A Quantum Approach to the Discretizable Molecular Distance Geometry Problem

TL;DR

This paper introduces a quantum algorithm leveraging Grover's search to efficiently solve the Discretizable Molecular Distance Geometry Problem, demonstrating its potential on IBM quantum hardware.

Contribution

It presents the first quantum approach to the DMDGP using Grover's algorithm, offering a more efficient alternative to classical brute-force methods.

Findings

Successful implementation on IBM quantum computers

Quantum approach reduces computational complexity

Proof-of-concept with small noisy qubits

Abstract

The Discretizable Molecular Distance Geometry Problem (DMDGP) aims to determine the three-dimensional protein structure using distance information from nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. The DMDGP has a finite number of candidate solutions and can be solved by combinatorial methods. We describe a quantum approach to the DMDGP by using Grover's algorithm with an appropriate oracle function, which is more efficient than classical methods that use brute force. We show computational results by implementing our scheme on IBM quantum computers with a small number of noisy qubits.