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We investigate the use of amplitude amplification on the gate-based model of quantum computing as a means for solving combinatorial optimization problems. This study focuses primarily on QUBO (quadratic unconstrained binary optimization) problems, which are well-suited for qubit superposition states. Specifically, we demonstrate circuit designs which encode QUBOs as `cost oracle' operations $U_{\textrm{C}}$, which when combined with the standard Grover diffusion operator $U_{\textrm{s}}$ lead to high probabilities of measurement for states corresponding to the optimal and near optimal solutions. In order to achieve these probabilities, a single scalar parameter $p_{\textrm{s}}$ is required, which we show can be found through a variational quantum-classical hybrid approach.

We develop and implement two realizations of quantum graph neural networks (QGNN), applied to the task of particle interaction simulation. The first QGNN is a speculative quantum-classical hybrid learning model that relies on the ability to directly utilize superposition states as classical information to propagate information between particles. The second is an implementable quantum-classical hybrid learning model that propagates particle information directly through the parameters of $RX$ rotation gates. A classical graph neural network (CGNN) is also trained in the same task. Both the Speculative QGNN and CGNN act as controls against the Implementable QGNN. Comparison between classical and quantum models is based on the loss value and accuracy of each model. Overall, each model had a high learning efficiency, in which the loss value rapidly approached zero during training; however, each model was moderately inaccurate. Comparing performances, our results show that the Implementable QGNN has a potential advantage over the CGNN. Additionally, we show that a slight alteration in hyperparameters in the CGNN notably improves accuracy, suggesting that further fine tuning could mitigate the issue of moderate inaccuracy in each model.

We study quantum computing algorithms for solving certain constrained resource allocation problems we coin as Mission Covering Optimization (MCO). We compare formulations of constrained optimization problems using Quantum Annealing techniques and the Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz (Hadfield et al. arXiv:1709.03489v2, a generalized algorithm of the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm, Farhi et al. arXiv:1411.4028v1) on D-Wave and IBM machines respectively using the following metrics: cost, timing, constraints held, and qubits used. We provide results from two different MCO scenarios and analyze results., Comment: 14 page, 9 figure

We examine information loss, resource costs, and run time from practical application of quantum data compression. Compressing quantum data to fewer qubits enables efficient use of resources, as well as applications for quantum communication and denoising. In this context, we provide a description of the quantum and classical components of the hybrid quantum autoencoder algorithm, implemented using IBM's Qiskit language. Utilizing our own data sets, we encode bitmap images as quantum superposition states, which correspond to linearly independent vectors with density matrices of discrete values. We successfully compress this data with near-lossless compression using simulation, and then run our algorithm on an IBMQ quantum chip. We describe conditions and run times for compressing our data on quantum devices., Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures

We study an oracle operation, along with its circuit design, which combined with the Grover diffusion operator boosts the probability of finding minimum or maximum solutions on a weighted directed graph. We focus on a geometry of sequentially connected bipartite graphs, which naturally gives rise to solution spaces describable by gaussian distributions. We then demonstrate how an oracle which encodes these distributions can be used to solve for the optimal path via amplitude amplification. And finally, we explore the degree to which this algorithm is capable of solving cases which are generated using randomized weights, as well as a theoretical application for solving the Traveling Salesman problem.