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Scientific Reports

GASP: a genetic algorithm for state preparation on quantum computers

Floyd M. Creevey, Charles D. Hill, Lloyd C. L. Hollenberg

Published Jul 24, 2023• 26 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The efficient preparation of quantum states is an important step in the execution of many quantum algorithms. In the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computing era, this is a significant challenge given quantum resources are scarce and typically only low-depth quantum circuits can be implemented on physical devices. We present a genetic algorithm for state preparation (GASP) which generates relatively low-depth quantum circuits for initialising a quantum computer in a specified quantum state. The method uses a basis set of [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and CNOT gates and a genetic algorithm to systematically generate circuits to synthesize the target state to the required fidelity. GASP can produce more efficient circuits of a given accuracy with lower depth and gate counts than other methods. This variability of the required accuracy facilitates overall higher accuracy on implementation, as error accumulation in high-depth circuits can be avoided. We directly compare the method to the state initialisation technique based on an exact synthesis technique by implemented in IBM Qiskit simulated with noise and implemented on physical IBM Quantum devices. Results achieved by GASP outperform Qiskit's exact general circuit synthesis method on a variety of states such as Gaussian states and W-states, and consistently show the method reduces the number of gates required for the quantum circuits to generate these quantum states to the required accuracy.

DOI
10.1038/s41598-023-37767-w

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The efficient preparation of quantum states is an important step in the execution of many quantum algorithms. In the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computing era, this is a significant challenge given quantum resources are scarce and typically only low-depth quantum circuits can be implemented on physical devices. We present a genetic algorithm for state preparation (GASP) which generates relatively low-depth quantum circuits for initialising a quantum computer in a specified quantum state. The method uses a basis set of [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and CNOT gates and a genetic algorithm to systematically generate circuits to synthesize the target state to the required fidelity. GASP can produce more efficient circuits of a given accuracy with lower depth and gate counts than other methods. This variability of the required accuracy facilitates overall higher accuracy on implementation, as error accumulation in high-depth circuits can be avoided. We directly compare the method to the state initialisation technique based on an exact synthesis technique by implemented in IBM Qiskit simulated with noise and implemented on physical IBM Quantum devices. Results achieved by GASP outperform Qiskit's exact general circuit synthesis method on a variety of states such as Gaussian states and W-states, and consistently show the method reduces the number of gates required for the quantum circuits to generate these quantum states to the required accuracy.
The efficient preparation of quantum states is an important step in the execution of many quantum algorithms. In the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computing era, this is a significant challenge given quantum resources are scarce and typically only low-depth quantum circuits can be implemented on physical devices. We present a genetic algorithm for state preparation (GASP) which generates relatively low-depth quantum circuits for initialising a quantum computer in a specified quantum state. The method uses a basis set of R_x, R_y, R_z, and CNOT gates and a genetic algorithm to systematically generate circuits to synthesize the target state to the required fidelity. GASP can produce more efficient circuits of a given accuracy with lower depth and gate counts than other methods. This variability of the required accuracy facilitates overall higher accuracy on implementation, as error accumulation in high-depth circuits can be avoided. We directly compare the method to the state initialisation technique based on an exact synthesis technique by implemented in IBM Qiskit simulated with noise and implemented on physical IBM Quantum devices. Results achieved by GASP outperform Qiskit's exact general circuit synthesis method on a variety of states such as Gaussian states and W-states, and consistently show the method reduces the number of gates required for the quantum circuits to generate these quantum states to the required accuracy.
We study the approximate state preparation problem on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers by applying a genetic algorithm to generate quantum circuits for state preparation. The algorithm can account for the specific characteristics of the physical machine in the evaluation of circuits, such as the native gate set and qubit connectivity. We use our genetic algorithm to optimize the circuits provided by the low-rank state preparation algorithm introduced by Araujo et al., and find substantial improvements to the fidelity in preparing Haar random states with a limited number of CNOT gates. Moreover, we observe that already for a 5-qubit quantum processor with limited qubit connectivity and significant noise levels (IBM Falcon 5T), the maximal fidelity for Haar random states is achieved by a short approximate state preparation circuit instead of the exact preparation circuit. We also present a theoretical analysis of approximate state preparation circuit complexity to motivate our findings. Our genetic algorithm for quantum circuit discovery is freely available at https://github.com/beratyenilen/qc-ga .
