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Main Authors: Masschelein, Cassandra, Richer, Michelle, Ayers, Paul W.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.03421
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author Masschelein, Cassandra
Richer, Michelle
Ayers, Paul W.
author_facet Masschelein, Cassandra
Richer, Michelle
Ayers, Paul W.
contents Evaluating the permanent of a matrix is a fundamental computation that emerges in many domains, including traditional fields like computational complexity theory, graph theory, many-body quantum theory and emerging disciplines like machine learning and quantum computing. While conceptually simple, evaluating the permanent is extremely challenging: no polynomial-time algorithm is available (unless $\textsc{P} = \textsc{NP}$). To the best of our knowledge there is no publicly available software that automatically uses the most efficient algorithm for computing the permanent. In this work we designed, developed, and investigated the performance of our software package which evaluates the permanent of an arbitrary rectangular matrix, supporting three algorithms generally regarded as the fastest while giving the exact solution (the straightforward combinatoric algorithm, the Ryser algorithm, and the Glynn algorithm) and, optionally, automatically switching to the optimal algorithm based on the type and dimensionality of the input matrix. To do this, we developed an extension of the Glynn algorithm to rectangular matrices. Our free and open-source software package is distributed via Github, at https://github.com/theochem/matrix-permanent.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_03421
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Optimizing and benchmarking the computation of the permanent of general matrices
Masschelein, Cassandra
Richer, Michelle
Ayers, Paul W.
Quantum Physics
Mathematical Software
Evaluating the permanent of a matrix is a fundamental computation that emerges in many domains, including traditional fields like computational complexity theory, graph theory, many-body quantum theory and emerging disciplines like machine learning and quantum computing. While conceptually simple, evaluating the permanent is extremely challenging: no polynomial-time algorithm is available (unless $\textsc{P} = \textsc{NP}$). To the best of our knowledge there is no publicly available software that automatically uses the most efficient algorithm for computing the permanent. In this work we designed, developed, and investigated the performance of our software package which evaluates the permanent of an arbitrary rectangular matrix, supporting three algorithms generally regarded as the fastest while giving the exact solution (the straightforward combinatoric algorithm, the Ryser algorithm, and the Glynn algorithm) and, optionally, automatically switching to the optimal algorithm based on the type and dimensionality of the input matrix. To do this, we developed an extension of the Glynn algorithm to rectangular matrices. Our free and open-source software package is distributed via Github, at https://github.com/theochem/matrix-permanent.
title Optimizing and benchmarking the computation of the permanent of general matrices
topic Quantum Physics
Mathematical Software
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.03421