Hamiltonian variational ansatz without barren plateaus

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Park, Chae-Yeun, Killoran, Nathan
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2023
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author Park, Chae-Yeun
Killoran, Nathan
author_facet Park, Chae-Yeun
Killoran, Nathan
contents Variational quantum algorithms, which combine highly expressive parameterized quantum circuits (PQCs) and optimization techniques in machine learning, are one of the most promising applications of a near-term quantum computer. Despite their huge potential, the utility of variational quantum algorithms beyond tens of qubits is still questioned. One of the central problems is the trainability of PQCs. The cost function landscape of a randomly initialized PQC is often too flat, asking for an exponential amount of quantum resources to find a solution. This problem, dubbed barren plateaus, has gained lots of attention recently, but a general solution is still not available. In this paper, we solve this problem for the Hamiltonian variational ansatz (HVA), which is widely studied for solving quantum many-body problems. After showing that a circuit described by a time-evolution operator generated by a local Hamiltonian does not have exponentially small gradients, we derive parameter conditions for which the HVA is well approximated by such an operator. Based on this result, we propose an initialization scheme for the variational quantum algorithms and a parameter-constrained ansatz free from barren plateaus.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2302_08529
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Hamiltonian variational ansatz without barren plateaus
Park, Chae-Yeun
Killoran, Nathan
Quantum Physics
Statistical Mechanics
Variational quantum algorithms, which combine highly expressive parameterized quantum circuits (PQCs) and optimization techniques in machine learning, are one of the most promising applications of a near-term quantum computer. Despite their huge potential, the utility of variational quantum algorithms beyond tens of qubits is still questioned. One of the central problems is the trainability of PQCs. The cost function landscape of a randomly initialized PQC is often too flat, asking for an exponential amount of quantum resources to find a solution. This problem, dubbed barren plateaus, has gained lots of attention recently, but a general solution is still not available. In this paper, we solve this problem for the Hamiltonian variational ansatz (HVA), which is widely studied for solving quantum many-body problems. After showing that a circuit described by a time-evolution operator generated by a local Hamiltonian does not have exponentially small gradients, we derive parameter conditions for which the HVA is well approximated by such an operator. Based on this result, we propose an initialization scheme for the variational quantum algorithms and a parameter-constrained ansatz free from barren plateaus.
title Hamiltonian variational ansatz without barren plateaus
topic Quantum Physics
Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.08529