Light-Cone Algorithm Shatters Classical Performance on Quantum Computing

Researchers at RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences and Peking University have developed a new algorithm called 'light-cone' that boosts performance on the MaxCut problem, a challenging optimization task for quantum computers.

The light-cone variational quantum algorithm (VQA) achieves an approximation ratio of 0.7926 for the MaxCut problem on 3-regular graphs with a single round, outperforming current Variational Quantum Algorithms like QAOA and classical approaches such as the Goemans-Williamson algorithm.

Experiments on IBM's quantum devices demonstrate that the light-cone VQA surpasses known classical hardness thresholds in both 72- and 148-qubit demonstrations, while QAOA fails on the 148-qubit system.