arXiv subjects

Yu Yamashiro

Publications and source records attributed to Yu Yamashiro.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Quantum hardware noise learning via differentiable Kraus representation on tensor networks

We present a method for learning quantum hardware noise from a measurement distribution of a single device experiment. Each noise channel is represented by automatically differentiable Kraus operators obtained from a Stinespring-based parameterization that is completely positive and trace preserving by construction, and circuits are simulated with a matrix product density operator forward model. Independent channels are attached to each native gate type, to each nearest-neighbor crosstalk interaction, and to state preparation and measurement, and all channels are optimized end-to-end against a distance between the simulated and observed measurement distributions. On ibm_fez, a Heron-generation superconducting processor, training on a ripple-carry adder circuit reproduces the device output distribution, and the same learned parameters, applied without retraining, also track the device distribution of an unrelated multiplier circuit, indicating that the method captures intrinsic device characteristics rather than overfitting to the training circuit. A systematic evaluation across a range of benchmark circuits confirms that this generalization is consistent. We further use the learned model to perform an offline feasibility assessment of the quantum approximate optimization algorithm with an error detection scheme, demonstrating the kind of noise-aware prediction the framework is designed to enable.

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arXiv2026

Recursive QAOA for Interference-Aware Resource Allocation in Wireless Networks

Discrete radio resource management problems in dense wireless networks are naturally cast as quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) programs but are difficult to solve at scale. We investigate a quantum-classical approach based on the Recursive Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (RQAOA), which interleaves shallow QAOA layers with variable elimination guided by measured single- and two-qubit correlators. For interference-aware channel assignment, we give a compact QUBO/Ising formulation in which pairwise interference induces same-channel couplings and one-hot constraints are enforced via quadratic penalties (or, optionally, constraint-preserving mixers). Within RQAOA, fixing high-confidence variables or relations reduces the problem dimension, stabilizes training, and concentrates measurement effort on a shrinking instance that is solved exactly once below a cutoff. On simulated instances of modest size, including a four-user, four-channel example, the method consistently returns feasible assignments and, for the demonstrated case, attains the global optimum. These results indicate that recursion can mitigate parameter growth and feasibility issues that affect plain QAOA, and suggest a viable pathway for near-term quantum heuristics in wireless resource allocation.

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arXiv2025

Enhancing NDAR with Delay-Gate-Induced Amplitude Damping

The Noise-Directed Adaptive Remapping (NDAR) method utilizes amplitude damping noise to enhance the performance of quantum optimization algorithms. NDAR alternates between exploration by sampling solutions from the quantum circuit and exploitation by transforming the cost Hamiltonian by changing the signs of its terms. Both exploration and exploitation are important components in classical heuristic algorithm design. In this study, we examine how NDAR performance improves by adjusting the balance between these components. We control the degree of exploitation by varying the delay time to 0, 50, and $100~\mu\text{s}$, and investigate exploration strategies using two quantum circuits, QAOA and a random circuit, on IBM's Heron processor. Our results show that increasing delay time in NDAR improves the best objective value found in each iteration. In single-layer QAOA and random circuits applied to unweighted Max-Cut problem with low edge density, both exploration strategies yield similar objective value trajectories and provide competitive solution quality to simulated annealing for the 80-node problem. Their similar performance indicates that, in most cases, increasing amplitude damping noise via additional delay time results in information loss. On the other hand, QAOA outperforms random circuits in specific cases, such as positive-negative weighted Max-Cut on a fully connected graph. This suggests potential advantages of QAOA in more complex settings. We further develop a classical NDAR to better understand exploration strategies, demonstrating that controlling the Hamming weight distribution of sampled bitstrings yields higher quality solutions. This suggests that identifying suitable quantum circuits for exploration could enhance NDAR performance.

