Routing-Aware Placement for Zoned Neutral Atom-based Quantum Computing

2025-05-28

AI Summary

In neutral-atom quantum computers, the decoupled layout and routing phases incur excessive atom rearrangement overhead. Method: This paper proposes the first routing-aware atomic layout method, jointly optimizing rearrangement step count and displacement distance while supporting motion-compatible parallel rearrangement. Implemented via an A* search algorithm, it is integrated into the open-source MQT qmap compiler. Contribution/Results: Experiments demonstrate an average 17% reduction in rearrangement time, with up to 49% improvement in optimal cases, significantly enhancing circuit execution efficiency. The core innovation lies in breaking the conventional sequential “layout-then-routing” paradigm by explicitly modeling routing feasibility during layout generation and enabling joint optimization—marking the first such approach in neutral-atom quantum compilation.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Planning with Language Models
• Machine Learning: Quantum Machine Learning
• Search and Optimization: Algorithm Configuration

Application Category

• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Incentives in network design for Web infrastructures and ecosystems

Abstract

Quantum computing promises to solve previously intractable problems, with neutral atoms emerging as a promising technology. Zoned neutral atom architectures allow for immense parallelism and higher coherence times by shielding idling atoms from interference with laser beams. However, in addition to hardware, successful quantum computation requires sophisticated software support, particularly compilers that optimize quantum algorithms for hardware execution. In the compilation flow for zoned neutral atom architectures, the effective interplay of the placement and routing stages decides the overhead caused by rearranging the atoms during the quantum computation. Sub-optimal placements can lead to unnecessary serialization of the rearrangements in the subsequent routing stage. Despite this, all existing compilers treat placement and routing independently thus far - focusing solely on minimizing travel distances. This work introduces the first routing-aware placement method to address this shortcoming. It groups compatible movements into parallel rearrangement steps to minimize both rearrangement steps and travel distances. The implementation utilizing the A* algorithm reduces the rearrangement time by 17% on average and by 49% in the best case compared to the state-of-the-art. The complete code is publicly available in open-source as part of the Munich Quantum Toolkit (MQT) at https://github.com/munich-quantum-toolkit/qmap.

Problem

• Optimizes quantum algorithm compilation for zoned neutral atom architectures
• Reduces rearrangement overhead by integrating placement and routing stages
• Minimizes both rearrangement steps and travel distances simultaneously

Innovation

• Routing-aware placement for zoned neutral atoms
• Groups compatible movements into parallel steps
• Uses A* algorithm to reduce rearrangement time