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arXiv:2505.18367 · PRX Quantum

Improving Variational Counterdiabatic Driving with Weighted Actions and Computer Algebra

Naruo Ohga, Takuya Hatomura

Published Apr 3, 2026• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Variational counterdiabatic (CD) driving is a disciplined and widely used method to robustly control quantum many-body systems by mimicking adiabatic processes with high fidelity and reduced duration. Central to this technique is a universal structure of the adiabatic gauge potential (AGP) over a parameterized Hamiltonian. Here, we reveal that introducing a new degree of freedom into the theory of the AGP can significantly improve variational CD driving. Specifically, we find that the algebraic characterization of the AGP is not unique, and we exploit this nonuniqueness to develop the for deriving a refined driving protocol. This approach extends the conventional method in two aspects: it assigns customized weights to matrix elements relevant to specific problems, and it effectively incorporates nonlocal information into local driving coefficients. We also develop an efficient numerical algorithm to compute the refined driving protocol using computer algebra. Our framework is broadly applicable and, in principle, it can replace any previous use of variational CD driving. We demonstrate its practicality by applying it to adiabatic evolution along the ground state of a parameterized Hamiltonian. This proposal outperforms the conventional method in terms of fidelity, as confirmed by extensive numerical simulations on quantum Ising models.

DOI
10.1103/rmsy-nypw

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Variational counterdiabatic (CD) driving is a disciplined and widely used method to robustly control quantum many-body systems by mimicking adiabatic processes with high fidelity and reduced duration. Central to this technique is a universal structure of the adiabatic gauge potential (AGP) over a parameterized Hamiltonian. Here, we reveal that introducing a new degree of freedom into the theory of the AGP can significantly improve variational CD driving. Specifically, we find that the algebraic characterization of the AGP is not unique, and we exploit this nonuniqueness to develop the for deriving a refined driving protocol. This approach extends the conventional method in two aspects: it assigns customized weights to matrix elements relevant to specific problems, and it effectively incorporates nonlocal information into local driving coefficients. We also develop an efficient numerical algorithm to compute the refined driving protocol using computer algebra. Our framework is broadly applicable and, in principle, it can replace any previous use of variational CD driving. We demonstrate its practicality by applying it to adiabatic evolution along the ground state of a parameterized Hamiltonian. This proposal outperforms the conventional method in terms of fidelity, as confirmed by extensive numerical simulations on quantum Ising models.
Counterdiabatic (CD) protocols enable fast driving of quantum states by invoking an auxiliary adiabatic gauge potential (AGP) that suppresses transitions to excited states throughout the driving process. Usually, the full spectrum of the original unassisted Hamiltonian is a prerequisite for constructing the exact AGP, which implies that CD protocols are extremely difficult for many-body systems. Here, we apply a variational CD protocol recently proposed by Claeys et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 090602 (2019)] to a two-component fermionic Hubbard model in one spatial dimension. This protocol engages an approximated AGP expressed as a series of nested commutators. We show that the optimal variational parameters in the approximated AGP satisfy a set of linear equations whose coefficients are given by the squared Frobenius norms of these commutators. We devise an exact algorithm that escapes the formidable iterative matrix-vector multiplications and evaluates the nested commutators and the CD Hamiltonian in analytic representations. We then examine the CD driving of the one-dimensional Hubbard model up to L=14L=14L=14 sites with driving order $l\ensuremath{\leqslant}3$. Our results demonstrate the usefulness of the variational CD protocol to the Hubbard model and permit a possible route towards fast ground-state preparation for many-body systems.
Counterdiabatic (CD) driving enables efficient quantum state preparation, but it requires implementing highly nonlocal adiabatic gauge potentials (AGP) that are impractical to compute and realize in large many-body systems. We introduce a \textit{weighted nested-commutator} (WNC) ansatz to approximate AGP using local operators. The WNC ansatz generalizes the standard nested-commutator ansatz by assigning independent variational weights to commutators of local Hamiltonian terms, thereby enlarging the variational space while preserving a fixed operator range. We show that the WNC ansatz can be efficiently optimized using a local optimization scheme. Moreover, it systematically outperforms the nested-commutator ansatz in preparing one-dimensional matrix product states (MPS) and the ground state of a nonintegrable quantum Ising model. We then numerically demonstrate that CD driving based on the WNC ansatz significantly accelerates the preparation of 1D MPS for system sizes up to N=1000N = 1000N=1000 qubits, as well as the two-dimensional Affleck-Kennedy-Lieb-Tasaki state on a hexagonal lattice with up to N=3×10N = 3 \times 10N=3×10 sites.
