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arXiv:2304.09899 · IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE)

Quantum Kernel Alignment with Stochastic Gradient Descent

Gian Gentinetta, David Sutter, Christa Zoufal, Bryce Fuller, Stefan Woerner

Published Sep 17, 2023• 17 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Quantum support vector machines have the potential to achieve a quantum speedup for solving certain machine learning problems. The key challenge for doing so is finding good quantum kernels for a given data set - a task called kernel alignment. In this paper we study this problem using the Pegasos algorithm, which is an algorithm that uses stochastic gradient descent to solve the support vector machine optimization problem. We extend Pegasos to the quantum case and and demonstrate its effectiveness for kernel alignment. Unlike previous work which performs kernel alignment by training a QSVM within an outer optimization loop, we show that using Pegasos it is possible to simultaneously train the support vector machine and align the kernel. Our experiments show that this approach is capable of aligning quantum feature maps with high accuracy, and outperforms existing quantum kernel alignment techniques. Specifically, we demonstrate that Pegasos is particularly effective for non-stationary data, which is an important challenge in real-world applications.

DOI
10.1109/qce57702.2023.00036

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Quantum support vector machines have the potential to achieve a quantum speedup for solving certain machine learning problems. The key challenge for doing so is finding good quantum kernels for a given data set - a task called kernel alignment. In this paper we study this problem using the Pegasos algorithm, which is an algorithm that uses stochastic gradient descent to solve the support vector machine optimization problem. We extend Pegasos to the quantum case and and demonstrate its effectiveness for kernel alignment. Unlike previous work which performs kernel alignment by training a QSVM within an outer optimization loop, we show that using Pegasos it is possible to simultaneously train the support vector machine and align the kernel. Our experiments show that this approach is capable of aligning quantum feature maps with high accuracy, and outperforms existing quantum kernel alignment techniques. Specifically, we demonstrate that Pegasos is particularly effective for non-stationary data, which is an important challenge in real-world applications.
Quantum support vector machines employ quantum circuits to define the kernel function. It has been shown that this approach offers a provable exponential speedup compared to any known classical algorithm for certain data sets. The training of such models corresponds to solving a convex optimization problem either via its primal or dual formulation. Due to the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics, the training algorithms are affected by statistical uncertainty, which has a major impact on their complexity. We show that the dual problem can be solved in O ( M 4.67 / ε 2 ) quantum circuit evaluations, where M denotes the size of the data set and ε the solution accuracy compared to the ideal result from exact expectation values, which is only obtainable in theory. We prove under an empirically motivated assumption that the kernelized primal problem can alternatively be solved in O ( min { M 2 / ε 6 , 1 / ε 10 } ) evaluations by employing a generalization of a known classical algorithm called Pegasos. Accompanying empirical results demonstrate these analytical complexities to be essentially tight. In addition, we investigate a variational approximation to quantum support vector machines and show that their heuristic training achieves considerably better scaling in our experiments.
The quantum support vector machines (QSVMs) offer a paradigm change that may leverage quantum mechanical processes to outperform traditional support vector machines (SVMs) in high-dimensional and nonlinear classification tasks. These machines are located at the crossroads of supervised machine learning and quantum computing. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive technical analysis of QSVMs, with a particular emphasis on the use of variation quantum circuits for implicit feature space transformations and the development of these circuits within the context of quantum kernel estimation. Through the use of quantum state preparation and interference, we provide a comprehensive explanation of the possible fabrication of quantum kernels that are based on inner product evaluations in exponentially huge Hilbert spaces. When it comes to boosting model expressivity beyond classical limits, the importance that entanglement and quantum feature mapping play is specifically stressed. In addition to this, we investigate algorithmic implementations on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) hardware, focusing on problems associated with quantum decoherence, gate fidelity, and loop depth optimization. Several fields, including quantum-enhanced drug discovery, anomaly detection in quantum sensor networks, fault classification in quantum error correction, and portfolio optimization, are now the focus of research that is being conducted in order to develop real-world applications. This chapter comes to a close with an analysis of the existing theoretical limits, resource needs, and future perspectives for the use of QSVMs in machine learning applications in order to achieve a quantum advantage. In order to facilitate the development of scalable quantum machine learning models that are founded on strong mathematical and computational notions, this synthesis is geared at academics and practitioners.
