arXiv subjects

Christa Zoufal

Publications and source records attributed to Christa Zoufal.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Approximation of the Quantum Fisher Information

The Quantum Fisher Information matrix (QFIM) is a central metric in promising algorithms, such as Quantum Natural Gradient Descent and Variational Quantum Imaginary Time Evolution. Computing the full QFIM for a model with $d$ parameters, however, is computationally expensive and generally requires $\mathcal{O}(d^2)$ function evaluations. To remedy these increasing costs in high-dimensional parameter spaces, we propose using simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation techniques to approximate the QFIM at a constant cost. We present the resulting algorithm and successfully apply it to prepare Hamiltonian ground states and train Variational Quantum Boltzmann Machines.

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arXiv2021

Iterative Quantum Amplitude Estimation

We introduce a new variant of Quantum Amplitude Estimation (QAE), called Iterative QAE (IQAE), which does not rely on Quantum Phase Estimation (QPE) but is only based on Grover's Algorithm, which reduces the required number of qubits and gates. We provide a rigorous analysis of IQAE and prove that it achieves a quadratic speedup up to a double-logarithmic factor compared to classical Monte Carlo simulation. Furthermore, we show with an empirical study that our algorithm outperforms other known QAE variants without QPE, some even by orders of magnitude, i.e., our algorithm requires significantly fewer samples to achieve the same estimation accuracy and confidence level.

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arXiv2020

The power of quantum neural networks

Fault-tolerant quantum computers offer the promise of dramatically improving machine learning through speed-ups in computation or improved model scalability. In the near-term, however, the benefits of quantum machine learning are not so clear. Understanding expressibility and trainability of quantum models-and quantum neural networks in particular-requires further investigation. In this work, we use tools from information geometry to define a notion of expressibility for quantum and classical models. The effective dimension, which depends on the Fisher information, is used to prove a novel generalisation bound and establish a robust measure of expressibility. We show that quantum neural networks are able to achieve a significantly better effective dimension than comparable classical neural networks. To then assess the trainability of quantum models, we connect the Fisher information spectrum to barren plateaus, the problem of vanishing gradients. Importantly, certain quantum neural networks can show resilience to this phenomenon and train faster than classical models due to their favourable optimisation landscapes, captured by a more evenly spread Fisher information spectrum. Our work is the first to demonstrate that well-designed quantum neural networks offer an advantage over classical neural networks through a higher effective dimension and faster training ability, which we verify on real quantum hardware.

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arXiv2020

Option Pricing using Quantum Computers

We present a methodology to price options and portfolios of options on a gate-based quantum computer using amplitude estimation, an algorithm which provides a quadratic speedup compared to classical Monte Carlo methods. The options that we cover include vanilla options, multi-asset options and path-dependent options such as barrier options. We put an emphasis on the implementation of the quantum circuits required to build the input states and operators needed by amplitude estimation to price the different option types. Additionally, we show simulation results to highlight how the circuits that we implement price the different option contracts. Finally, we examine the performance of option pricing circuits on quantum hardware using the IBM Q Tokyo quantum device. We employ a simple, yet effective, error mitigation scheme that allows us to significantly reduce the errors arising from noisy two-qubit gates.

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arXiv2020

Variational Quantum Boltzmann Machines

This work presents a novel realization approach to Quantum Boltzmann Machines (QBMs). The preparation of the required Gibbs states, as well as the evaluation of the loss function's analytic gradient is based on Variational Quantum Imaginary Time Evolution, a technique that is typically used for ground state computation. In contrast to existing methods, this implementation facilitates near-term compatible QBM training with gradients of the actual loss function for arbitrary parameterized Hamiltonians which do not necessarily have to be fully-visible but may also include hidden units. The variational Gibbs state approximation is demonstrated with numerical simulations and experiments run on real quantum hardware provided by IBM Quantum. Furthermore, we illustrate the application of this variational QBM approach to generative and discriminative learning tasks using numerical simulation.

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arXiv2020

Quantum-Enhanced Simulation-Based Optimization

In this paper, we introduce a quantum-enhanced algorithm for simulation-based optimization. Simulation-based optimization seeks to optimize an objective function that is computationally expensive to evaluate exactly, and thus, is approximated via simulation. Quantum Amplitude Estimation (QAE) can achieve a quadratic speed-up over classical Monte Carlo simulation. Hence, in many cases, it can achieve a speed-up for simulation-based optimization as well. Combining QAE with ideas from quantum optimization, we show how this can be used not only for continuous but also for discrete optimization problems. Furthermore, the algorithm is demonstrated on illustrative problems such as portfolio optimization with a Value at Risk constraint and inventory management.

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arXiv2019

Quantum Generative Adversarial Networks for Learning and Loading Random Distributions

Quantum algorithms have the potential to outperform their classical counterparts in a variety of tasks. The realization of the advantage often requires the ability to load classical data efficiently into quantum states. However, the best known methods require $\mathcal{O}\left(2^n\right)$ gates to load an exact representation of a generic data structure into an $n$-qubit state. This scaling can easily predominate the complexity of a quantum algorithm and, thereby, impair potential quantum advantage. Our work presents a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm for efficient, approximate quantum state loading. More precisely, we use quantum Generative Adversarial Networks (qGANs) to facilitate efficient learning and loading of generic probability distributions -- implicitly given by data samples -- into quantum states. Through the interplay of a quantum channel, such as a variational quantum circuit, and a classical neural network, the qGAN can learn a representation of the probability distribution underlying the data samples and load it into a quantum state. The loading requires $\mathcal{O}\left(poly\left(n\right)\right)$ gates and can, thus, enable the use of potentially advantageous quantum algorithms, such as Quantum Amplitude Estimation. We implement the qGAN distribution learning and loading method with Qiskit and test it using a quantum simulation as well as actual quantum processors provided by the IBM Q Experience. Furthermore, we employ quantum simulation to demonstrate the use of the trained quantum channel in a quantum finance application.

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