Seminar | Vicente P. Soloviev & Jacobo Padín

Title: Pauli Correlation Encoding for Scalable Quantum Optimization: Analysis, constraints, and use cases Speakers: Vicente P. Soloviev (Principal Researcher) and Jacobo Padin Martinez (Quantum Computing Scientist) Abstract: Advances in quantum computing are opening new opportunities for solving complex optimization problems that challenge classical methods, especially in finance. This webinar presents two complementary lines of research that push the boundaries of quantum optimization in realistic settings. First, we show how a gate‑based variational quantum algorithm can be applied to large‑scale portfolio optimization by assigning multiple assets to each qubit using Pauli Correlation Encoding (PCE). This enables the treatment of portfolios with more than 250 variables—far beyond the limits of conventional one‑hot encodings—by clustering highly correlated assets and optimizing them through a hybrid quantum–classical workflow. Building on this, we explore how PCE can be extended to general constrained combinatorial optimization problems. While standard PCE struggles to enforce constraints reliably, we introduce an Iterative‑PCE method that significantly improves solution quality and constraint satisfaction across a wide range of problem sizes. Together, these results demonstrate both the challenges and the promise of PCE‑based techniques, highlighting scalable strategies for applying gate‑based quantum algorithms to meaningful real‑world optimization tasks in the NISQ era. Registration: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/5a04ea97-3a2c-4689-97d5-c4a3c16a1ff0@8f0d452c-b7a4-4964-b810-8c397374477b