arXiv subjects

Felix Herbort

Publications and source records attributed to Felix Herbort.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

How Hard Is Quantum Advantage? A Cloud Microphysics Stress Test for Variational Quantum Models

Quantum machine learning (QML) could have the potential to leverage advantages of quantum over classical computing but still lacks strong evidence of actual improvements and scalability, partly due to phenomena such as barren plateaus. In this paper, we employ a hybrid quantum neural network (QNN) on a dataset on cloud microphysics, containing processes for phase transitions of water in the atmosphere and its related temperature changes, which are highly relevant for accurate climate predictions and projections. To reach optimal performance of our QNNs, we employ a rich and trainable frequency spectrum together with expressivity enhancing classical postprocessing. We find that our QNNs strongly benefit from extensive hyperparameter optimization and thereby demonstrate the feasibility of applying QNNs to complex physical systems. At the same time, the QNNs are outperformed by classical baselines in the form of simple fully-connected neural networks. We discuss identified bottlenecks of this class of quantum models to learn the full complexity of the cloud microphysics dataset to show that there is a need to further understand and improve variational quantum models for machine learning such that they might fill the gap where classical models fail or are inefficient.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Quantum Bayesian Optimization for the Automatic Tuning of Lorenz-96 as a Surrogate Climate Model

In this work, we propose a hybrid quantum-inspired heuristic for automatically tuning the Lorenz-96 model -- a simple proxy to describe atmospheric dynamics, yet exhibiting chaotic behavior. Building on the history matching framework by Lguensat et al. (2023), we fully automate the tuning process with a new convergence criterion and propose replacing classical Gaussian process emulators with quantum counterparts. We benchmark three quantum kernel architectures, distinguished by their quantum feature map circuits. A dimensionality argument implies, in principle, an increased expressivity of the quantum kernels over their classical competitors. For each kernel type, we perform an extensive hyperparameter optimization of our tuning algorithm. We confirm the validity of a quantum-inspired approach based on statevector simulation by numerically demonstrating the superiority of two studied quantum kernels over the canonical classical RBF kernel. Finally, we discuss the pathway towards real quantum hardware, mainly driven by a transition to shot-based simulations and evaluating quantum kernels via randomized measurements, which can mitigate the effect of gate errors. The very low qubit requirements and moderate circuit depths, together with a minimal number of trainable circuit parameters, make our method particularly NISQ-friendly.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Dynamical quantum phase transitions on random networks

We investigate two types of dynamical quantum phase transitions (DQPTs) in the transverse field Ising model on ensembles of Erdős-Rényi networks of size $N$. These networks consist of vertices connected randomly with probability $p$ ($0<p\leq 1$). Using analytical derivations and numerical techniques, we compare the characteristics of the transitions for $p<1$ against the fully connected network ($p=1$). We analytically show that the overlap between the wave function after a quench and the wave function of the fully connected network after the same quench deviates by at most $\mathcal{O}(N^{-1/2})$. For a DQPT defined by an order parameter, the critical point remains unchanged for all $p$. For a DQPT defined by the rate function of the Loschmidt echo, we find that the rate function deviates from the $p=1$ limit near vanishing points of the overlap with the initial state, while the critical point remains independent for all $p$. Our analysis suggests that this divergence arises from persistent non-trivial global many-body correlations absent in the $p=1$ limit.

quant-ph↗