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arXiv:2006.01976 · Advanced Quantum Technologies

Noise Robustness and Experimental Demonstration of a Quantum Generative Adversarial Network for Continuous Distributions

Abhinav Anand, Jonathan Romero, Matthias Degroote, Alán Aspuru‐Guzik

Published Apr 1, 2021• 24 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract The potential advantage of machine learning in quantum computers is a topic of intense discussion in the literature. Theoretical, numerical, and experimental explorations will most likely be required to understand its power. There have been different algorithms proposed to exploit the probabilistic nature of variational quantum circuits for generative modeling. In this paper, a hybrid architecture for quantum generative adversarial networks (QGANs) is employed and their robustness in the presence of noise is studied. A simple way of adding different types of noise to the quantum generator circuit is devised, and the noisy hybrid QGANs (HQGANs) are simulated numerically to learn continuous probability distributions, and to show that the performance of HQGANs remains unaffected. The effect of different parameters on the training time is also investigated to reduce the computational scaling of the algorithm and simplify its deployment on a quantum computer. The training on Rigetti's Aspen‐4‐2Q‐A quantum processing unit is then performed, and the results from the training are presented. The authors' results pave the way for experimental exploration of different quantum machine learning algorithms on noisy intermediate‐scale quantum devices.

DOI
10.1002/qute.202000069

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Abstract The potential advantage of machine learning in quantum computers is a topic of intense discussion in the literature. Theoretical, numerical, and experimental explorations will most likely be required to understand its power. There have been different algorithms proposed to exploit the probabilistic nature of variational quantum circuits for generative modeling. In this paper, a hybrid architecture for quantum generative adversarial networks (QGANs) is employed and their robustness in the presence of noise is studied. A simple way of adding different types of noise to the quantum generator circuit is devised, and the noisy hybrid QGANs (HQGANs) are simulated numerically to learn continuous probability distributions, and to show that the performance of HQGANs remains unaffected. The effect of different parameters on the training time is also investigated to reduce the computational scaling of the algorithm and simplify its deployment on a quantum computer. The training on Rigetti's Aspen‐4‐2Q‐A quantum processing unit is then performed, and the results from the training are presented. The authors' results pave the way for experimental exploration of different quantum machine learning algorithms on noisy intermediate‐scale quantum devices.
The potential advantage of machine learning in quantum computers is a topic of intense discussion in the literature. Theoretical, numerical and experimental explorations will most likely be required to understand its power. There has been different algorithms proposed to exploit the probabilistic nature of variational quantum circuits for generative modelling. In this paper, we employ a hybrid architecture for quantum generative adversarial networks (QGANs) and study their robustness in the presence of noise. We devise a simple way of adding different types of noise to the quantum generator circuit, and numerically simulate the noisy hybrid QGANs to learn continuous probability distributions, and show that the performance of HQGANs remain unaffected. We also investigate the effect of different parameters on the training time to reduce the computational scaling of the algorithm and simplify its deployment on a quantum computer. We then perform the training on Rigetti's Aspen-4-2Q-A quantum processing unit, and present the results from the training. Our results pave the way for experimental exploration of different quantum machine learning algorithms on noisy intermediate scale quantum devices.
Abstract Current noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices suffer from various sources of intrinsic quantum noise. Overcoming the effects of noise is a major challenge, for which different error mitigation and error correction techniques have been proposed. In this paper, we conduct a first study of the performance of quantum Generative Adversarial Networks (qGANs) in the presence of different types of quantum noise, focusing on a simplified use case in high-energy physics. In particular, we explore the effects of readout and two-qubit gate errors on the qGAN training process. Simulating a noisy quantum device classically with IBM’s Qiskit framework, we examine the threshold of error rates up to which a reliable training is possible. In addition, we investigate the importance of various hyperparameters for the training process in the presence of different error rates, and we explore the impact of readout error mitigation on the results.
