arXiv subjects

Simone Foderà

Publications and source records attributed to Simone Foderà.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Parallelized contraction of tensor trains or matrix product operators

Tensor Trains (TT), also known as Matrix Product States (MPS) and Matrix Product Operators (MPO), provide a compact and structured representation for high-dimensional data and operators. One of the most expensive manipulations involving tensor trains is the contraction of two MPOs. A popular and accurate method for mitigating this cost is the fit algorithm. However, it is still comparatively costly since it involves 2-site updates. Moreover, the parallelization of the fit algorithm when used for MPO-MPO contractions has received comparatively little attention. In this work, we present two strategies for accelerating the fit algorithm, usable in combination: (1) We use MPI-based distributed-memory parallelization tailored for MPO-MPO contractions, employing one of two MPO gauge choices: (1a) the inverse canonical gauge, which yields near-ideal parallelization speedup across all problem sizes; and (1b) the site-canonical gauge, which avoids the inversion of singular values but requires extra computations to ensure global consistency, thus yielding excellent parallelization speedup only for large problems requiring several sweeps before convergence. (2) We use randomized projections to reduce the cost of local updates from 2-site to 1-site costs while retaining 2-site accuracy, and to speed up contractions of environment tensors with MPO tensors.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2025

Separating Ansatz Discovery from Deployment on Larger Problems: Reinforcement Learning for Modular Circuit Design

As quantum computing continues to gain attention, there is growing interest in how classical machine learning can assist quantum workflows in practice. Automated circuit design, sometimes referred to as Quantum Architecture Search (QAS), is a natural application but relies on the ability to model the quantum system to support learning as the number of qubits grows. This challenge is central to QAS, and much of the current literature that proposes new ways to model the ansatz focuses on small systems, often around ten qubits. In this work, we propose a complementary approach that separates a small-scale structure discovery phase, where a reusable modular circuit block is learned on small instances where classical learning is feasible, from a deployment phase, where the blocks are used to create the ansatz required for larger problems. To this end, we introduce Reinforcement Learning for Variational Quantum Circuits (RLVQC), formulating QAS as a sequential decision-making problem. We evaluate our methodology on Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) instances derived from Maximum Cut, Maximum Clique, and Minimum Vertex Cover. Our RLVQC Block model is trained to discover a modular two-qubit block that can generalize QAOA-style methods and that is often beneficial compared to learning non-modular ansatzes. The blocks discovered on n=8 instances remain effective when deployed on larger instances (n=12 and n=16), supporting the feasibility of reusing learned modular structure across problem sizes. While we do not aim to establish a new state-of-the-art solver or an advantage over classical methods, our results provide evidence that modular ansatz structure can be learned on smaller instances and then extended to larger ones without requiring learning on systems with a large number of qubits, where quantum computing becomes interesting but classical computation becomes impractical.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

Reinforcement Learning for Variational Quantum Circuits Design

Variational Quantum Algorithms have emerged as promising tools for solving optimization problems on quantum computers. These algorithms leverage a parametric quantum circuit called ansatz, where its parameters are adjusted by a classical optimizer with the goal of optimizing a certain cost function. However, a significant challenge lies in designing effective circuits for addressing specific problems. In this study, we leverage the powerful and flexible Reinforcement Learning paradigm to train an agent capable of autonomously generating quantum circuits that can be used as ansatzes in variational algorithms to solve optimization problems. The agent is trained on diverse problem instances, including Maximum Cut, Maximum Clique and Minimum Vertex Cover, built from different graph topologies and sizes. Our analysis of the circuits generated by the agent and the corresponding solutions shows that the proposed method is able to generate effective ansatzes. While our goal is not to propose any new specific ansatz, we observe how the agent has discovered a novel family of ansatzes effective for Maximum Cut problems, which we call $R_{yz}$-connected. We study the characteristics of one of these ansatzes by comparing it against state-of-the-art quantum algorithms across instances of varying graph topologies, sizes, and problem types. Our results indicate that the $R_{yz}$-connected circuit achieves high approximation ratios for Maximum Cut problems, further validating our proposed agent. In conclusion, our study highlights the potential of Reinforcement Learning techniques in assisting researchers to design effective quantum circuits which could have applications in a wide number of tasks.

quant-ph↗