Potts model solver based on hybrid physical and digital architecture

Abstract The Potts model describes Ising-model-like interacting spin systems with multivalued spin components, and ground-state search problems of the Potts model can be efficiently mapped onto various integer optimization problems thanks to the rich expression of the multivalued spins. Here, we demonstrate a solver of this model based on hybrid computation using physical and digital architectures, wherein a digital computer updates the interaction matrices in the iterative calculations of the physical Ising-model solvers. This update of interactions corresponds to learning from the Ising solutions, which allows us to save resources when embedding a problem in a physical system. We experimentally solved integer optimization problems (graph coloring and graph clustering) with this hybrid architecture in which the physical solver consisted of coupled degenerate optical parametric oscillators.