Abstract Variational algorithms require architectures that naturally constrain the optimization space to run efficiently. Geometric quantum machine learning achieves this goal by encoding group structure into parameterized quantum circuits to include the symmetries of a problem as an inductive bias. However, constructing such circuits is challenging as a concrete guiding principle has yet to emerge. In this paper, we propose the use of spin networks , a form of directed tensor network invariant under a group transformation, to devise SU(2) equivariant quantum circuit ansätze—circuits possessing spin-rotation symmetry. By changing to the basis that block diagonalizes the SU(2) group action, these networks provide a natural building block for constructing parameterized equivariant quantum circuits. We prove that our construction is mathematically equivalent to other known constructions, such as those based on twirling and generalized permutations, but more direct to implement on quantum hardware. The efficacy of our constructed circuits is tested by solving the ground state problem of SU(2) symmetric Heisenberg models on the one-dimensional triangular lattice and the Kagome lattice. Our results highlight that our equivariant circuits boost the performance of quantum variational algorithms, indicating broader applicability to other real-world problems.
Abstract Variational algorithms require architectures that naturally constrain the optimization space to run efficiently. Geometric quantum machine learning achieves this goal by encoding group structure into parameterized quantum circuits to include the symmetries of a problem as an inductive bias. However, constructing such circuits is challenging as a concrete guiding principle has yet to emerge. In this paper, we propose the use of spin networks , a form of directed tensor network invariant under a group transformation, to devise SU(2) equivariant quantum circuit ansätze—circuits possessing spin-rotation symmetry. By changing to the basis that block diagonalizes the SU(2) group action, these networks provide a natural building block for constructing parameterized equivariant quantum circuits. We prove that our construction is mathematically equivalent to other known constructions, such as those based on twirling and generalized permutations, but more direct to implement on quantum hardware. The efficacy of our constructed circuits is tested by solving the ground state problem of SU(2) symmetric Heisenberg models on the one-dimensional triangular lattice and the Kagome lattice. Our results highlight that our equivariant circuits boost the performance of quantum variational algorithms, indicating broader applicability to other real-world problems.
In the current framework of geometric quantum machine learning, the canonical method for constructing a variational ansatz that respects the symmetry of some group action is by forcing the circuit to be equivariant, i.e., to commute with the action of the group. This can, however, be an overzealous constraint that greatly limits the expressivity of the circuit, especially in the case of continuous symmetries. We propose an alternative paradigm for the symmetry-informed construction of variational quantum circuits, based on homogeneous spaces, relaxing the overly stringent requirement of equivariance. We achieve this by introducing horizontal quantum gates, which only transform the state with respect to the directions orthogonal to those of the symmetry. We show that horizontal quantum gates are much more expressive than equivariant gates, and thus can solve problems that equivariant circuits cannot. For instance, a circuit comprised of horizontal gates can find the ground state of an SU ( 2 ) -symmetric model where the ground state spin sector is unknown—a task where equivariant circuits fall short. Moreover, for a particular subclass of horizontal gates based on symmetric spaces, we can obtain efficient circuit decompositions for our gates through the KAK theorem. Finally, we highlight a particular class of horizontal quantum gates that behave similarly to general SU ( 4 ) gates, while achieving a quadratic reduction in the number of parameters for a generic problem.
We develop a theoretical framework for S n -equivariant convolutional quantum circuits with SU(d) symmetry, building on and significantly generalizing Jordan's permutational quantum computing formalism based on Schur-Weyl duality connecting both SU(d) and S n actions on qudits.In particular, we utilize the Okounkov-Vershik approach to prove Harrow's statement on the equivalence between SU(d) and S n irrep bases and to establish the S n -equivariant convolutional quantum alternating ansätze (S n -CQA) using Young-Jucys-Murphy elements.We prove that S n -CQA is able to generate any unitary in any given S n irrep sector, which may serve as a universal model for a wide array of quantum machine-learning problems with the presence of SU(d) symmetry.Our method provides another way to prove the universality of the quantum approximate optimization algorithm and verifies that four-local SU(d)-symmetric unitaries are sufficient to build generic SU(d)-symmetric quantum circuits up to relative phase factors.We present numerical simulations to showcase the effectiveness of the ansätze to find the ground-state energy of the J 1 -J 2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the rectangular and kagome lattices.Our work provides the first application of the celebrated Okounkov-Vershik S n representation theory to quantum physics and machine learning, from which to propose quantum variational ansätze that strongly suggests to be classically intractable tailored towards a specific optimization problem.
