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At least 595 records · Page 33

Barren Plateaus Preclude Learning Scramblers

Scrambling processes, which rapidly spread entanglement through many-body quantum systems, are difficult to investigate using standard techniques, but are relevant to quantum chaos and thermalization. In this Letter, we ask if quantum machine learning (QML) could be used to investigate such processes. In this study we prove a no-go theorem for learning an unknown scrambling process with QML, showing that it is highly probable for any variational Ansatz to have a barren plateau landscape, i.e., cost gradients that vanish exponentially in the system size. This implies that the required resources scale exponentially even when strategies to avoid such scaling (e.g., from Ansatz -based barren plateaus or no-free-lunch theorems) are employed. Furthermore, we numerically and analytically extend our results to approximate scramblers. Hence, our work places generic limits on the learnability of unitaries when lacking prior information.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Efficient Entanglement of Spin Qubits Mediated by a Hot Mechanical Oscillator

Localized electronic and nuclear spin qubits in the solid state constitute a promising platform for storage and manipulation of quantum information, even at room temperature. However, the development of scalable systems requires the ability to entangle distant spins, which remains a challenge today. We propose and analyze an efficient, heralded scheme that employs a parity measurement in a decoherence free subspace to enable fast and robust entanglement generation between distant spin qubits mediated by a hot mechanical oscillator. We find that high-fidelity entanglement at cryogenic and even ambient temperatures is feasible with realistic parameters and show that the entangled pair can be subsequently leveraged for deterministic controlled-NOT operations between nuclear spins. Our results open the door for novel quantum processing architectures for a wide variety of solid-state spin qubits.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Entangling Quantum Generative Adversarial Networks

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are one of the most widely adopted machine learning methods for data generation. In this work, we propose a new type of architecture for quantum generative adversarial networks (an entangling quantum GAN, EQ-GAN) that overcomes limitations of previously proposed quantum GANs. Leveraging the entangling power of quantum circuits, the EQ-GAN converges to the Nash equilibrium by performing entangling operations between both the generator output and true quantum data. In the first multiqubit experimental demonstration of a fully quantum GAN with a provably optimal Nash equilibrium, we use the EQ-GAN on a Google Sycamore superconducting quantum processor to mitigate uncharacterized errors, and we numerically confirm successful error mitigation with simulations up to 18 qubits. Finally, we present an application of the EQ-GAN to prepare an approximate quantum random access memory and for the training of quantum neural networks via variational datasets.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Inferring Quantum Network Topology Using Local Measurements

Statistical correlations that can be generated across the nodes in a quantum network depend crucially on its topology. However, this topological information might not be known a priori, or it may need to be verified. In this paper, we propose an efficient protocol for distinguishing and inferring the topology of a quantum network. We leverage entropic quantities-namely, the von Neumann entropy and the measured mutual information-as well as measurement covariance to uniquely characterize the topology. We show that the entropic quantities are sufficient to distinguish two networks that prepare GHZ states. Moreover, if qubit measurements are available, both entropic quantities and covariance can be used to infer the network topology without state-preparation assumptions. We show that the protocol can be entirely robust to noise and can be implemented via quantum variational optimization. Numerical experiments on both classical simulators and quantum hardware show that covariance is generally more reliable for accurately and efficiently inferring the topology, whereas entropy-based methods are often better at identifying the absence of entanglement in the low-shot regime.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Theory for Equivariant Quantum Neural Networks

Quantum neural network architectures that have little to no inductive biases are known to face trainability and generalization issues. Inspired by a similar problem, recent breakthroughs in machine learning address this challenge by creating models encoding the symmetries of the learning task. This is materialized through the usage of equivariant neural networks the action of which commutes with that of the symmetry. In this work, we import these ideas to the quantum realm by presenting a comprehensive theoretical framework to design equivariant quantum neural networks (EQNNs) for essentially any relevant symmetry group. We develop multiple methods to construct equivariant layers for EQNNs and analyze their advantages and drawbacks. Our methods can find unitary or general equivariant quantum channels efficiently even when the symmetry group is exponentially large or continuous. As a special implementation, we show how standard quantum convolutional neural networks (QCNNs) can be generalized to group-equivariant QCNNs where both the convolution and pooling layers are equivariant to the symmetry group. We then numerically demonstrate the effectiveness of a S U ( 2 ) -equivariant QCNN over symmetry-agnostic QCNN on a classification task of phases of matter in the bond-alternating Heisenberg model. Our framework can be readily applied to virtually all areas of quantum machine learning. Lastly, we discuss about how symmetry-informed models such as EQNNs provide hopes to alleviate central challenges such as barren plateaus, poor local minima, and sample complexity. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Quantum optimal control for pure-state preparation using one initial state

