On the Effect of Quantum Noise in Quantum Genetic Algorithms

In recent years, quantum computing is finding strong application in the development of new evolutionary algorithms. This is mainly due to the intrinsic parallelism induced by this new computational paradigm, which fits well with the structure of population-based optimization algorithms. However, the pioneering nature of quantum hardware makes quantum computations still suffer from noise that affects their accuracy and precision. This study aims to analyze the effect of this noise on quantum genetic algorithms and to quantify how much this can destroy or enhance the guided search of these algorithms in the search space. In detail, the proposed paper introduces a systematic study that assess the effects of quantum noise in a genetic algorithm equipped with a quantum recombination operator, formally known as the Quantum Mating Operator, when applied to solving a well-known optimization problem such as the 01 knapsack.