arXiv subjects

Stuart Hadfield

Publications and source records attributed to Stuart Hadfield.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Iterative Quantum Optimization: From Greedy Reductions to Branch-and-Bound

Iterative quantum optimization (IQO) uses quantum-generated information to select a sequence of classical problem reductions. We introduce Bound-Aware Tree-IQO which combines this iterative structure with bounds and reversible search. Feasible measured samples update a shared incumbent, while valid classical bounds prune branches that cannot improve it. Incorporating backtracking yields an anytime method that returns the best feasible solution found when interrupted, or can be run as a complete search to return and certify the optimum. For suitable single-variable or pairwise reductions, an initial IQO path can determine the branching schedule without further quantum calls, though certifying the optimum may take superpolynomial classical time. To motivate our framework, we prove two limitations of irreversible IQO reductions based on the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA). We show an infinite family of unweighted MaxCut instances on which globally optimized level-1 QAOA makes standard Recursive QAOA strictly prefer a first reduction that excludes every optimal solution, and limits that branch to an approximation ratio of at most $2/3+o(1)$. In contrast, a single backtrack recovers an optimal solution using the same quantum information. Causal cone arguments give a complementary obstruction at every fixed depth of standard QAOA: a weighted MaxCut instance is shown to contain two edges with identical two-qubit reduced states, even though every optimum requires opposite edge parities. MaxCut experiments show that QAOA-guided ordering is nonrandom in exact-certification tests through $n=28$, while demonstrating that quantum samples can strengthen the incumbent and enable further pruning. Our results suggest that quantum data could provide useful guidance toward solving hard combinatorial optimization problems more effectively than either quantum or classical algorithms alone.

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arXiv2026

Leaving Quantum Bias on the Table: Pushforwards as a Path to Quantum Advantage in Constrained Optimization

Constrained quantum samplers often produce infeasible outputs that retain information about good feasible solutions. We develop a post-measurement framework that constructs problem-dependent classical feasibility maps from constraint-violation statistics and pushes the raw quantum sampling law forward onto the feasible set. The probability of each repaired solution is the total raw mass of its repair preimage, enlarging the successful sampling event from a target feasible set to its full repair preimage. We derive exact identities for repaired success and expected cost, and separate repair-basin geometry from sampler-dependent probability concentration. For noisy implementations, we distinguish leakage from the encoded subspace from concentration loss within it. For permutation constraints, Hungarian maximum-overlap repair provides an O(n^3) implementation, which we study on traveling-salesman problems (TSP). We derive conditional repaired-success bounds and quantify how basin aggregation reduces the absolute-transfer budget required by these bounds. Noiseless simulations show that optimal repair basins contain selectively overweighted infeasible contributors. For an n=10 TSP instance, pushforward repair recovered the optimum using approximately 10^3 shots, compared with 10^6 shots in the original CE-QAOA workflow without repair. On a 127-qubit IBM processor, using encodings of up to 100 qubits, repaired candidates match reference tours on smaller benchmarks and improve them on larger instances. These results establish concentration of quantum probability on useful repair preimages as a design principle for constrained quantum optimization.

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arXiv2026

Imposing Constraints on Driver Hamiltonians and Mixing Operators: From Theory to Practical Implementation

Driver Hamiltonians and Mixing Operators that satisfy constraints is an important part of ansatz construction for many quantum algorithms. In this manuscript, we give general algebraic expressions for finding Hamiltonian terms and analogously unitary primitives, that satisfy constraint embeddings and use these to give complexity characterizations of the related problems. We prove that knowing if operators exist that enforce classical constraints is NP-Complete in the general case, but give algorithmic procedures with worse-case polynomial runtime to find any operators with a constant locality bound; a useful result since many constraints imposed admit local operators to enforce them in practice. We then give algorithmic procedures to turn these algebraic primitives into Hamiltonian drivers and unitary mixers that can be used for Constrained Quantum Annealing (CQA) and Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz (QAOA) constructions by tackling practical problems related to finding an appropriate set of reduced generators and defining corresponding drivers and mixers accordingly. We consider a new QAOA approach based on the maximally disjoint subset as well as higher order constraint satisfaction terms for 1-in-3 SAT, which dramatically outperform the X-mixer.

