Enhancing classical machine learning (ML) algorithms through quantum kernels is a rapidly growing research topic in quantum machine learning (QML). A key challenge in using kernels -- both classical and quantum -- is that ML workflows involve acquiring new observations, for which new kernel values need to be calculated. Transferring data back-and-forth between where the new observations are generated & a quantum computer incurs a time delay; this delay may exceed the timescales relevant for using the QML algorithm in the first place. In this work, we show quantum kernel matrices can be extended to incorporate new data using a classical (chordal-graph-based) matrix completion algorithm. The minimal sample complexity needed for perfect completion is dependent on matrix rank. We empirically show that (a) quantum kernel matrices can be completed using this algorithm when the minimal sample complexity is met, (b) the error of the completion degrades gracefully in the presence of finite-sampling noise, and (c) the rank of quantum kernel matrices depends weakly on the expressibility of the quantum feature map generating the kernel. Further, on a real-world, industrially-relevant data set, the completion error behaves gracefully even when the minimal sample complexity is not reached.
Enhancing classical machine learning (ML) algorithms through quantum kernels is a rapidly growing research topic in quantum machine learning (QML). A key challenge in using kernels -- both classical and quantum -- is that ML workflows involve acquiring new observations, for which new kernel values need to be calculated. Transferring data back-and-forth between where the new observations are generated & a quantum computer incurs a time delay; this delay may exceed the timescales relevant for using the QML algorithm in the first place. In this work, we show quantum kernel matrices can be extended to incorporate new data using a classical (chordal-graph-based) matrix completion algorithm. The minimal sample complexity needed for perfect completion is dependent on matrix rank. We empirically show that (a) quantum kernel matrices can be completed using this algorithm when the minimal sample complexity is met, (b) the error of the completion degrades gracefully in the presence of finite-sampling noise, and (c) the rank of quantum kernel matrices depends weakly on the expressibility of the quantum feature map generating the kernel. Further, on a real-world, industrially-relevant data set, the completion error behaves gracefully even when the minimal sample complexity is not reached.
Abstract Kernel principal component analysis (kernel PCA) is a nonlinear dimensionality reduction technique that employs kernel functions to map data into a high-dimensional feature space, thereby extending the applicability of linear PCA to nonlinear data and facilitating the extraction of informative principal components. However, kernel PCA necessitates the manipulation of large-scale matrices, leading to high computational complexity and posing challenges for efficient implementation in big data environments. Quantum computing has recently been integrated with kernel methods in machine learning, enabling effective analysis of input data within intractable feature spaces. Although existing quantum kernel PCA proposals promise exponential speedups, they impose stringent requirements on quantum hardware that are challenging to fulfill. In this work, we propose a quantum algorithm for kernel PCA by establishing a connection between quantum kernel methods and block encoding, thereby diagonalizing the centralized kernel matrix on a quantum computer. The query complexity is logarithmic with respect to the size of the data vector, D , and linear with respect to the size of the dataset. An exponential speedup could be achieved when the dataset consists of a few high-dimensional vectors, wherein the dataset size is polynomial in log ( D ) , with D being significantly large. In contrast to existing work, our algorithm enhances the efficiency of quantum kernel PCA and reduces the requirements for quantum hardware. Furthermore, we have also demonstrated that the algorithm based on block encoding matches the lower bound of query complexity, indicating that our algorithm is nearly optimal. Our research has laid down new pathways for developing quantum machine learning algorithms aimed at addressing tangible real-world problems and demonstrating quantum advantages within machine learning.
Abstract Quantum machine learning, an emerging field at the intersection of quantum computing and classical machine learning, has shown great promise in enhancing computational capabilities beyond classical bounds. A key element in this area of research is the utilization of Quantum Kernel Estimators, traditionally grounded in the symmetries of SU(2) groups associated with qubits. This study extends the conceptual framework of Quantum Kernel Estimators to incorporate a broader spectrum of symmetry groups. By harnessing the various structures of Lie groups, we develop novel quantum-inspired feature maps that offer more flexible and potentially powerful ways to encode and compress classical data into quantum states. We present a comprehensive theoretical introduction for this approach, followed by a methodology that integrates the developed feature maps into kernel-based quantum classifiers. Our results, derived from a series of computational experiments across various datasets, demonstrate the efficacy of this approach in comparison to traditional quantum and classical machine learning models. The findings not only underline the versatility of Lie-group theory in enhancing quantum machine learning algorithms but also open new avenues for exploring complex symmetries in quantum information processing. This research bridges a gap between the study of symmetries and machine learning, paving the way for more sophisticated quantum algorithms capable of tackling complex, high-dimensional data in ways previously unattainable.
