Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:2101.03154

Quantum Tensor Network in Machine Learning: An Application to Tiny Object Classification

Fanjie Kong, Xiao-Yang Liu, Ricardo Henao

Published Jan 8, 2021• 9 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Tiny object classification problem exists in many machine learning applications like medical imaging or remote sensing, where the object of interest usually occupies a small region of the whole image. It is challenging to design an efficient machine learning model with respect to tiny object of interest. Current neural network structures are unable to deal with tiny object efficiently because they are mainly developed for images featured by large scale objects. However, in quantum physics, there is a great theoretical foundation guiding us to analyze the target function for image classification regarding to specific objects size ratio. In our work, we apply Tensor Networks to solve this arising tough machine learning problem. First, we summarize the previous work that connects quantum spin model to image classification and bring the theory into the scenario of tiny object classification. Second, we propose using 2D multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA) to classify tiny objects in image. In the end, our experimental results indicate that tensor network models are effective for tiny object classification problem and potentially will beat state-of-the-art. Our codes will be available online https://github.com/timqqt/MERA_Image_Classification.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2101.03154

Related papers

Tensor Networks for Medical Image Classification

Raghavendra Selvan, Erik B. Dam

With the increasing adoption of machine learning tools like neural networks across several domains, interesting connections and comparisons to concepts from other domains are coming to light. In this work, we focus on the class of Tensor Networks, which has been a work horse for physicists in the last two decades to analyse quantum many-body systems. Building on the recent interest in tensor networks for machine learning, we extend the Matrix Product State tensor networks (which can be interpreted as linear classifiers operating in exponentially high dimensional spaces) to be useful in medical image analysis tasks. We focus on classification problems as a first step where we motivate the use of tensor networks and propose adaptions for 2D images using classical image domain concepts such as local orderlessness of images. With the proposed locally orderless tensor network model (LoTeNet), we show that tensor networks are capable of attaining performance that is comparable to state-of-the-art deep learning methods. We evaluate the model on two publicly available medical imaging datasets and show performance improvements with fewer model hyperparameters and lesser computational resources compared to relevant baseline methods.

arXiv:2004.10076•Apr 21, 2020•31 citations

Entanglement and Tensor Networks for Supervised Image Classification

John M. Martyn, Guifré Vidal, Chase Roberts +1 more

Tensor networks, originally designed to address computational problems in quantum many-body physics, have recently been applied to machine learning tasks. However, compared to quantum physics, where the reasons for the success of tensor network approaches over the last 30 years is well understood, very little is yet known about why these techniques work for machine learning. The goal of this paper is to investigate entanglement properties of tensor network models in a current machine learning application, in order to uncover general principles that may guide future developments. We revisit the use of tensor networks for supervised image classification using the MNIST data set of handwritten digits, as pioneered by Stoudenmire and Schwab [Adv. in Neur. Inform. Proc. Sys. 29, 4799 (2016)]. Firstly we hypothesize about which state the tensor network might be learning during training. For that purpose, we propose a plausible candidate state $|Σ_{\ell}\rangle$ (built as a superposition of product states corresponding to images in the training set) and investigate its entanglement properties. We conclude that $|Σ_{\ell}\rangle$ is so robustly entangled that it cannot be approximated by the tensor network used in that work, which must therefore be representing a very different state. Secondly, we use tensor networks with a block product structure, in which entanglement is restricted within small blocks of $n \times n$ pixels/qubits. We find that these states are extremely expressive (e.g. training accuracy of $99.97 \%$ already for $n=2$), suggesting that long-range entanglement may not be essential for image classification. However, in our current implementation, optimization leads to over-fitting, resulting in test accuracies that are not competitive with other current approaches.

