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Variational quantum eigensolver approach to prime factorization on IBM's noisy intermediate scale quantum computer

Mona Sobhani1,2, Yahui Chai1,*, Tobias Hartung3, and Karl Jansen1,4

  • *Contact author: yahui.chai@desy.de
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Phys. Rev. A 111, 042413 – Published 8 April, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.111.042413

Abstract

This paper presents a hybrid quantum-classical approach to prime factorization. The proposed algorithm is based on the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE), which employs a classical optimizer to find the ground state of a given Hamiltonian. A numerical study is presented, evaluating the performance of the proposed method across various instances on both IBM's real quantum computer and its classical simulator. The results demonstrate that the method is capable of successfully factorizing numbers up to 253 on a real quantum computer and up to 1 048 561 on a classical simulator. These findings show the potential of the approach for practical applications on near-term quantum computers.

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Information

Phys. Rev. A 111, 042413– Published 8 April, 2025
  • Received 18 October 2024
  • Accepted 3 March 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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