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Autors principals: Wanner, Marc, Jonasson, Johan, Carlsson, Emil, Dubhashi, Devdatt
Format: Preprint
Publicat: 2025
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Accés en línia:https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.04021
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author Wanner, Marc
Jonasson, Johan
Carlsson, Emil
Dubhashi, Devdatt
author_facet Wanner, Marc
Jonasson, Johan
Carlsson, Emil
Dubhashi, Devdatt
contents We introduce a novel approach to variational Quantum algorithms (VQA) via continuous bandits. VQA are a class of hybrid Quantum-classical algorithms where the parameters of Quantum circuits are optimized by classical algorithms. Previous work has used zero and first order gradient based methods, however such algorithms suffer from the barren plateau (BP) problem where gradients and loss differences are exponentially small. We introduce an approach using bandits methods which combine global exploration with local exploitation. We show how VQA can be formulated as a best arm identification problem in a continuous space of arms with Lipschitz smoothness. While regret minimization has been addressed in this setting, existing methods for pure exploration only cover discrete spaces. We give the first results for pure exploration in a continuous setting and derive a fixed-confidence, information-theoretic, instance specific lower bound. Under certain assumptions on the expected payoff, we derive a simple algorithm, which is near-optimal with respect to our lower bound. Finally, we apply our continuous bandit algorithm to two VQA schemes: a PQC and a QAOA quantum circuit, showing that we significantly outperform the previously known state of the art methods (which used gradient based methods).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_04021
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publishDate 2025
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spellingShingle Variational Quantum Optimization with Continuous Bandits
Wanner, Marc
Jonasson, Johan
Carlsson, Emil
Dubhashi, Devdatt
Machine Learning
Quantum Physics
We introduce a novel approach to variational Quantum algorithms (VQA) via continuous bandits. VQA are a class of hybrid Quantum-classical algorithms where the parameters of Quantum circuits are optimized by classical algorithms. Previous work has used zero and first order gradient based methods, however such algorithms suffer from the barren plateau (BP) problem where gradients and loss differences are exponentially small. We introduce an approach using bandits methods which combine global exploration with local exploitation. We show how VQA can be formulated as a best arm identification problem in a continuous space of arms with Lipschitz smoothness. While regret minimization has been addressed in this setting, existing methods for pure exploration only cover discrete spaces. We give the first results for pure exploration in a continuous setting and derive a fixed-confidence, information-theoretic, instance specific lower bound. Under certain assumptions on the expected payoff, we derive a simple algorithm, which is near-optimal with respect to our lower bound. Finally, we apply our continuous bandit algorithm to two VQA schemes: a PQC and a QAOA quantum circuit, showing that we significantly outperform the previously known state of the art methods (which used gradient based methods).
title Variational Quantum Optimization with Continuous Bandits
topic Machine Learning
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.04021