Novel Coherent Ising Maching

This University of Auckland (UoA) led project, supported by Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington, explores the quantum and solid state physics of a novel coherent Ising machine (CIM) implementation based on the spontaneous polarization symmetry breaking of light in a driven optical fibre resonator. A proof-of-concept prototype of the machine has recently been realised at UoA, and shown to be capable of finding the ground state of the so-called Ising model when physically emulating a network of spins with nearest neighbour coupling. Because the Ising model can be mapped to many complex combinatorial optimization problems, the novel CIM implementation could have important practical ramifications in areas where such problems arise, ranging from drug and material discovery to logistics. This project will elucidate the fundamental (quantum mechanical) foundations of the novel CIM implementation, and extends its scope of applicability to rapid Boltzmann sampling. It is closely linked to the ``Photonic emulation of quantum spin systems'' project O3.