This paper presents a framework for solving the pure-state preparation problem using numerical optimal control. As an example, we consider the case where a number of qubits are dispersively coupled to a readout cavity. Herein, we model open system quantum dynamics using the Markovian Lindblad master equation driven by external control pulses. The main result of this paper develops a basis of density matrices (a parameterization) where each basis element is a density matrix by itself. Utilizing a specific objective function, we show how an ensemble of the basis elements can be used as a single initial state throughout the optimization process—independent of the system dimension. We apply the general framework to the specific application of ground-state reset of one and two qubits coupled to a readout cavity.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

A practical approach to determine minimal quantum gate durations using amplitude-bounded quantum controls

Here, we present an iterative scheme to estimate the minimal duration in which a quantum gate can be realized while satisfying hardware constraints on the control pulse amplitudes. The scheme performs a sequence of unconstrained numerical optimal control cycles that each minimize the gate fidelity for a given gate duration alongside an additional penalty term for the control pulse amplitudes. After each cycle, the gate duration is adjusted based on the inverse of the resulting maximum control pulse amplitudes by re-scaling the dynamics to a new duration where control pulses satisfy the amplitude constraints. Those scaled controls then serve as an initial guess for the next unconstrained optimal control cycle, using the adjusted gate duration. We provide multiple numerical examples that each demonstrate fast convergence of the scheme toward a gate duration that is close to the quantum speed limit, given the control pulse amplitude bound. The proposed technique is agnostic to the underlying system and control Hamiltonian models, as well as the target unitary gate operation, making the time-scaling iteration an easy to implement and practically useful scheme for reducing the durations of quantum gate operations.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

The paradox of the tight spiral pass in American football: A simple resolution

An American football is a rotationally symmetric object, which, when well-thrown, spins rapidly around its symmetry axis. In the absence of aerodynamic effects, the football would be a torque-free gyroscope and the symmetry/spin axis would remain pointing in a fixed direction in space as the football moved on its parabolic path. When a pass is well-thrown through the atmosphere, however, the symmetry axis remains—at least approximately—tangent to the path of motion. The rotation of the symmetry axis must be due to aerodynamic torque; yet, that torque, at first glance, would seem to have precisely the opposite effect. In this work, we explain the action of aerodynamics on the ball's orientation at second glance.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Computing Edge States without Hard Truncation

We present a numerical method which accurately computes the discrete spectrum and associated bound states of semi-infinite Hamiltonians which model electronic “edge” states localized at boundaries of one- and two-dimensional crystalline materials. The problem is nontrivial since arbitrarily large finite “hard” (Dirichlet) truncations of the Hamiltonian in the infinite bulk direction tend to produce spurious bound states partially supported at the truncation. Our method, which overcomes this difficulty, is to compute the Green's function of the semi-infinite Hamiltonian by imposing an appropriate boundary condition in the bulk direction; then, the spectral data is recovered via Riesz projection. We demonstrate our method's effectiveness by studies of edge states at a graphene zig-zag edge in the presence of defects modeled both by a discrete tight-binding model and a continuum PDE model under finite difference discretization. Our method may also be used to study states localized at domain wall-type edges in one- and two-dimensional materials where the edge Hamiltonian is infinite in both directions; we demonstrate this for the case of a tight-binding model of distinct honeycomb structures joined along a zig-zag edge. Here, we expect our method to be useful for designing novel devices based on precise wave-guiding by edge states.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

