Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The Path integral Quantum Control (PiQC) algorithm was recently introduced as a new approach for computing optimal controls in continuous-time open and closed quantum systems. In this work, we adapt the PiQC algorithm to optimize parametrized quantum circuits and refer to this version of PiQC as the Gate-Based PiQC (GB-PiQC) algorithm. We apply GB-PiQC and the original continuous-time version of PiQC for ground state preparation of electronic structure problems, and benchmark them against the Variational Quantum Eigensolver, optimized using the standard Simultaneous Perturbation Stochastic Approximation (SPSA) optimizer, on a set of standard benchmark molecular Hamiltonians. For a fair comparison, we optimize the hyperparameters of the algorithms for each molecule. We find that both PiQC algorithms exhibit greater robustness than SPSA to variations in the target Hamiltonian induced by changes in interatomic distance, when hyperparameters for both methods are fixed at values tuned near equilibrium. Furthermore, PiQC algorithms also achieve superior performance compared to SPSA in most instances under this fixed-hyperparameter setting, particularly at stretched interatomic distances, where the Hartree–Fock solution becomes less accurate and its error grows relative to equilibrium.
Source: Quantum Science and Technology
Institution: Radboud University Nijmegen
Language: English
Subfield: Artificial Intelligence
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,895
OpenAlex ID: W7221605698