ABSTRACT
Ramsey theory is a highly active research area in mathematics that studies the emergence of order in large disordered structures. Ramsey numbers mark the threshold at which order first appears and are extremely difficult to calculate due to their explosive rate of growth. Recently, an algorithm that can be implemented using adiabatic quantum evolution has been proposed that calculates the two-color Ramsey numbers R(m,n). Here we present results of an experimental implementation of this algorithm and show that it correctly determines the Ramsey numbers R(3,3) and R(m,2) for 4≤m≤8. The R(8,2) computation used 84 qubits of which 28 were computational qubits. This computation is the largest experimental implementation of a scientifically meaningful adiabatic evolution algorithm that has been done to date.
ABSTRACT
The graph-theoretic Ramsey numbers are notoriously difficult to calculate. In fact, for the two-color Ramsey numbers R(m,n) with m, n≥3, only nine are currently known. We present a quantum algorithm for the computation of the Ramsey numbers R(m,n). We show how the computation of R(m,n) can be mapped to a combinatorial optimization problem whose solution can be found using adiabatic quantum evolution. We numerically simulate this adiabatic quantum algorithm and show that it correctly determines the Ramsey numbers R(3,3) and R(2,s) for 5≤s≤7. We then discuss the algorithm's experimental implementation, and close by showing that Ramsey number computation belongs to the quantum complexity class quantum Merlin Arthur.
