Recursive Variational Quantum Compiling

Abstract

Variational quantum compiling (VQC) algorithms aim to approximate deep quantum circuits with shallow parameterized ansatzes, making them more suitable for NISQ hardware. In this article a variant of VQC named the recursive variational quantum compiling (RVQC) algorithm is proposed. Existing VQC algorithms typically require coherently executing the full circuit during compilation. Under the influence of noise, sufficiently deep target circuits make compiling unfeasible using ordinary VQC. Since the compiling is often accomplished using a gradient-based quantum-classical approach, the quantum noise manifest as a noisy gradient during optimization, making convergence hard to obtain. On the other hand, RVQC can compile a circuit by first dividing it into $N$ shorter sub-circuits, then evaluate one sub-circuit at a time. As a result, the circuit depth required to implement RVQC is not dependent on the depth of the target circuit, but on the depth of the sub-circuits. Choosing a high enough $N$ thus ensures sufficiently shallow sub-circuit which can be successfully compiled individually. We show mathematical evidence of this property. RVQC was compared with VQC on a noise model of the IBM Santiago device with the goal of compiling several randomly generated five-qubit circuits of approximately depth 1000. It was shown that VQC was not able to converge within 500 iterations of optimization. On the other hand, RVQC was able to converge to a fidelity of $0.90 \pm 0.05$ within a total of 500 iterations when splitting the target circuits into $N = 5$ parts. We argue that this comes as a result of the mitigation of noise-induced barren plateaus.