BACKGROUND

[0001] The currently claimed embodiments of present invention relate to quantum computers, methods, and executable code, and more specifically, to quantum computers, methods, and executable code to initialize 2 ⁿ input values associated with n qubits, a "qubit” being a quantum bit or quantum bit circuit.

[0002] A quantum processor (q-processor) uses the odd nature of entangled quantum bit devices (compactly referred to herein as "qubit,” plural "qubits”) to perform computational tasks. In the particular realms where quantum mechanics operates, particles of matter can exist in multiple states— such as an "on” state, an "off” state, and both "on” and "off” states simultaneously. Where binary computing using classical, semiconductor processors is limited to using just the on and off states (equivalent to 1 and 0 in binary code), a quantum processor harnesses these quantum states of matter to output signals that are usable in data computing.

[0003] Conventional computers encode information in bits. Each bit can take the value of 1 or 0. These 1s and 0s act as on/off switches that ultimately drive computer functions. Quantum computers, on the other hand, are based on qubits, which operate according to two key principles of quantum physics: superposition and entanglement. Superposition means that each qubit can represent both a 1 and a 0 at the same time.

Entanglement means that qubits in a superposition can be correlated with each other in a non-classical way; that is, the state of one (whether it is a 1 or a 0 or both) can depend on the state of another, and that there is more information that can be ascertained about the two qubits when they are entangled than when they are treated individually.

[0004] Using these two principles, qubits operate as more sophisticated processors of information, enabling quantum computers to function in ways that allow them to solve difficult problems that are intractable using conventional computers. IBM has successfully constructed and demonstrated the operability of a quantum processor using superconducting qubits (IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines corporation in the United States and in other countries.)

[0005] Superconducting devices such as qubits are fabricated using superconducting and semiconductor materials in known semiconductor fabrication techniques. A superconducting device generally uses one or more layers of different materials to implement the device properties and function. A layer of material can be superconductive, conductive, semi-conductive, insulating, resistive, inductive, capacitive, or have any number of other properties. Different layers of materials may have to be formed using different methods, given the nature of the material, the shape, size or placement of the material, other materials adjacent to the material, and many other considerations. [0006] Superconducting devices are often planar, i.e., where the superconductor structures are fabricated on one plane. A non-planar device is a three-dimensional (3D) device where some of the structures are formed above or below a given plane of fabrication.

[0007] A q-processor is implemented as a set of more than one qubit. The qubits can be fabricated as a lattice of co-planar devices on a single fabrication plane.

[0008] Classical neural networks can apply data with many features, for example, high-dimensional data, such as data having 64 dimensions or greater. The term "classical” here refers to neural networks that are not quantum neural networks. Currently, quantum neural networks assign one feature per qubit. NISQ (Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum) devices may have more than 16 qubits, for example, 50 to 100 qubits. However, with a one-qubit-per-feature approach, NISQ devices can be limited to processing data having at most 50-100 features.

SUMMARY

[0009] According to an embodiment of the present invention, a quantum computational device includes a plurality n of qubits, each qubit comprising at least two quantum states and having associated therewith 2 ⁿ product states. The quantum computational device includes an initialization circuit configured to receive up to 2 ⁿ input values and to associate the up to 2 ⁿ input values with up to 2 ⁿ of the 2 ⁿ product states to provide an input vector. The quantum computational device includes a processing circuit configured to communicate with the initialization circuit to receive the input vector and to provide an output value based on the input vector.

[0010] According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method of performing a quantum computation includes initializing 2 ⁿ product states of an n-qubit circuit with up to 2 ⁿ input values to provide an input vector, and processing the input vector to provide an output.

[0011] According to an embodiment of the present invention, a computer-readable medium comprises code which when executed by a quantum computer causes the quantum computer to: initialize 2 ⁿ product states of an n- qubit circuit of the quantum computer with up to 2 ⁿ input values to provide an input vector, and process the input vector to provide an output.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration to help illustrate some concepts of some embodiments of the current invention. [0013] FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration to help illustrate some concepts of some embodiments of the current invention.

