Partial differential equations (PDEs) form the backbone of simulations of many natural phenomena, for example in climate modeling, material science, and even financial markets. The application of physics-informed neural networks to accelerate the solution of PDEs is promising, but not competitive with numerical solvers yet. Here, we show how quantum computing can improve the ability of physics-informed neural networks to solve partial differential equations. For this, we develop hybrid networks consisting of quantum circuits combined with classical layers and systematically test them on various non linear PDEs and boundary conditions in comparison with purely classical networks. We demonstrate that the advantage of using quantum networks lies in their ability to achieve an accurate approximation of the solution in substantially fewer training epochs, particularly for more complex problems. These findings provide the basis for targeted developments of hybrid quantum neural networks with the goal to significantly accelerate numerical modeling.
Partial differential equations (PDEs) form the backbone of simulations of many natural phenomena, for example in climate modeling, material science, and even financial markets. The application of physics-informed neural networks to accelerate the solution of PDEs is promising, but not competitive with numerical solvers yet. Here, we show how quantum computing can improve the ability of physics-informed neural networks to solve partial differential equations. For this, we develop hybrid networks consisting of quantum circuits combined with classical layers and systematically test them on various non linear PDEs and boundary conditions in comparison with purely classical networks. We demonstrate that the advantage of using quantum networks lies in their ability to achieve an accurate approximation of the solution in substantially fewer training epochs, particularly for more complex problems. These findings provide the basis for targeted developments of hybrid quantum neural networks with the goal to significantly accelerate numerical modeling.
Recently, physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) have aroused an upsurge in the field of scientific computing including solving partial differential equations (PDEs), which convert the task of solving PDEs into an optimization challenge by adopting governing equations and definite conditions or observation data as loss functions. Essentially, the underlying logic of PINNs is based on the universal approximation and differentiability properties of classical neural networks (NNs). Recent research has revealed that quantum neural networks (QNNs), known as parameterized quantum circuits, also exhibit universal approximation and differentiability properties. This observation naturally suggests the application of PINNs to QNNs. In this work, we introduce a physics-informed quantum neural network (PI-QNN) by employing the QNN as the function approximator for solving forward and inverse problems of PDEs. The performance of the proposed PI-QNN is evaluated by various forward and inverse PDE problems. Numerical results indicate that PI-QNN demonstrates superior convergence over PINN when solving PDEs with exact solutions that are strongly correlated with trigonometric functions. Moreover, its accuracy surpasses that of PINN by two to three orders of magnitude, while requiring fewer trainable parameters. However, the computational time of PI-QNN exceeds that of PINN due to its operation on classical computers. This limitation may improve with the advent of commercial quantum computers in the future. Furthermore, we briefly investigate the impact of network architecture on PI-QNN performance by examining two different QNN architectures. The results suggest that increasing the number of trainable network layers can enhance the expressiveness of PI-QNN. However, an excessive number of data encoding layers significantly increases computational time, rendering the marginal gains in performance insufficient to compensate for the shortcomings in computational efficiency.
This study introduces a quantum-accelerated framework that integrates quantum optimization with physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) to solve PDEs more efficiently. By leveraging the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA), the proposed framework enhances the initialization and boundary parameter optimization of PINNs, addressing key challenges such as slow convergence and high computational cost. The hybrid approach combines the data efficiency and physical constraint embedding capabilities of PINNs with the computational advantages of quantum optimization, enabling faster and more accurate solutions for complex PDEs. The framework was validated using the Shuhao Cao PDE dataset, demonstrating significant improvements in training efficiency and accuracy compared to traditional numerical solvers and classical PINNs. Experimental results highlight that quantum optimization effectively accelerates convergence by optimizing initial conditions and boundary constraints, reducing the computational overhead associated with classical training processes. Despite its reliance on emerging quantum hardware and the sensitivity of PINNs to hyperparameter selection, this approach offers a scalable and robust solution for solving high-dimensional PDEs. The findings underscore the potential of hybrid quantum-classical methods in advancing scientific computing, providing a foundation for future research in stochastic PDEs, multi-physics problems, and other real-world applications.
Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) often struggle on nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) with sharp gradients, stiff dynamics, high-frequency content, or multiscale structure. Such limitations, rooted in spectral bias, ill-conditioned optimization, and unstable convergence, restrict PINN accuracy in regimes where advanced solvers are most needed. In this work, we develop a hybrid quantum-classical physics-informed neural network (HQPINN) that integrates a classical neural-network backbone with a parameterized quantum circuit (PQC) to enrich the solution representation. The framework is benchmarked against a classical PINN on three representative nonlinear PDEs: Burgers' equation, the Allen-Cahn equation, and the Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation. The framework is further examined through a systematic sensitivity analysis of qubit count, circuit depth, PQC placement, collocation density, and classical-network width. Across all benchmarks, HQPINNs exhibit smoother training dynamics, reduced loss oscillations, and improved final accuracy, with the largest gains occurring in stiff and multiscale regimes. Relative L2 error decreases by about fourfold for Burgers' equation and fivefold for the Allen-Cahn equation, while improvements for the KdV equation are more moderate. Overall, the results demonstrate that carefully co-designed hybrid quantum-classical architectures can mitigate key limitations of classical PINNs and provide practical design guidance for near-term quantum-enhanced PDE solvers.
Partial differential equations (PDEs) play a crucial role in financial mathematics, particularly in portfolio optimization, and solving them using classical numerical or neural network methods has always posed significant challenges. Here, we investigate the potential role of quantum circuits for solving PDEs. We design a parameterized quantum circuit (PQC) for implementing a polynomial based on tensor rank decomposition, reducing the quantum resource complexity from exponential to polynomial when the corresponding tensor rank is moderate. Building on this circuit, we develop a Quantum Physics-Informed Neural Network (QPINN) and a Quantum-inspired PINN, both of which guarantee the existence of an approximation of the PDE solution, and this approximation can be represented as a polynomial that incorporates tensor rank decomposition. Numerical experiments are conducted on the Hamilton--Jacobi--Bellman (HJB) PDE arising from the Merton portfolio optimization problem, which determines the optimal investment fraction between a risky and a risk-free asset. The results show that our quantum models achieve lower losses and approximation errors than a classical fully connected PINN while using substantially fewer trainable parameters. Our quantum models further outperform a classical PINN constructed to share a similar inductive bias, providing experimental evidence of quantum-induced improvement in the tested settings and highlighting a resource-efficient pathway toward classical and near-term quantum solvers for PDEs with exploitable solution structure.
Abstract Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) have emerged as promising methods for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) by embedding physical laws within neural architectures. However, these classical approaches often require a large number of parameters to achieve reasonable accuracy, particularly for complex PDEs. In this paper, we present a quantum-classical PINNs (QCPINNs) that combines quantum and classical components, allowing us to solve PDEs with significantly fewer parameters while maintaining comparable accuracy and convergence to classical PINNs. We systematically evaluated two quantum circuit architectures across various configurations on five benchmark PDEs to identify optimal QCPINN designs. Our results demonstrate that the QCPINN achieves stable convergence and comparable accuracy, while using only 10%–30% of the trainable parameters required by classical PINNs. This approach also results in a significant reduction in the relative L 2 error for Helmholtz, Klein–Gordon, and Convection–diffusion equations, with reduction ranging from 4% to 64% across various fields. These findings demonstrate the potential of parameter efficiency and solution accuracy in physics-informed machine learning, allowing for a substantial decrease in model complexity without compromising solution quality.
Quantum neural networks have emerged as powerful models for approximating nonlinear functions. Yet their use in solving integro-differential equations (IDEs) and fractional integro-partial differential equations (FIPDEs), which involve inherently nonlocal operators, remains unexplored. This work introduces a quantum physics-informed neural network (QPINN) framework that combines a quantum neural network with the governing equations of general nonlinear IDEs and FIPDEs. The proposed quantum network uses an affine feature map and variational quantum circuits to produce trial solutions with explicit trigonometric structure. We prove a quantitative L2(μ) universal approximation theorem for this architecture, achieving a convergence rate of O(n−1/2). This extends classical Fourier approximation theory to quantum circuits for physics-informed learning. We propose two QPINN variants: the numerical-quadrature QPINN (N-QPINN), which handles nonlocal integrals and fractional operators via high-order numerical quadrature while computing local derivatives through automatic differentiation of quantum trial solutions; and the auxiliary-function QPINN (A-QPINN), which eliminates numerical quadrature by introducing auxiliary variables that reformulate each integro-differential equation as an equivalent coupled system of partial differential equations, enabling a multi-output quantum neural network to simultaneously represent the solution and its associated variables. A series of numerical experiments demonstrates that the proposed QPINN framework accurately captures the behavior of nonlinear IDEs and FIPDEs and outperforms classical physics-informed neural networks.