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Main Authors: Gomathi, Janani, Meiburg, Alex
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.03123
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author Gomathi, Janani
Meiburg, Alex
author_facet Gomathi, Janani
Meiburg, Alex
contents When the gate set has continuous parameters, synthesizing a unitary operator as a quantum circuit is always possible using exact methods, but finding minimal circuits efficiently remains a challenging problem. The landscape is very different for compiled unitaries, which arise from programming and typically have short circuits, as compared with generic unitaries, which use all parameters and typically require circuits of maximal size. We show that simple gradient descent reliably finds depth- and gate-optimal circuits for generic unitaries, including in the presence of restricted chip connectivity. This runs counter to earlier evidence that optimal synthesis required combinatorial search, and we show that this discrepancy can be explained by avoiding the random selection of certain parameter-deficient circuit skeletons.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_03123
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Gradient descent reliably finds depth- and gate-optimal circuits for generic unitaries
Gomathi, Janani
Meiburg, Alex
Quantum Physics
Machine Learning
81P68
When the gate set has continuous parameters, synthesizing a unitary operator as a quantum circuit is always possible using exact methods, but finding minimal circuits efficiently remains a challenging problem. The landscape is very different for compiled unitaries, which arise from programming and typically have short circuits, as compared with generic unitaries, which use all parameters and typically require circuits of maximal size. We show that simple gradient descent reliably finds depth- and gate-optimal circuits for generic unitaries, including in the presence of restricted chip connectivity. This runs counter to earlier evidence that optimal synthesis required combinatorial search, and we show that this discrepancy can be explained by avoiding the random selection of certain parameter-deficient circuit skeletons.
title Gradient descent reliably finds depth- and gate-optimal circuits for generic unitaries
topic Quantum Physics
Machine Learning
81P68
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.03123