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arXiv2026

Separating Geometry From Interference in Constrained Quantum Optimization

We study the separation of geometric effects from quantum interference in quantum optimization algorithms. Constrained optimization problems such as routing, assignment, and scheduling are often encoded as product spaces of local variables, together with global feasibility penalties. The central algorithmic question we address is how a constraint-preserving mixing operator transports quantum amplitude across an exponential search space in the presence of local and global constraints. We develop a framework that separates three effects that are usually intermixed: amplitude transport, coherent interference among transported amplitudes, and problem-dependent classical postprocessing. We show that the mixing operator alone does not have a target-seeking ability. Concretely, the normalized distribution induced by its amplitude transport moves toward the distance profile of a uniformly random configuration. Thus, quantum sampling advantage may only arise when the phases of the many computational paths reaching a target configuration are sufficiently aligned for their amplitudes to reinforce. We show that, when the cost phases are engineered so that these paths add coherently, a number of circuit alternations growing only logarithmically with problem size suffices to convert the sum of their absolute contributions into a lower bound on the target amplitude, yielding a certified success probability independent of the ambient Hilbert-space dimension, the search-space size, or the feasible-set cardinality. We develop applications to problem-specific transpilation diagnostics, scalable hardware probes, constraint-induced classical maps of quantum-generated samples, the attribution of solution quality between the quantum distribution and classical post-processing in hybrid quantum-classical workflows and connections to distance-partitioned product spaces from classical coding theory.

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arXiv2026

Quantum Approximation Complexity of Classical Optimization Problems

Classical approximation complexity asks what solution quality can be guaranteed with polynomial-time computation. The classes APX, PTAS, and FPTAS distinguish a fixed approximation ratio, approximation to any fixed accuracy, and approximation schemes whose running time is also polynomial in inverse accuracy. Their randomized counterparts are R-APX, R-PTAS, and R-FPTAS. We define bounded-error quantum counterparts BQ-APX, BQ-PTAS, and BQ-FPTAS. Membership requires a uniform quantum algorithm that, on every input, returns a feasible classical solution achieving at least the claimed approximation ratio with probability at least 2/3. Scores (objective values) must be efficiently classically computable. Running time includes parameter selection, preparation, measurement, decoding, and repetition. Many quantum optimization methods are used heuristically, and high benchmark scores alone do not establish these guarantees. We further establish a conditional hierarchy for logarithmic, polynomial, and exponential approximation factors. Assuming NP $\nsubseteq$ BQP, the quantum classes form a strict hierarchy. Problems based on prime factorization and discrete logarithms give conditional quantum-classical separations. Certified Maximum Order has an exact quantum algorithm, while any randomized polynomial-time algorithm guaranteeing at least an inverse-polynomial approximation ratio on every input would yield efficient factoring. Discrete-Logarithm Fitting has an exact quantum algorithm and a deterministic one-half approximation, but any fixed improvement over one half would give a randomized polynomial-time algorithm for the safe-prime discrete logarithm problem. Our results show, under explicit complexity assumptions, that quantum computation can improve worst-case approximation guarantees. A quantum-classical gap for common problems such as MaxCut or MaxSAT remains open.

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arXiv2026

Evaluating QAOA expectation values can be as hard as counting optimal solutions

Evaluating expectation values is a critical task for variational quantum eigensolvers, parameterized quantum circuits, and many other quantum algorithms. We consider the well-studied case of the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) for the MaxCut problem. Recent work of Wang et al. [arXiv:2511.20212] showed this task to be NP-hard in general for any QAOA depth $p\geq 2$, complementing past results showing efficiently computable formulas for $p=1$ with arbitrary problem graphs. We sharpen this dichotomy showing that for $p\geq 2$ exact or exponentially precise cost expectation value evaluation is #P-hard under deterministic polynomial-time Turing reductions. Hardness at $p\geq 2$ is shown to remain even for evaluating single pairwise correlators $\langle Z\otimes Z\rangle $, as well as for highly restricted sets of algorithm parameters. Our proof refines the NP-hardness construction of Wang et al. that recovers the maximum cut value from the largest exponent of a QAOA Laurent polynomial, utilizing a distinct and simpler construction that extracts a value proportional to the total number of maximum cuts, in addition to the optimal cut value. Thus we show that the QAOA expectation value hardness transition from $p=1$ to $p=2$ is not only from tractability to optimization hardness, but to that of counting optimal solutions. As an application we show our results imply analogous hardness results for computing gradients and Hessians of QAOA circuits.

