100,000-spin coherent Ising machine

Sci Adv. 2021 Oct;7(40):eabh0952. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abh0952. Epub 2021 Sep 29.

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.