Faster State Preparation with Randomization

Yue Wang, Xiao-Ming Zhang, Xiao Yuan, Qi Zhao (Oct 15 2025).

Abstract: Quantum state preparation remains a dominant cost in many quantum algorithms. We introduce a randomized protocol that fundamentally improves the accuracy-cost trade-off for states with hierarchical amplitude structures, where amplitudes decay exponentially or by a power law with exponent greater than one. Rather than commonly employed deterministically truncating small amplitudes, we prepare an ensemble of simple circuits: each retains all large amplitudes while amplifying a single small one. We rigorously prove that the randomized ensemble achieves a quadratic improvement in trace-distance error over the deterministic truncation method. This quadratic scaling halves the number of encoded amplitudes for exponential decay and yields polynomial reductions for power-law decay, which directly translates to a reduction in circuit depth. Demonstrations on molecular wavefunctions (LiH), many-body ground states (transverse-field Ising), and machine-learning parameters (ResNet) validate the approach across diverse applications. The method broadens the class of states preparable on near-term and fault-tolerant quantum devices.

Arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.12247