Variational quantum algorithms are gaining attention as an early application of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. One of the main problems of variational methods lies in the phenomenon of , present in the optimization of variational parameters. Adding geometric inductive bias to the quantum models has been proposed as a potential solution to mitigate this problem, leading to a new field called geometric quantum machine learning. In this work, an equivariant architecture for variational quantum classifiers is introduced to create a label-invariant model for image classification with C 4 rotational label symmetry. The equivariant circuit is benchmarked against two different architectures, and it is experimentally observed that the geometric approach boosts the model's performance. Finally, a classical equivariant convolution operation is proposed to extend the quantum model for the processing of larger images, employing the resources available in NISQ devices.
Quantum neural network architectures that have little to no inductive biases are known to face trainability and generalization issues. Inspired by a similar problem, recent breakthroughs in machine learning address this challenge by creating models encoding the symmetries of the learning task. This is materialized through the usage of equivariant neural networks the action of which commutes with that of the symmetry. In this work, we import these ideas to the quantum realm by presenting a comprehensive theoretical framework to design equivariant quantum neural networks (EQNNs) for essentially any relevant symmetry group. We develop multiple methods to construct equivariant layers for EQNNs and analyze their advantages and drawbacks. Our methods can find unitary or general equivariant quantum channels efficiently even when the symmetry group is exponentially large or continuous. As a special implementation, we show how standard quantum convolutional neural networks (QCNNs) can be generalized to group-equivariant QCNNs where both the convolution and pooling layers are equivariant to the symmetry group. We then numerically demonstrate the effectiveness of a S U ( 2 ) -equivariant QCNN over symmetry-agnostic QCNN on a classification task of phases of matter in the bond-alternating Heisenberg model. Our framework can be readily applied to virtually all areas of quantum machine learning. Lastly, we discuss about how symmetry-informed models such as EQNNs provide hopes to alleviate central challenges such as barren plateaus, poor local minima, and sample complexity. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Abstract Variational quantum algorithms are the leading candidate for advantage on near-term quantum hardware. When training a parametrized quantum circuit in this setting to solve a specific problem, the choice of ansatz is one of the most important factors that determines the trainability and performance of the algorithm. In quantum machine learning (QML), however, the literature on ansatzes that are motivated by the training data structure is scarce. In this work, we introduce an ansatz for learning tasks on weighted graphs that respects an important graph symmetry, namely equivariance under node permutations. We evaluate the performance of this ansatz on a complex learning task, namely neural combinatorial optimization, where a machine learning model is used to learn a heuristic for a combinatorial optimization problem. We analytically and numerically study the performance of our model, and our results strengthen the notion that symmetry-preserving ansatzes are a key to success in QML.
We propose SnCQA, a set of hardware-efficient variational circuits of equivariant quantum convolutional circuits respective to permutation symmetries and spatial lattice symmetries with the number of qubits n. By exploiting permutation symmetries of the system, such as lattice Hamiltonians common to many quantum many-body and quantum chemistry problems, Our quantum neural networks are suitable for solving machine learning problems where permutation symmetries are present, which could lead to significant savings of computational costs. Aside from its theoretical novelty, we find our simulations perform well in practical instances of learning ground states in quantum computational chemistry, where we could achieve comparable performances to traditional methods with few tens of parameters. Compared to other traditional variational quantum circuits, such as the pure hardware-efficient ansatz (pHEA), we show that SnCQA is more scalable, accurate, and noise resilient (with 20× better performance on 3 × 4 square lattice and 200% - 1000% resource savings in various lattice sizes and key criterions such as the number of layers, parameters, and times to converge in our cases), suggesting a potentially favorable experiment on near-time quantum devices.