Noise-Induced Barren Plateaus in Variational Quantum Algorithms

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Wang, Samson, Fontana, Enrico, Cerezo, M., Sharma, Kunal, Sone, Akira, Cincio, Lukasz, Coles, Patrick J.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2020
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author Wang, Samson
Fontana, Enrico
Cerezo, M.
Sharma, Kunal
Sone, Akira
Cincio, Lukasz
Coles, Patrick J.
author_facet Wang, Samson
Fontana, Enrico
Cerezo, M.
Sharma, Kunal
Sone, Akira
Cincio, Lukasz
Coles, Patrick J.
contents Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQAs) may be a path to quantum advantage on Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) computers. A natural question is whether noise on NISQ devices places fundamental limitations on VQA performance. We rigorously prove a serious limitation for noisy VQAs, in that the noise causes the training landscape to have a barren plateau (i.e., vanishing gradient). Specifically, for the local Pauli noise considered, we prove that the gradient vanishes exponentially in the number of qubits $n$ if the depth of the ansatz grows linearly with $n$. These noise-induced barren plateaus (NIBPs) are conceptually different from noise-free barren plateaus, which are linked to random parameter initialization. Our result is formulated for a generic ansatz that includes as special cases the Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz and the Unitary Coupled Cluster Ansatz, among others. For the former, our numerical heuristics demonstrate the NIBP phenomenon for a realistic hardware noise model.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2007_14384
institution arXiv
publishDate 2020
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Noise-Induced Barren Plateaus in Variational Quantum Algorithms
Wang, Samson
Fontana, Enrico
Cerezo, M.
Sharma, Kunal
Sone, Akira
Cincio, Lukasz
Coles, Patrick J.
Quantum Physics
Machine Learning
Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQAs) may be a path to quantum advantage on Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) computers. A natural question is whether noise on NISQ devices places fundamental limitations on VQA performance. We rigorously prove a serious limitation for noisy VQAs, in that the noise causes the training landscape to have a barren plateau (i.e., vanishing gradient). Specifically, for the local Pauli noise considered, we prove that the gradient vanishes exponentially in the number of qubits $n$ if the depth of the ansatz grows linearly with $n$. These noise-induced barren plateaus (NIBPs) are conceptually different from noise-free barren plateaus, which are linked to random parameter initialization. Our result is formulated for a generic ansatz that includes as special cases the Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz and the Unitary Coupled Cluster Ansatz, among others. For the former, our numerical heuristics demonstrate the NIBP phenomenon for a realistic hardware noise model.
title Noise-Induced Barren Plateaus in Variational Quantum Algorithms
topic Quantum Physics
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.14384