Quantum-inspired classical algorithm for graph problems by Gaussian boson sampling

We present a quantum-inspired classical algorithm that can be used for graph-theoretical problems, such as finding the densest $k$-subgraph and finding the maximum weight clique, which are proposed as applications of a Gaussian boson sampler. The main observation from Gaussian boson samplers is that a given graph's adjacency matrix to be encoded in a Gaussian boson sampler is nonnegative, which does not necessitate quantum interference. We first provide how to program a given graph problem into our efficient classical algorithm. We then numerically compare the performance of ideal and lossy Gaussian boson samplers, our quantum-inspired classical sampler, and the uniform sampler for finding the densest $k$-subgraph and finding the maximum weight clique and show that the advantage from Gaussian boson samplers is not significant in general. We finally discuss the potential advantage of a Gaussian boson sampler over the proposed sampler.