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arXiv:2104.01323 · Physical Review A

Risk-sensitive optimization for robust quantum controls

Xiaozhen Ge, Re-Bing Wu

Published Jul 23, 2021• 15 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Highly accurate and robust control of quantum operations is vital for the realization of error-correctible quantum computation. In this paper, we show that the robustness of high-precision controls can be remarkably enhanced through sampling-based stochastic optimization of a risk-sensitive (RS) loss function. Following the stochastic gradient-descent direction of this loss function, the optimization is guided to penalize poor-performance uncertainty samples in a tunable manner. We propose two algorithms, which are termed as the RS GRAPE and the adaptive RS GRAPE. Their effectiveness is demonstrated by numerical simulations, which is shown to be able to achieve high-control robustness while maintaining high fidelity.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.104.012422

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Highly accurate and robust control of quantum operations is vital for the realization of error-correctible quantum computation. In this paper, we show that the robustness of high-precision controls can be remarkably enhanced through sampling-based stochastic optimization of a risk-sensitive (RS) loss function. Following the stochastic gradient-descent direction of this loss function, the optimization is guided to penalize poor-performance uncertainty samples in a tunable manner. We propose two algorithms, which are termed as the RS GRAPE and the adaptive RS GRAPE. Their effectiveness is demonstrated by numerical simulations, which is shown to be able to achieve high-control robustness while maintaining high fidelity.
High-fidelity quantum operations are the cornerstone of fault-tolerant quantum computation. In open quantum systems, traditional optimal control only passively resists decoherence, leaving environment-induced uncertainty as a fundamental performance bottleneck. To overcome this, we propose a new optimal control framework with flag ancillas and the Flag-GRAPE algorithm, which can actively tailor the system's noise structure. Through embedding post-selection directly into the objective function, Flag-GRAPE correlates decoherence errors with the ancilla's unexpected state. Subsequent measurement and post-selection effectively expel this uncertainty, circumventing the fidelity bounds of traditional control. Numerical simulations in a superconducting quantum circuit demonstrate a 51%51\%51% reduction in infidelity compared to traditional closed-system pulses and also show that such enhancement is robust across broad noise regimes. Furthermore, by actively converting unstructured decoherence into heralded erasure errors, Flag-GRAPE is inherently compatible with quantum error correction. We demonstrate this by initializing a logical cat-code state, showing that the combination between Flag-GRAPE and QEC yields immediate state preparation enhancements. This new framework can reduce hardware overhead for fault-tolerant architectures and open up a practical path toward logical state preparation gain in near-term experiments.
High-precision operation of quantum computing systems must be robust to uncertainties and noises in the quantum hardware. We show that through a game played between the uncertainties (or noises) and the controls, adversarial uncertainty samples can be generated to find highly robust controls through the search for Nash equilibria. We propose a broad family of adversarial learning algorithms, namely a-GRAPE algorithms, which includes two effective learning schemes referred to as the best-response approach and the better-response approach within game-theoretic terminology, providing options for learning highly robust controls. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the balance between fidelity and robustness depends on the details of the chosen adversarial learning algorithm, which can effectively lead to a significant enhancement of control robustness while attaining high fidelity.
In the quest to achieve scalable quantum information processing technologies, gradient-based optimal control algorithms (e.g., grape) are broadly used for implementing high-precision quantum gates, but their performance is often hindered by deterministic or random errors in the system model and the control electronics. In this paper, we show that grape can be taught to be more effective by jointly learning from the design model and the experimental data obtained from process tomography. The resulting data-driven gradient optimization algorithm (d-grape) can in principle correct all deterministic gate errors, with a mild efficiency loss. The d-grape algorithm may become more powerful with broadband controls that involve a large number of control parameters, while other algorithms usually slow down due to the increased size of the search space. These advantages are demonstrated by simulating the implementation of a two-qubit controlled-not gate.
Robust and high-precision quantum control is extremely important but challenging for scalable quantum computation. In this letter, we show that this hard problem can be translated to a supervised machine learning task by treating the time-ordered controlled quantum evolution as a layer-ordered deep neural network (DNN). The finding of robust quantum controls is then equivalent to training a DNN with high generalizability. In this way, powerful DNN tuning skills matured in deep learning (DL) can be employed for the discovery of highly robust and precise quantum controls, which opens up a door through which a large family of learning algorithms can be developed. We exemplify this DL-inspired potential by introducing the commonly used trick of batch-based optimization. The resulting b-GRAPE algorithm is demonstrated to be able to remarkably enhance the control robustness while maintaining high fidelity in the implementation of a three-qubit quantum gate.
Quantum control optimization algorithms are routinely used to generate optimal quantum gates or efficient quantum state transfers. However, there are two main challenges in designing efficient optimization algorithms, namely overcoming the sensitivity to local optima and improving the computational speed. The former challenge can be dealt with by designing hybrid algorithms, such as a combination of gradient and simulated annealing methods. Here, we propose and demonstrate the use of a machine learning method, specifically the recommender system (RS), to deal with the latter challenge of enhancing computational efficiency. We first describe ways to set up a rating matrix involving gradients or gate fidelities. We then establish that RS can rapidly and accurately predict elements of a sparse rating matrix. Using this approach, we expedite a gradient ascent based quantum control optimization, namely GRAPE and demonstrate the faster performance for up to 8 qubits. Finally, we describe and implement the enhancement of the computational speed of a hybrid algorithm, namely SAGRAPE.
Robust and high-precision quantum control is extremely important but challenging for the functionalization of scalable quantum computation. In this paper, we show that this hard problem can be translated to a supervised machine learning task by thinking of the time-ordered quantum evolution as a layer-ordered neural network (NN). The seeking of robust quantum controls is then equivalent to training a highly generalizable NN, to which numerous tuning skills matured in machine learning can be transferred. This opens up a door through which a family of robust control algorithms can be developed. We exemplify such potential by introducing the commonly used trick of batch-based optimization, and the resulting batch-based gradient algorithm is numerically shown to be able to remarkably enhance the control robustness while maintaining high fidelity.