Quantum kernel methods are the most concrete near-term proposal for quantum machine learning on classical data, yet published benchmarks disagree on whether they outperform tuned classical kernels, and the disagreement cannot be resolved from the literature because the comparisons are not protocol-controlled. We argue that the obstacle is one of measurement, not theory: the usual setup fixes the quantum feature map's data scaling while grid-searching the classical kernel's hyperparameters, recomputes nothing per fold, and reports cost in simulator time. We therefore treat the comparison itself as the object of study and impose three controls. The bandwidth is tuned on the same grid budget as the classical γ, the kernel is recomputed inside every fold from fold-fitted preprocessing, and cost is counted in hardware circuit evaluations. On top of these we run a factorial design of 324 cells in which dimensionality, training size, class separability and data structure are explicit covariates, together with four standard datasets, a shots-versus-gate-noise ablation, and a cost sweep. The dominant effect we measure is not quantum: tuning the feature map's bandwidth is worth 0.120 accuracy on synthetic data and 0.339 on real data, exceeding every quantum-classical difference we observe. Tuned quantum kernels are then statistically indistinguishable from a tuned RBF on all four real datasets. The advantage on synthetic data is confined almost entirely to data generated by the feature map itself, and it shrinks with dimensionality (-0.0045 per qubit) while growing with sample size. Finite sampling costs an order of magnitude more accuracy than gate and readout noise, and a fidelity kernel needs 5×107 circuits at n = 10,000. Protocol variance is thus sufficient to explain the field's contradictory conclusions.
Abstract Quantum Machine Learning (QML) is an emerging field at the intersection of quantum computing and artificial intelligence, offering high potential for extracting complex nonlinear patterns from high-dimensional data. However, many quantum kernel-based methods suffer from high computational costs, the requirement for numerous quantum circuit executions, and the limitations of current Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) hardware. These challenges, particularly when dealing with large datasets, represent a major barrier to the widespread adoption of these methods in practical applications. In this paper, a hybrid quantum machine learning framework based on Nyström approximation is proposed to effectively reduce the computational complexity of quantum kernels and enhance their scalability. In the proposed framework, classical data is first mapped to the quantum Hilbert space via parameterized quantum circuits, and the quantum kernel is defined based on the overlap of quantum states. Then, utilizing the Nyström approximation technique, the full kernel calculation is restricted to a representative subset of data, and the final learning process is conducted in the classical space. This approach reduces computational complexity from O(N2) to O(Nm), where N is the number of samples and m is the size of the selected subset. Analytical results and simulations on the Breast Cancer Wisconsin dataset demonstrate that the proposed framework reduces computational costs by over 60% while maintaining the geometric structure of the quantum feature space, with a classification accuracy loss of less than 3%. These results suggest that the proposed method can serve as a practical, scalable, and noise-resilient solution for applying quantum machine learning to real-world data-driven problems.
The rapid advancement of quantum computing hardware and software has ushered in a new era for computational science, promising to tackle problems that are intractable for classical computers. Parallelly, machine learning (ML) has revolutionized data analysis and artificial intelligence. The confluence of these two fields, known as Quantum Machine Learning (QML), aims to harness the principles of quantum mechanics-such as superposition, entanglement, and interference-to enhance and redefine classical machine learning algorithms. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of the burgeoning field of QML. We begin by elucidating the fundamental quantum concepts that underpin QML approaches. We then present a detailed taxonomy and analysis of prominent QML algorithms, categorizing them into quantum-enhanced classical models and fully quantum models. Key families of algorithms discussed include Quantum Support Vector Machines (QSVM), Quantum Neural Networks (QNNs), and Quantum Generative Adversarial Networks (QGANs). For each, we explain the theoretical quantum advantage, the circuit implementation, and the current limitations. Furthermore, we delve into the critical challenges facing the practical realization of QML, including the pervasive issue of noise in Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices, the problem of barren plateaus in training quantum circuits, and the complexities of efficient data encoding (quantum feature maps). We also present a small-scale experimental simulation of a variational quantum classifier on a standardized dataset, demonstrating its principle and comparing its performance with a classical counterpart. Finally, the paper discusses the future trajectory of QML, highlighting the importance of error mitigation, hybrid quantum-classical architectures, and the development of quantum-specific learning inductive biases. We conclude that while fault-tolerant quantum computers remain on the horizon, QML represents a paradigm shift with the potential to deliver profound computational advantages in the coming decades.
The importance of analyzing nontrivial datasets when testing quantum machine learning (QML) models is becoming increasingly prominent in literature, yet a cohesive framework for understanding dataset characteristics remains elusive. In this work, we concentrate on the size of the dataset as an indicator of its complexity and explores the potential for QML models to demonstrate superior data-efficiency compared to classical models, particularly through the lens of quantum kernel methods (QKMs). We provide a method for generating semi-artificial fully classical datasets, on which we show one of the first evidence of the existence of classical datasets where QKMs require less data during training. Additionally, our study introduces a new analytical tool to the QML domain, derived for classical kernel methods, which can be aimed at investigating the classical-quantum gap. Our empirical results reveal that QKMs can achieve low error rates with less training data compared to classical counterparts. Furthermore, our method allows for the generation of datasets with varying properties, facilitating further investigation into the characteristics of real-world datasets that may be particularly advantageous for QKMs. We also show that the predicted performance from the analytical tool we propose - a generalization metric from classical domain - show great alignment empirical evidence, which fills the gap previously existing in the field. We pave a way to a comprehensive exploration of dataset complexities, providing insights into how these complexities influence QML performance relative to traditional methods. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the generalization benefits of QKM models and potentially a broader family of QML models, setting the stage for future advancements in the field.