How useful can machine learning be in a quantum laboratory? Here we raise the question of the potential of intelligent machines in the context of scientific research. A major motivation for the present work is the unknown reachability of various entanglement classes in quantum experiments. We investigate this question by using the projective simulation model, a physics-oriented approach to artificial intelligence. In our approach, the projective simulation system is challenged to design complex photonic quantum experiments that produce high-dimensional entangled multiphoton states, which are of high interest in modern quantum experiments. The artificial intelligence system learns to create a variety of entangled states and improves the efficiency of their realization. In the process, the system autonomously (re)discovers experimental techniques which are only now becoming standard in modern quantum optical experiments-a trait which was not explicitly demanded from the system but emerged through the process of learning. Such features highlight the possibility that machines could have a significantly more creative role in future research.
How useful can machine learning be in a quantum laboratory? Here we raise the question of the potential of intelligent machines in the context of scientific research. A major motivation for the present work is the unknown reachability of various entanglement classes in quantum experiments. We investigate this question by using the projective simulation model, a physics-oriented approach to artificial intelligence. In our approach, the projective simulation system is challenged to design complex photonic quantum experiments that produce high-dimensional entangled multiphoton states, which are of high interest in modern quantum experiments. The artificial intelligence system learns to create a variety of entangled states and improves the efficiency of their realization. In the process, the system autonomously (re)discovers experimental techniques which are only now becoming standard in modern quantum optical experiments-a trait which was not explicitly demanded from the system but emerged through the process of learning. Such features highlight the possibility that machines could have a significantly more creative role in future research.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is used in numerous fields of science, yet the initial research questions and targets are still almost always provided by human researchers. AI-generated creative ideas in science are rare and often vague, so that it remains a human task to execute them. Automating idea generation and implementation in one coherent system would significantly shift the role of humans in the scientific process. Here we present AI-Mandel, an LLM agent that can generate and implement ideas in quantum physics. AI-Mandel formulates ideas from the literature and uses a domain-specific AI tool to turn them into concrete experiment designs that can readily be implemented in laboratories. The generated ideas by AI-Mandel are often scientifically interesting - for two of them we have already written independent scientific follow-up papers. The ideas include new variations of quantum teleportation, primitives of quantum networks in indefinite causal orders, and new concepts of geometric phases based on closed loops of quantum information transfer. AI-Mandel is a prototypical demonstration of an AI physicist that can generate and implement concrete, actionable ideas. Building such a system is not only useful to accelerate science, but it also reveals concrete open challenges on the path to human-level artificial scientists.
Quantum information technologies, on the one hand, and intelligent learning systems, on the other, are both emergent technologies that are likely to have a transformative impact on our society in the future. The respective underlying fields of basic research-quantum information versus machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI)-have their own specific questions and challenges, which have hitherto been investigated largely independently. However, in a growing body of recent work, researchers have been probing the question of the extent to which these fields can indeed learn and benefit from each other. Quantum ML explores the interaction between quantum computing and ML, investigating how results and techniques from one field can be used to solve the problems of the other. Recently we have witnessed significant breakthroughs in both directions of influence. For instance, quantum computing is finding a vital application in providing speed-ups for ML problems, critical in our 'big data' world. Conversely, ML already permeates many cutting-edge technologies and may become instrumental in advanced quantum technologies. Aside from quantum speed-up in data analysis, or classical ML optimization used in quantum experiments, quantum enhancements have also been (theoretically) demonstrated for interactive learning tasks, highlighting the potential of quantum-enhanced learning agents. Finally, works exploring the use of AI for the very design of quantum experiments and for performing parts of genuine research autonomously, have reported their first successes. Beyond the topics of mutual enhancement-exploring what ML/AI can do for quantum physics and vice versa-researchers have also broached the fundamental issue of quantum generalizations of learning and AI concepts. This deals with questions of the very meaning of learning and intelligence in a world that is fully described by quantum mechanics. In this review, we describe the main ideas, recent developments and progress in a broad spectrum of research investigating ML and AI in the quantum domain.
