arXiv:2508.18514cs.LGquant-ph2025-08被引 9

用强化学习初始化量子电路,解决深度量子算法训练难问题。

Breaking Through Barren Plateaus: Reinforcement Learning Initializations for Deep Variational Quantum Circuits

  • 用强化学习生成初始参数,避开梯度消失区域。
  • 在多种噪声和任务下,收敛速度和解的质量显著提升。
  • 方法灵活稳健,适合研究量子算法可扩展性的人群。

变分量子算法(VQAs)在优化、化学模拟和机器学习等应用中展现出利用近期量子设备的潜力。然而,其性能常受所谓的“平坦区”问题制约——随着系统规模或电路深度增加,梯度呈指数级衰减,导致训练困难。本文提出一种基于强化学习(RL)的初始化策略,通过重塑初始参数分布,避免易出现梯度消失的区域。具体而言,我们探索了确定性策略梯度(DPG)、软动作评论家(SAC)和近端策略优化(PPO)等算法,将电路参数视为动作,以最小化VQA代价函数。经此预训练后,后续使用梯度下降或Adam等方法可从更优的初始状态开始优化。大量数值实验在不同噪声条件与任务下一致表明,该方法显著提升了收敛速度与最终解质量。不同RL算法间的比较显示,多种方法均能实现相近性能增益,凸显本方法的灵活性与鲁棒性。这些发现为将机器学习技术融入量子算法设计提供了新思路,揭示了强化学习驱动的参数初始化在加速VQAs可扩展性与实际部署方面的潜力。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQAs) have gained prominence as a viable framework for exploiting near-term quantum devices in applications ranging from optimization and chemistry simulation to machine learning. However, the effectiveness of VQAs is often constrained by the so-called barren plateau problem, wherein gradients diminish exponentially as system size or circuit depth increases, thereby hindering training. In this work, we propose a reinforcement learning (RL)-based initialization strategy to alleviate the barren plateau issue by reshaping the initial parameter landscape to avoid regions prone to vanishing gradients. In particular, we explore several RL algorithms (Deterministic Policy Gradient, Soft Actor-Critic, and Proximal Policy Optimization, etc.) to generate the circuit parameters (treated as actions) that minimize the VQAs cost function before standard gradient-based optimization. By pre-training with RL in this manner, subsequent optimization using methods such as gradient descent or Adam proceeds from a more favorable initial state. Extensive numerical experiments under various noise conditions and tasks consistently demonstrate that the RL-based initialization method significantly enhances both convergence speed and final solution quality. Moreover, comparisons among different RL algorithms highlight that multiple approaches can achieve comparable performance gains, underscoring the flexibility and robustness of our method. These findings shed light on a promising avenue for integrating machine learning techniques into quantum algorithm design, offering insights into how RL-driven parameter initialization can accelerate the scalability and practical deployment of VQAs. Opening up a promising path for the research community in machine learning for quantum, especially barren plateau problems in VQAs.

量子算法强化学习变分量子优化

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