Journal Article

FZJ-2025-01037

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Energy landscapes of combinatorial optimization in Ising machines

Dobrynin, D.FZJ* ; Renaudineau, A. ; Hizzani, M.FZJ* ; Strukov, D. ; Mohseni, M. ; Strachan, J. P.FZJ*

2024

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.110.045308  doi:10.34734/FZJ-2025-01037

Abstract: Physics-based Ising machines (IM) have been developed as dedicated processors for solving hard combinatorial optimization problems with higher speed and better energy efficiency. Generally, such systems employ local search heuristics to traverse energy landscapes in searching for optimal solutions. Here, we quantify and address some of the major challenges met by IMs by extending energy-landscape geometry visualization tools known as disconnectivity graphs. Using efficient sampling methods, we visually capture landscapes of problems having diverse structure and hardness manifesting as energetic and entropic barriers for IMs. We investigate energy barriers, local minima, and configuration space clustering effects caused by locality reduction methods when embedding combinatorial problems to the Ising hardware. To this end, we sample disconnectivity graphs of PUBO energy landscapes and their different QUBO mappings accounting for both local minima and saddle regions. We demonstrate that QUBO energy-landscape properties lead to the subpar performance for quadratic IMs and suggest directions for their improvement.

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Neuromorphic Compute Nodes (PGI-14)

Research Program(s):

1. 5234 - Emerging NC Architectures (POF4-523) (POF4-523)
2. 5232 - Computational Principles (POF4-523) (POF4-523)

Appears in the scientific report 2024

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Database coverage:
; ; ; Clarivate Analytics Master Journal List ; Current Contents - Electronics and Telecommunications Collection ; Current Contents - Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences ; Ebsco Academic Search ; Essential Science Indicators ; IF < 5 ; JCR ; SCOPUS ; Science Citation Index Expanded ; Web of Science Core Collection

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