Variational quantum algorithms (VQAs) are expected to become a practical application of near-term noisy quantum computers. Although the effect of the noise crucially determines whether a VQA works or not, the heuristic nature of VQAs makes it difficult to establish analytic theories. Analytic estimations of the impact of the noise are urgent for searching for quantum advantages, as numerical simulations of noisy quantum computers on classical computers are heavy and quite limited to small scale problems. In this paper, we establish analytic estimations of the error in the cost function of VQAs due to the noise. The estimations are applicable to any typical VQAs under the Gaussian noise, which is equivalent to a class of stochastic noise models. Notably, the depolarizing noise is included in this model. As a result, we obtain estimations of the noise level to guarantee a required precision. Our formulae show how the Hessian of the cost function, the spectrum of the target operator, and the geometry of the ansatz affect the sensitivity to the noise. This insight implies trade-off relations between the trainability and the noise resilience of the cost function. We also obtain rough estimations which can be easily calculated without detailed information of the cost function. As a highlight of the applications of the formula, we propose a quantum error mitigation method which is different from the extrapolation and the probabilistic error cancellation.
We analyze a binary classification problem by using a support vector machine based on variational quantum-circuit model. We propose to solve a linear equation of the support vector machine by using a $Γ$ matrix expansion. In addition, it is shown that an arbitrary quantum state is prepared by optimizing a universal quantum circuit representing an arbitrary $U(2^N)$ based on the steepest descent method. It may be a quantum generalization of Field-Programmable-Gate Array (FPGA).
We apply the variational method to obtain the universal and analytical lower bounds for parameter precision in some noisy systems. We first derive a lower bound for phase precision in lossy optical interferometry at non-zero temperature. Then we consider the effect of both amplitude damping and phase diffusion on phase-shift precision. At last, we extend the constant phase estimation to the case of continuous fluctuating phase estimation, and find that due to photon losses the corresponding mean square error transits from the stochastic Heisenberg limit to the stochastic standard quantum limit…
Variational quantum algorithms dominate contemporary gate-based quantum enhanced optimisation, eigenvalue estimation and machine learning. Here we establish the quantum computational universality of variational quantum computation by developing two objective functions which minimise to prepare outputs of arbitrary quantum circuits. The fleeting resource of variational quantum computation is the number of expected values which must be iteratively minimised using classical-to-quantum outer loop optimisation. An efficient solution to this optimisation problem is given by the quantum circuit being…
Quantum computing brings a promise of new approaches into computational quantum chemistry. While universal, fault-tolerant quantum computers are still not available, we want to utilize today's noisy quantum processors. One of their flagship applications is the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) -- an algorithm to calculate the minimum energy of a physical Hamiltonian. In this study, we investigate how various types of errors affect the VQE, and how to efficiently use the available resources to produce precise computational results. We utilize a simulator of a noisy quantum device, an exact …
Sub-universal variational circuits for combinatorial optimization problems
Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA（科罗拉多大学博尔德分校物理系）；University of Technology Sydney, Centre for Quantum Software（悉尼技术大学量子软件中心）；Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA（科罗拉多大学博尔德分校电气、计算机与能源工程系）
We present a basis-set-free approach to the variational quantum eigensolver using an adaptive representation of the spatial part of molecular wavefunctions. Our approach directly determines system-specific representations of qubit Hamiltonians while fully omitting globally defined basis sets. In this work, we use directly determined pair-natural orbitals on the level of second-order perturbation theory. This results in compact qubit Hamiltonians with high numerical accuracy. We demonstrate initial applications with compact Hamiltonians on up to 20 qubits where conventional representation would…
In this work, we reveal a new type of impossibility discovered in our recent research which forbids comparing the closeness of multiple unknown quantum states with any non-trivial threshold in a perfect or an unambiguous way. This impossibility is distinct from the existing impossibilities in that it is a "collective" impossibility on multiple quantum states while most other "no-go" theorems concern with only one single state each time, i.e., it is an impossibility on a non-local quantum operation. This novel impossibility may provide a new insight into the nature of quantum mechanics and it i…
Error Propagation Theory for Variational Non-Markovian Open Quantum Dynamics
Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学微尺度物质科学国家研究中心）；State Key Laboratory of Porous Materials for Separation and Conversion & MOE Key Laboratory of Computational Physical Sciences & Department of Chemistry, Fudan University（复旦大学化学系多孔材料分离转化国家重点实验室及计算物理科学教育部重点实验室）；Hefei National Laboratory（合肥国家实验室）
University of British Columbia（不列颠哥伦比亚大学）；Technische Universität Darmstadt（达姆施塔特工业大学）；Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute（斯图尔特·布吕松量子物质研究所）
Machine learning is considered to be one of the most promising applications of quantum computing. Therefore, the search for quantum advantage of the quantum analogues of machine learning models is a key research goal. Here, we show that variational quantum classifiers and support vector machines with quantum kernels can solve a classification problem based on the $k$-Forrelation problem, which is known to be PromiseBQP-complete. Because the PromiseBQP complexity class includes all Bounded-Error Quantum Polynomial-Time (BQP) decision problems, our results imply that there exists a feature map a…