arXiv:2007.06082•Jul 12, 2020•23 citations

Quantum Phase Recognition using Quantum Tensor Networks

Shweta Sahoo, Utkarsh Azad, Singh, Harjinder

Machine learning (ML) has recently facilitated many advances in solving problems related to many-body physical systems. Given the intrinsic quantum nature of these problems, it is natural to speculate that quantum-enhanced machine learning will enable us to unveil even greater details than we currently have. With this motivation, this paper examines a quantum machine learning approach based on shallow variational ansatz inspired by tensor networks for supervised learning tasks. In particular, we first look at the standard image classification tasks using the Fashion-MNIST dataset and study the effect of repeating tensor network layers on ansatz's expressibility and performance. Finally, we use this strategy to tackle the problem of quantum phase recognition for the transverse-field Ising and Heisenberg spin models in one and two dimensions, where we were able to reach $\geq 98\%$ test-set accuracies with both multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA) and tree tensor network (TTN) inspired parametrized quantum circuits.

arXiv:2212.06207•Dec 12, 2022•0 citations

Experimental realization of a quantum image classifier via tensor-network-based machine learning

Kunkun Wang, Lei Xiao, Wei Yi +2 more

Quantum machine learning aspires to overcome intractability that currently limits its applicability to practical applications. However, quantum machine learning itself is limited by low effective dimensions achievable in state-of-the-art experiments. Here, we demonstrate highly successful classifications of real-life images using photonic qubits, combining a quantum tensor-network representation of hand-written digits and entanglement-based optimization. Specifically, we focus on binary classification for hand-written zeroes and ones, whose features are cast into the tensor-network representation, further reduced by optimization based on entanglement entropy and encoded into two-qubit photonic states. We then demonstrate image classification with a high success rate exceeding 98%, through successive gate operations and projective measurements. Although we work with photons, our approach is amenable to other physical realizations such as nitrogen-vacancy centers, nuclear spins, and trapped ions, and our scheme can be scaled to efficient multi-qubit encodings of features in the tensor-product representation, thereby setting the stage for quantum-enhanced multi-class classification.

arXiv:2003.08551•Photonics Research•Sep 29, 2021•20 citations

Machine Learning by Two-Dimensional Hierarchical Tensor Networks: A Quantum Information Theoretic Perspective on Deep Architectures

Ding Liu, Shi-Ju Ran, Péter Wittek +4 more

The resemblance between the methods used in studying quantum-many body physics and in machine learning has drawn considerable attention. In particular, tensor networks (TNs) and deep learning architectures bear striking similarities to the extent that TNs can be used for machine learning. Previous results used one-dimensional TNs in image recognition, showing limited scalability and a high bond dimension. In this work, we train two-dimensional hierarchical TNs to solve image recognition problems, using a training algorithm derived from the multipartite entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA). This approach overcomes scalability issues and implies novel mathematical connections among quantum many-body physics, quantum information theory, and machine learning. While keeping the TN unitary in the training phase, TN states can be defined, which optimally encodes each class of the images into a quantum many-body state. We study the quantum features of the TN states, including quantum entanglement and fidelity. We suggest these quantities could be novel properties that characterize the image classes, as well as the machine learning tasks. Our work could be further applied to identifying possible quantum properties of certain artificial intelligence methods.

•Oct 13, 2017•13 citations

Tensor ring optimized quantum-enhanced tensor neural networks

Debanjan Konar, Dheeraj Peddireddy, Bijaya Ketan Panigrahi +1 more

Abstract Quantum machine learning researchers often rely on incorporating tensor networks (TN) into deep neural networks (DNN) and variational optimization. However, the standard optimization techniques used for training the contracted trainable weights of each model layer suffer from the correlations and entanglement structure between the model parameters in classical implementations. To address this issue, a multi-layer design of a tensor ring optimized variational quantum learning classifier (Quan-TR) comprising cascading entangling gates replacing the fully connected (dense) layers of a TN is proposed, and it is referred to as tensor ring optimized quantum-enhanced tensor neural networks (TR-QNet). TR-QNet parameters are optimized using the stochastic gradient descent algorithm on qubit measurements. The proposed TR-QNet is evaluated on three distinct datasets, namely Iris, MNIST, and CIFAR-10, to demonstrate the enhanced precision achieved for binary classification. In quantum simulations, the proposed TR-QNet achieves promising precision of $$94.5\%$$ 94.5 % , $$86.16\%$$ 86.16 % , and $$83.54\%$$ 83.54 % on the Iris, MNIST, and CIFAR-10 datasets. Benchmark studies have been conducted on state-of-the-art quantum and classical implementations of TN models to show the efficacy of the proposed TR-QNet. Moreover, the scalability of TR-QNet highlights its potential for exhibiting in deep learning applications on a large scale. The PyTorch implementation of TR-QNet is available on Github https://github.com/konar1987/TR-QNet/ .

