QAOA for Max-Cut requires hundreds of qubits for quantum speed-up
Abstract
Computational quantum technologies are entering a new phase in which noisy intermediate-scale quantum computers are available, but are still too small to benefit from active error correction. Even with a finite coherence budget to invest in quantum information processing, noisy devices with about 50 qubits are expected to experimentally demonstrate quantum supremacy in the next few years. Defined in terms of artificial tasks, current proposals for quantum supremacy, even if successful, will not help to facilitate solutions to practical problems. In contrast, we believe that future users of quantum computers are interested in actual applications and that noisy quantum devices may still provide value by approximately solving hard combinatorial problems via hybrid classical-quantum algorithms. To lower bound the size of quantum computers with practical utility, we perform realistic simulations of the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm and conclude that quantum speedup will not be attainable, at least for a representative combinatorial problem, until several hundreds of qubits are available.
- Authors:
-
- Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1527339
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Scientific Reports
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 9; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
Citation Formats
Guerreschi, Gian Giacomo, and Matsuura, A. Y. QAOA for Max-Cut requires hundreds of qubits for quantum speed-up. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-43176-9.
Guerreschi, Gian Giacomo, & Matsuura, A. Y. QAOA for Max-Cut requires hundreds of qubits for quantum speed-up. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43176-9
Guerreschi, Gian Giacomo, and Matsuura, A. Y. Mon .
"QAOA for Max-Cut requires hundreds of qubits for quantum speed-up". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43176-9. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1527339.
@article{osti_1527339,
title = {QAOA for Max-Cut requires hundreds of qubits for quantum speed-up},
author = {Guerreschi, Gian Giacomo and Matsuura, A. Y.},
abstractNote = {Computational quantum technologies are entering a new phase in which noisy intermediate-scale quantum computers are available, but are still too small to benefit from active error correction. Even with a finite coherence budget to invest in quantum information processing, noisy devices with about 50 qubits are expected to experimentally demonstrate quantum supremacy in the next few years. Defined in terms of artificial tasks, current proposals for quantum supremacy, even if successful, will not help to facilitate solutions to practical problems. In contrast, we believe that future users of quantum computers are interested in actual applications and that noisy quantum devices may still provide value by approximately solving hard combinatorial problems via hybrid classical-quantum algorithms. To lower bound the size of quantum computers with practical utility, we perform realistic simulations of the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm and conclude that quantum speedup will not be attainable, at least for a representative combinatorial problem, until several hundreds of qubits are available.},
doi = {10.1038/s41598-019-43176-9},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
number = 1,
volume = 9,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {5}
}
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:

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