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Main Authors: Zhao, Wending, Tang, Gaoxiang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.16212
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author Zhao, Wending
Tang, Gaoxiang
author_facet Zhao, Wending
Tang, Gaoxiang
contents Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) can be used to solve quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problems. However, the size of the solvable problem is limited by the number of qubits. To leverage noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices to solve large-scale QUBO problems, one possible way is to decompose the full problem into multiple sub-problems, which we refer to as the Sub-QUBO Formalism. In this work, we enhance this formalism by proposing a sub-QUBO extraction protocol. To do so, we define a measure to quantify correlations between variables and use it to build a correlation matrix. This matrix serves as the input for clustering algorithms to group variables. Variables belonging to the same group form sub-QUBOs and are subsequently solved using QAOA. Our numerical analysis on several classes of randomly generated QUBO problems demonstrates that this grouping method outperforms previous approaches in terms of objective function values, while maintaining a comparable number of quantum subroutine calls. This method offers wide applicability for solving QUBO problems on NISQ devices.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_16212
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Clustering-Based Sub-QUBO Extraction for Hybrid QUBO Solvers
Zhao, Wending
Tang, Gaoxiang
Quantum Physics
Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) can be used to solve quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problems. However, the size of the solvable problem is limited by the number of qubits. To leverage noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices to solve large-scale QUBO problems, one possible way is to decompose the full problem into multiple sub-problems, which we refer to as the Sub-QUBO Formalism. In this work, we enhance this formalism by proposing a sub-QUBO extraction protocol. To do so, we define a measure to quantify correlations between variables and use it to build a correlation matrix. This matrix serves as the input for clustering algorithms to group variables. Variables belonging to the same group form sub-QUBOs and are subsequently solved using QAOA. Our numerical analysis on several classes of randomly generated QUBO problems demonstrates that this grouping method outperforms previous approaches in terms of objective function values, while maintaining a comparable number of quantum subroutine calls. This method offers wide applicability for solving QUBO problems on NISQ devices.
title Clustering-Based Sub-QUBO Extraction for Hybrid QUBO Solvers
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.16212