Photonic processor benchmarking for variational quantum process tomography

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Galetsky, Vladlen, Kohl, Paul, Nötzel, Janis
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866911051355783168
author Galetsky, Vladlen
Kohl, Paul
Nötzel, Janis
author_facet Galetsky, Vladlen
Kohl, Paul
Nötzel, Janis
contents We present a quantum-analogous experimental demonstration of variational quantum process tomography using an optical processor. This approach leverages classical one-hot encoding and unitary decomposition to perform the variational quantum algorithm on a photonic platform. We create the first benchmark for variational quantum process tomography evaluating the performance of the quantum-analogous experiment on the optical processor against several publicly accessible quantum computing platforms, including IBM's 127-qubit Sherbrooke processor, QuTech's 5-qubit Tuna-5 processor, and Quandela's 12-mode Ascella quantum optical processor. We evaluate each method using process fidelity, cost function convergence, and processing time per iteration for variational quantum circuit depths of $d=3$ and $d=6$. Our results indicate that the optical processors outperform their superconducting counterparts in terms of fidelity and convergence behavior reaching fidelities of $0.8$ after $9$ iterations, particularly at higher depths, where the noise of decoherence and dephasing affect the superconducting processors significantly. We further investigate the influence of any additional quantum optical effects in our platform relative to the classical one-hot encoding. From the process fidelity results it shows that the (classical) thermal noise in the phase-shifters dominates over other optical imperfections, such as mode mismatch and dark counts from single-photon sources. The benchmarking framework and experimental results demonstrate that photonic processors are strong contenders for near-term quantum algorithm deployment, particularly in hybrid variational contexts. This analysis is valuable not only for state and process tomography but also for a wide range of applications involving variational quantum circuit based algorithms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_08570
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Photonic processor benchmarking for variational quantum process tomography
Galetsky, Vladlen
Kohl, Paul
Nötzel, Janis
Quantum Physics
We present a quantum-analogous experimental demonstration of variational quantum process tomography using an optical processor. This approach leverages classical one-hot encoding and unitary decomposition to perform the variational quantum algorithm on a photonic platform. We create the first benchmark for variational quantum process tomography evaluating the performance of the quantum-analogous experiment on the optical processor against several publicly accessible quantum computing platforms, including IBM's 127-qubit Sherbrooke processor, QuTech's 5-qubit Tuna-5 processor, and Quandela's 12-mode Ascella quantum optical processor. We evaluate each method using process fidelity, cost function convergence, and processing time per iteration for variational quantum circuit depths of $d=3$ and $d=6$. Our results indicate that the optical processors outperform their superconducting counterparts in terms of fidelity and convergence behavior reaching fidelities of $0.8$ after $9$ iterations, particularly at higher depths, where the noise of decoherence and dephasing affect the superconducting processors significantly. We further investigate the influence of any additional quantum optical effects in our platform relative to the classical one-hot encoding. From the process fidelity results it shows that the (classical) thermal noise in the phase-shifters dominates over other optical imperfections, such as mode mismatch and dark counts from single-photon sources. The benchmarking framework and experimental results demonstrate that photonic processors are strong contenders for near-term quantum algorithm deployment, particularly in hybrid variational contexts. This analysis is valuable not only for state and process tomography but also for a wide range of applications involving variational quantum circuit based algorithms.
title Photonic processor benchmarking for variational quantum process tomography
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08570