High-Precision Variational Quantum SVD via Classical Orthogonality Correction
Osaka University（大阪大学）；RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS)（理化学研究所计算科学中心）；Japan Atomic Energy Agency（日本原子能研究开发机构）；RIKEN Center for Quantum Computing (RQC)（理化学研究所量子计算中心）；RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR)（理化学研究所先锋研究集群）；RIKEN Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Science Program (iTHEMS)（理化学所跨学科理论与数学科学项目）
Any unitary transformation can be decomposed into a product of a group of near-trivial transformations. We investigate in details the construction of universal quantum circuit of near trivial transformations. We first construct two universal quantum circuits which can implement any single-qubit rotation $R_y(θ)$ and $R_z(θ)$ within any given precision, and then we construct universal quantum circuit implementing any single-qubit transformation within any given precision. Finally, a universal quantum circuit implementing any $n$-qubit near-trivial transformation is constructed using the univers…
Institute for Advanced Study（高等研究院）；Samsung Research（三星研究院）；Korea Institute for Advanced Study（韩国高等研究院）；Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology（韩国科学技术院）
We explore the effectiveness of variational quantum circuits in simulating the ground states of quantum many-body Hamiltonians. We show that generic high-depth circuits, performing a sequence of layer unitaries of the same form, can accurately approximate the desired states. We demonstrate their universal success by using two Hamiltonian systems with very different properties: the transverse field Ising model and the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model. The energy landscape of the high-depth circuits has a proper structure for the gradient-based optimization, i.e. the presence of local extrema -- near any…
We address local quantum estimation of bilinear Hamiltonians probed by Gaussian states. We evaluate the relevant quantum Fisher information (QFI) and derive the ultimate bound on precision. Upon maximizing the QFI we found that single- and two-mode squeezed vacuum represent an optimal and universal class of probe states, achieving the so-called Heisenberg limit to precision in terms of the overall energy of the probe. We explicitly obtain the optimal observable based on the symmetric logarithmic derivative and also found that homodyne detection assisted by Bayesian analysis may achieve estimat…
Parameterized quantum circuits are a promising technology for achieving a quantum advantage. An important application is the variational simulation of time evolution of quantum systems. To make the most of quantum hardware, variational algorithms need to be as hardware-efficient as possible. Here we present alternatives to the time-dependent variational principle that are hardware-efficient and do not require matrix inversion. In relation to imaginary time evolution, our approach significantly reduces the hardware requirements. With regards to real time evolution, where high precision can be i…
The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) is a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm that seeks to achieve approximate solutions to optimization problems by iteratively alternating between intervals of controlled quantum evolution. Here, we examine the effect of analog precision errors on QAOA performance both from the perspective of algorithmic training and canonical state- and observable-dependent QAOA-relevant metrics. Leveraging cumulant expansions, we recast the faulty QAOA as a control problem in which precision errors are expressed as multiplicative control noise and derive bou…
Time is a valuable resource and it seems intuitive that longer time should lead to better precision in Hamiltonian parameter estimation. However recent studies have put this intuition into question, showing longer time may even lead to worse estimation in certain cases. Here we show that the intuition can be restored if coherent feedback controls are included. By deriving asymptotically optimal feedback controls we present a quantification of the maximal improvement feedback controls can provide in Hamiltonian parameter estimation and show a universal time scaling for the precision limit of Ha…
Distributed variational quantum computing with deterministic entanglement tuning
Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)（韩国科学技术院）；Kyung Hee University（庆熙大学）；Korea University of Science and Technology（韩国科学技术院）；Korea Institute for Advanced Study（韩国高等研究院）；Korea University（高丽大学）
The minimum achievable statistical uncertainty in the estimation of physical parameters is determined by the quantum Fisher information. Its computation for noisy systems is still a challenging problem. Using a variational approach, we present an equation for obtaining the quantum Fisher information, which has an explicit dependence on the mathematical description of the noise. This method is applied to obtain a useful analytical bound to the quantum precision in the estimation of phase-shifts under phase diffusion, which shows that the estimation uncertainty cannot be smaller than a noise-dep…
Variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) emerged as a first practical algorithm for near-term quantum computers. Its success largely relies on the chosen variational ansatz, corresponding to a quantum circuit that prepares an approximate ground state of a Hamiltonian. Typically, it either aims to achieve high representation accuracy (at the expense of circuit depth), or uses a shallow circuit sacrificing the convergence to the exact ground state energy. Here, we propose the approach which can combine both low depth and improved precision, capitalizing on a genetically-improved ansatz for hardware…
Universal Precision Limits in General Open Quantum Systems
Center for Gravitational Physics and Quantum Information, Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University（京都大学汤川理论物理研究所引力物理与量子信息中心）；Department of Physics, Kyoto University（京都大学物理学系）
