End-to-end protocol for high-quality quantum approximate optimization algorithm parameters with few shots

The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) is a quantum heuristic for combinatorial optimization that has been demonstrated to scale better than state-of-the-art classical solvers for some problems. For a given problem instance, QAOA performance depends crucially on the choice of the para...

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Published in:Physical review research Vol. 7; no. 3; p. 033179
Main Authors: Hao, Tianyi, He, Zichang, Shaydulin, Ruslan, Larson, Jeffrey, Pistoia, Marco
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States American Physical Society (APS) 21.08.2025
American Physical Society
Subjects:
quantum algorithms & computation
quantum computation
ISSN:2643-1564, 2643-1564
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Abstract The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) is a quantum heuristic for combinatorial optimization that has been demonstrated to scale better than state-of-the-art classical solvers for some problems. For a given problem instance, QAOA performance depends crucially on the choice of the parameters. While average-case optimal parameters are available in many cases, meaningful performance gains can be obtained by fine-tuning these parameters for a given instance. This task is especially challenging, however, when the number of circuit executions (shots) is limited. In this work, we develop an end-to-end protocol that combines multiple parameter settings and fine-tuning techniques. We use large-scale numerical experiments to optimize the protocol for the shot-limited setting and observe that optimizers with the simplest internal model (linear) perform best. We implement the optimized pipeline on a trapped-ion processor using up to 32 qubits and 5 QAOA layers, and we demonstrate that the pipeline is robust to small amounts of hardware noise. To the best of our knowledge, these are the largest demonstrations of QAOA parameter fine-tuning on a trapped-ion processor in terms of two-qubit gate count.
AbstractList The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) is a quantum heuristic for combinatorial optimization that has been demonstrated to scale better than state-of-the-art classical solvers for some problems. For a given problem instance, QAOA performance depends crucially on the choice of the parameters. While average-case optimal parameters are available in many cases, meaningful performance gains can be obtained by fine-tuning these parameters for a given instance. This task is especially challenging, however, when the number of circuit executions (shots) is limited. In this work, we develop an end-to-end protocol that combines multiple parameter settings and fine-tuning techniques. We use large-scale numerical experiments to optimize the protocol for the shot-limited setting and observe that optimizers with the simplest internal model (linear) perform best. We implement the optimized pipeline on a trapped-ion processor using up to 32 qubits and 5 QAOA layers, and we demonstrate that the pipeline is robust to small amounts of hardware noise. To the best of our knowledge, these are the largest demonstrations of QAOA parameter fine-tuning on a trapped-ion processor in terms of two-qubit gate count.
ArticleNumber 033179
Author He, Zichang
Hao, Tianyi
Larson, Jeffrey
Shaydulin, Ruslan
Pistoia, Marco
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Snippet The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) is a quantum heuristic for combinatorial optimization that has been demonstrated to scale better than...
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SubjectTerms quantum algorithms & computation
quantum computation
Title End-to-end protocol for high-quality quantum approximate optimization algorithm parameters with few shots
URI https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/2589337
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