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arXiv2025

Sampling-based Quantum Optimization Algorithm with Quantum Relaxation

Variational Quantum Algorithm (VQA) is a hybrid algorithm for noisy quantum devices. However, statistical fluctuations and physical noise degrade the solution quality, so it is difficult to maintain applicability for large-scale problems. In contrast, Sampling-based Quantum Algorithms have recently been successfully applied to large-scale quantum chemistry problems. The quantum device is used only for sampling, and the ground state and its energy are estimated on the classical device. In this study, we propose the Sampling-based Quantum Optimization Algorithm (SQOA). Two challenges exist in constructing a Sampling-based Quantum Algorithm for combinatorial optimization. The first challenge is that we need to encode the optimization problem in a non-diagonal Hamiltonian, even though many VQAs encode it into the Ising Hamiltonian, which is diagonal. The second challenge is that we need a method to prepare the input state to be sampled efficiently. We employ the Quantum Relaxation (QR) method for the first challenge, which encodes multiple classical variables in one qubit. It reduces required qubits compared to the Ising Hamiltonian approach. Moreover, we investigate the parameter transferability in the Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz for QR Hamiltonians for the second challenge. We show that restricting parameters to a linear form exhibits moderate transferability for 3-regular MaxCut problems, similar to transferability observed in the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm. This property allows us to efficiently prepare the input state for a large instance using the parameters from a small instance. We leveraged transferability to create input states and applied SQOA with QR to the MaxCut instances. Transferring parameters from a 20-node problem demonstrates that SQOA with QR provides high-quality solutions for 40-node problems without variational parameter optimization.

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arXiv2025

Transferring linearly fixed QAOA angles: performance and real device results

Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) enables solving combinatorial optimization problems on quantum computers by optimizing variational parameters for quantum circuits. We investigate a simplified approach that combines linear parameterization with parameter transferring, reducing the parameter space to just 4 dimensions regardless of the number of layers. This simplification draws inspiration from quantum annealing schedules providing both theoretical grounding and practical advantages. We compare this combined approach with standard QAOA and other parameter setting strategies such as INTERP and FOURIER, which require computationally demanding incremental layer-by-layer optimization. Notably, previously known methods like INTERP and FOURIER yield parameters that can be well fitted by linear functions, which supports our linearization strategy. Our analysis reveals that for the random Ising model, cost landscapes in this reduced parameter space demonstrate consistent structural patterns across different problem instances. Our experiments extend from classical simulation to actual quantum hardware implementation on IBM's Eagle processor, demonstrating the approach's viability on current NISQ devices. Furthermore, the numerical results indicate that parameter transferability primarily depends on the energy scale of problem instances, with normalization techniques improving transfer quality. Most of our numerical experiments are conducted on the random Ising model, while problem-dependence is also investigated across other models. A key advantage of parameter transferring is the complete elimination of instance-specific classical optimization overhead, as pre-trained parameters can be directly applied to other problem instances, reducing classical optimization costs by orders of magnitude for deeper circuits.

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arXiv2025

Solving Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz and Column Generation

This study proposes a hybrid quantum-classical approach to solving the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) by integrating the Column Generation (CG) method with the Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz (QAOAnsatz). The CG method divides the CVRP into the reduced master problem, which finds the best combination of the routes under the route set, and one or more subproblems, which generate the routes that would be beneficial to add to the route set. This method is iteratively refined by adding new routes identified via subproblems and continues until no improving route can be found. We leverage the QAOAnsatz to solve the subproblems. Our algorithm restricts the search space by designing the QAOAnsatz mixer Hamiltonian to enforce one-hot constraints. Moreover, to handle capacity constraints in QAOAnsatz, we employ an Augmented Lagrangian-inspired method that obviates the need for additional slack variables, reducing the required number of qubits. Experimental results on small-scale CVRP instances (up to 6 customers) show that QAOAnsatz converges more quickly to optimal routes than the standard QAOA approach, demonstrating the potential of this hybrid framework in tackling real-world logistical optimization problems on near-term quantum hardware.

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arXiv2024

Quantum Local Search for Traveling Salesman Problem with Path-Slicing Strategy

We present novel path-slicing strategies integrated with quantum local search to optimize solutions for the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), addressing the limitations of current Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) technologies. Our hybrid quantum-classical approach leverages classical path initialization and quantum optimization to effectively manage the computational challenges posed by the TSP. We explore various path slicing methods, including k-means and anti-k-means clustering, to divide the TSP into manageable subproblems. These are then solved using quantum or classical solvers. Our analysis, performed on multiple TSP instances from the TSPlib, demonstrates the ability of our strategies to achieve near-optimal solutions efficiently, highlighting significant improvements in solving efficiency and resource utilization. This approach paves the way for future applications in larger combinatorial optimization scenarios, advancing the field of quantum optimization.