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arXiv2026

No Free Compression in Quantum Relaxations for Optimization

Qubit-efficient quantum relaxations compress classical decision variables into expectation values on substantially fewer qubits. We ask what resource tradeoffs this compression entails for quantum optimization. For the complete quadratic-Majorana encoding of $m=Θ(n^2)$ binary variables on~$n$ qubits, we define the universal margin as the smallest correlator magnitude that can be guaranteed with prescribed signs for every target sign (bit) assignment. We show that it is exactly $Δ_{\rm Maj}(n)=\tan\!\left(\fracπ{4n}\right)=Θ(1/n)$, whereas uniformly random sign assignments retain $Θ(1/\sqrt n)$ target-specific margins. Arbitrary density operators and mixed fermionic Gaussian states generate the same quadratic-Majorana covariance body, so non-Gaussian state resources cannot enlarge this two-point relaxation. More generally, standard quantum random access code bounds provide general information-theoretic baselines. For any fixed family of $m$ designated binary observables on~$n$ qubits, the universal margin is at most $\sqrt{(2\ln2\,n/m)}$, and random access decoding from $N$ copies with constant success probability above $1/2$ requires $nN=Ω(m)$. For a fixed Pauli correlation encoding required to work uniformly over all targets, maintaining a fixed nonzero decoded magnitude under smooth sign decoding therefore requires a rescaling parameter that grows as the available margin shrinks. Thus, while providing substantial qubit savings, compression can shift cost into restricted expectation value geometry, smaller expectation value magnitudes, or more demanding information recovery rather than eliminate it.

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arXiv2026

Complexity Amplification from Compression in Quantum Random Access Optimization

Compressed quantum encodings aim to overcome hardware limitations towards tackling challenging problems at scale, with many classical variables mapped onto noncommuting observables of fewer qubits. Classically, relaxations such as the semidefinite program formulation of MaxCut trade solution quality for computational efficiency. By contrast, quantum relaxations based on compression can amplify the worst-case complexity of the problem being solved. We study quantum random access optimization (QRAO), a special case of the Pauli correlation encoding (PCE) framework that assigns up to three binary variables to the Pauli $X$, $Y$, and $Z$ observables of each qubit, with the packing choices determining the compressed Hamiltonian to be optimized. We identify explicit QRAO optimal energy promise problems complete for NP, StoqMA, and QMA, with inverse-polynomial promise gaps for the latter two. Our problem reductions preserve inverse-polynomial promise gaps without requiring gadgets or ancillas. For any prescribed packing, we show that weighted MaxCut instances compress, up to a known shift and rescaling, to arbitrary nonnegative-weight pairwise Pauli couplings allowed by the packing. For QRAO, using one aligned axis gives an NP-complete energy problem. Using two or three positive aligned Pauli axes generally gives QMA-complete problems, with bipartite restrictions in BQP $\cap$ StoqMA. We show that this computational hardness survives compilation and is practically relevant. Notably, this result applies directly to the current QRAO compiler implementation in Qiskit Optimization 0.7.0, confirming our hardness results are not artifacts of artificial or contrived packing rules. Altogether our results identify worst-case complexity barriers arising from quantum compression, while making no broad claims about typical cases or the performance and trainability of algorithm pipelines that use it.