[0014] FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration contrasting an example of the conventional quantum neural network approach to an embodiment of the current invention.

[0015] FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of the current invention.

[0016] FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration to help illustrate some concepts of an embodiment of the current invention compared to a conventional quantum neural network.

[0017] FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of some results from the example illustrated in FIG. 5.

[0018] FIG. 7 is a flowchart that illustrates a method according to an embodiment of the current invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0019] FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration to help illuminate some concepts of some embodiments of the current invention. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional quantum neural network 100 in which four qubits, q1 , q2, q3, and q4 are assigned four features of an input X = [x1 , x2, x3, x4]. The one-to-one qubit-to-feature relationship immediately leads to difficulty dealing with the example of image recognition illustrated schematically in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows four hand-written Arabic numerals, such as those that might be included in the MNIST database often used in classical deep learning. If a classical neural network were used to recognize the numbers in these images, they would likely divide each image into 28*28=784 pixels. If the same problem were to be processed by a quantum neural network in which each pixel were assigned to one qubit, the problem would require 784 qubits. This is a prohibitively large number of qubits, particularly for current NISQ devices.

[0020] One possible approach would be to down-sample, for example, reducing 28*28 pixels to 4*4 pixels. This would require 4 x 4 = 16 qubits by the conventional quantum neural network approach. Flowever, as one can see in the lower portion of FIG. 2, the images are essentially unrecognizable, even by human intelligence. Down-sampling less, say to 8*8 would already require 64 qubits by the conventional quantum neural network approach.

[0021] FIG. 3 contrasts an example of the conventional quantum neural network approach 300 to an embodiment 302 of the current invention. The conventional quantum neural network approach includes four qubits, q1 , q2 q3 q4, and one feature of the input X is assigned to each qubit. In contrast, the embodiment 302 includes two qubits, q1 and q2. Since each qubit has two states, which we can represent as | 0) and 11), the two-qubit system has 2 ² = 4 product states: 10) 10) = 100); 10) 11) = 101); 11) 10) = 110); and 11) 11) = 111). Therefore, an amplitude vector 304 can be formed by assigning each feature to one of the four product states. The general concepts of the current invention are not limited to this particular example. For example, linear combinations of the product states, for example to provide four orthogonal basis states, could alternatively be used. Therefore, in this example, only two qubits are needed according to this embodiment rather than the four required for the conventional quantum neural network. [0022] Using similar notation as above, a three qubit system according to an embodiment of the current invention has product states 1000), 1001), 1010), |011), 1100), 1101), 1110), | 111), which is 2 ³ = 8 states. In this case, only three qubits are needed for eight features rather than eight qubits according to the conventional approach. More generally, n qubits according to an embodiment of the current invention can accommodate 2 ⁿ features. For example, 6 qubits can accommodate 64 features, and 16 qubits can accommodate 65,536 features.

[0023] FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of an embodiment of the current invention. An embodiment of the current invention is directed to a quantum computational device 400 that includes a plurality n of qubits 402, each qubit having at least two quantum states, and the plurality n of qubits 402 having associated therewith 2 ⁿ product states. The quantum computational device 400 further includes an initialization circuit 404 configured to receive up to 2 ⁿ input values and to associate the up to 2 ⁿ input values with up to 2 ⁿ of the 2 ⁿ product states to provide an input vector 406. The quantum computational device 400 further includes a processing circuit 408 configured to communicate with the initialization circuit 404 to receive the input vector 406 and to provide an output value 410 based on the input vector 406. The general concepts of the current invention are not limited to any particular number n of qubits. In addition, the discussion above and the example in FIG. 4 can be a quantum neural network according to an embodiment of the current invention. Flowever, the general concepts of this invention are not limited only to quantum neural networks.