The rapid spread of fake news on social media poses a significant threat to modern societies. Traditional machine learning approaches have limitations in handling the ever-increasing volume and complexity of data. This research explores quantum machine learning for fake news classification by proposing Pegasos Quantum Support Vector Machines, a novel algorithm combining Pegasos Support Vector Machines with quantum kernels, and advanced data encoding. Through experimentation on the IBM Qasm Simulator, Pegasos Quantum Support Vector Machines scored 90.67% in accuracy. This study is primarily focused on local simulation, where the proposed algorithm scored as high as 95.63%, with 95.44% precision, 99.52% recall, and 96.76% f1-score. The achieved results outperform other machine learning methods on the BUZZFEED dataset, including Quantum Neural Networks and Quantum K-Nearest Neighbors. Its successful implementation paves the way for further refinement of quantum machine learning techniques in fake news classification. The PegasosQSVM algorithm encounters, however, some implementation issues on real world Quantum Processing Units(QPU). Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum era QPU are prone to noise effects that affect the computations negatively, and by extension, the results of quantum machine learning algorithms. Further implementation on real QPU and use of error mitigation techniques, are needed for optimal results on quantum hardware.
Background Quantum support vector machines and quantum kernel methods have emerged as promising approaches within quantum machine learning, with the goal of leveraging quantum computing to enhance classification performance and computational efficiency. This review systematically surveys recent advances in QSVM and kernel‐based quantum classifiers, and analyzes their algorithmic frameworks, experimental implementations, and practical challenges. Methods We systematically examine QSVM approaches, including three schemes based on HHL algorithm, Hadamard test, and variational optimization, alongside multi‐class extension and quantum feature mapping. Result Findings indicate that QSVM can offer theoretical speed‐ups in specific settings, particularly when combined with quantum feature mappings that encode data into high‐dimensional Hilbert spaces. However, current implementations remain constrained by hardware limitations, and a lack of large‐scale general validation. Most studies focus on proof‐of‐principle experiments with limited real‐world applicability. Conclusion While promising, QSVM requires further work on scalability, noise resilience, and real‐world integration. Future research should focus on robust algorithms and empirical studies.
The data encoding circuits used in quantum support vector machine (QSVM) kernels play a crucial role in their classification accuracy. However, manually designing these circuits poses significant challenges in terms of time and performance. To address this, we leverage the GASP (Genetic Algorithm for State Preparation) framework for gate sequence selection in QSVM kernel circuits. We explore supervised and unsupervised kernel loss functions' impact on encoding circuit optimisation and evaluate them on diverse datasets for binary and multiple-class scenarios. Benchmarking against classical and quantum kernels reveals GA-generated circuits matching or surpassing standard techniques. We analyse the relationship between test accuracy and quantum kernel entropy, with results indicating a positive correlation. Our automated framework reduces trial and error, and enables improved QSVM based machine learning performance for finance, healthcare, and materials science applications.
The support vector machine algorithm with a quantum kernel estimator (QSVM-Kernel), as a leading example of a quantum machine learning technique, has undergone significant advancements. Nevertheless, its integration with classical data presents unique challenges. While quantum computers primarily interact with data in quantum states, embedding classical data into quantum states using feature mapping techniques is essential for leveraging quantum algorithms Despite the recognized importance of feature mapping, its specific impact on data classification outcomes remains largely unexplored. This study addresses this gap by comprehensively assessing the effects of various feature mapping methods on classification results, taking medical data analysis as a case study. In this study, the QSVM-Kernel method was applied to classification problems in two different and publicly available medical datasets, namely, the Wisconsin Breast Cancer (original) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Glioma datasets. In the QSVM-Kernel algorithm, quantum kernel matrices obtained from 9 different quantum feature maps were used. Thus, the effects of these quantum feature maps on the classification results of the QSVM-Kernel algorithm were examined in terms of both classifier performance and total execution time. As a result, in the Wisconsin Breast Cancer (original) and TCGA Glioma datasets, when Rx and Ry rotational gates were used, respectively, as feature maps in the QSVM-Kernel algorithm, the best classification performances were achieved both in terms of classification performance and total execution time. The contributions of this study are that (1) it highlights the significant impact of feature mapping techniques on medical data classification outcomes using the QSVM-Kernel algorithm, and (2) it also guides undertaking research for improved QSVM classification performance.