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arXiv2026

Complexity Barriers to State Preparation in Quantum Approximate Optimization

For many important optimization problems we are restricted to approximate solutions in practice due to computational complexity. Distinct from the exact optimization setting, approximate optimization admits performance measures beyond whether the optimum is found, with different tradeoffs and complexity. For MaxCut, a near-unity (ordinary) approximation ratio can coexist with near-zero improvement (gain) over a random cut. For the standard encoding, the unconditional classical MaxCut-Gain hardness gap implies that \emph{any uniformly efficient quantum or hybrid procedure recovering a fixed positive fraction of the optimal classical gain on every input, with at least inverse-polynomial success probability, would place} NP \emph{in} BQP. Such a procedure is therefore believed impossible under standard assumptions. We broadly address where our worst-case barriers do or do not apply across the quantum algorithm landscape. We prove that the barrier survives quantum random access optimization (QRAO) compression and applies between the classical and relaxed optimal values. For every input, a product state attains the classical optimum. Thus the barrier to reaching the classical threshold does not arise from a need for entanglement. For $d\in\{2,3\}$ variables per qubit, the known decoder transfers encoded energy gain to decoded mean gain by the exact factor $1/d^2$. Combining this identity with MaxCut-Gain hardness gives an operational preparation barrier for QRAO. We also construct hard $n$-qubit families with relative quantum relaxation excess $Θ(1/n)$, while the maximally mixed state has energy approximation ratio $1-Θ(1/n)$, zero encoded energy gain, and hence zero decoded mean gain. Our results separate the effects of relaxation tightness and energy approximation from operational accessibility, motivating more comprehensive accounting in benchmarking and performance assessment.

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arXiv2026

Quantum Approximate Optimization via Noise-Directed Adaptive Warm-Starting

Progress towards a quantum advantage using known heuristic methods for combinatorial optimization is impeded by hardware noise and limited qubit count. Here, we propose a noise-aware adaptive approach to quantum approximate optimization, Noise-Directed Adaptive Warm-Starting (ND-AWS), that builds on recent concepts such as Warm-Start QAOA and Noise-Directed Adaptive Remapping. By leveraging bitflip gauge transformations, our algorithm exploits amplitude-damping-like noise components. We experimentally implement high-performance quantum optimization ansätze on 100-qubit Ising Hamiltonians, showing that ND-AWS generally improves the performance over a non-gauge-transformed iterative Warm-Starting variant, at no additional circuit cost. This places our results among the highest-quality demonstrations of quantum optimization with similar ansätze at this scale. Crucially, the simplicity of the framework opens the door for future enhancements such as adaptive bias schedules, and integration with classical solvers.

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arXiv2026

Iterative warm-start optimization with quantum imaginary time evolution

Approximate combinatorial optimization is a promising use case for quantum computers. The quantum optimization algorithms often employ a fixed ansatz that evolves an unbiased initial state towards states with better values of the optimand, then samples the states to determine an approximately optimal solution. However, promising alternative approaches have considered ``warm-start" and sampling-based methods that instead begin from the best known solution, which can be directly optimized with the quantum computer and updated as new information becomes available, potentially outperforming the fixed ansätze. Here we use these ideas to design a nonvariational quantum algorithm for combinatorial optimization. At each step the algorithm begins with a state superposed around the best known solution, then drives it to lower energy using quantum imaginary time evolution. These nonvariational, initial-state-dependent circuits are determined using analytic equations that are evaluated using only a conventional computer. After implementing the circuits, the state is sampled, potentially obtaining a new best-known solution to use as the initial state at the next iteration. Using simulations of the algorithm solving MaxCut on 3-regular graphs with 30 or fewer vertices and a shot budget of 100 total shots, the approach obtains median solutions within 95\% of the global optimum and finds optimal solutions in 11\% or more of cases, significantly outperforming random and simplified classical search procedures. We discuss several future directions.

