arXiv subjects

Chris Ferrie

Publications and source records attributed to Chris Ferrie.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Quantum noise spectroscopy by qudit spectators

Quantum noise spectroscopy is a well-known method for detecting environmental noise spectrum and has various applications in quantum sensing, quantum network design, and quantum computing. In this work, a protocol for quantum noise spectroscopy by qudit spectators (arbitrary d-level quantum systems) is presented for noises with stochastic and stationary Gaussian distributions. The protocol uses Weyl basis decomposition, consisting of generalized Pauli matrices, as the theoretical tool, and the Alvarez-Suter noise spectroscopy method, by which the qudit is being exposed to a series of pulse sequences, and the noise polyspectra is extracted by multiple measurements of an observable of the qudit. The formalism is further developed and simulated for three theoretical frameworks: The first two frameworks utilize a simplified Weyl basis and are capable of detecting Z-type dephasing noise. One is specifically modeled for a qutrit (d=3), and the second framework is designed for all qudits and has been tested through simulations of a ququad (d=4) and a quoct (d=8). The third framework employs the full Weyl basis, enabling it to identify all types of XYZ-dephasing noise. The simulations for this framework have been conducted for a quoct (d=8) implemented by the Antimony atom. The analytical protocol for noise spectroscopy that has been introduced transforms qudit systems into quantum spectators, and the presented simulations demonstrate the accuracy and reliability of this noise spectroscopy protocol.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Riemannian-geometric generalizations of quantum fidelities and Bures-Wasserstein distance

We introduce a family of fidelities, termed generalized fidelity, which are based on the Riemannian geometry of the Bures-Wasserstein manifold. We show that this family of fidelities generalizes standard quantum fidelities such as Uhlmann-, Holevo-, and Matsumoto-fidelity and demonstrate that it satisfies analogous celebrated properties. The generalized fidelity naturally arises from a generalized Bures distance, the natural distance obtained by linearizing the Bures-Wasserstein manifold. We prove various invariance and covariance properties of generalized fidelity as the point of linearization moves along geodesic-related paths. We also provide a Block-matrix characterization and prove an Uhlmann-like theorem, as well as provide further extensions to the multivariate setting and to quantum R\'enyi divergences, generalizing Petz-, Sandwich-, Reverse sandwich-, and Geometric-R\'enyi divergences of order $\alpha$.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Graph Neural Networks on Quantum Computers

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are powerful machine learning models that excel at analyzing structured data represented as graphs, demonstrating remarkable performance in applications like social network analysis and recommendation systems. However, classical GNNs face scalability challenges when dealing with large-scale graphs. This paper proposes frameworks for implementing GNNs on quantum computers to potentially address the challenges. We devise quantum algorithms corresponding to the three fundamental types of classical GNNs: Graph Convolutional Networks, Graph Attention Networks, and Message-Passing GNNs. A complexity analysis of our quantum implementation of the Simplified Graph Convolutional (SGC) Network shows potential quantum advantages over its classical counterpart, with significant improvements in time and space complexities. Our complexities can have trade-offs between the two: when optimizing for minimal circuit depth, our quantum SGC achieves logarithmic time complexity in the input sizes (albeit at the cost of linear space complexity). When optimizing for minimal qubit usage, the quantum SGC exhibits space complexity logarithmic in the input sizes, offering an exponential reduction compared to classical SGCs, while still maintaining better time complexity. These results suggest our Quantum GNN frameworks could efficiently process large-scale graphs. This work paves the way for implementing more advanced Graph Neural Network models on quantum computers, opening new possibilities in quantum machine learning for analyzing graph-structured data.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

What You Shouldn't Know About Quantum Computers

Whether you're a CEO strategizing the future of your company, a tech enthusiast debating your next career move, a high school teacher eager to enlighten your students, or simply tired of the relentless quantum hype, this is crafted just for you. Cutting through the complex jargon to deliver the straight facts on quantum computing, peeling away the layers of mystique to reveal the true potential and limitations of this groundbreaking technology. Prepare to have your misconceptions challenged, and your understanding deepened in this clear-eyed view of the quantum future, written to inform and inspire readers across the spectrum of curiosity and need.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2024

GPT on a Quantum Computer

Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT have transformed how we interact with and understand the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI). However, the intersection of LLMs with the burgeoning field of Quantum Machine Learning (QML) is only in its nascent stages. This paper presents an exploration of this niche by detailing a comprehensive framework for implementing the foundational Transformer architecture -- integral to ChatGPT -- within a quantum computing paradigm. We meticulously design quantum circuits that implement adapted versions of the transformer's core components and the generative pre-training phase. By integrating quantum computing with LLMs, we aspire to open new avenues for research in QML and contribute to the ongoing evolution of AI technologies.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Sub-universal variational circuits for combinatorial optimization problems

