete examples. Our results show that optimized initialization protocols provide a simple and broadly applicable route to accelerating thermodynamic computations.
The growing demand for solving large-scale, data-intensive linear and conic optimization problems, particularly in applications such as arti?cial intelligence and machine learning, has highlighted the limitations of classical interior point methods (IPMs). Despite their favorable polynomial-time convergence, conventional IPMs often su!er from high per-iteration computational costs, especially for dense problem instances. Recent advances in quantum computing, particularly quantum linear system solvers, o!er promising avenues to accelerate the most computationally intensive steps of IPMs. However, practical challenges such as quantum error, hardware noise, and sensitivity to poorly conditioned systems remain signi?cant obstacles. In response, a series of Quantum IPMs (QIPMs) has been developed to address these challenges, incorporating techniques such as feasibility maintenance, iterative re?nement, and preconditioning. In this work, we review this line of research with a focus on our recent contributions, including an almost-exact QIPM framework. This hybrid quantum-classical approach constructs and solves the Newton system entirely on a quantum computer, while performing solution updates classically. Crucially, all matrix-vector operations are executed on quantum hardware, enabling the method to achieve an optimal worstcase scalability w.r.t dimension, surpassing the scalability of existing classical and quantum IPMs.