Generating Target Graph Couplings for QAOA from Native Quantum Hardware Couplings

Abstract

We present methods for constructing any target coupling graph using limited global controls in an Ising-like quantum spin system. Our approach is motivated by implementing the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) on trapped ion quantum hardware to find approximate solutions to Max-Cut. We present a mathematical description of the problem and provide approximately optimal algorithmic constructions that generate arbitrary unweighted coupling graphs with $n$ nodes in $O(n)$ global entangling operations and weighted graphs with $m$ edges in $O(m)$ operations. These upper bounds are not tight in general, and we formulate a mixed-integer program to solve the graph coupling problem to optimality. We perform numeric experiments on small graphs with $n\le 8$ and show that optimal sequences, which use fewer operations, can be found using mixed-integer programs. Noisy simulations of Max-Cut QAOA show that our implementation is less susceptible to noise than the standard gate-based compilation.

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• Hartree-Fock on a superconducting qubit quantum computer
• Demonstration of the trapped-ion quantum-CCD computer architecture
• Quantum computing with neutral atoms
• Quantum Approximate Optimization of Non-Planar Graph Problems on a Planar Superconducting Processor
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Cited by in corpus (5)

• A Review on Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm and its Variants
• Individual-Ion Addressing and Readout in a Penning Trap
• Modelling noise in global Molmer-Sorensen interactions applied to quantum approximate optimization
• Universal quantum processors in spin systems via robust local pulse sequences
• Exactly-solved model of light-scattering errors in quantum simulations with metastable trapped-ion qubits