Quantum variational circuits have gained significant attention due to their applications in the quantum approximate optimization algorithm and quantum machine learning research. This work introduces a novel class of classical probabilistic circuits designed for generating approximate solutions to combinatorial optimization problems constructed using two-bit stochastic matrices. Through a numerical study, we investigate the performance of our proposed variational circuits in solving the Max-Cut problem on various graphs of increasing sizes. Our classical algorithm demonstrates improved performance for several graph types to the quantum approximate optimization algorithm. Our findings suggest that evaluating the performance of quantum variational circuits against variational circuits with sub-universal gate sets is a valuable benchmark for identifying areas where quantum variational circuits can excel.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

On the Interpretability of Quantum Neural Networks

Interpretability of artificial intelligence (AI) methods, particularly deep neural networks, is of great interest. This heightened focus stems from the widespread use of AI-backed systems. These systems, often relying on intricate neural architectures, can exhibit behavior that is challenging to explain and comprehend. The interpretability of such models is a crucial component of building trusted systems. Many methods exist to approach this problem, but they do not apply straightforwardly to the quantum setting. Here, we explore the interpretability of quantum neural networks using local model-agnostic interpretability measures commonly utilized for classical neural networks. Following this analysis, we generalize a classical technique called LIME, introducing Q-LIME, which produces explanations of quantum neural networks. A feature of our explanations is the delineation of the region in which data samples have been given a random label, likely subjects of inherently random quantum measurements. We view this as a step toward understanding how to build responsible and accountable quantum AI models.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2023

Trainability Enhancement of Parameterized Quantum Circuits via Reduced-Domain Parameter Initialization

Parameterized quantum circuits (PQCs) have been widely used as a machine learning model to explore the potential of achieving quantum advantages for various tasks. However, training PQCs is notoriously challenging owing to the phenomenon of plateaus and/or the existence of (exponentially) many spurious local minima. To enhance trainability, in this work we propose an efficient parameter initialization strategy with theoretical guarantees. We prove that by reducing the initial domain of each parameter inversely proportional to the square root of circuit depth, the magnitude of the cost gradient decays at most polynomially with respect to qubit count and circuit depth. Our theoretical results are substantiated through numerical simulations of variational quantum eigensolver tasks. Moreover, we demonstrate that the reduced-domain initialization strategy can protect specific quantum neural networks from exponentially many spurious local minima. Our results highlight the significance of an appropriate parameter initialization strategy, offering insights to enhance the trainability and convergence of variational quantum algorithms.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

An Invitation to Distributed Quantum Neural Networks

Deep neural networks have established themselves as one of the most promising machine learning techniques. Training such models at large scales is often parallelized, giving rise to the concept of distributed deep learning. Distributed techniques are often employed in training large models or large datasets either out of necessity or simply for speed. Quantum machine learning, on the other hand, is the interplay between machine learning and quantum computing. It seeks to understand the advantages of employing quantum devices in developing new learning algorithms as well as improving the existing ones. A set of architectures that are heavily explored in quantum machine learning are quantum neural networks. In this review, we consider ideas from distributed deep learning as they apply to quantum neural networks. We find that the distribution of quantum datasets shares more similarities with its classical counterpart than does the distribution of quantum models, though the unique aspects of quantum data introduces new vulnerabilities to both approaches. We review the current state of the art in distributed quantum neural networks, including recent numerical experiments and the concept of circuit cutting.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Energy transport and optimal design of noisy Platonic quantum networks

Optimal transport is one of the primary goals for designing efficient quantum networks. In this work, the maximum transport is investigated for three-dimensional quantum networks with Platonic geometries affected by dephasing and dissipative Markovian noise. The network and the environmental characteristics corresponding the optimal design are obtained and investigated for five Platonic networks with 4, 6, 8, 12, and 20 number of sites that one of the sites is connected to a sink site through a dissipative process. Such optimal designs could have various applications like switching and multiplexing in quantum circuits.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Quantum mean states are nicer than you think: fast algorithms to compute states maximizing average fidelity

Fidelity is arguably the most popular figure of merit in quantum sciences. However, many of its properties are still unknown. In this work, we resolve the open problem of maximizing average fidelity over arbitrary finite ensembles of quantum states and derive new upper bounds. We first construct a semidefinite program whose optimal value is the maximum average fidelity and then derive fixed-point algorithms that converge to the optimal state. The fixed-point algorithms outperform the semidefinite program in terms of numerical runtime. We also derive expressions for near-optimal states that are easier to compute and upper and lower bounds for maximum average fidelity that are exact when all the states in the ensemble commute. Finally, we discuss how our results solve some open problems in Bayesian quantum tomography.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Experimental single-setting quantum state tomography

