Southwest Quantum Information and Technology

Investigations of quantum heuristics for optimization

Presenting Author: Eleanor Rieffel, NASA Ames Research Center
Contributing Author(s): Stuart Hadfield, Zhang Jiang, Salvatore Mandra, Davide Venturelli, and Zhihui Wang

We explore the design of quantum heuristics for optimization, focusing on the quantum approximate optimization algorithm, a metaheuristic developed by Farhi, Goldstone, and Gutmann. We develop specific instantiations of the of quantum approximate optimization algorithm for a variety of challenging combinatorial optimization problems. Through theoretical analyses and numeric investigations of select problems, we provide insight into parameter setting and Hamiltonian design for quantum approximate optimization algorithms and related quantum heuristics, and into their implementation on hardware realizable in the near term.

(Session 5 : Thursday from 5:00pm - 7:00pm)