Efficient optimization with higher-order Ising machines

Abstract A prominent approach to solving combinatorial optimization problems on parallel hardware is Ising machines, i.e., hardware implementations of networks of interacting binary spin variables. Most Ising machines leverage second-order interactions although important classes of optimization prob...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Connor Bybee, Denis Kleyko, Dmitri E. Nikonov, Amir Khosrowshahi, Bruno A. Olshausen, Friedrich T. Sommer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2023-09-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41214-9
Description
Summary:Abstract A prominent approach to solving combinatorial optimization problems on parallel hardware is Ising machines, i.e., hardware implementations of networks of interacting binary spin variables. Most Ising machines leverage second-order interactions although important classes of optimization problems, such as satisfiability problems, map more seamlessly to Ising networks with higher-order interactions. Here, we demonstrate that higher-order Ising machines can solve satisfiability problems more resource-efficiently in terms of the number of spin variables and their connections when compared to traditional second-order Ising machines. Further, our results show on a benchmark dataset of Boolean k-satisfiability problems that higher-order Ising machines implemented with coupled oscillators rapidly find solutions that are better than second-order Ising machines, thus, improving the current state-of-the-art for Ising machines.
ISSN:2041-1723