An Enhanced (Margin-based) Quantum Annealing Approach to Phase-Unwrap SAR Images

The focus of this work is to explore the use of quantum annealing solvers for the problem of phase unwrapping of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. Our approach involves formulating the problem as a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problem, which can be solved on a quantum annealer. Given that present embodiments of quantum annealers remain limited in the number of qubits they possess, we decompose the problem into a set of subproblems that can be solved individually. These individual solutions are close to optimal up to an integer constant. In a second phase, these integer constants are determined as a solution to yet another QUBO problem. In this work, we present a margin-based extension of the approach discussed above. We also present its performance under a variety of QUBO solvers including DWave’s 2000Q 6.