Efficient parametrizations of quantum states are essential for trainable hybrid classical-quantum algorithms. A key challenge in their design consists in adapting to the available qubit connectivity of the quantum processor, which limits the capacity to generate correlations between distant qubits in a resource-efficient and trainable manner. In this work we first introduce an algorithm that optimizes qubit routing for arbitrary connectivity graphs, resulting in a swap network that enables direct interactions between any pair of qubits. We then propose a co-design of circuit layers and qubit routing by embedding the derived swap networks within layered, connectivity-aware ansätze. This construction significantly improves the trainability of the ansatz, leading to enhanced performance with reduced resources. We showcase these improvements through ground-state simulations of strongly correlated systems, including spin-glass and molecular electronic structure models. Across exemplified connectivities, the swap-enhanced ansatz consistently achieves lower energy errors using fewer entangling gates, shallower circuits, and fewer parameters than standard layered-structured baselines. Our results indicate that swap network augmented ansätze provide enhanced trainability and resource-efficient design to capture complex correlations on devices with constrained qubit connectivity.
Efficient parametrizations of quantum states are essential for trainable hybrid classical-quantum algorithms. A key challenge in their design consists in adapting to the available qubit connectivity of the quantum processor, which limits the capacity to generate correlations between distant qubits in a resource-efficient and trainable manner. In this work we first introduce an algorithm that optimizes qubit routing for arbitrary connectivity graphs, resulting in a swap network that enables direct interactions between any pair of qubits. We then propose a co-design of circuit layers and qubit routing by embedding the derived swap networks within layered, connectivity-aware ansätze. This construction significantly improves the trainability of the ansatz, leading to enhanced performance with reduced resources. We showcase these improvements through ground-state simulations of strongly correlated systems, including spin-glass and molecular electronic structure models. Across exemplified connectivities, the swap-enhanced ansatz consistently achieves lower energy errors using fewer entangling gates, shallower circuits, and fewer parameters than standard layered-structured baselines. Our results indicate that swap network augmented ansätze provide enhanced trainability and resource-efficient design to capture complex correlations on devices with constrained qubit connectivity.
The variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) is a method of choice to solve the electronic structure problem for molecules on near-term gate-based quantum computers.However, the circuit depth is expected to grow significantly with the problem size.Increased depth can both degrade the accuracy of the results and reduce trainability.In this work, we propose an approach to reduce ansatz circuit depth.Our approach, called "PermVQE," adds an additional optimization loop to the VQE that permutes qubits in order to solve for the qubit Hamiltonian that maximally localizes correlations in the ground state.The choice of permutations is based on mutual information, which is a measure of interaction between electrons and/or holes in spin-orbitals.Encoding strongly entangled spin-orbitals into proximal qubits on a quantum chip naturally reduces the circuit depth needed to prepare the ground state.For representative molecular systems, LiH, H 2 , (H 2 ) 2 , H = 4 , H + 3 , and N 2 , we demonstrate that placing entangled qubits in close proximity leads to shallower depth circuits required to reach a given eigenvalue-eigenvector accuracy.The approach is designed for hardware-efficient ansatz of any qubit connectivity, and examples are demonstrated for linear and twodimensional grid architectures.The main ideas can also be applied to simulate molecules with other ansatz as well as variational quantum algorithms beyond the VQE.In particular, we demonstrate the beneficial effect of qubit permutations to build fermionic-adaptive derivative assembled pseudo-Trotter ansatz on a linear qubit connectivity architecture with nearly a twofold reduction of the number of controlled NOT gates.
Quantum computers promise an exciting path to the scalable simulation of quantum matter. However, in their nascent state, the accessible gate depth of quantum computation on available hardware remains highly constrained. In this thesis, I present a suite of hybrid quantum-classical algorithms that aid Hamiltonian simulation across both the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum era and future fault-tolerant architectures. By treating classical computation as an active resource to refine quantum algorithms, I develop automated, variational methods to learn hardware-efficient circuits. This work aims to overcome traditional trainability barriers, such as barren plateaus, by embedding physical symmetries directly into the circuit design. Central to the thesis is the synergistic use of tensor networks to classically pre-compute weakly entangled stages of a quantum simulation. This enables the compression of deep circuits, drastically reducing both the accumulation of gate errors on near-term physical qubits and the prohibitive overhead of operations like magic state distillation on error-corrected hardware, reserving the quantum processor strictly for the most challenging, highly entangled dynamics. These methodologies are ultimately directed toward the ab-initio simulation of subatomic physics, providing a scalable approach for the first-principles study of strongly correlated systems, including nuclear structure and lattice gauge theories.
