Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm on Different Qubit Systems

Conference · Mon Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 2025

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/QCE65121.2025.10436· OSTI ID:3009453

Kim, Seongmin ^[1]; Suh, In-Saeng ^[1]; Coello Perez, Antonio ^[1]; Landfield, Ryan ^[1]; Sandoval, Michael ^[1]; Cunningham, Josh ^[1]; Beck, Tom ^[1]; Nelson-Quillin, Heidi ^[2]; Stump, Erica ^[2]

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1. ORNL
2. IonQ, Inc

Solving optimization problems is critical across many research domains, but the high dimensionality of parameter spaces often poses significant challenges. The Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) has emerged as a promising approach for accelerating optimization in the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era by leveraging both classical and quantum computational resources. However, its performance can vary depending on the underlying quantum hardware architecture. In this work, we evaluate the performance of QAOA on different quantum hardware platforms, specifically, superconducting transmon qubits and trapped-ion qubits, targetting real-world optimization problems formulated as fully connected Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) instances. We evaluate both the solution quality and time-to-solution using dense QUBO matrices. Furthermore, we show that large-scale problems, such as a 100-bit QUBO instance, can be effectively tackled by integrating quantum computing with high-performance computing (HPC) resources. This study provides practical insights into the strengths and limitations of different qubit technologies and advances the application of quantum computing in solving real-world optimization problems.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) (SC-21); USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 3009453
• Resource Type: Conference paper/presentation
• Conference Information: IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE25) - Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States of America - 8/30/2025-9/5/2025
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English