Hybrid Quantum-Classical Branch-and-Price Method for the Vertex Coloring Problem

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Vercellino, Chiara, Naghmouchi, M. Yassine, Coelho, Wesley, Vitali, Giacomo, Scionti, Alberto, Viviani, Paolo, Terzo, Olivier, Montrucchio, Bartolomeo
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Vercellino, Chiara
Naghmouchi, M. Yassine
Coelho, Wesley
Vitali, Giacomo
Scionti, Alberto
Viviani, Paolo
Terzo, Olivier
Montrucchio, Bartolomeo
author_facet Vercellino, Chiara
Naghmouchi, M. Yassine
Coelho, Wesley
Vitali, Giacomo
Scionti, Alberto
Viviani, Paolo
Terzo, Olivier
Montrucchio, Bartolomeo
contents This paper introduces Quantum Classical Branch-and-Price (QCBP), a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm for the Vertex Coloring problem on neutral-atom Quantum Processing Units (QPUs). QCBP embeds quantum computation within the classical Branch-and-Price (BP) framework to address three bottlenecks in classical BP algorithms: the computational cost of Pricing Subproblems (PSPs), branching efficiency, and the quality of primal heuristics. It uses quantum-assisted Column Generation (CG) based on Quantum Adiabatic Algorithms (QAA) to sample high-quality maximum-weight independent sets (MWIS), reducing the need to repeatedly solve NP-hard PSPs. The adapted branching strategy leverages quantum-generated independent sets to explore fewer nodes, tighten lower bounds, and converge faster. A classical primal heuristic rapidly builds feasible solutions from quantum-generated sets, avoiding unnecessary quantum calls or additional Integer Linear Programming (ILP) solves. Compared with our prior Hybrid Column Generation (HCG) and Branch-and-Bound through maximal Independent Set (BBQ-mIS), QCBP improves both quantum-resource utilization and solution quality. Extensive experiments show QCBP significantly outperforms HCG and BBQ-mIS, reaching optimality on $\approx 98\%$ of benchmark instances. Preliminary validation on real neutral-atom hardware indicates robustness to quantum noise and hardware constraints, supporting practical applicability and scalability to larger graph instances. QCBP emerges as a viable hybrid method for combinatorial optimization with promising scalability on near-term quantum hardware.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_18887
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Hybrid Quantum-Classical Branch-and-Price Method for the Vertex Coloring Problem
Vercellino, Chiara
Naghmouchi, M. Yassine
Coelho, Wesley
Vitali, Giacomo
Scionti, Alberto
Viviani, Paolo
Terzo, Olivier
Montrucchio, Bartolomeo
Quantum Physics
This paper introduces Quantum Classical Branch-and-Price (QCBP), a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm for the Vertex Coloring problem on neutral-atom Quantum Processing Units (QPUs). QCBP embeds quantum computation within the classical Branch-and-Price (BP) framework to address three bottlenecks in classical BP algorithms: the computational cost of Pricing Subproblems (PSPs), branching efficiency, and the quality of primal heuristics. It uses quantum-assisted Column Generation (CG) based on Quantum Adiabatic Algorithms (QAA) to sample high-quality maximum-weight independent sets (MWIS), reducing the need to repeatedly solve NP-hard PSPs. The adapted branching strategy leverages quantum-generated independent sets to explore fewer nodes, tighten lower bounds, and converge faster. A classical primal heuristic rapidly builds feasible solutions from quantum-generated sets, avoiding unnecessary quantum calls or additional Integer Linear Programming (ILP) solves. Compared with our prior Hybrid Column Generation (HCG) and Branch-and-Bound through maximal Independent Set (BBQ-mIS), QCBP improves both quantum-resource utilization and solution quality. Extensive experiments show QCBP significantly outperforms HCG and BBQ-mIS, reaching optimality on $\approx 98\%$ of benchmark instances. Preliminary validation on real neutral-atom hardware indicates robustness to quantum noise and hardware constraints, supporting practical applicability and scalability to larger graph instances. QCBP emerges as a viable hybrid method for combinatorial optimization with promising scalability on near-term quantum hardware.
title Hybrid Quantum-Classical Branch-and-Price Method for the Vertex Coloring Problem
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18887