Avoiding barren plateaus with entanglement

Abstract

In the search for quantum advantage with near-term quantum devices, navigating the optimization landscape is significantly hampered by the barren plateaus phenomenon. This study presents a strategy to overcome this obstacle without changing the quantum circuit architecture. We propose incorporating auxiliary control qubits to shift the circuit from a unitary $2$-design to a unitary $1$-design, mitigating the prevalence of barren plateaus. We then remove these auxiliary qubits to return to the original circuit structure while preserving the unitary $1$-design properties. Our experiment suggests that the proposed structure effectively mitigates the barren plateaus phenomenon. A significant experimental finding is that the gradient of $\theta_{1,1}$, the first parameter in the quantum circuit, displays a broader distribution as the number of qubits and layers increases. This suggests a higher probability of obtaining effective gradients. This stability is critical for the efficient training of quantum circuits, especially for larger and more complex systems. The results of this study represent a significant advance in the optimization of quantum circuits and offer a promising avenue for the scalable and practical implementation of quantum computing technologies. This approach opens up new opportunities in quantum learning and other applications that require robust quantum computing power.