dimod provides a binary quadratic model (BQM) class that encodes Ising and quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) models used by samplers such as the D-Wave system.

For an introduction to BQMs, see Binary Quadratic Models.

dimod can represent BQMs with classes suited to different needs for performance and ease of use. Beginners might start with the simple Python AdjDictBQM class (dimod.BinaryQuadraticModel), and later switch to a higher-performing class with a C++ implementation.

For descriptions of all supported BQM representations, see Binary Quadratic Models.

## BQM Generation¶

The small four-node maximum cut problem shown in this figure,

Star graph with four nodes.

Can be represented, as shown in the dwave-examples Maximum Cut example, by a QUBO:

$\begin{split}Q = \begin{bmatrix} -3 & 2 & 2 & 2\\ 0 & -1 & 0 & 0\\ 0 & 0 & -1 & 0\\ 0 & 0 & 0 & -1 \end{bmatrix}\end{split}$

As mentioned above, for learning and testing with small BQMs, dimod’s Python dict representation of BQMs is convenient:

>>> qubo = {(0, 0): -3, (1, 1): -1, (0, 1): 2, (2, 2): -1,
...         (0, 2): 2, (3, 3): -1, (0, 3): 2}
>>> dict_bqm = dimod.BQM.from_qubo(qubo)


When working with large, fixed-structured BQMs, you might use dimod’s AdjArrayBQM class for performance.

>>> import numpy as np
>>> q_array = np.array([[-3.0, 2, 2, 2],
...                     [0, -1.0, 0.0, 0.0],
...                     [0, 0, -1.0, 0.0],
...                     [0, 0, 0, -1.0]])


Especially for very large BQMs, you might read the data from a file using methods, such as from_file() or others, described in the documentation of each class.

Additionally, dimod provides a variety of BQM generators.

>>> map_bqm = dimod.generators.random.ran_r(1, 7, cls=dimod.AdjVectorBQM)


## BQM Attributes¶

dimod’s BQM objects provide access to a number of attributes and views. See the documentation for a particular type of BQM class under Binary Quadratic Models.

>>> dict_bqm.shape
(4, 3)

>>> list(map_bqm.variables)
[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]


## BQM Methods¶

BQMs support a large number of methods, many common, some particular to a class, described under the documentation for each class, to enable you to build and manipulate BQMs.

>>> map_bqm.num_interactions
21
>>> map_bqm.remove_interaction(5, 6)
>>> map_bqm.num_interactions
20