IEEE International Conference on Quantum Artificial Intelligence (QAI)
Scalable Quantum Approximate Optimisation with Adaptive Bayesian Dimensionality Reduction
Amir Alizadeh, Amir Pourabdollah, Ahmad Lotfi
Abstract
Quantum Approximate Optimisation Algorithm (QAOA) has emerged as a promising hybrid quantum-classical approach for tackling NP-hard combinatorial optimisation problems by combining quantum and classical computational paradigms. However, efficiently optimising QAOA parameters is notoriously challenging due to the complex, high-dimensional landscapes involved, characterised by numerous local minima and barren plateaus. Bayesian Optimisation (BO) has shown promise in addressing these challenges, yet its effectiveness diminishes significantly with increasing problem dimensionality. In this work, we adopt the Minimum Average Variance Estimation for Bayesian Optimisation (MAVE-BO) method to address this scalability bottleneck. By leveraging the low-dimensional structure inherent in QAOA parameter spaces, our approach improves optimisation efficiency and robustness. We applied our model to a practical power systems problem, optimising eigenvector centrality (EC) in an IEEE 14-bus network. The proposed method demonstrates superior performance in both efficiency and solution quality compared to classical optimisers such as standard Bayesian Optimisation (Vanilla BO), COBYLA, L-BFGS-B, and genetic algorithms. These results underscore the potential of dimensionality-aware BO frameworks for realworld quantum applications in noisy, resource-constrained environments.