We propose a neural-network variational quantum algorithm to simulate the time evolution of quantum many-body systems.Based on a modified restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) wave function ansatz, the proposed algorithm can be efficiently implemented in near-term quantum computers with low measurement cost.Using a qubit recycling strategy, only one ancilla qubit is required to represent all the hidden spins in an RBM architecture.The variational algorithm is extended to open quantum systems by employing a stochastic Schrödinger equation approach.Numerical simulations of spin-lattice models demonstrate that our algorithm is capable of capturing the dynamics of closed and open quantum many-body systems with high accuracy without suffering from the vanishing gradient (or "barren plateau") issue for the considered system sizes.
We propose a neural-network variational quantum algorithm to simulate the time evolution of quantum many-body systems.Based on a modified restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) wave function ansatz, the proposed algorithm can be efficiently implemented in near-term quantum computers with low measurement cost.Using a qubit recycling strategy, only one ancilla qubit is required to represent all the hidden spins in an RBM architecture.The variational algorithm is extended to open quantum systems by employing a stochastic Schrödinger equation approach.Numerical simulations of spin-lattice models demonstrate that our algorithm is capable of capturing the dynamics of closed and open quantum many-body systems with high accuracy without suffering from the vanishing gradient (or "barren plateau") issue for the considered system sizes.
In experimentally realistic situations, quantum systems are never perfectly isolated and the coupling to their environment needs to be taken into account. Often, the effect of the environment can be well approximated by a Markovian master equation. However, solving this master equation for quantum many-body systems becomes exceedingly hard due to the high dimension of the Hilbert space. Here we present an approach to the effective simulation of the dynamics of open quantum many-body systems based on machine-learning techniques. We represent the mixed many-body quantum states with neural networks in the form of restricted Boltzmann machines and derive a variational Monte Carlo algorithm for their time evolution and stationary states. We document the accuracy of the approach with numerical examples for a dissipative spin lattice system.
Abstract The variational wave functions based on neural networks have recently started to be recognized as a powerful ansatz to represent quantum many-body states accurately. In order to show the usefulness of the method among all available numerical methods, it is imperative to investigate the performance in challenging many-body problems for which the exact solutions are not available. Here, we construct a variational wave function with one of the simplest neural networks, the restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM), and apply it to a fundamental but unsolved quantum spin Hamiltonian, the two-dimensional J 1 – J 2 Heisenberg model on the square lattice. We supplement the RBM wave function with quantum-number projections, which restores the symmetry of the wave function and makes it possible to calculate excited states. Then, we perform a systematic investigation of the performance of the RBM. We show that, with the help of the symmetry, the RBM wave function achieves state-of-the-art accuracy both in ground-state and excited-state calculations. The study shows a practical guideline on how we achieve accuracy in a controlled manner.
Neural quantum states are a promising framework for simulating many-body quantum dynamics, as they can represent states with volume-law entanglement. As time evolves, the neural network parameters are typically optimized at discrete time steps to approximate the wave function at each point in time. Given the differentiability of the wave function stemming from the Schrödinger equation, here we impose a time-continuous and differentiable parameterization of the neural network by expressing its parameters as linear combinations of temporal basis functions with trainable, time-independent coefficients. We test this ansatz, referred to as the smooth neural quantum state (\textit{s}-NQS) with a loss function defined over an extended time interval, under a sudden quench of a non-integrable many-body quantum spin chain. We demonstrate accurate time evolution using a restricted Boltzmann machine as the instantaneous neural network architecture. We show that the parameterization enables accurate simulations with fewer variational parameters, independent of time-step resolution. Furthermore, the smooth neural quantum state also allows us to initialize and evaluate the wave function at times not included in the training set, both within and beyond the training interval.
Abstract Neural-network quantum state (NQS) has attracted significant interests as a powerful wave-function ansatz to model quantum phenomena. In particular, a variant of NQS based on the restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) has been adapted to model the ground state of spin lattices and the electronic structures of small molecules in quantum devices. Despite these progresses, significant challenges remain with the RBM-NQS-based quantum simulations. In this work, we present a state-preparation protocol to generate a specific set of complex-valued RBM-NQS, which we name the unitary-coupled RBM-NQS, in quantum circuits. Our proposal expands the applicability of NQS as prior works deal exclusively with real-valued RBM-NQS for quantum algorithms. With this scheme, we achieve (1) modeling complex-valued wave functions, (2) using as few as one ancilla qubit to simulate M hidden spins in an RBM architecture, and (3) avoiding post-selections to improve scalability.
Variational representations of quantum states abound and have successfully been used to guess ground-state properties of quantum many-body systems. Some are based on partial physical insight (Jastrow, Gutzwiller-projected, and fractional quantum Hall states, for instance), and others operate as a black box that may contain information about the underlying structure of entanglement and correlations (tensor networks, neural networks) and offer the advantage of a large set of variational parameters that can be efficiently optimized. However, using variational approaches to study excited states and, in particular, calculating the excitation spectrum, remains a challenge. We present a variational method to calculate the dynamical properties and spectral functions of quantum many-body systems in the frequency domain, where the Green's function of the problem is encoded in the form of a restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM). We introduce a natural gradient descent approach to solve linear systems of equations and use Monte Carlo to obtain the dynamical correlation function. In addition, we propose a strategy to regularize the results that improves the accuracy dramatically. As an illustration, we study the dynamical spin structure factor of the one dimensional ${J}_{1}\ensuremath{-}{J}_{2}$ Heisenberg model. The method is general and can be extended to other variational forms.
Variational quantum algorithms have emerged as a promising approach for simulating open quantum systems, yet their expressive power and trainability remain poorly understood. We propose a variational framework for solving Lindblad master equations by minimizing a residual cost function using a compositional ansatz obtained by combining a classical neural network with a parameterized quantum circuit. The density matrix is represented through a purification on an enlarged Hilbert space, ensuring positivity, Hermiticity, and unit trace by construction, while all gradients are evaluated exactly via the parameter-shift rule. Beyond the algorithmic formulation, we derive an upper bound for the covering number of the proposed compositional model and compare it with that of purely quantum neural networks. Our analysis shows that the classical parametrization enlarges the effective hypothesis class while providing finer control over its complexity, thereby establishing a theoretical connection between expressivity, covering numbers, effective dimension, and the barren plateau phenomenon. Numerical experiments validate both the accuracy of the proposed method for representative Lindblad master equations and the theoretical predictions regarding gradient concentration. These results provide a unified variational and theoretical framework for the simulation of dissipative quantum dynamics using compositional quantum machine learning models.