Shortcuts to adiabaticity are well-known methods for controlling the quantum dynamics beyond the adiabatic criteria, where counterdiabatic (CD) driving provides a promising means to speed up quantum many-body systems. In this work, we show the applicability of CD driving to enhance the digitized adiabatic quantum computing paradigm in terms of fidelity and total simulation time. We study the state evolution of an Ising spin chain using the digitized version of the standard CD driving and its variants derived from the variational approach. We apply this technique in the preparation of Bell and Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states with high fidelity using a very shallow quantum circuit. We implement this proposal on the IBM quantum computer, proving its usefulness for the speed up of adiabatic quantum computing in noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices.
Counter-diabatic (CD) driving provides a powerful route to fast and robust state preparation by suppressing diabatic excitations during finite-time evolution. Yet, deriving analytical CD protocols for complex systems remains challenging, motivating the development of variational approaches. These methods typically rely on minimizing trace-based functionals to construct approximate control Hamiltonians. However, in unbounded systems, such functionals can become ill-defined because of the unbounded bosonic Hilbert space, leading to divergent cost functions and unphysical variational coefficients. Here, we introduce a variational optimization framework equipped with physically motivated renormalization schemes that regularize the trace-based metric by restricting it to relevant displaced and low-energy subspaces. As a paradigmatic example, we apply our method to the quantum Rabi model beyond the dispersive approximation and identify two distinct CD contributions that couple the atomic degree of freedom to the position and momentum quadratures of the field. These terms suppress diabatic excitations across coupling regimes ranging from strong to deep-strong light--matter interaction. We further formulate a fidelity-based quantum optimal-control strategy that bypasses the limitations of trace-based variational methods. Finally, we show that the resulting CD terms can be implemented via Floquet engineering through parametric modulation of the native Hamiltonian. Our results demonstrate that CD driving can be consistently extended to continuous-variable systems with unbounded Hilbert spaces, providing a controlled and scalable framework for quantum control in strongly interacting light-matter platforms.
Counterdiabatic (CD) driving presents a way of generating adiabatic dynamics at an arbitrary pace, where excitations due to nonadiabaticity are exactly compensated by adding an auxiliary driving term to the Hamiltonian. While this CD term is theoretically known and given by the adiabatic gauge potential, obtaining and implementing this potential in many-body systems is a formidable task, requiring knowledge of the spectral properties of the instantaneous Hamiltonians and control of highly nonlocal multibody interactions. We show how an approximate gauge potential can be systematically built up as a series of nested commutators, remaining well defined in the thermodynamic limit. Furthermore, the resulting CD driving protocols can be realized up to arbitrary order without leaving the available control space using tools from periodically driven (Floquet) systems. This is illustrated on few- and many-body quantum systems, where the resulting Floquet protocols significantly suppress dissipation and provide a drastic increase in fidelity.
Abstract Counterdiabatic driving can suppress diabatic losses during adiabatic ground state preparation. As its implementation necessitates the generation of an adiabatic gauge potential, which requires knowledge of the spectral gap of instantaneous Hamiltonians and involves highly non-local controls in many-body systems, local counterdiabatic driving with approximate adiabatic gauge potential has been widely adopted. In this work, using transverse-field Ising model as an example, we present an in-depth study of the performance of local counterdiabatic protocols and provide a closed-form analysis of ground-state-fidelity optimization. We then propose a two-stage protocol based on local counterdiabatic and simple local single-body control to further improve the performance. The practical implementation of these protocols does not require diagonalization of instantaneous Hamiltonians or spectral gaps, and only additional local single-body driving is involved. To benchmark their performance, we experimentally implement digitized adiabatic quantum evolution in a trapped-ion system. We characterize the quality of the prepared states and explore the scaling behavior with system size up to 14 qubits. Our demonstration of quantum shortcut to adiabaticity opens a path towards preparing ground states of complex systems with accessible local controls.