Estimating the Direction-of-Arrival (DoA) from multiple sources involves a combinatorial problem that grows exponentially with grid size and source count, challenging classical methods. We reformulate DoA estimation as a Quadratic Constrained Binary Optimization (QCBO) problem and apply Hamming-Weight-Constrained QAOA (Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm), demonstrating promising results.
Estimating the Direction-of-Arrival (DoA) from multiple sources involves a combinatorial problem that grows exponentially with grid size and source count, challenging classical methods. We reformulate DoA estimation as a Quadratic Constrained Binary Optimization (QCBO) problem and apply Hamming-Weight-Constrained QAOA (Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm), demonstrating promising results.
Constrained combinatorial optimization with strict linear constraints underpins applications in drug discovery, power grids, logistics, and finance, yet remains computationally demanding for classical algorithms, especially at large scales. The Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) offers a promising quantum framework, but conventional penalty-based formulations distort optimization landscapes and demand deep circuits, undermining scalability on near-term hardware. In this work, we introduce Hamming Weight Operators, a new class of constraint-aware operators that confine quantum evolution strictly within the feasible subspace. Building on this idea, we develop Adaptive Hamming Weight Operator QAOA, which dynamically selects the most effective operators to construct shallow, problem-tailored circuits. We validate our approach on benchmark tasks from both finance and high-energy physics, specifically portfolio optimization and two-jet clustering with energy balance. Across these problems, our method inherently satisfies all constraints by construction, converges faster, and achieves higher Approximation Ratios than penalty-based QAOA, while requiring roughly half as many gates. By embedding constraint-aware operators into an adaptive variational framework, our approach establishes a scalable and hardware-efficient pathway for solving practical constrained optimization problems on near-term quantum devices.
Combinatorial Optimization (CO) is one of the most important areas in the field of optimization, with practical applications found in every industry, including both the private and public sectors. In recent years, it was discovered that a mathematical formulation known as QUBO (Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization) problem can embrace an exceptional variety of important CO problems found in the industry. In this work, we explore the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) as a quantum computing approach to solve the Knapsack Problem efficiently by formulating the problem as a QUBO model. Here we implemented QAOA on a quantum emulator, leveraging quantum superposition and entanglement to explore multiple solutions simultaneously. The method offers a promising route for solving large, complex scheduling and resource allocation problems that are tough for classical algorithms, with potential applications in logistics, HPC resource scheduling, and energy optimization.
The Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) is a promising variational quantum algorithm introduced to tackle classically intractable combinatorial optimization problems. This tutorial offers a comprehensive, first-principles introduction to QAOA and its properties, focusing on its application to Quadratic and Polynomial Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO and PUBO) problems. The tutorial begins by outlining variational quantum circuits and QUBO problems, focusing on their key properties and the encoding of problem constraints through quadratic penalty terms. Next, it explores the QAOA in detail, covering its Hamiltonian formulation, gate decomposition, and example applications, along with their implementation and performance results. This is followed by an analysis of the algorithm's energy landscape, where proofs are provided for its symmetry and periodicity, and where a resulting parameter space reduction is proposed. Finally, the tutorial extends these concepts to PUBO problems by generalizing the results to higher-order Hamiltonians and discussing the associated symmetries and circuit construction.
Analytical and practical evidence indicates the advantage of quantum computing solutions over classical alternatives. Quantum-based heuristics relying on the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) and the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) have been shown numerically to generate high-quality solutions to hard combinatorial problems, yet incorporating constraints to such problems has been elusive. To this end, this work puts forth a quantum heuristic to cope with stochastic binary quadratically constrained quadratic programs (QCQP). Identifying the strength of quantum circuits to efficiently generate samples from probability distributions that are otherwise hard to sample from, the variational quantum circuit is trained to generate binaryvalued vectors to approximately solve the aforesaid stochastic program. The method builds upon dual decomposition and entails solving a sequence of judiciously modified standard VQE tasks. Tests on several synthetic problem instances using a quantum simulator corroborate the near-optimality and feasibility of the method, and its potential to generate feasible solutions for the deterministic QCQP too.
We present a framework to deal with a range of large-scale compressive-sensing problems using a quantum subroutine. We apply a quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) to support detection in a sparse-signal reconstruction algorithm: matching pursuit. The constrained optimization required in this algorithm is difficult to handle when the size of the problem is large, and the constraints usually given by unstructured patterns also become an issue. Our framework utilizes specially designed structured constraints that are easy to manipulate and reduce the optimization problem to the solution of an Ising model which can be found using Ising solvers. In this study, we simulate QAOA for this purpose and evaluate the performances. We observe that our method can outperform reference classical methods in the same context. Our results explore a promising path for applying quantum computers in the compressive-sensing field.
The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) is an efficient method for solving combinatorial optimization problems in quantum computing. These problems involve finding the best solution from a finite set of possibilities. At its core, the QAOA uses an Ansatz circuit composed of alternating unitary operators, the mixing and problem Hamiltonians, that are controlled by a set of parameters. Its goal is to find the optimal parameters so that the final quantum state of the circuit encodes the problem’s solution. While this parameter optimization is often handled by classical optimizers, including constrained optimization by linear approximations (COBYLA) and Nelder–Mead, these methods frequently present local extrema. Therefore, we developed a layerwise grid search (LGS) method as an alternative. Since a full grid search is too time-consuming, the LGS method significantly reduces the search time while still finding a good solution. To demonstrate its effectiveness, we present experimental results for the max-cut problem, comparing the performance of our LGS method against conventional classical optimizers.