arXiv:2310.01515•Quantum Machine Intelligence•Apr 22, 2025•3 citations
Tiny object classification problem exists in many machine learning applications like medical imaging or remote sensing, where the object of interest usually occupies a small region of the whole image. It is challenging to design an efficient machine learning model with respect to tiny object of interest. Current neural network structures are unable to deal with tiny object efficiently because they are mainly developed for images featured by large scale objects. However, in quantum physics, there is a great theoretical foundation guiding us to analyze the target function for image classification regarding to specific objects size ratio. In our work, we apply Tensor Networks to solve this arising tough machine learning problem. First, we summarize the previous work that connects quantum spin model to image classification and bring the theory into the scenario of tiny object classification. Second, we propose using 2D multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA) to classify tiny objects in image. In the end, our experimental results indicate that tensor network models are effective for tiny object classification problem and potentially will beat state-of-the-art. Our codes will be available online https://github.com/timqqt/MERA_Image_Classification.
With the increasing adoption of machine learning tools like neural networks across several domains, interesting connections and comparisons to concepts from other domains are coming to light. In this work, we focus on the class of Tensor Networks, which has been a work horse for physicists in the last two decades to analyse quantum many-body systems. Building on the recent interest in tensor networks for machine learning, we extend the Matrix Product State tensor networks (which can be interpreted as linear classifiers operating in exponentially high dimensional spaces) to be useful in medical image analysis tasks. We focus on classification problems as a first step where we motivate the use of tensor networks and propose adaptions for 2D images using classical image domain concepts such as local orderlessness of images. With the proposed locally orderless tensor network model (LoTeNet), we show that tensor networks are capable of attaining performance that is comparable to state-of-the-art deep learning methods. We evaluate the model on two publicly available medical imaging datasets and show performance improvements with fewer model hyperparameters and lesser computational resources compared to relevant baseline methods.
Tensor networks, originally designed to address computational problems in quantum many-body physics, have recently been applied to machine learning tasks. However, compared to quantum physics, where the reasons for the success of tensor network approaches over the last 30 years is well understood, very little is yet known about why these techniques work for machine learning. The goal of this paper is to investigate entanglement properties of tensor network models in a current machine learning application, in order to uncover general principles that may guide future developments. We revisit the use of tensor networks for supervised image classification using the MNIST data set of handwritten digits, as pioneered by Stoudenmire and Schwab [Adv. in Neur. Inform. Proc. Sys. 29, 4799 (2016)]. Firstly we hypothesize about which state the tensor network might be learning during training. For that purpose, we propose a plausible candidate state ∣Σℓ⟩|Σ_{\ell}\rangle∣Σℓ​⟩ (built as a superposition of product states corresponding to images in the training set) and investigate its entanglement properties. We conclude that ∣Σℓ⟩|Σ_{\ell}\rangle∣Σℓ​⟩ is so robustly entangled that it cannot be approximated by the tensor network used in that work, which must therefore be representing a very different state. Secondly, we use tensor networks with a block product structure, in which entanglement is restricted within small blocks of n×nn \times nn×n pixels/qubits. We find that these states are extremely expressive (e.g. training accuracy of 99.97%99.97 \%99.97% already for n=2n=2n=2), suggesting that long-range entanglement may not be essential for image classification. However, in our current implementation, optimization leads to over-fitting, resulting in test accuracies that are not competitive with other current approaches.
