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Main Authors: Augustino, Brandon, Cain, Madelyn, Farhi, Edward, Gupta, Swati, Gutmann, Sam, Ranard, Daniel, Tang, Eugene, Van Kirk, Katherine
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.03015
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author Augustino, Brandon
Cain, Madelyn
Farhi, Edward
Gupta, Swati
Gutmann, Sam
Ranard, Daniel
Tang, Eugene
Van Kirk, Katherine
author_facet Augustino, Brandon
Cain, Madelyn
Farhi, Edward
Gupta, Swati
Gutmann, Sam
Ranard, Daniel
Tang, Eugene
Van Kirk, Katherine
contents We explore strategies aimed at reducing the amount of computation, both quantum and classical, required to run the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA). First, following Wurtz et al. [Phys.Rev A 104:052419], we consider the standard QAOA with instance-independent "tree" parameters chosen in advance. These tree parameters are chosen to optimize the MaxCut expectation for large girth graphs. We provide extensive numerical evidence supporting the performance guarantee for tree parameters conjectured in [Phys.Rev A 103:042612] and see that the approximation ratios obtained with tree parameters are typically well beyond the conjectured lower bounds, often comparable to performing a full optimization. This suggests that in practice, the QAOA can achieve near-optimal performance without the need for parameter optimization. Next, we modify the warm-start QAOA of Tate et al. [Quantum 7:1121]. The starting state for the QAOA is now an optimized product state associated with a solution of the Goemans-Williamson (GW) algorithm. Surprisingly, the tree parameters continue to perform well for the warm-start QAOA. We find that for random 3-regular graphs with hundreds of vertices, the expected cut obtained by the warm-start QAOA at depth $p \gtrsim 3$ is comparable to that of the standard GW algorithm. Our numerics on random instances do not provide general performance guarantees but do provide substantial evidence that there exists a regime of instance sizes in which the QAOA finds good solutions at low depth without the need for parameter optimization. For each instance studied, we classically compute the expected size of the QAOA distribution of cuts; producing the actual cuts requires running on a quantum computer.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_03015
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Strategies for running the QAOA at hundreds of qubits
Augustino, Brandon
Cain, Madelyn
Farhi, Edward
Gupta, Swati
Gutmann, Sam
Ranard, Daniel
Tang, Eugene
Van Kirk, Katherine
Quantum Physics
We explore strategies aimed at reducing the amount of computation, both quantum and classical, required to run the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA). First, following Wurtz et al. [Phys.Rev A 104:052419], we consider the standard QAOA with instance-independent "tree" parameters chosen in advance. These tree parameters are chosen to optimize the MaxCut expectation for large girth graphs. We provide extensive numerical evidence supporting the performance guarantee for tree parameters conjectured in [Phys.Rev A 103:042612] and see that the approximation ratios obtained with tree parameters are typically well beyond the conjectured lower bounds, often comparable to performing a full optimization. This suggests that in practice, the QAOA can achieve near-optimal performance without the need for parameter optimization. Next, we modify the warm-start QAOA of Tate et al. [Quantum 7:1121]. The starting state for the QAOA is now an optimized product state associated with a solution of the Goemans-Williamson (GW) algorithm. Surprisingly, the tree parameters continue to perform well for the warm-start QAOA. We find that for random 3-regular graphs with hundreds of vertices, the expected cut obtained by the warm-start QAOA at depth $p \gtrsim 3$ is comparable to that of the standard GW algorithm. Our numerics on random instances do not provide general performance guarantees but do provide substantial evidence that there exists a regime of instance sizes in which the QAOA finds good solutions at low depth without the need for parameter optimization. For each instance studied, we classically compute the expected size of the QAOA distribution of cuts; producing the actual cuts requires running on a quantum computer.
title Strategies for running the QAOA at hundreds of qubits
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.03015