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arXiv2026

Noise-Directed Adaptive Remapping for Integer Optimization: from qubits to (encoded) qudits

We extend Noise-Directed Adaptive Remapping (NDAR), a recently proposed heuristic meta-algorithm that leverages device noise as a computational resource, to optimization problems over discrete (integer) domains. While originally introduced for unconstrained binary optimization, the proposed generalization introduces additional gauge degrees of freedom at the logical level, such that the gauge transformation applied at each iteration is no longer unique, allowing tailoring to particular encodings or quantum hardware. We identify encoding-dependent requirements for NDAR beyond binary domains: feasibility of the noise attractor, existence of compatible gauge transformations that preserve an efficiently implementable circuit family, and a systematic way to select the transform to apply at each step. We analyze these criteria for qudit-native and for binary, one-hot, and domain-wall qubit encodings, using the Max-k-colorable subgraph problem as a running example. We demonstrate that these encodings can exhibit distinct advantages and tradeoffs when integrated within the NDAR framework, particularly in how noise-induced dynamics interact with the solution landscape and choice of encoding. Our results indicate that NDAR-guided noise considerations provide a new criterion for comparing device-level encoding choices for quantum optimization. Finally, we outline directions toward experimental realization in superconducting qudit devices and further algorithmic improvements.

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arXiv2026

Scattering Processes from Quantum Simulation Algorithms for Scalar Field Theories

We provide practical simulation methods for scalar field theories on a quantum computer that yield improved asymptotics as well as concrete gate estimates for the simulation and physical qubit estimates using the surface code. We achieve these improvements through two optimizations. First, we consider a finite volume approach for estimating the elements of the S-matrix. This approach is appropriate in general for 1+1D and for certain low-energy elastic collisions in higher dimensions. Second, we implement our approach using a series of different fault-tolerant simulation algorithms for Hamiltonians formulated both in the field occupation basis and field amplitude basis. Our algorithms are based on either second-order Trotterization or qubitization. The cost of Trotterization in occupation basis scales as $O(λN^7 |Ω|^3/(M^{5/2} ε^{3/2}))$ where $λ$ is the coupling strength, $N$ is the occupation cutoff, $|Ω|$ is the volume of the spatial lattice, $M$ is the mass of the particles and $ε$ is the uncertainty in the energy calculation used for the $S$-matrix determination. Qubitization in the field basis scales as $O(|Ω|^2 (k^2 Λ+kM^2)/ε)$ where $k$ is the cutoff in the field and $Λ$ is a scaled coupling constant. We find in both cases that the bounds suggest physically meaningful simulations can be performed using on the order of $4\times 10^6$ physical qubits and $10^{12}$ $T$-gates which corresponds to roughly one day on a superconducting quantum computer with surface code and a cycle time of 100 ns. This places the simulation of scalar field theory within striking distance of the gate counts for the best available chemistry simulation results.

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arXiv2025

Measurement-driven Quantum Approximate Optimization

Algorithms based on non-unitary evolution have attracted much interest for ground state preparation on quantum computers. One recently proposed method makes use of ancilla qubits and controlled unitary operators to implement weak measurements related to imaginary-time evolution. In this work we specialize and extend this approach to the setting of combinatorial optimization. We first generalize the algorithm from exact to approximate optimization, taking advantage of several properties unique to classical problems. In particular we show how to select parameters such that the success probability of each measurement step is bounded away from $1/2$. We then show how to adapt our paradigm to the setting of constrained optimization for a number of important classes of hard problem constraints. For this we compare and contrast both penalty-based and feasibility-preserving approaches, elucidating the significant advantages of the latter approach. Our approach is general and may be applied to easy-to-prepare initial states as a standalone algorithm, or deployed as a quantum postprocessing stage to improve performance of a given parameterized quantum circuit. We then propose a more sophisticated variant of our algorithm that adaptively applies a mixing operator or not, based on the measurement outcomes seen so far, as to speeds up the algorithm and helps the system evolution avoid slowing down or getting stuck suboptimally. In particular, we show that mixing operators from the quantum alternating operator ansatz can be imported directly, both for the necessary eigenstate scrambling operator and for initial state preparation, and discuss quantum resource tradeoffs.