Machine learning (ML) has recently facilitated many advances in solving problems related to many-body physical systems. Given the intrinsic quantum nature of these problems, it is natural to speculate that quantum-enhanced machine learning will enable us to unveil even greater details than we currently have. With this motivation, this paper examines a quantum machine learning approach based on shallow variational ansatz inspired by tensor networks for supervised learning tasks. In particular, we first look at the standard image classification tasks using the Fashion-MNIST dataset and study the effect of repeating tensor network layers on ansatz's expressibility and performance. Finally, we use this strategy to tackle the problem of quantum phase recognition for the transverse-field Ising and Heisenberg spin models in one and two dimensions, where we were able to reach ≥98%\geq 98\%≥98% test-set accuracies with both multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA) and tree tensor network (TTN) inspired parametrized quantum circuits.
Quantum machine learning aspires to overcome intractability that currently limits its applicability to practical applications. However, quantum machine learning itself is limited by low effective dimensions achievable in state-of-the-art experiments. Here, we demonstrate highly successful classifications of real-life images using photonic qubits, combining a quantum tensor-network representation of hand-written digits and entanglement-based optimization. Specifically, we focus on binary classification for hand-written zeroes and ones, whose features are cast into the tensor-network representation, further reduced by optimization based on entanglement entropy and encoded into two-qubit photonic states. We then demonstrate image classification with a high success rate exceeding 98%, through successive gate operations and projective measurements. Although we work with photons, our approach is amenable to other physical realizations such as nitrogen-vacancy centers, nuclear spins, and trapped ions, and our scheme can be scaled to efficient multi-qubit encodings of features in the tensor-product representation, thereby setting the stage for quantum-enhanced multi-class classification.
The resemblance between the methods used in studying quantum-many body physics and in machine learning has drawn considerable attention. In particular, tensor networks (TNs) and deep learning architectures bear striking similarities to the extent that TNs can be used for machine learning. Previous results used one-dimensional TNs in image recognition, showing limited scalability and a high bond dimension. In this work, we train two-dimensional hierarchical TNs to solve image recognition problems, using a training algorithm derived from the multipartite entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA). This approach overcomes scalability issues and implies novel mathematical connections among quantum many-body physics, quantum information theory, and machine learning. While keeping the TN unitary in the training phase, TN states can be defined, which optimally encodes each class of the images into a quantum many-body state. We study the quantum features of the TN states, including quantum entanglement and fidelity. We suggest these quantities could be novel properties that characterize the image classes, as well as the machine learning tasks. Our work could be further applied to identifying possible quantum properties of certain artificial intelligence methods.
Abstract Quantum machine learning researchers often rely on incorporating tensor networks (TN) into deep neural networks (DNN) and variational optimization. However, the standard optimization techniques used for training the contracted trainable weights of each model layer suffer from the correlations and entanglement structure between the model parameters in classical implementations. To address this issue, a multi-layer design of a tensor ring optimized variational quantum learning classifier (Quan-TR) comprising cascading entangling gates replacing the fully connected (dense) layers of a TN is proposed, and it is referred to as tensor ring optimized quantum-enhanced tensor neural networks (TR-QNet). TR-QNet parameters are optimized using the stochastic gradient descent algorithm on qubit measurements. The proposed TR-QNet is evaluated on three distinct datasets, namely Iris, MNIST, and CIFAR-10, to demonstrate the enhanced precision achieved for binary classification. In quantum simulations, the proposed TR-QNet achieves promising precision of 94.5%94.5\%94.5% 94.5 % , 86.16%86.16\%86.16% 86.16 % , and 83.54%83.54\%83.54% 83.54 % on the Iris, MNIST, and CIFAR-10 datasets. Benchmark studies have been conducted on state-of-the-art quantum and classical implementations of TN models to show the efficacy of the proposed TR-QNet. Moreover, the scalability of TR-QNet highlights its potential for exhibiting in deep learning applications on a large scale. The PyTorch implementation of TR-QNet is available on Github https://github.com/konar1987/TR-QNet/ .