Quantum information technologies, and intelligent learning systems, are both emergent technologies that will likely have a transforming impact on our society. The respective underlying fields of research -- quantum information (QI) versus machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) -- have their own specific challenges, which have hitherto been investigated largely independently. However, in a growing body of recent work, researchers have been probing the question to what extent these fields can learn and benefit from each other. QML explores the interaction between quantum computing and ML, investigating how results and techniques from one field can be used to solve the problems of the other. Recently, we have witnessed breakthroughs in both directions of influence. For instance, quantum computing is finding a vital application in providing speed-ups in ML, critical in our "big data" world. Conversely, ML already permeates cutting-edge technologies, and may become instrumental in advanced quantum technologies. Aside from quantum speed-up in data analysis, or classical ML optimization used in quantum experiments, quantum enhancements have also been demonstrated for interactive learning, highlighting the potential of quantum-enhanced learning agents. Finally, works exploring the use of AI for the very design of quantum experiments, and for performing parts of genuine research autonomously, have reported their first successes. Beyond the topics of mutual enhancement, researchers have also broached the fundamental issue of quantum generalizations of ML/AI concepts. This deals with questions of the very meaning of learning and intelligence in a world that is described by quantum mechanics. In this review, we describe the main ideas, recent developments, and progress in a broad spectrum of research investigating machine learning and artificial intelligence in the quantum domain.
The simulation of quantum matter with classical hardware plays a central role in the discovery and development of quantum many-body systems, with far-reaching implications in condensed matter physics and quantum technologies. In general, efficient and sophisticated algorithms are required to overcome the severe challenge posed by the exponential scaling of the Hilbert space of quantum systems. In contrast, hardware built with quantum bits of information are inherently capable of efficiently finding solutions of quantum many-body problems. While a universal and scalable quantum computer is still beyond the horizon, recent advances in qubit manufacturing and coherent control of synthetic quantum matter are leading to a new generation of intermediate scale quantum hardware. \n \nThe complexity underlying quantum many-body systems closely resembles the one encountered in many problems in the world of information and technology. In both contexts, the complexity stems from a large number of interacting degrees of freedom. A powerful strategy in the latter scenario is machine learning, a subfield of artificial intelligence where large amounts of data are used to extract relevant features and patterns. In particular, artificial neural networks have been demonstrated to be capable of discovering low-dimensional representations of complex objects from high-dimensional dataset, leading to the profound technological revolution we all witness in our daily life. \n \nIn this Thesis, we envision a new paradigm for scientific discovery in quantum physics. On the one hand, we have the essentially unlimited data generated with the increasing amount of highly controllable quantum hardware. On the other hand, we have a set of powerful algorithms that efficiently capture non-trivial correlations from high-dimensional data. Therefore, we fully embrace this data-driven approach to quantum mechanics, and anticipate new exciting possibilities in the field of quantum many-body physics and quantum information science. We revive a powerful stochastic neural network called a restricted Boltzmann machine, which slowly moved out of fashion after playing a central role in the machine learning revolution of the early 2010s. We introduce a neural-network representation of quantum states based on this generative model. We propose a set of algorithms to reconstruct unknown quantum states from measurement data and numerically demonstrate their potential, with important implications for current experiments. These include the reconstruction of experimentally inaccessible properties, such as entanglement, and diagnostics to determine sources of noise. Furthermore, we introduce a machine learning framework for quantum error correction, where a neural network learns the best decoding strategy directly from data. We expect that the full integration between quantum hardware and artificial intelligence will become the gold standard, and will drive the world into the era of fault-tolerant quantum computing and large-scale quantum simulations.
Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are attractive and growing universal and extensive in a broad range of perspectives from commercial applications to cutting-edge scientific research. In AI, one can simulate human intelligence processes via machines, especially computer systems. In a true sense, AI is a part of our modern life, as it is quite tough to identify an area where accomplishments in the field of AI would not be used. AI technologies enable machines to learn useful processes, including object recognition, speech recognition, natural language processing, machine vision, and digital personal assistants. In this context, quantum optics and quantum-based technologies have been found in prominent positions since they enable a speed up in learning processes [ 1–4 ]. It has been perceived that the demand for the algorithms that enable machines to learn quickly and efficiently have increased day-by-day as the field of AI has advanced. Quantum machine learning is a fast rising field connecting AI and quantum technology.
We demonstrate how machine learning is able to model experiments in quantum physics. Quantum entanglement is a cornerstone for upcoming quantum technologies, such as quantum computation and quantum cryptography. Of particular interest are complex quantum states with more than two particles and a large number of entangled quantum levels. Given such a multiparticle high-dimensional quantum state, it is usually impossible to reconstruct an experimental setup that produces it. To search for interesting experiments, one thus has to randomly create millions of setups on a computer and calculate the respective output states. In this work, we show that machine learning models can provide significant improvement over random search. We demonstrate that a long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network can successfully learn to model quantum experiments by correctly predicting output state characteristics for given setups without the necessity of computing the states themselves. This approach not only allows for faster search, but is also an essential step towards the automated design of multiparticle high-dimensional quantum experiments using generative machine learning models.