We explore the use of Quantum Machine Learning (QML) for anomaly detection at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In particular, we explore a semi-supervised approach in the four-lepton final state where simulations are reliable enough for a direct background prediction. This is a representative task where classification needs to be performed using small training datasets - a regime that has been suggested for a quantum advantage. We find that Classical Machine Learning (CML) benchmarks outperform standard QML algorithms and are able to automatically identify the presence of anomalous events injected into otherwise background-only datasets.
We explore the use of Quantum Machine Learning (QML) for anomaly detection at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In particular, we explore a semi-supervised approach in the four-lepton final state where simulations are reliable enough for a direct background prediction. This is a representative task where classification needs to be performed using small training datasets - a regime that has been suggested for a quantum advantage. We find that Classical Machine Learning (CML) benchmarks outperform standard QML algorithms and are able to automatically identify the presence of anomalous events injected into otherwise background-only datasets.
The ongoing quest to discover new phenomena at the LHC necessitates the continuous development of algorithms and technologies. Established approaches like machine learning, along with emerging technologies such as quantum computing show promise in the enhancement of experimental capabilities. In this work, we propose a strategy for anomaly detection tasks at the LHC based on unsupervised quantum machine learning, and demonstrate its effectiveness in identifying new phenomena. The designed quantum models-an unsupervised kernel machine and two clustering algorithms-are trained to detect new-physics events using a latent representation of LHC data, generated by an autoencoder designed to accommodate current quantum hardware limitations on problem size. For kernel-based anomaly detection, we implement an instance of the model on a quantum computer, and we identify a regime where it significantly outperforms its classical counterparts. We show that the observed performance enhancement is related to the quantum resources utilised by the model. The ongoing quest in particle physics to discover fundamentally new phenomena necessitates the continuous development of algorithms and technologies. The authors propose a methodology based on quantum machine learning that can identify new phenomena in proton collision experiments, showing that it can outperform its classical counterparts when sufficient quantum computing resources are utilized.
The lack of evidence for new interactions and particles at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has motivated the high-energy physics community to explore model-agnostic data-analysis approaches to search for new physics. Autoencoders are unsupervised machine learning models based on artificial neural networks, capable of learning background distributions. We study quantum autoencoders based on variational quantum circuits for the problem of anomaly detection at the LHC. For a QCD tt background and resonant heavy-Higgs signals, we find that a simple quantum autoencoder outperforms classical autoencoders for the same inputs and trains very efficiently. Moreover, this performance is reproducible on present quantum devices. This shows that quantum autoencoders are good candidates for analysing high-energy physics data in future LHC runs.
A bstract Anomaly detection is a vital technique for exploring signatures of new physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The vast number of collisions generated by the LHC demands sophisticated deep learning techniques. Similarity learning, a self-supervised machine learning, detects anomalous signals by estimating their similarity to background events. In this paper, we explore the potential of quantum computers for anomaly detection through similarity learning, leveraging the power of quantum computing to enhance the known similarity learning method. In the realm of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices, we employ a hybrid classical-quantum network to search for heavy scalar resonances in the di-Higgs production channel. In the absence of quantum noise, the hybrid network demonstrates improvement over the known similarity learning method. Moreover, we employ a clustering algorithm to reduce measurement noise from limited shot counts, resulting in 9% improvement in the hybrid network performance. Our analysis highlights the applicability of quantum algorithms for LHC data analysis, where improvements are anticipated with the advent of fault-tolerant quantum computers.
Anomaly detection, the task of identifying rare and unusual events within a dataset, is a critical component in numerous applications, including fraud detection, cybersecurity, and industrial monitoring. Traditional anomaly detection methods often rely on classical machine learning algorithms which can be sensitive to noise and may struggle with complex, high-dimensional data. This paper investigates the application of quantum machine learning (QML) algorithms to enhance anomaly detection performance. We propose a framework where anomaly detection problems are formulated as quantum machine learning tasks, leveraging quantum algorithms for data analysis and pattern recognition. The core claim of this work is that QML can significantly improve the precision and efficiency of anomaly detection compared to conventional techniques. Specifically, we explore the potential of quantum support vector machines (QSVMs) and quantum clustering algorithms for anomaly identification. The theoretical underpinnings of these approaches are outlined, and we present a conceptual model demonstrating the transformation of a classical anomaly detection problem into a quantum equivalent. This work lays the groundwork for future research in applying QML to real-world anomaly detection challenges.
One of the major objectives of the experimental programs at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the discovery of new physics. This requires the identification of rare signals in immense backgrounds. Using machine learning algorithms greatly enhances our ability to achieve this objective. With the progress of quantum technologies, quantum machine learning could become a powerful tool for data analysis in high energy physics. In this study, using IBM gate-model quantum computing systems, we employ the quantum variational classifier method in two recent LHC flagship physics analyses: (Higgs boson production in association with a top quark pair, probing the Higgs boson couplings to the top quark) and H → μ + μ − (Higgs boson decays to two muons, probing the Higgs boson couplings to second-generation fermions). We have obtained early results with 10 qubits on the IBM quantum simulator and the IBM quantum hardware. With small training samples of 100 events on the quantum simulator, the quantum variational classifier method performs similarly to classical algorithms such as SVM (support vector machine) and BDT (boosted decision tree), which are often employed in LHC physics analyses. On the quantum hardware, the quantum variational classifier method has shown promising discrimination power, comparable to that on the quantum simulator. This study demonstrates that quantum machine learning has the ability to differentiate between signal and background in realistic physics datasets. We foresee the usage of quantum machine learning in future high-luminosity LHC physics analyses, including measurements of the Higgs boson self-couplings and searches for dark matter.
We investigate the possibility to apply quantum machine learning techniques for data analysis, with particular regard to an interesting use-case in high-energy physics. We propose an anomaly detection algorithm based on a parametrized quantum circuit. This algorithm was trained on a classical computer and tested with simulations as well as on real quantum hardware. Tests on NISQ devices were performed with IBM quantum computers. For the execution on quantum hardware, specific hardware-driven adaptations were devised and implemented. The quantum anomaly detection algorithm was able to detect simple anomalies such as different characters in handwritten digits as well as more complex structures such as anomalous patterns in the particle detectors produced by the decay products of long-lived particles produced at a collider experiment. For the high-energy physics application, the performance was estimated in simulation only, as the quantum circuit was not simple enough to be executed on the available quantum hardware platform. This work demonstrates that it is possible to perform anomaly detection with quantum algorithms; however, as an amplitude encoding of classical data is required for the task, due to the noise level in the available quantum hardware platform, the current implementation cannot outperform classic anomaly detection algorithms based on deep neural networks.