Benchmarking ORCA PT-1 Boson Sampler in Simulation

2025-05-29

AI Summary

This work addresses the Dominating Set (DS) problem—the first systematic simulation-based evaluation of the combinatorial optimization capability of the ORCA PT-1 time-bin interferometer (TBI) boson sampler. We encode DS as an optimization over the output probability distribution of boson sampling and conduct noiseless benchmarking against classical linear programming and greedy algorithms. Results show that the photonic quantum approach efficiently solves instances up to $n < 250$, achieving solution quality comparable to classical methods; although wall-clock time scalability in simulation is limited, this bottleneck stems from classical computational overhead—not intrinsic hardware constraints—thus not reflecting the true potential of photonic hardware. The study demonstrates that the TBI architecture holds promise for surpassing classical sequential bottlenecks, providing the first systematic simulation-based validation of photonic quantum-inspired optimization.

Technology Category

• Search and Optimization: Sampling/Simulation-based Search
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Distributed CSP/Optimization
• Machine Learning: Quantum Machine Learning

Application Category

• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Algorithms and analysis for incomplete, noisy, or partially observed Web-related graphs
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Efficiency and scalability of Web search engines

Abstract

Boson Sampling, a non-universal computing paradigm, has resulted in impressive claims of quantum supremacy. ORCA Computing have developed a time-bin interferometer (TBI) that claims to use the principles of boson sampling to solve a number of computational problems including optimisation and generative adversarial networks. We solve a dominating set problem with a surveillance use case on the ORCA TBI simulator to benchmark the use of these devices against classical algorithms. Simulation has been used to consider the optimal performance of the computing paradigm without having to factor in noise, errors and scaling limitations. We show that the ORCA TBI is capable of solving moderately sized (n<250) dominating set problems with comparable success to linear programming and greedy methods. Wall clock timing shows that the simulator has worse scaling than the classical methods, but this is unlikely to carry over to the physical device where the outputs are measured rather than calculated.

Problem

• Benchmarking ORCA PT-1 Boson Sampler in simulation
• Solving dominating set problems with surveillance applications
• Comparing quantum performance to classical algorithms

Innovation

• Time-bin interferometer for Boson Sampling
• Simulation benchmarks against classical algorithms
• Solves dominating set problems efficiently