The SWAP network is a qubit routing sequence that can be used to efficiently execute the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA). Even with a minimally connected topology on an n-qubit processor, this routing sequence enables O(n2) operations to execute in O(n) steps. In this work, we optimize the execution of SWAP networks for QAOA through two techniques. First, we take advantage of an overcomplete set of native hardware operations [including 150-ns controlled-$\frac{\ensuremath{\pi}}{2}$ phase gates with up to 99.67(1)% fidelity] to decompose the relevant quantum gates and SWAP networks in a manner which minimizes circuit depth and maximizes gate cancellation. Second, we introduce equivalent circuit averaging, which randomizes over degrees of freedom in the quantum circuit compilation to reduce the impact of systematic coherent errors. Our techniques are experimentally validated at the Advanced Quantum Testbed through the execution of QAOA circuits for finding the ground state of two- and four-node Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spin-glass models with various randomly sampled parameters. We observe a $\ensuremath{\sim}60%$ average reduction in error (total variation distance) for QAOA of depth p=1 on four transmon qubits on a superconducting quantum processor.
Abstract The limited qubit connectivity of quantum processors poses a significant challenge in deploying practical algorithms and logical gates, necessitating efficient qubit mapping and routing strategies. When implementing a gate that requires additional connectivity beyond the native connectivity, the qubit state must be moved to a nearby connected qubit to execute the desired gate locally. This is typically achieved using a series of SWAP gates creating a SWAP path. However, routing methods relying on SWAP gates often lead to increased circuit depth and gate count, motivating the need for alternative approaches. This work explores the potential of teleported gates to improve qubit routing efficiency, focusing on implementation within specific hardware topologies and benchmark quantum algorithms. We propose a routing method that is assisted by gate teleportation. It establishes additional connectivity using gate teleportation paths through available unused qubits, termed auxiliary qubits, within the topology. To optimize this approach, we have developed an algorithm to identify the best gate teleportation connections, considering their potential to reduce the depth of the circuit and address possible errors that may arise from the teleportation paths. Finally, we demonstrate depth reduction with gate teleportation-assisted routing in various benchmark algorithms, including case studies on the compilation of the Deutsch–Jozsa algorithm and the quantum approximation optimization algorithm for heavy-hexagon topology used in IBM 127-qubit Eagle r3 processors. Our benchmark results show a 10%–25% depth reduction in the routing of selected algorithms compared to regular routing without using teleported gates.
In near-term quantum computing devices, connectivity between qubits remain limited by architectural constraints. A computational circuit with given connectivity requirements necessary for multiqubit gates has to be embedded within physical hardware with fixed connectivity. Long-distance gates have to be done by first routing the relevant qubits together. The simplest routing strategy involves the use of gates to swap the information carried by two unconnected qubits to connected ones. Ideal gates just permute the qubits; real gates, however, have the added possibilities of causing simultaneous errors on the qubits involved and spreading errors across the circuit. A general swap scheme thus changes the error-propagation properties of a circuit, including those necessary for fault-tolerant functioning of a circuit. Here, we present a simple strategy to design the swap scheme needed to embed an arbitrary circuit onto a physical hardware with constrained connectivity, in a manner that preserves the fault-tolerant properties of the abstract circuit. Our approach is generally applicable, and works on any circuit, including ones that carry out logical operations and error correction. The embedded circuit will, of course, be noisier, compared to a native implementation of the abstract circuit, but we show in the examples of embedding surface codes on heavy-hexagonal and hexagonal lattices that the deterioration is not severe. This then offers a straightforward solution to implementing circuits with fault-tolerance properties on current hardware.
Combinatorial optimization problems are central to many applications but can be challenging to solve. Quantum approaches such as the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) offer new tools with which to tackle such problems. However, QAOA circuits inherit the interaction structure of the target Hamiltonian, often resulting in deep circuits when compiled onto hardware with limited connectivity. Efficient transpilation is therefore critical to their practical performance. In this work, we propose a transpilation scheme for circuits consisting of blocks of commuting two-qubit gates on two-dimensional lattices. Unlike standard approaches based on random initial mappings and fixed routing, our method alternates between constructing problem-dependent SWAP-layer sequences and updating the qubit layout. By adapting the routing to the required interactions, this yields significantly shorter circuits for graphs with few edges. We benchmark our approach on QAOA instances for Maximum Cut (MC) on Random Regular graphs and Maximum Independent Set (MIS) on Erdős-Rényi graphs. Compared to standard methods, we reduce circuit depth and gate count by about a factor of two, enabling experiments with up to 80 qubits and improving approximation ratios by up to 6.6% for MC and 9.3% for MIS.