skip to main content


Title: Quantum Semidefinite Programming with the Hadamard Test and Approximate Amplitude Constraints
Semidefinite programs are optimization methods with a wide array of applications, such as approximating difficult combinatorial problems. We introduce a variational quantum algorithm for semidefinite programs that uses only n qubits, a constant number of circuit preparations, and O(n2) expectation values in order to solve semidefinite programs with up to N=2n variables and M=2n constraints. Efficient optimization is achieved by encoding the objective matrix as a properly parameterized unitary conditioned on an auxilary qubit, a technique known as the Hadamard Test. The Hadamard Test enables us to optimize the objective function by estimating only a single expectation value of the ancilla qubit, rather than separately estimating exponentially many expectation values. Similarly, we illustrate that the semidefinite programming constraints can be effectively enforced by implementing a second Hadamard Test, as well as imposing ∼n2/2 Pauli string amplitude constraints. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our protocol by devising an efficient quantum implementation of the Goemans-Williamson algorithm, which is a useful approximation for various NP-hard problems, such as MaxCut. Our method exceeds the performance of analogous classical methods on a diverse subset of well-studied MaxCut problems from the GSet library.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2016244
NSF-PAR ID:
10340321
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
ArXivorg
ISSN:
2331-8422
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. We give two new quantum algorithms for solving semidefinite programs (SDPs) providing quantum speed-ups. We consider SDP instances with m constraint matrices, each of dimension n, rank at most r, and sparsity s. The first algorithm assumes an input model where one is given access to an oracle to the entries of the matrices at unit cost. We show that it has run time O~(s^2 (sqrt{m} epsilon^{-10} + sqrt{n} epsilon^{-12})), with epsilon the error of the solution. This gives an optimal dependence in terms of m, n and quadratic improvement over previous quantum algorithms (when m ~~ n). The second algorithm assumes a fully quantum input model in which the input matrices are given as quantum states. We show that its run time is O~(sqrt{m}+poly(r))*poly(log m,log n,B,epsilon^{-1}), with B an upper bound on the trace-norm of all input matrices. In particular the complexity depends only polylogarithmically in n and polynomially in r. We apply the second SDP solver to learn a good description of a quantum state with respect to a set of measurements: Given m measurements and a supply of copies of an unknown state rho with rank at most r, we show we can find in time sqrt{m}*poly(log m,log n,r,epsilon^{-1}) a description of the state as a quantum circuit preparing a density matrix which has the same expectation values as rho on the m measurements, up to error epsilon. The density matrix obtained is an approximation to the maximum entropy state consistent with the measurement data considered in Jaynes' principle from statistical mechanics. As in previous work, we obtain our algorithm by "quantizing" classical SDP solvers based on the matrix multiplicative weight update method. One of our main technical contributions is a quantum Gibbs state sampler for low-rank Hamiltonians, given quantum states encoding these Hamiltonians, with a poly-logarithmic dependence on its dimension, which is based on ideas developed in quantum principal component analysis. We also develop a "fast" quantum OR lemma with a quadratic improvement in gate complexity over the construction of Harrow et al. [Harrow et al., 2017]. We believe both techniques might be of independent interest. 
    more » « less
  2. We give a quantum speedup for solving the canonical semidefinite programming relaxation for binary quadratic optimization. This class of relaxations for combinatorial optimization has so far eluded quantum speedups. Our methods combine ideas from quantum Gibbs sampling and matrix exponent updates. A de-quantization of the algorithm also leads to a faster classical solver. For generic instances, our quantum solver gives a nearly quadratic speedup over state-of-the-art algorithms. Such instances include approximating the ground state of spin glasses and MaxCut on Erdös-Rényi graphs. We also provide an efficient randomized rounding procedure that converts approximately optimal SDP solutions into approximations of the original quadratic optimization problem. 
