Solving Distance-Based Optimization Problems Using Optical Hardware

Abstract: We present a practical approach to solving distance-based optimization problems using optical computing hardware. The objective is to minimize an energy function defined as the weighted sum of squared differences between measured distances and the squared Euclidean distances of point coordinates. By representing coordinates as complex numbers, we map the optimization problem onto optical fields, enabling its solution through either the canonical transformation (CT) method or the gain-based bifurcation (GBB) method. To further enhance the performance of the CT method, we introduce two techniques: asynchronous update and steepened gradient. Both the CT and GBB methods can effectively solve the distance-based problem and are adaptable to various optical hardware platforms. Our optical implementation is inspired by recent progress in analog optical computing for combinatorial optimization, highlighting its promise for efficient and scalable problem-solving in high-dimensional settings.