[0024] According to an embodiment of the current invention, the initialization circuit 404 is an input layer of a quantum neural network, and the quantum computational device 400 is the quantum neural network. According to an embodiment of the current invention, the processing circuit 408 is an intermediate layer and an output layer of the quantum neural network. In other embodiments, processing circuit 408 could also include one or more hidden layers of a quantum neural network. The general concepts of a quantum neural network according to some embodiments of the current invention are not limited to any particular number of neural network layers. According to an embodiment of the current invention, the initialization circuit 404 associates each of the up to 2 ⁿ input values with a corresponding one product state of the plurality n of qubits 402. According to an embodiment of the current invention, each of the 2 ⁿ product states is orthogonal to each other of the 2 ⁿ product states.

[0025] According to an embodiment of the current invention, the initialization circuit associates each of the up to 2 ⁿ input values with a corresponding one of a plurality of linear combinations of the 2 ⁿ product states. According to an embodiment of the current invention, each of the plurality of linear combinations is orthogonal to each other of the plurality of linear combinations.

[0026] According to an embodiment of the current invention, the quantum computational device 400 includes at least four qubits having associated therewith up to 16 product states. The initialization circuit is configured to receive up to 16 input values and to associate the up to 16 input values with up to 16 of the 16 product states to provide an input vector.

[0027] According to an embodiment of the current invention, the quantum computational device 400 includes at least sixteen qubits having associated therewith up to 65,536 product states. The initialization circuit is configured to receive up to 65,536 input values and to associate the up to 65,536 input values with up to 65,536 of the 65,536 product states to provide an input vector.

[0028] According to an embodiment of the current invention, each of the 2 ⁿ input values corresponds to a feature of a data point having 2 ⁿ dimensions.

[0029] FIG. 5 further illustrates some concepts of an embodiment of the current invention compared to a convention quantum neural network. In FIG. 5, four-dimensional data from the wine dataset is analyzed by a conventional approach 500 and by an embodiment of the current invention 502. The two approaches use similar parameters, for example, depth, training steps, and shots. Although particular computer code is shown as an example, the general concepts of the current invention are not limited to this particular example and type of code.

[0030] FIG. 6 shows results for the example of FIG. 5. The embodiment of the current invention 602 resulted in a 3x speedup as compared to the conventional approach 600, and was also significantly more accurate (90% vs 36%).

[0031] Another embodiment of the current invention is directed to a method of performing a quantum

computation. FIG. 7 is a flowchart that illustrates a method 700 according to an embodiment of the current invention. The method 700 includes initializing 2 ⁿ product states of an n-qubit circuit with up to 2 ⁿ input values to provide an input vector 702, and processing the input vector to provide an output 704.

[0032] According to an embodiment of the current invention, initializing includes initializing using an input layer of a quantum neural network. According to an embodiment of the current invention, processing the input vector includes processing the input vector using an intermediate layer and an output layer of the quantum neural network.

[0033] According to an embodiment of the current invention, initializing includes associating each of the up to 2 ⁿ input values with a corresponding one of the 2 ⁿ product states. According to an embodiment of the current invention, each of the 2 ⁿ product states is orthogonal to each other of the 2 ⁿ product states. Alternatively, initializing may include associating each of the up to 2 ⁿ input values with a corresponding one of a plurality of linear combinations of the 2 ⁿ product states. Each of the plurality of linear combinations may be orthogonal to each other of the plurality of linear combinations. [0034] Another embodiment of the current invention is directed to a computer-readable medium that includes computer-executable code which when executed by a quantum computer causes the quantum computer to initialize 2 ⁿ product states of an n-qubit circuit of the quantum computer with up to 2 ⁿ input values to provide an input vector, and process the input vector to provide an output.

[0035] According to an embodiment of the current invention, the computer-executable code when read by a computer causes the computer to initialize the 2 ⁿ product states by associating each of the up to 2 ⁿ input values with a corresponding one of the 2 ⁿ product states. Each of the 2 ⁿ product states may be orthogonal to each other of the 2 ⁿ product states.

[0036] The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain the principles of the invention, the practical application or technical improvement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein.