Error Mitigation for Quantum Approximate Optimization

Abstract: Solving optimization problems on near term quantum devices requires developing error mitigation techniques to cope with hardware decoherence and dephasing processes. We propose a mitigation technique based on the LHZ architecture. This architecture uses a redundant encoding of logical variables to solve optimization problems on fully programmable planar quantum chips. We discuss how this redundancy can be exploited to mitigate errors in quantum optimization algorithms. In the specific context of the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA), we show that errors can be significantly mitigated by appropriately modifying the objective cost function.