Quantum computers solve ever more complex tasks using steadily growing system sizes. Characterizing these quantum systems is vital, yet becoming increasingly challenging. The gold-standard is quantum state tomography (QST), capable of fully reconstructing a quantum state without prior knowledge. Measurement and classical computing costs, however, increase exponentially in the system size - a bottleneck given the scale of existing and near-term quantum devices. Here, we demonstrate a scalable and practical QST approach that uses a single measurement setting, namely symmetric informationally complete (SIC) positive operator-valued measures (POVM). We implement these nonorthogonal measurements on an ion trap device by utilizing more energy levels in each ion - without ancilla qubits. More precisely, we locally map the SIC POVM to orthogonal states embedded in a higher-dimensional system, which we read out using repeated in-sequence detections, providing full tomographic information in every shot. Combining this SIC tomography with the recently developed randomized measurement toolbox ("classical shadows") proves to be a powerful combination. SIC tomography alleviates the need for choosing measurement settings at random ("derandomization"), while classical shadows enable the estimation of arbitrary polynomial functions of the density matrix orders of magnitudes faster than standard methods. The latter enables in-depth entanglement studies, which we experimentally showcase on a 5-qubit absolutely maximally entangled (AME) state. Moreover, the fact that the full tomography information is available in every shot enables online QST in real time. We demonstrate this on an 8-qubit entangled state, as well as for fast state identification. All in all, these features single out SIC-based classical shadow estimation as a highly scalable and convenient tool for quantum state characterization.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

QDataset: Quantum Datasets for Machine Learning

The availability of large-scale datasets on which to train, benchmark and test algorithms has been central to the rapid development of machine learning as a discipline and its maturity as a research discipline. Despite considerable advancements in recent years, the field of quantum machine learning (QML) has thus far lacked a set of comprehensive large-scale datasets upon which to benchmark the development of algorithms for use in applied and theoretical quantum settings. In this paper, we introduce such a dataset, the QDataSet, a quantum dataset designed specifically to facilitate the training and development of QML algorithms. The QDataSet comprises 52 high-quality publicly available datasets derived from simulations of one- and two-qubit systems evolving in the presence and/or absence of noise. The datasets are structured to provide a wealth of information to enable machine learning practitioners to use the QDataSet to solve problems in applied quantum computation, such as quantum control, quantum spectroscopy and tomography. Accompanying the datasets on the associated GitHub repository are a set of workbooks demonstrating the use of the QDataSet in a range of optimisation contexts.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2021

Quantum Optimization for Training Quantum Neural Networks

Training quantum neural networks (QNNs) using gradient-based or gradient-free classical optimisation approaches is severely impacted by the presence of barren plateaus in the cost landscapes. In this paper, we devise a framework for leveraging quantum optimisation algorithms to find optimal parameters of QNNs for certain tasks. To achieve this, we coherently encode the cost function of QNNs onto relative phases of a superposition state in the Hilbert space of the network parameters. The parameters are tuned with an iterative quantum optimisation structure using adaptively selected Hamiltonians. The quantum mechanism of this framework exploits hidden structure in the QNN optimisation problem and hence is expected to provide beyond-Grover speed up, mitigating the barren plateau issue.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Statistical analysis of randomized benchmarking

Randomized benchmarking and variants thereof, which we collectively call RB+, are widely used to characterize the performance of quantum computers because they are simple, scalable, and robust to state-preparation and measurement errors. However, experimental implementations of RB+ allocate resources suboptimally and make ad-hoc assumptions that undermine the reliability of the data analysis. In this paper, we propose a simple modification of RB+ which rigorously eliminates a nuisance parameter and simplifies the experimental design. We then show that, with this modification and specific experimental choices, RB+ efficiently provides estimates of error rates with multiplicative precision. Finally, we provide a simplified rigorous method for obtaining credible regions for parameters of interest and a heuristic approximation for these intervals that performs well in currently relevant regimes.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2018

Bayesian Inference for Randomized Benchmarking Protocols

Randomized benchmarking (RB) protocols are standard tools for characterizing quantum devices. Prior analyses of RB protocols have not provided a complete method for analyzing realistic data, resulting in a variety of ad-hoc methods. The main confounding factor in rigorously analyzing data from RB protocols is an unknown and noise-dependent distribution of survival probabilities over random sequences. We propose a hierarchical Bayesian method where these survival distributions are modeled as nonparametric Dirichlet process mixtures. Our method infers parameters of interest without additional assumptions about the underlying physical noise process. We show with numerical examples that our method works robustly for both standard and highly pathological error models. Our method also works reliably at low noise levels and with little data because we avoid the asymptotic assumptions of commonly used methods such as least-squares fitting. For example, our method produces a narrow and consistent posterior for the average gate fidelity from ten random sequences per sequence length in the standard RB protocol.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Adaptive quantum state tomography improves accuracy quadratically

We introduce a simple protocol for adaptive quantum state tomography, which reduces the worst-case infidelity between the estimate and the true state from $O(N^{-1/2})$ to $O(N^{-1})$. It uses a single adaptation step and just one extra measurement setting. In a linear optical qubit experiment, we demonstrate a full order of magnitude reduction in infidelity (from $0.1%$ to $0.01%$) for a modest number of samples ($N=3\times10^4$).

quant-ph↗