Quantum Circuit Design: A Reinforcement Learning Challenge

Philipp Altmann, Adelina Bärligea, Jonas Stein, Michael Kölle, Thomas Gabor, Thomy Phan, Claudia Linnhoff-Popien

Abstract: To assess the prospects of using reinforcement learning (RL) for selecting and parameterizing quantum gates to build viable circuit architectures, we introduce the quantum circuit designer (QCD). By considering quantum control a decision-making problem, we strive to profit from advanced RL exploration mechanisms to overcome the need for granular specification and hand-crafted architectures. To evaluate current state-of-the-art RL algorithms, we define generic objectives that arise from quantum architecture search and circuit optimization. Those evaluation results reveal challenges inherent to learning optimal quantum control.