Variational Quantum Classifiers Through the Lens of the Hessian

In quantum computing, the variational quantum algorithms (VQAs) are well suited for finding optimal combinations of things in specific applications ranging from chemistry all the way to finance. The training of VQAs with gradient descent optimization algorithm has shown a good convergence. At an early stage, the simulation of variational quantum circuits on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices suffers from noisy outputs. Just like classical deep learning, it also suffers from vanishing gradient problems. It is a realistic goal to study the topology of loss landscape, to visualize the curvature information and trainability of these circuits in the existence of vanishing gradients. In this paper, we calculated the Hessian and visualized the loss landscape of variational quantum classifiers at different points in parameter space. The curvature information of variational quantum classifiers (VQC) is interpreted and the loss function's convergence is shown. It helps us better understand the behavior of variational quantum circuits to tackle optimization problems efficiently. We investigated the variational quantum classifiers via Hessian on quantum computers, started with a simple 4-bit parity problem to gain insight into the practical behavior of Hessian, then thoroughly analyzed the behavior of Hessian's eigenvalues on training the variational quantum classifier for the Diabetes dataset.

RNA-2QCFA: Evolving Two-way Quantum Finite Automata with Classical States for RNA Secondary Structures

Recently, the use of mathematical methods and computer science applications have got significant response among biochemists and biologists to modeling the biological systems. The computational and mathematical methods have enormous potential for modeling the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) structures. The modeling of DNA and RNA secondary structures using automata theory had a significant impact in the fields of computer science. It is a natural goal to model the RNA secondary biomolecular structures using quantum computational models. Two-way quantum finite automata with classical states are more dominant than two-way probabilistic finite automata in language recognition. The main objective of this paper is on using two-way quantum finite automata with classical states to simulate, model and analyze the ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequences.

QPSO-CD: Quantum-behaved Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm with Cauchy Distribution

Motivated by particle swarm optimization (PSO) and quantum computing theory, we have presented a quantum variant of PSO (QPSO) mutated with Cauchy operator and natural selection mechanism (QPSO-CD) from evolutionary computations. The performance of proposed hybrid quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization with Cauchy distribution (QPSO-CD) is investigated and compared with its counterparts based on a set of benchmark problems. Moreover, QPSO-CD is employed in well-studied constrained engineering problems to investigate its applicability. Further, the correctness and time complexity of QPSO-CD are analysed and compared with the classical PSO. It has been proven that QPSO-CD handles such real-life problems efficiently and can attain superior solutions in most of the problems. The experimental results showed that QPSO associated with Cauchy distribution and natural selection strategy outperforms other variants in the context of stability and convergence.

Matrix Product State Based Quantum Classifier

In recent years, interest in expressing the success of neural networks to the quantum computing has increased significantly. Tensor network theory has become increasingly popular and widely used to simulate strongly entangled correlated systems. Matrix product state (MPS) is the well-designed class of tensor network states, which plays an important role in processing of quantum information. In this paper, we have shown that matrix product state as one-dimensional array of tensors can be used to classify classical and quantum data. We have performed binary classification of classical machine learning dataset Iris encoded in a quantum state. Further, we have investigated the performance by considering different parameters on the ibmqx4 quantum computer and proved that MPS circuits can be used to attain better accuracy. Further, the learning ability of MPS quantum classifier is tested to classify evapotranspiration ($ET_{o}$) for Patiala meteorological station located in Northern Punjab (India), using three years of historical dataset (Agri). Furthermore, we have used different performance metrics of classification to measure its capability. Finally, the results are plotted and degree of correspondence among values of each sample is shown.