In the past few years, quantum computing has gotten more attention, and the need for efficient simulations is getting increasingly important as well. A significant branch of quantum computing is photonic quantum computing. For simulating photonic quantum circuits, Strawberry Fields is the most popular framework. In this paper, we compared it with another framework currently under development called Piquasso regarding gradient calculation time, which is an essential part of continuous-variable quantum neural networks. We present the apparent scalability of Piquasso over Strawberry Fields by storing fewer data, but leading to possible accuracy differences as a trade-off, which could motivate future work.
In the past few years, quantum computing has gotten more attention, and the need for efficient simulations is getting increasingly important as well. A significant branch of quantum computing is photonic quantum computing. For simulating photonic quantum circuits, Strawberry Fields is the most popular framework. In this paper, we compared it with another framework currently under development called Piquasso regarding gradient calculation time, which is an essential part of continuous-variable quantum neural networks. We present the apparent scalability of Piquasso over Strawberry Fields by storing fewer data, but leading to possible accuracy differences as a trade-off, which could motivate future work.
Quantum photonic simulators have emerged as indispensable tools for modeling and optimizing quantum photonic circuits, bridging the gap between theoretical models and experimental implementations. This review explores the landscape of photonic quantum simulation, focusing on the transition from Gaussian to non-Gaussian models and the computational challenges associated with simulating large-scale photonic systems. Gaussian states and operations, which enable efficient simulations through covariance matrices and phase-space representations, serve as the foundation for photonic quantum computing. However, non-Gaussian states crucial for universal quantum computation introduce significant computational complexity, requiring advanced numerical techniques such as tensor networks and high-performance GPU acceleration. We evaluate the leading photonic quantum simulators, including Strawberry Fields, Piquasso, QuTiP SimulaQron, Perceval, and QuantumOPtics.jl analyzing their capabilities in handling continuous-variable (CV) and discrete-variable (DV) quantum systems. Special attention is given to hardware-accelerated methods, including GPU-based tensor network approaches, machine learning integration, and hybrid quantum-classical workflows. Furthermore, we investigate noise modeling techniques, such as photon loss and dark counts, and their impact on simulation accuracy. As photonic quantum computing moves toward practical implementations, advancements in high-performance computing (HPC) architectures, such as tensor processing units (TPUs) and system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions, are accelerating the field. This review highlights emerging trends, challenges, and future directions for developing scalable and efficient photonic quantum simulators.
In recent years, near-term noisy intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) computing devices have become available. One of the most promising application areas to leverage such NISQ quantum computer prototypes is quantum machine learning. While quantum neural networks are widely studied for supervised learning, quantum reinforcement learning is still just an emerging field of this area. To solve a classical continuous control problem, we used continuous-variable quantum machine learning. We introduce proximal policy optimization for photonic variational quantum agents and also study the effect of the data re-uploading. We present performance assessment via empirical study using Strawberry Fields, a photonic simulator Fock backend and a hybrid training framework connected to an OpenAI Gym environment and TensorFlow. For the restricted CartPole problem, the two variations of the photonic policy learning achieve comparable performance levels and a faster convergence than the baseline classical neural network of same number of trainable parameters.
We introduce Strawberry Fields, an open-source quantum programming architecture for light-based quantum computers, and detail its key features. Built in Python, Strawberry Fields is a full-stack library for design, simulation, optimization, and quantum machine learning of continuous-variable circuits. The platform consists of three main components: (i) an API for quantum programming based on an easy-to-use language named Blackbird; (ii) a suite of three virtual quantum computer backends, built in NumPy and TensorFlow, each targeting specialized uses; and (iii) an engine which can compile Blackbird programs on various backends, including the three built-in simulators, and - in the near future - photonic quantum information processors. The library also contains examples of several paradigmatic algorithms, including teleportation, (Gaussian) boson sampling, instantaneous quantum polynomial, Hamiltonian simulation, and variational quantum circuit optimization.
In recent years quantum computing has evolved from a research concept subject to reality. Companies and scientists around the world are creating physical quantum systems using different quantum technologies to advance the field. Although most of this focus is on superconducting, qubit-based implementations, recently there has been work in the development of boson-based quantum computers. The basic processing unit for these devices are continuous variable (CV), multi-photonic modes in Gaussian states. Due to the novel nature of this technology there is a lack of work on analyzing the compilation process of current photonic devices. One of the leading companies in this field developed a cross-platform Python library for simulating and executing programs on quantum photonic hardware, Strawberry Fields (SF). This paper will focus on analyzing the SF compilers, and proposing an additional compilation step that will enable future, more flexible hardware implementations.
Machine Learning (ML) has been widely applied across numerous domains due to its ability to automatically identify informative patterns from data for various tasks. The availability of large-scale data and advanced computational power enables the development of sophisticated models and training strategies, leading to state-of-the-art performance, but it also introduces substantial challenges. Quantum Computing (QC), which exploits quantum mechanisms for computation, has attracted growing attention and significant global investment as it may address these challenges. Consequently, Quantum Machine Learning (QML), the integration of these two fields, has received increasing interest, with a notable rise in related studies in recent years. We are motivated to review these existing contributions regarding quantum circuit-based learning models for classical data analysis and highlight the identified potentials and challenges of this technique. Specifically, we focus not only on QML models, both kernel-based and neural network-based, but also on recent explorations of their integration with classical machine learning layers within hybrid frameworks. Moreover, we examine both theoretical analysis and empirical findings to better understand their capabilities, and we also discuss the efforts on noise-resilient and hardware-efficient QML that could enhance its practicality under current hardware limitations. In addition, we cover several emerging paradigms for advanced quantum circuit design and highlight the adaptability of QML across representative application domains. This study aims to provide an overview of the contributions made to bridge quantum computing and machine learning, offering insights and guidance to support its future development and pave the way for broader adoption in the coming years.
We introduce the Piquasso quantum programming framework, a full-stack open-source software platform for the simulation and programming of photonic quantum computers. Piquasso can be programmed via a high-level Python programming interface enabling users to perform efficient quantum computing with discrete and continuous variables. Via optional high-performance C++ backends, Piquasso provides state-of-the-art performance in the simulation of photonic quantum computers. The Piquasso framework is supported by an intuitive web-based graphical user interface where the users can design quantum circuits, run computations, and visualize the results.