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arXiv2024

Efficient Internal Strategies in Quantum Relaxation based Branch-and-Bound

A combinatorial optimization problem is to find an optimal solution under the constraints. This is one of the potential applications for quantum computers. Quantum Random Access Optimization (QRAO) is the quantum optimization algorithm that encodes multiple classical variables into a single qubit to construct a quantum Hamiltonian, thereby reducing the number of qubits required. The ground energy of the QRAO Hamiltonian provides a lower bound on the original problem's optimal value before encoding. This property allows the QRAO Hamiltonian to be used as a relaxation of the original problem, and it is thus referred to as a quantum relaxed Hamiltonian. In the Branch-and-Bound method, solving the relaxation problem plays a significant role. In this study, we developed Quantum Relaxation based Branch-and-Bound (QR-BnB), a method incorporating quantum relaxation into the Branch-and-Bound framework. We solved the MaxCut Problem and the Travelling Salesman Problem in our experiments. In all instances in this study, we obtained the optimal solution whenever we successfully computed the exact lower bound through quantum relaxation. Internal strategies, such as relaxation methods and variable selection, influence the convergence of the Branch-and-Bound. Thus, we have further developed the internal strategies for QR-BnB and examined how these strategies influence its convergence. We show that our variable selection strategy via the expectation value of the Pauli operators gives better convergence than the naive random choice. QRAO deals with only unconstrained optimization problems, but QR-BnB can handle constraints more flexibly because of the Branch-and-Bound processes on the classical computing part. We demonstrate that in our experiments with the Travelling Salesman Problem, the convergence of QR-BnB became more than three times faster by using the information in the constraints.

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arXiv2024

Linearly simplified QAOA parameters and transferability

Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) provides a way to solve combinatorial optimization problems using quantum computers. QAOA circuits consist of time evolution operators by the cost Hamiltonian and of state mixing operators, and embedded variational parameter for each operator is tuned so that the expectation value of the cost function is minimized. The optimization of the variational parameters is taken place on classical devices while the cost function is measured in the sense of quantum. To facilitate the classical optimization, there are several previous works on making decision strategies for optimal/initial parameters and on extracting similarities among instances. In our current work, we consider simplified QAOA parameters that take linear forms along with the depth in the circuit. Such a simplification, which would be suggested from an analogy to quantum annealing, leads to a drastic reduction of the parameter space from 2p to 4 dimensions with the any number of QAOA layers p. In addition, cost landscapes in the reduced parameter space have some stability on differing instances. This fact suggests that an optimal parameter set for a given instance can be transferred to other instances. In this paper we present some numerical results that are obtained for instances of the random Ising model and of the max-cut problem. The transferability of linearized parameters is demonstrated for randomly generated source and destination instances, and its dependence on features of the instances are investigated.

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arXiv2021

Two-parameter counter-diabatic driving in quantum annealing

We introduce a two-parameter approximate counter-diabatic term into the Hamiltonian of the transverse-field Ising model for quantum annealing to accelerate convergence to the solution, generalizing an existing single-parameter approach. The protocol is equivalent to unconventional diabatic control of the longitudinal and transverse fields in the transverse-field Ising model and thus makes it more feasible for experimental realization than an introduction of new terms such as non-stoquastic catalysts toward the same goal of performance enhancement. We test the idea for the $p$-spin model with $p=3$, which has a first-order quantum phase transition, and show that our two-parameter approach leads to significantly larger ground-state fidelity and lower residual energy than those by traditional quantum annealing as well as by the single-parameter method. We also find a scaling advantage in terms of the time to solution as a function of the system size in a certain range of parameters as compared to the traditional methods.

