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arXiv:2011.01894 · SciPost Physics

QGOpt: Riemannian optimization for quantum technologies

I. A. Luchnikov, Alexander Ryzhov, Sergey N. Filippov, Henni Ouerdane

Published Mar 30, 2021• 30 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Many theoretical problems in quantum technology can be formulated and addressed as constrained optimization problems. The most common quantum mechanical constraints such as, e.g., orthogonality of isometric and unitary matrices, CPTP property of quantum channels, and conditions on density matrices, can be seen as quotient or embedded Riemannian manifolds. This allows to use Riemannian optimization techniques for solving quantum-mechanical constrained optimization problems. In the present work, we introduce QGOpt, the library for constrained optimization in quantum technology. QGOpt relies on the underlying Riemannian structure of quantum-mechanical constraints and permits application of standard gradient based optimization methods while preserving quantum mechanical constraints. Moreover, QGOpt is written on top of TensorFlow, which enables automatic differentiation to calculate necessary gradients for optimization. We show two application examples: quantum gate decomposition and quantum tomography.

DOI
10.21468/scipostphys.10.3.079

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Many theoretical problems in quantum technology can be formulated and addressed as constrained optimization problems. The most common quantum mechanical constraints such as, e.g., orthogonality of isometric and unitary matrices, CPTP property of quantum channels, and conditions on density matrices, can be seen as quotient or embedded Riemannian manifolds. This allows to use Riemannian optimization techniques for solving quantum-mechanical constrained optimization problems. In the present work, we introduce QGOpt, the library for constrained optimization in quantum technology. QGOpt relies on the underlying Riemannian structure of quantum-mechanical constraints and permits application of standard gradient based optimization methods while preserving quantum mechanical constraints. Moreover, QGOpt is written on top of TensorFlow, which enables automatic differentiation to calculate necessary gradients for optimization. We show two application examples: quantum gate decomposition and quantum tomography.
Optimization methods on Riemannian manifolds are a powerful class of optimization methods that allow performing constrained optimization. We apply first-order Riemannian optimization methods to various problems of quantum physics including entanglement renormalization of local many-body Hamiltonians, quantum control, and quantum tomography. We show that the Riemannian optimization forms a new powerful numerical tool for solving different problems of quantum technologies. Besides, we provide a package written on top of TensorFlow for the Riemannian optimization in quantum physics
Abstract Optimization with constraints is a typical problem in quantum physics and quantum information science that becomes especially challenging for high-dimensional systems and complex architectures like tensor networks. Here we use ideas of Riemannian geometry to perform optimization on the manifolds of unitary and isometric matrices as well as the cone of positive-definite matrices. Combining this approach with the up-to-date computational methods of automatic differentiation, we demonstrate the efficacy of the Riemannian optimization in the study of the low-energy spectrum and eigenstates of multipartite Hamiltonians, variational search of a tensor network in the form of the multiscale entanglement-renormalization ansatz, preparation of arbitrary states (including highly entangled ones) in the circuit implementation of quantum computation, decomposition of quantum gates, and tomography of quantum states. Universality of the developed approach together with the provided open source software enable one to apply the Riemannian optimization to complex quantum architectures well beyond the listed problems, for instance, to the optimal control of noisy quantum systems.
Many challenges in quantum information and quantum control root in constrained optimization problems on finite-dimensional quantum systems. The constraints often arise from two facts: (i) quantum dynamic state spaces are naturally smooth manifolds (orbits of the respective initial states) rather than being Hilbert spaces; (ii) the dynamics of the respective quantum system may be restricted to a proper subset of the entire state space. Mathematically, either case can be treated by constrained optimization over the reachable set of an underlying control system. Thus, whenever the reachable set takes the form a smooth manifold, Riemannian optimization methods apply. Here, we give a comprehensive account on the foundations of gradient flows on Riemannian manifolds including new applications in quantum information and quantum dynamics. Yet, we do not pursue the problem of designing explicit controls for the underlying control systems. The framework is sufficiently general for setting up gradient flows on (sub)manifolds, Lie (sub)groups, and (reductive) homogeneous spaces. Relevant convergence conditions are discussed, in particular for gradient flows on compact and analytic manifolds. This is meant to serve as foundation for new achievements and further research. Illustrative examples and new applications are given: we extend former results on unitary groups to closed subgroups with tensor-product structure, where the finest product partitioning relates to SUloc(2n) := SU(2) ⊗ ⋯ ⊗ SU(2) — known as (qubit-wise) local unitary operations. Such applications include, e.g., optimizing figures of merit on SUloc(2n) relating to distance measures of pure-state entanglement as well as to best rank-1 approximations of higher-order tensors. In quantum information, our gradient flows provide a numerically favorable alternative to standard tensor-SVD techniques.
Constrained optimization plays a crucial role in the fields of quantum physics and quantum information science and becomes especially challenging for high-dimensional complex structure problems. One specific issue is that of quantum process tomography, in which the goal is to retrieve the underlying quantum process based on a given set of measurement data. In this paper, we introduce a modified version of stochastic gradient descent on a Riemannian manifold that integrates recent advancements in numerical methods for Riemannian optimization. This approach inherently supports the physically driven constraints of a quantum process, takes advantage of state-of-the-art large-scale stochastic objective optimization, and has superior performance to traditional approaches such as maximum likelihood estimation and projected least squares. The data-driven approach enables accurate, order-of-magnitude faster results, and works with incomplete data. We demonstrate our approach on simulations of quantum processes and in hardware by characterizing an engineered process on quantum computers.
Constrained optimization plays a crucial role in the fields of quantum physics and quantum information science and becomes especially challenging for high-dimensional complex structure problems. One specific issue is that of quantum process tomography, in which the goal is to retrieve the underlying quantum process based on a given set of measurement data. In this paper, we introduce a modified version of stochastic gradient descent on a Riemannian manifold that integrates recent advancements in numerical methods for Riemannian optimization. This approach inherently supports the physically driven constraints of a quantum process, takes advantage of state-of-the-art large-scale stochastic objective optimization, and has superior performance to traditional approaches such as maximum likelihood estimation and projected least squares. The data-driven approach enables accurate, order-of-magnitude faster results, and works with incomplete data. We demonstrate our approach on simulations of quantum processes and in hardware by characterizing an engineered process on quantum computers.
Several tensor networks are built of isometric tensors, i.e. tensors satisfying W\dagger W = \mathbb{1} W † W = 1 . Prominent examples include matrix product states (MPS) in canonical form, the multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA), and quantum circuits in general, such as those needed in state preparation and quantum variational eigensolvers. We show how gradient-based optimization methods on Riemannian manifolds can be used to optimize tensor networks of isometries to represent e.g. ground states of 1D quantum Hamiltonians. We discuss the geometry of Grassmann and Stiefel manifolds, the Riemannian manifolds of isometric tensors, and review how state-of-the-art optimization methods like nonlinear conjugate gradient and quasi-Newton algorithms can be implemented in this context. We apply these methods in the context of infinite MPS and MERA, and show benchmark results in which they outperform the best previously-known optimization methods, which are tailor-made for those specific variational classes. We also provide open-source implementations of our algorithms.