    more » « less
  3. INTRODUCTION Solving quantum many-body problems, such as finding ground states of quantum systems, has far-reaching consequences for physics, materials science, and chemistry. Classical computers have facilitated many profound advances in science and technology, but they often struggle to solve such problems. Scalable, fault-tolerant quantum computers will be able to solve a broad array of quantum problems but are unlikely to be available for years to come. Meanwhile, how can we best exploit our powerful classical computers to advance our understanding of complex quantum systems? Recently, classical machine learning (ML) techniques have been adapted to investigate problems in quantum many-body physics. So far, these approaches are mostly heuristic, reflecting the general paucity of rigorous theory in ML. Although they have been shown to be effective in some intermediate-size experiments, these methods are generally not backed by convincing theoretical arguments to ensure good performance. RATIONALE A central question is whether classical ML algorithms can provably outperform non-ML algorithms in challenging quantum many-body problems. We provide a concrete answer by devising and analyzing classical ML algorithms for predicting the properties of ground states of quantum systems. We prove that these ML algorithms can efficiently and accurately predict ground-state properties of gapped local Hamiltonians, after learning from data obtained by measuring other ground states in the same quantum phase of matter. Furthermore, under a widely accepted complexity-theoretic conjecture, we prove that no efficient classical algorithm that does not learn from data can achieve the same prediction guarantee. By generalizing from experimental data, ML algorithms can solve quantum many-body problems that could not be solved efficiently without access to experimental data. RESULTS We consider a family of gapped local quantum Hamiltonians, where the Hamiltonian H ( x ) depends smoothly on m parameters (denoted by x ). The ML algorithm learns from a set of training data consisting of sampled values of x , each accompanied by a classical representation of the ground state of H ( x ). These training data could be obtained from either classical simulations or quantum experiments. During the prediction phase, the ML algorithm predicts a classical representation of ground states for Hamiltonians different from those in the training data; ground-state properties can then be estimated using the predicted classical representation. Specifically, our classical ML algorithm predicts expectation values of products of local observables in the ground state, with a small error when averaged over the value of x . The run time of the algorithm and the amount of training data required both scale polynomially in m and linearly in the size of the quantum system. Our proof of this result builds on recent developments in quantum information theory, computational learning theory, and condensed matter theory. Furthermore, under the widely accepted conjecture that nondeterministic polynomial-time (NP)–complete problems cannot be solved in randomized polynomial time, we prove that no polynomial-time classical algorithm that does not learn from data can match the prediction performance achieved by the ML algorithm. In a related contribution using similar proof techniques, we show that classical ML algorithms can efficiently learn how to classify quantum phases of matter. In this scenario, the training data consist of classical representations of quantum states, where each state carries a label indicating whether it belongs to phase A or phase B . The ML algorithm then predicts the phase label for quantum states that were not encountered during training. The classical ML algorithm not only classifies phases accurately, but also constructs an explicit classifying function. Numerical experiments verify that our proposed ML algorithms work well in a variety of scenarios, including Rydberg atom systems, two-dimensional random Heisenberg models, symmetry-protected topological phases, and topologically ordered phases. CONCLUSION We have rigorously established that classical ML algorithms, informed by data collected in physical experiments, can effectively address some quantum many-body problems. These rigorous results boost our hopes that classical ML trained on experimental data can solve practical problems in chemistry and materials science that would be too hard to solve using classical processing alone. Our arguments build on the concept of a succinct classical representation of quantum states derived from randomized Pauli measurements. Although some quantum devices lack the local control needed to perform such measurements, we expect that other classical representations could be exploited by classical ML with similarly powerful results. How can we make use of accessible measurement data to predict properties reliably? Answering such questions will expand the reach of near-term quantum platforms. Classical algorithms for quantum many-body problems. Classical ML algorithms learn from training data, obtained from either classical simulations or quantum experiments. Then, the ML algorithm produces a classical representation for the ground state of a physical system that was not encountered during training. Classical algorithms that do not learn from data may require substantially longer computation time to achieve the same task. 
    more » « less
  4. null (Ed.)
    Abstract In this paper we consider large-scale smooth optimization problems with multiple linear coupled constraints. Due to the non-separability of the constraints, arbitrary random sketching would not be guaranteed to work. Thus, we first investigate necessary and sufficient conditions for the sketch sampling to have well-defined algorithms. Based on these sampling conditions we develop new sketch descent methods for solving general smooth linearly constrained problems, in particular, random sketch descent (RSD) and accelerated random sketch descent (A-RSD) methods. To our knowledge, this is the first convergence analysis of RSD algorithms for optimization problems with multiple non-separable linear constraints. For the general case, when the objective function is smooth and non-convex, we prove for the non-accelerated variant sublinear rate in expectation for an appropriate optimality measure. In the smooth convex case, we derive for both algorithms, non-accelerated and A-RSD, sublinear convergence rates in the expected values of the objective function. Additionally, if the objective function satisfies a strong convexity type condition, both algorithms converge linearly in expectation. In special cases, where complexity bounds are known for some particular sketching algorithms, such as coordinate descent methods for optimization problems with a single linear coupled constraint, our theory recovers the best known bounds. Finally, we present several numerical examples to illustrate the performances of our new algorithms. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract Variational quantum algorithms have the potential for significant impact on high-dimensional optimization, with applications in classical combinatorics, quantum chemistry, and condensed matter. Nevertheless, the optimization landscape of these algorithms is generally nonconvex, leading the algorithms to converge to local, rather than global, minima and the production of suboptimal solutions. In this work, we introduce a variational quantum algorithm that couples classical Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques with variational quantum algorithms, allowing the former to provably converge to global minima and thus assure solution quality. Due to the generality of our approach, it is suitable for a myriad of quantum minimization problems, including optimization and quantum state preparation. Specifically, we devise a Metropolis–Hastings method that is suitable for variational quantum devices and use it, in conjunction with quantum optimization, to construct quantum ensembles that converge to Gibbs states. These performance guarantees are derived from the ergodicity of our algorithm’s state space and enable us to place analytic bounds on its time-complexity. We demonstrate both the effectiveness of our technique and the validity of our analysis through quantum circuit simulations for MaxCut instances, solving these problems deterministically and with perfect accuracy, as well as large-scale quantum Ising and transverse field spin models of up to 50 qubits. Our technique stands to broadly enrich the field of variational quantum algorithms, improving and guaranteeing the performance of these promising, yet often heuristic, methods. 
    more » « less