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arXiv2020

Mean-Field Solution of the Weak-Strong Cluster Problem for Quantum Annealing with Stoquastic and Non-Stoquastic Catalysts

We study the weak-strong cluster problem for quantum annealing in its mean-field version as proposed by Albash [Phys. Rev. A 99 (2019) 042334] who showed by numerical diagonalization that non-stoquastic $XX$ interactions (non-stoquastic catalysts) remove the problematic first-order phase transition. We solve the problem exactly in the thermodynamic limit by analytical methods and show that the removal of the first-order transition is successfully achieved either by stoquastic or non-stoquastic $XX$ interactions depending on whether the $XX$ interactions are introduced within the weak cluster, within the strong cluster, or between them. We also investigate the case where the interactions between the two clusters are sparse, i.e. not of the mean-field all-to-all type. The results again depend on where to introduce the $XX$ interactions. We further analyze how inhomogeneous driving of the transverse field affects the performance of the system without $XX$ interactions and find that inhomogeneity in the transverse field removes the first-order transition if appropriately implemented.

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arXiv2019

Dynamics of reverse annealing for the fully-connected $p$-spin model

Reverse annealing is a relatively new variant of quantum annealing, in which one starts from a classical state and increases and then decreases the amplitude of the transverse field, in the hope of finding a better classical state than the initial state for a given optimization problem. We numerically study the unitary quantum dynamics of reverse annealing for the mean-field-type $p$-spin model and show that the results are consistent with the predictions of equilibrium statistical mechanics. In particular, we corroborate the equilibrium analysis prediction that reverse annealing provides an exponential speedup over conventional quantum annealing in terms of solving the $p$-spin model. This lends support to the expectation that equilibrium analyses are effective at revealing essential aspects of the dynamics of quantum annealing. We also compare the results of quantum dynamics with the corresponding classical dynamics, to reveal their similarities and differences. We distinguish between two reverse annealing protocols we call adiabatic and iterated reverse annealing. We further show that iterated reverse annealing, as has been realized in the D-Wave device, is ineffective in the case of the $p$-spin model, but note that a recently-introduced protocol ("$h$-gain"), which implements adiabatic reverse annealing, may lead to improved performance.

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arXiv2018

Quantum annealing of the $p$-spin model under inhomogeneous transverse field driving

We solve the mean-field-like $p$-spin Ising model under a spatio-temporal inhomogeneous transverse field to study the effects of inhomogeneity on the performance of quantum annealing. We find that the problematic first-order quantum phase transition that arises under the conventional homogeneous field protocol can be avoided if the temperature is zero and the local field is completely turned off site by site after a finite time. When these ideal conditions are not satisfied, a new series of first-order transitions appear, which prevents us from driving the system while avoiding first-order transitions. Nevertheless, under these non-ideal conditions, quantitative improvements can be obtained in terms of narrower tunneling barriers in the free energy landscape. A comparison with classical simulated annealing establishes a limited quantum advantage in the ideal case, since inhomogeneous temperature driving in simulated annealing cannot remove a first-order transition, in contrast to the quantum case. The classical model of spin-vector Monte Carlo is also analyzed, and we find it to have the same thermodynamic phase diagram as the quantum model in the ideal case, with deviations arising at non-zero temperature.

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arXiv2018

Loop-gap Microwave Resonator for Hybrid Quantum Systems

We designed a loop-gap microwave resonator for applications of spin-based hybrid quantum systems, and tested it with impurity spins in diamond. Strong coupling with ensembles of nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers and substitutional nitrogen (P1) centers was observed. These results show that loop-gap resonators are viable in the prospect of spin-based hybrid quantum systems, especially for an ensemble quantum memory or a quantum transducer.

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arXiv2018

Exponential Speedup of Quantum Annealing by Inhomogeneous Driving of the Transverse Field

We show, for quantum annealing, that a certain type of inhomogeneous driving of the transverse field erases first-order quantum phase transitions in the p-body interacting mean-field-type model with and without longitudinal random field. Since a first-order phase transition poses a serious difficulty for quantum annealing (adiabatic quantum computing) due to the exponentially small energy gap, the removal of first-order transitions means an exponential speedup of the annealing process. The present method may serve as a simple protocol for the performance enhancement of quantum annealing, complementary to non-stoquastic Hamiltonians.

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