Nested dissection using quantum annealing

Master Thesis (2025)
Author(s)

G.A.J. Custers (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)

Contributor(s)

RE Kooij – Mentor (TU Delft - Quantum & Computer Engineering)

Stan van der Linde – Graduation committee member (TNO)

Robert Wezeman – Mentor (TNO)

Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
More Info
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Publication Year
2025
Language
English
Graduation Date
17-04-2025
Awarding Institution
Delft University of Technology
Programme
['Computer Engineering']
Sponsors
TNO
Faculty
Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
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Abstract

Direct methods to solve systems of equations are a building block of any application involving numerical analysis. While the performance characteristics of dense systems are predictable, sparse systems can have large deviations in running time depending on the order in which Gaussian elimination is applied. Finding the order that results in the lowest running time is in general an NP-Hard problem. Nested dissection is a popular divide and conquer heuristic algorithm used by several numerical solvers. At the heart of nested dissection is the minimum vertex separator problem, an NP-Hard problem. Recent years have seen rapid development of quantum annealers, a class of quantum computers designed to solve optimization problems. This thesis investigates the possible role of quantum annealers as a method to improve elimination orderings produced by nested dissection.

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