We address estimation of the minimum length arising from gravitational theories. In particular, we provide bounds on precision and assess the use of quantum probes to enhance the estimation performances. At first, we review the concept of minimum length and show how it induces a perturbative term appearing in the Hamiltonian of any quantum system, which is proportional to a parameter depending on the minimum length. We then systematically study the effects of this perturbation on different state preparations for several 1-dimensional systems, and we evaluate the Quantum Fisher Information in o…
The problem of finding the ground state energy of a Hamiltonian using a quantum computer is currently solved using either the quantum phase estimation (QPE) or variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithms. For precision $ε$, QPE requires $O(1)$ repetitions of circuits with depth $O(1/ε)$, whereas each expectation estimation subroutine within VQE requires $O(1/ε^{2})$ samples from circuits with depth $O(1)$. We propose a generalised VQE algorithm that interpolates between these two regimes via a free parameter $α\in[0,1]$ which can exploit quantum coherence over a circuit depth of $O(1/ε^α)…
The emerging field of quantum simulation of many-body systems is widely recognized as a very important application of quantum computing. A crucial step towards its realization in the context of many-electron systems requires a rigorous quantum mechanical treatment of the different interactions. In this pilot study, we investigate the physical effects beyond the mean-field approximation, known as electron correlation, in the ground state energies of atomic systems using the classical-quantum hybrid variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithm. To this end, we consider three isoelectronic spe…
Polynomial-time certification of fidelity for many-body mixed states and mixed-state universality classes
Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics（马克斯·普朗克量子光学研究所）；Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)（慕尼黑量子科学与技术中心）；Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics（理论物理前沿研究所）
We show how a robust high-fidelity universal set of quantum gates can be implemented using a single form of non-adiabatic rapid passage whose parameters are optimized to maximize gate fidelity and reward gate robustness. Each gate in the universal set is found to operate with a fidelity F in the range 0.99988 < F < 0.99999, and to require control parameters with no more than 14-bit (1 part in 10,000) precision. Such precision is within reach of commercially available arbitrary waveform generators, so that an experimental study of this approach to high-fidelity universal quantum control appears…
The classical-quantum hybrid Variational Quantum Eigensolver algorithm is the most widely used approach in the Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum era to obtain ground state energies of atomic and molecular systems. In this work, we extend the scope of properties that can be calculated using the algorithm by computing the first ionization energies of Lithium and Boron atoms. We check the precision of our ionization energies and the observed many-body trends and compare them with the results from calculations carried out on traditional computers.
We address metrological protocols for the estimation of the intensity and the orientation of a magnetic field, and show that quantum-enhanced precision may be achieved by probing the field with an arbitrary spin at thermal equilibrium. We derive a general expression for the ultimate achievable precision, as given by the quantum Fisher information, and express this quantity in terms of common thermodynamic quantities. We also seek for the optimal observable, and show that it corresponds to the spin projection along a suitable direction, defined by a universal function of the spin temperature. F…
Random-Matrix-Induced Simplicity Bias in Over-parameterized Variational Quantum Circuits
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA（电子与计算机工程系，佐治亚理工学院）；NVIDIA Research, Santa Clara, CA 95051, USA（NVIDIA研究）；IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, NY, 10598, USA（IBM托马斯·J·沃森研究中心）；Hon Hai (Foxconn) Quantum Computing Research Center, Taipei, 114, Taiwan（鸿海（富士康）量子计算研究中心）
We combine the Density Matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) with Matrix Product State tangent space concepts to construct a variational algorithm for finding ground states of one dimensional quantum lattices in the thermodynamic limit. A careful comparison of this variational uniform Matrix Product State algorithm (VUMPS) with infinite Density Matrix Renormalization Group (IDMRG) and with infinite Time Evolving Block Decimation (ITEBD) reveals substantial gains in convergence speed and precision. We also demonstrate that VUMPS works very efficiently for Hamiltonians with long range interactions…
The ultimate precision of any measurement of the temperature of a quantum system is the inverse of the local quantum thermal susceptibility [De Pasquale et al., Nature Communications 7, 12782 (2016)] of the subsystem with whom the thermometer interacts. If this subsystem can be described with the canonical ensemble, such quantity reduces to the variance of the local Hamiltonian, that is proportional to the heat capacity of the subsystem. However, the canonical ensemble might not apply in the presence of interactions between the subsystem and the rest of the system. In this work we address this…
Arrays of atoms trapped in optical tweezers combine features of programmable analog quantum simulators with atomic quantum sensors. Here we propose variational quantum algorithms, tailored for tweezer arrays as programmable quantum sensors, capable of generating entangled states on-demand for precision metrology. The scheme is designed to generate metrological enhancement by optimizing it in a feedback loop on the quantum device itself, thus preparing the best entangled states given the available quantum resources. We apply our ideas to generate spin-squeezed states on Sr atom tweezer arrays, …
