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International Journal of Circuit Theory and Applications

Neural networks with quantum architecture and quantum learning

Massimo Panella, Giuseppe Martinelli

Published Jul 23, 2009• 75 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract A method is proposed for solving the two key problems facing quantum neural networks: introduction of nonlinearity in the neuron operation and efficient use of quantum superposition in the learning algorithm. The former is indirectly solved by using suitable Boolean functions. The latter is based on the use of a suitable nonlinear quantum circuit. The resulting learning procedure does not apply any optimization method. The optimal neural network is obtained by applying an exhaustive search among all the possible solutions. The exhaustive search is carried out by the proposed quantum circuit composed of both linear and nonlinear components. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

DOI
10.1002/cta.619

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Abstract A method is proposed for solving the two key problems facing quantum neural networks: introduction of nonlinearity in the neuron operation and efficient use of quantum superposition in the learning algorithm. The former is indirectly solved by using suitable Boolean functions. The latter is based on the use of a suitable nonlinear quantum circuit. The resulting learning procedure does not apply any optimization method. The optimal neural network is obtained by applying an exhaustive search among all the possible solutions. The exhaustive search is carried out by the proposed quantum circuit composed of both linear and nonlinear components. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Nonlinear quantum processing allows the solution of an optimization problem by the exhaustive search on all its possible solutions. Hence, it can replace advantageously the algorithms for learning from a training set. In order to pursue this possibility in the case of neurofuzzy networks, we propose in this paper to tailor their architectures to the requirements of quantum processing. In particular, superposition is introduced to pursue parallelism and entanglement to associate the network performance with each solution present in the superposition. Two aspects of the proposed method are considered in detail: the binary structure of membership functions and fuzzy reasoning and the use of a particular nonlinear quantum algorithm for extracting the optimal neurofuzzy network by exhaustive search.
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This paper explores a novel approach to neural network architecture optimization inspired by quantum superposition and measurement. Traditional neural network architecture search methods, such as reinforcement learning or evolutionary algorithms, often suffer from computational bottlenecks and slow convergence rates. We propose a genetic algorithm that leverages quantum-inspired probability amplitudes to represent and evaluate neural network architectures. Each architecture is assigned a set of probability amplitudes, reflecting the potential for success. Through a simulated measurement process, the algorithm dynamically adjusts these amplitudes, favoring architectures with higher potential and accelerating the search for optimal configurations. The core idea is that quantum superposition allows us to explore a vast solution space concurrently, while the measurement process mimics the collapse of the wave function, focusing the search on promising candidates. This approach demonstrates the potential to significantly reduce the time and resources required for neural network architecture design, paving the way for more efficient and powerful deep learning models. We present a detailed theoretical framework and outline the key components of the algorithm, emphasizing its ability to mimic quantum phenomena for architectural optimization.
Quantum computing enables quantum neural networks (QNNs) to have great potential to surpass artificial neural networks. The powerful generalization of neural networks is attributed to nonlinear activation functions. Although various models related to QNNs have been developed, they are facing the challenge of merging the nonlinear, dissipative dynamics of neural computing into the linear, unitary quantum system. In this paper, we establish different quantum circuits to approximate nonlinear functions and then propose a generalizable framework to realize any nonlinear quantum neuron. We present two quantum neuron examples based on the proposed framework. The quantum resources required to construct a single quantum neuron are polynomial in function of the input size. Finally, both IBM Quantum Experience results and numerical simulations illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.
Most proposals for quantum neural networks (QNN) have skipped over the problem of how to learn the networks. This paper describes a novel model for quantum neuron and proposes its learning algorithm. It can be shown that this algorithm works on quantum systems and the convergence result demonstrates efficient performance of the proposed quantum neuron. Numerical and graphical results show that this single quantum neuron can perform the XOR function unrealizable with a classical neuron and can eliminate the necessity of building a network of neurons to obtain nonlinear mapping.
Even the most sophisticated artificial neural networks are built by aggregating substantially identical units called neurons. A neuron receives multiple signals, internally combines them, and applies a non-linear function to the resulting weighted sum. Several attempts to generalize neurons to the quantum regime have been proposed, but all proposals collided with the difficulty of implementing non-linear activation functions, which is essential for classical neurons, due to the linear nature of quantum mechanics. Here we propose a solution to this roadblock in the form of a small quantum circuit that naturally simulates neurons with threshold activation. Our quantum circuit defines a building block, the "quantum neuron", that can reproduce a variety of classical neural network constructions while maintaining the ability to process superpositions of inputs and preserve quantum coherence and entanglement. In the construction of feedforward networks of quantum neurons, we provide numerical evidence that the network not only can learn a function when trained with superposition of inputs and the corresponding output, but that this training suffices to learn the function on all individual inputs separately. When arranged to mimic Hopfield networks, quantum neural networks exhibit properties of associative memory. Patterns are encoded using the simple Hebbian rule for the weights and we demonstrate attractor dynamics from corrupted inputs. Finally, the fact that our quantum model closely captures (traditional) neural network dynamics implies that the vast body of literature and results on neural networks becomes directly relevant in the context of quantum machine learning.