Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34845216›Full record

ArticleNature communications2021

Noise-induced barren plateaus in variational quantum algorithms.

Samson Wang, Enrico Fontana, M Cerezo, Kunal Sharma, Akira Sone, Lukasz Cincio, Patrick J Coles

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
52citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

52 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Review
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Surrogate optimization of variational quantum circuits.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  18. Article
  19. Review
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Samson WangTheoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA. samsonwang@outlook.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2344-0634
Enrico FontanaTheoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA.
M CerezoTheoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA. cerezo@lanl.gov.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2757-3170
Kunal SharmaTheoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA.
Akira SoneTheoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3539-6140
Lukasz CincioTheoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA.
Patrick J ColesTheoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA. pcoles@lanl.gov.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9879-8425

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQAs) may be a path to quantum advantage on Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) computers. A natural question is whether noise on NISQ devices places fundamental limitations on VQA performance. We rigorously prove a serious limitation for noisy VQAs, in that the noise causes the training landscape to have a barren plateau (i.e., vanishing gradient). Specifically, for the local Pauli noise considered, we prove that the gradient vanishes exponentially in the number of qubits n if the depth of the ansatz grows linearly with n. These noise-induced barren plateaus (NIBPs) are conceptually different from noise-free barren plateaus, which are linked to random parameter initialization. Our result is formulated for a generic ansatz that includes as special cases the Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz and the Unitary Coupled Cluster Ansatz, among others. For the former, our numerical heuristics demonstrate the NIBP phenomenon for a realistic hardware noise model.

Identifiers

PMID34845216
PMCPMC8630047

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.