We study the approximate state preparation problem on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers by applying a genetic algorithm to generate quantum circuits for state preparation. The algorithm can account for the specific characteristics of the physical machine in the evaluation of circuits, such as the native gate set and qubit connectivity. We use our genetic algorithm to optimize the circuits provided by the low-rank state preparation algorithm introduced by Araujo et al., and find substantial improvements to the fidelity in preparing Haar random states with a limited number of CNOT gates. Moreover, we observe that already for a 5-qubit quantum processor with limited qubit connectivity and significant noise levels (IBM Falcon 5T), the maximal fidelity for Haar random states is achieved by a short approximate state preparation circuit instead of the exact preparation circuit. We also present a theoretical analysis of approximate state preparation circuit complexity to motivate our findings. Our genetic algorithm for quantum circuit discovery is freely available at https://github.com/beratyenilen/qc-ga.
Quantum computing emerges as a promising direction for high-performance computing in the post-Moore era. Leveraging quantum mechanical properties, quantum devices can theoretically provide significant speedup over classical computers in certain problem domains. Quantum algorithms are typically expressed as quantum circuits composed of quantum gates, or as unitary matrices. Execution of quantum algorithms on physical devices requires translation to machine-compatible circuits -- a process referred to as quantum compilation or synthesis. Quantum synthesis is a challenging problem. Physical quantum devices support a limited number of native basis gates, requiring synthesized circuits to be composed of only these gates. Moreover, quantum devices typically have specific qubit topologies, which constrain how and where gates can be applied. Consequently, logical qubits in input circuits and unitaries may need to be mapped to and routed between physical qubits on the device. Current Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices present additional constraints, through their gate errors and high susceptibility to noise. NISQ devices are vulnerable to errors during gate application and their short decoherence times leads to qubits rapidly succumbing to accumulated noise and possibly corrupting computations. Therefore, circuits synthesized for NISQ devices need to have a low number of gates to reduce gate errors, and short execution times to avoid qubit decoherence. The problem of synthesizing device-compatible quantum circuits, while optimizing for low gate count and short execution times, can be shown to be computationally intractable using analytical methods. Therefore, interest has grown towards heuristics-based compilation techniques, which are able to produce approximations of the desired algorithm to a required degree of precision. In this work, we investigate using Genetic Algorithms (GAs) -- a proven gradient-free optimization technique based on natural selection -- for circuit synthesis. In particular, we formulate the quantum synthesis problem as a multi-objective optimization (MOO) problem, with the objectives of minimizing the approximation error, number of multi-qubit gates, and circuit depth. We also employ fuzzy logic for runtime parameter adaptation of GA to enhance search efficiency and solution quality of our proposed quantum synthesis method.
Abstract This paper presents the implementation of a quantum sequence alignment (QSA) algorithm on biological data in environments simulating noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers. The approach to quantum bioinformatics adapts the original QSA algorithm proposed in 2000 to current capabilities and limitations of NISQ-era quantum computers and uses a genetic algorithm for state preparation (GASP) to create encoding circuits to load both database and target sequences into the quantum data registers. The implementation is tested in a simulated quantum computer environment to validate the approach and refine the GASP data-loading circuit designs. The results demonstrate the practicalities of deploying the QSA algorithm and exemplify the potential of GASP for data encoding in the realm of quantum circuit design, particularly for complex algorithms in quantum bioinformatics and other data-rich problems.
Quantum algorithms will likely play a key role in future high-performance-computing (HPC) environments. These algorithms are typically expressed as quantum circuits composed of arbitrary gates or as unitary matrices. Executing these on physical devices, however, requires translation to device-compatible circuits, in a process called quantum compilation or circuit synthesis, since these devices support a limited number of native gates. Moreover, these devices typically have specific qubit topologies, which constrain how and where gates can be applied. Consequently, logical qubits in input circuits and unitaries may need to be mapped to and routed between physical qubits. Furthermore, current Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices present additional constraints. They are vulnerable to errors during gate application and their short decoherence times lead to qubits rapidly succumbing to accumulated noise and possibly corrupting computations. Therefore, circuits synthesized for NISQ devices need to minimize gates and execution times. The problem of synthesizing device-compatible circuits, while optimizing for low gate count and short execution times, can be shown to be computationally intractable using analytical methods. Therefore, interest has grown towards heuristics-based synthesis techniques, which are able to produce approximations of the desired algorithm, while optimizing depth and gate-count. In this work, we investigate using genetic algorithms (GA)—a proven gradient-free optimization technique based on natural selection—for circuit synthesis. In particular, we formulate the quantum synthesis problem as a multi-objective optimization (MOO) problem, with the objectives of minimizing the approximation error, number of multi-qubit gates, and circuit depth. We also employ fuzzy logic for runtime parameter adaptation of GA to enhance search efficiency and solution quality in our proposed method.