This paper introduces a novel hybrid quantumclassical model using QGAN (quantum generative adversarial network) to achieve more efficient, convergent and noiserobust machine learning for nearterm quantum (NISQ) applications. Unlike the existing GAN type models that were purely classical or purely quantum, to propose a quantum generator consisting of shallow variation circuits (48 qubits) together with a classical discriminator that is crucial for the stability of adversarial training. The empirical results on the MNIST dataset showed that were able to perform classification with an accuracy of 94.2%, an improvement of over 3.2% from a straightforward classical only approach, while NVGAN also improved its generative performance to a Fréchet Inception Distance (FID) score of 38.7 or 26% in quality enhancement from synthesis perspective. Both trainings converged 50 epochs earlier than each training when used the hybrid model (30% improvement in convergence). The key innovation of this work is bringing (1) to bear both the utility of the quantumenhanced feature representation to have at disposal, and (2) classical stability measures and erroraware optimizations (such as parameter clipping, early stopping), such that its hybridization enabled it to continue operating with>90%\mathbf{> 9 0 \%}>90%accuracy under cases of reasonable depolarizing/amplitude damping noise on an MLP where purely quantum formulations decayed to (approx 70%). Altogether, the paper validates the presented hybrid QGAN approach as a statistically substantiated noise robust and scalable representational tool for real world applications of quantum enhanced machine learning tasks on NISQ platforms.
Current noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices suffer from various sources of intrinsic quantum noise. Overcoming the effects of noise is a major challenge, for which different error mitigation and error correction techniques have been proposed. In this paper, we conduct a first study of the performance of quantum Generative Adversarial Networks (qGANs) in the presence of different types of quantum noise, focusing on a simplified use case in high-energy physics. In particular, we explore the effects of readout and two-qubit gate errors on the qGAN training process. Simulating a noisy quantum device classically with IBM's Qiskit framework, we examine the threshold of error rates up to which a reliable training is possible. In addition, we investigate the importance of various hyperparameters for the training process in the presence of different error rates, and we explore the impact of readout error mitigation on the results.
Abstract Quantum algorithms have the potential to outperform their classical counterparts in a variety of tasks. The realization of the advantage often requires the ability to load classical data efficiently into quantum states. However, the best known methods require O(2n){\mathcal{O}}\left({2}^{n}\right)O(2n) O 2 n gates to load an exact representation of a generic data structure into an nnn n -qubit state. This scaling can easily predominate the complexity of a quantum algorithm and, thereby, impair potential quantum advantage. Our work presents a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm for efficient, approximate quantum state loading. More precisely, we use quantum Generative Adversarial Networks (qGANs) to facilitate efficient learning and loading of generic probability distributions - implicitly given by data samples - into quantum states. Through the interplay of a quantum channel, such as a variational quantum circuit, and a classical neural network, the qGAN can learn a representation of the probability distribution underlying the data samples and load it into a quantum state. The loading requires O(poly(n)){\mathcal{O}}\left(poly\left(n\right)\right)O(poly(n)) O p o l y n gates and can thus enable the use of potentially advantageous quantum algorithms, such as Quantum Amplitude Estimation. We implement the qGAN distribution learning and loading method with Qiskit and test it using a quantum simulation as well as actual quantum processors provided by the IBM Q Experience. Furthermore, we employ quantum simulation to demonstrate the use of the trained quantum channel in a quantum finance application.
Abstract Quantum machine learning offers powerful advantages in processing high-dimensional data, but loading classical probability distributions into quantum states remains a major challenge. This work extends quantum generative adversarial networks (qGANs) to overcome two critical limitations of early approaches: poor robustness to noise on near-term devices and limited capacity to model complex, multi-modal distributions. We introduce hybrid qGAN architectures that combine Wasserstein GAN with gradient penalty (WGAN-GP) and maximum mean discrepancy (MMD) losses with expressive quantum circuits, including quantum convolutional neural networks (QCNNs) and EfficientSU2 ansätze. Training is performed using seamless PyTorch–Qiskit integration, enabling stable optimization on both simulators and real quantum hardware.Experiments on 2D Gaussian and log-normal distributions—directly relevant to financial modeling—show faster convergence and higher fidelity than prior qGAN designs, with up to 80% lower Wasserstein distance under 5% depolarizing noise. The framework is further validated through European call option pricing via quantum amplitude estimation (QAE), achieving pricing errors below 1% on IBM’s 20-qubit superconducting systems. Theoretical analysis confirms gradient stability under noise, while empirical results include comprehensive noise sweeps, t-SNE latent space visualizations, and rigorous statistical tests (KL divergence, KS tests). This work establishes a practical path toward quantum advantage in generative modeling, with fully open-source code for reproducibility.