Thorsten
Koch
ZIB
On the state of QUBO solving
Abstract.
It is regularly claimed that quantum computers will bring breakthrough progress in solving challenging combinatorial optimization problems relevant in practice. In particular, Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problems are said to be the model of choice for use in (adiabatic) quantum systems during the NISQ era. Even the first commercial quantum-based systems are advertised to solve such problems and QUBOs are certainly an interesting way of modeling combinatorial optimization problems. Theoretically, any Integer Program can be converted into a QUBO. In practice, however, there are some caveats. Furthermore, even for problems that can be nicely modeled as a QUBO, this might not be the most effective way to solve them. We review the state of QUBO solving on digital and Quantum computers and give some insights regarding current benchmark instances and modeling.