An energy-based coupling approach to nonlocal interface problems

Nonlocal models provide accurate representations of physical phenomena ranging from fracture mechanics to complex subsurface flows, where traditional partial differential equations fail to capture effects caused by long-range forces at the microscale and mesoscale. However, the application of nonlocal models to problems involving interfaces such as multimaterial simulations and fluid-structure interaction, is hampered by the lack of a rigorous nonlocal interface theory needed to support numerical developments. In this paper, we use an energy-based approach to develop a mathematically rigorous nonlocal interface theory which provides a physically consistent extension of the classical perfect interface PDE formulation. Numerical examples validate the proposed framework and demonstrate the scope of our theory.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Theoretical Review of the MFIX Fluid and Two-Fluid Models

MFIX (Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges) is a general purpose code that can be used for describing the hydrodynamics, chemical reactions, and heat transfer of dense or dilute multiphase fluid flows. MFIX calculations give detailed information on pressure, temperature, composition, and velocity distributions in the defined system. This report provides an overview of MFIX’s expressions for single phase flow and continuous dispersed multiphase flow (i.e., the two-fluid model). In addition to the two fluid model (MFIX-TFM), MFIX contains a discrete element model (MFIX-DEM) and a multi-phase particle in cell model (MFIX-PIC) that are not reviewed within this document.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

nPINNs: nonlocal Physics-Informed Neural Networks for a parametrized nonlocal universal Laplacian operator. Algorithms and Applications

Physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) are effective in solving inverse problems based on differential and integro-differential equations with sparse, noisy, unstructured, and multifidelity data. PINNs incorporate all available information, including governing equations (reflecting physical laws), initial-boundary conditions, and observations of quantities of interest, into a loss function to be minimized, thus recasting the original problem into an optimization problem. In this paper, we extend PINNs to parameter and function inference for integral equations such as nonlocal Poisson and nonlocal turbulence models, and we refer to them as nonlocal PINNs (nPINNs). The contribution of the paper is three-fold. First, we propose a unified nonlocal Laplace operator, which converges to the classical Laplacian as one of the operator parameters, the nonlocal interaction radius δ goes to zero, and to the fractional Laplacian as δ goes to infinity. This universal operator forms a super-set of classical Laplacian and fractional Laplacian operators and, thus, has the potential to fit a broad spectrum of data sets. We provide theoretical convergence rates with respect to δ and verify them via numerical experiments. Second, we use nPINNs to estimate the two parameters, δ and α, characterizing the kernel of the unified operator. The strong non-convexity of the loss function yielding multiple (good) local minima reveals the occurrence of the operator mimicking phenomenon, that is, different pairs of estimated parameters could produce multiple solutions of comparable accuracy. Third, we propose another nonlocal operator with spatially variable order α(γ), which is more suitable for modeling turbulent Couette flow. Our results show that nPINNs can jointly infer this function as well as δ. More importantly, these parameters exhibit a universal behavior with respect to the Reynolds number, a finding that contributes to our understanding of nonlocal interactions in wall-bounded turbulence.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

2019 Lighting R&D Opportunities

BTO’s Lighting R&D Opportunities is updated annually and covers foundational R&D needs for lighting technology and lighting application understanding that will result in maximum energy savings while also optimizing for building occupant well-being and productivity.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

An energy-based coupling approach to nonlocal interface problems.

Nonlocal models provide accurate representations of physical phenomena ranging from fracture mechanics to complex subsurface flows, settings in which traditional partial differential equation models fail to capture effects caused by long-range forces at the microscale and mesoscale. However, the application of nonlocal models to problems involving interfaces, such as multimaterial simulations and fluid-structure interaction, is hampered by the lack of a physically consistent interface theory which is needed to support numerical developments and, among other features, reduces to classical models in the limit as the extent of nonlocal interactions vanish. In this paper, we use an energy-based approach to develop a formulation of a nonlocal interface problem which provides a physically consistent extension of the classical perfect interface formulation for partial differential equations. Numerical examples in one and two dimensions validate the proposed framework and demonstrate the scope of our theory.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