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Barren Plateaus in Variational Quantum Computing

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arxiv 2405.00781 v2 pith:IDJHNKMU submitted 2024-05-01 quant-ph cs.LGstat.ML

classification quant-phcs.LGstat.ML
keywords quantumbarrencomputingphenomenonvariationalwhenalgorithmansatz
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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Variational quantum computing offers a flexible computational paradigm with applications in diverse areas. However, a key obstacle to realizing their potential is the Barren Plateau (BP) phenomenon. When a model exhibits a BP, its parameter optimization landscape becomes exponentially flat and featureless as the problem size increases. Importantly, all the moving pieces of an algorithm -- choices of ansatz, initial state, observable, loss function and hardware noise -- can lead to BPs when ill-suited. Due to the significant impact of BPs on trainability, researchers have dedicated considerable effort to develop theoretical and heuristic methods to understand and mitigate their effects. As a result, the study of BPs has become a thriving area of research, influencing and cross-fertilizing other fields such as quantum optimal control, tensor networks, and learning theory. This article provides a comprehensive review of the current understanding of the BP phenomenon.

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Cited by 37 Pith papers

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