← 研踪 PaperTrailarXiv:2611.10529 · v1
Beyond the Mean Gap: What Transferred-Angle QAOA Retains on a Superconducting Processor
首次提交 2026-11-07 15:00
版本更新 2026-11-07 15:00
雷达观测 2026-11-10 11:14
摘要
Hardware executions of the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) are often validated by comparing the device's mean cost with a simulation, a check that can miss what matters for optimization. Under global depolarization, the mean normalized gap and the floor-corrected probability of every set of bitstrings, the optimum included, retain the same fraction of their noiseless improvement over uniform sampling. We test this prediction with depth-2, transferred-angle QAOA circuits for binary subproblems of an alternating-direction decomposition on the IBM Heron processor \texttt{ibm\_marrakesh}, with and without dynamical decoupling and twirling. At 12 qubits, the main-family circuits retained 29\% to 46\% of their mean-gap improvement but only 5\% to 15\% of their probability of the optimum, lower on at least nine of ten instances per run. Near-optimal bitstrings were lost about as much as the optimum, whereas the avoidance of poor bitstrings was retained best. In the first submission, a device-matched noise model reproduced the pattern but overestimated the retention of the optimum five- to eightfold. On a rugged planted family, the device found the optimum in 62\% of 768-shot blocks (noiseless: 98\%), within the range of local heuristics. Validations of optimization circuits should report retention of the optimum and of near-optimal sets.
观测到的版本
相邻记录可能跳过中间版本；首次发现 v2 及以上也会标为版本更新。
v2 · 2026-11-11 02:42 · 最新观测版本
Beyond the Mean Gap: What Transferred-Angle QAOA Retains on a Superconducting Processor
Hardware executions of the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) are often validated by comparing the device's mean cost with a simulation, a check that can miss what matters for optimization. Under global depolarization, the mean normalized gap and the floor-corrected probability of every set of bitstrings, the optimum included, retain the same fraction of their noiseless improvement over uniform sampling. We test this prediction with depth-2, transferred-angle QAOA circuits for binary subproblems of an alternating-direction decomposition on the IBM Heron processor \texttt{ibm\_marrakesh}, with and without dynamical decoupling and twirling. At 12 qubits, the main-family circuits retained 29\% to 46\% of their mean-gap improvement but only 5\% to 15\% of their probability of the optimum, lower on at least nine of ten instances per run. Near-optimal bitstrings were lost about as much as the optimum, whereas the avoidance of poor bitstrings was retained best. In the first submission, a device-matched noise model reproduced the pattern but overestimated the retention of the optimum five- to eightfold. On a rugged planted family, the device found the optimum in 62\% of 768-shot blocks (noiseless: 98\%), within the range of local heuristics. Validations of optimization circuits should report retention of the optimum and of near-optimal sets.
查看此版本解读 →查看此版本原文 ↗v1 · 2026-11-07 15:00
Beyond the Mean Gap: What Transferred-Angle QAOA Retains on a Superconducting Processor
Hardware executions of the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) are often validated by comparing the device's mean cost with a simulation, a check that can miss what matters for optimization. Under global depolarization, the mean normalized gap and the floor-corrected probability of every set of bitstrings, the optimum included, retain the same fraction of their noiseless improvement over uniform sampling. We test this prediction with depth-2, transferred-angle QAOA circuits for binary subproblems of an alternating-direction decomposition on the IBM Heron processor \texttt{ibm\_marrakesh}, with and without dynamical decoupling and twirling. At 12 qubits, the main-family circuits retained 29\% to 46\% of their mean-gap improvement but only 5\% to 15\% of their probability of the optimum, lower on at least nine of ten instances per run. Near-optimal bitstrings were lost about as much as the optimum, whereas the avoidance of poor bitstrings was retained best. In the first submission, a device-matched noise model reproduced the pattern but overestimated the retention of the optimum five- to eightfold. On a rugged planted family, the device found the optimum in 62\% of 768-shot blocks (noiseless: 98\%), within the range of local heuristics. Validations of optimization circuits should report retention of the optimum and of near-optimal sets.
查看此版本解读 →查看此版本原文 ↗