Quantum-Based SMT Solving for String Theory
Beatrice Casey, Joanna C. S. Santos, Andrew Hennessee · 2025
Satisfiability Modulo Theory (SMT) solvers are a useful tool that can be applied to a variety of problems, such as configuring relationships in distributed systems, detecting race conditions, and program analysis. String constraints are particularly difficult for SMT solvers to navigate, as the search space is generally large. Often times, classical SMT solvers will have to quit generating a solution for string constraints because it takes too long to find the solution. Quantum computing offers the advantages of quantum mechanics (e.g., superposition), which allows a system to explore a large search space much more efficiently. In this work, we explore creating a quantum-enabled SMT solver for string theory by using quantum annealing and Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO). Our preliminary results demonstrate that it is feasible to transform these string constraints to QUBO, and generate solutions for given constraints.