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arXiv2025

Improving Quantum Approximate Optimization by Noise-Directed Adaptive Remapping

We present Noise-Directed Adaptive Remapping (NDAR), a heuristic algorithm for approximately solving binary optimization problems by leveraging certain types of noise. We consider access to a noisy quantum processor with dynamics that features a global attractor state. In a standard setting, such noise can be detrimental to the quantum optimization performance. Our algorithm bootstraps the noise attractor state by iteratively gauge-transforming the cost-function Hamiltonian in a way that transforms the noise attractor into higher-quality solutions. The transformation effectively changes the attractor into a higher-quality solution of the Hamiltonian based on the results of the previous step. The end result is that noise aids variational optimization, as opposed to hindering it. We present an improved Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) runs in experiments on Rigetti's quantum device. We report approximation ratios $0.9$-$0.96$ for random, fully connected graphs on $n=82$ qubits, using only depth $p=1$ QAOA with NDAR. This compares to $0.34$-$0.51$ for standard $p=1$ QAOA with the same number of function calls.

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arXiv2025

Quantum DPLL and Generalized Constraints in Iterative Quantum Algorithms

Too often, quantum computer scientists seek to create new algorithms entirely fresh from new cloth when there are extensive and optimized classical algorithms that can be generalized wholesale. At the same time, one may seek to maintain classical advantages of performance and runtime bounds, while enabling potential quantum improvement. Hybrid quantum algorithms tap into this potential, and here we explore a class of hybrid quantum algorithms called Iterative Quantum Algorithms (IQA) that are closely related to classical greedy or local search algorithms, employing a structure where the quantum computer provides information that leads to a simplified problem for future iterations. Specifically, we extend these algorithms beyond past results that considered primarily quadratic problems to arbitrary k-local Hamiltonians, proposing a general framework that incorporates logical inference in a fundamental way. As an application we develop a hybrid quantum version of the well-known classical Davis-Putnam-Logemann-Loveland (DPLL) algorithm for satisfiability problems, which embeds IQAs within a complete backtracking based tree search framework. Our results also provide a general framework for handling problems with hard constraints in IQAs. We further show limiting cases of the algorithms where they reduce to classical algorithms, and provide evidence for regimes of quantum improvement.

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arXiv2024

Challenges and Opportunities in Quantum Optimization

Recent advances in quantum computers are demonstrating the ability to solve problems at a scale beyond brute force classical simulation. As such, a widespread interest in quantum algorithms has developed in many areas, with optimization being one of the most pronounced domains. Across computer science and physics, there are a number of different approaches for major classes of optimization problems, such as combinatorial optimization, convex optimization, non-convex optimization, and stochastic extensions. This work draws on multiple approaches to study quantum optimization. Provably exact versus heuristic settings are first explained using computational complexity theory - highlighting where quantum advantage is possible in each context. Then, the core building blocks for quantum optimization algorithms are outlined to subsequently define prominent problem classes and identify key open questions that, if answered, will advance the field. The effects of scaling relevant problems on noisy quantum devices are also outlined in detail, alongside meaningful benchmarking problems. We underscore the importance of benchmarking by proposing clear metrics to conduct appropriate comparisons with classical optimization techniques. Lastly, we highlight two domains - finance and sustainability - as rich sources of optimization problems that could be used to benchmark, and eventually validate, the potential real-world impact of quantum optimization.

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arXiv2024

FOCQS: Feedback Optimally Controlled Quantum States

Quantum optimization, both for classical and quantum functions, is one of the most well-studied applications of quantum computing, but recent trends have relied on hybrid methods that push much of the fine-tuning off onto costly classical algorithms. Feedback-based quantum algorithms, such as FALQON, avoid these fine-tuning problems but at the cost of additional circuit depth and a lack of convergence guarantees. In this work, we take the local greedy information collected by Lyapunov feedback control and develop an analytic framework to use it to perturbatively update previous control layers, similar to the global optimal control achievable using Pontryagin optimal control. This perturbative methodology, which we call Feedback Optimally Controlled Quantum States (FOCQS), can be used to improve the results of feedback-based algorithms, like FALQON. Furthermore, this perturbative method can be used to push smooth annealing-like control protocol closer to the control optimum, even providing and iterative approach, albeit with diminishing returns. In numerical testing, we show improvements in convergence and required depth due to these methods over existing quantum feedback control methods.

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