100,000-spin coherent Ising machine.

Honjo, Toshimori; Sonobe, Tomohiro; Inaba, Kensuke; Inagaki, Takahiro; Ikuta, Takuya; Yamada, Yasuhiro; Kazama, Takushi; Enbutsu, Koji et al. · Sci Adv · 2021

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Computers based on physical systems are increasingly anticipated to overcome the impending limitations on digital computer performance. One such computer is a coherent Ising machine (CIM) for solving combinatorial optimization problems. Here, we report a CIM with 100,512 degenerate optical parametric oscillator pulses working as the Ising spins. We show that the CIM delivers fine solutions to maximum cut problems of 100,000-node graphs drastically faster than standard simulated annealing. Moreover, the CIM, when operated near the phase transition point, provides some extremely good solutions and a very broad distribution. This characteristic will be useful for applications that require fast random sampling such as machine learning.