A QUBO Algorithm to Compute Eigenvectors of Symmetric Matrices

Abstract: We describe an algorithm to compute the extremal eigenvalues and corresponding eigenvectors of a symmetric matrix by solving a sequence of Quadratic Binary Optimization problems. This algorithm is robust across many different classes of symmetric matrices, can compute the eigenvector/eigenvalue pair to essentially arbitrary precision, and with minor modifications can also solve the generalized eigenvalue problem. Performance is analyzed on small random matrices and selected larger matrices from practical applications.