Early Experiences with a Photonic Quantum Simulator for Solving Job Shop Scheduling Problem

Abstract

Quantum computing is a rapidly developing technology that, in theory, can solve complex computational problems practically intractable for classical computers. Although the technology offers promising breakthroughs, it is only in the early stages of development, and various quantum computer architectures are emerging. One such new development is the photonic quantum computer. Since the work on discrete optimization using different quantum computer architectures is well studied, in this paper, we experiment with solving a toy instance of the Job-Shop Scheduling problem using a hybrid learning algorithm on a photonic quantum computer simulator. The promising results, combined with some highly desirable properties of photonic quantum computers, show that this new architecture is worth considering for further development and investment in the quantum technology landscape.