mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Optimizing Quantum Variational Circuits with Deep Reinforcement Learning

arXiv 2109.03188 ↗First posted 7 Sep 2021cs.LG quant-phcited by 8

Not on the map. Why?

Abstract (arXiv)

Quantum Machine Learning (QML) is considered to be one of the most promising applications of near term quantum devices. However, the optimization of quantum machine learning models presents numerous challenges arising from the imperfections of hardware and the fundamental obstacles in navigating an exponentially scaling Hilbert space. In this work, we evaluate the potential of contemporary methods in deep reinforcement learning to augment gradient based optimization routines in quantum variational circuits. We find that reinforcement learning augmented optimizers consistently outperform gradient descent in noisy environments. All code and pretrained weights are available to replicate the results or deploy the models at: https://github.com/lockwo/rl_qvc_opt.

Key facts. Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 25 of its 72 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 Sep 2021.

Builds on

25 of 72 references.

References · 25

  1. 2014Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimizationcited by 36,960
  2. 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithmscited by 14,441
  3. 2018Soft Actor-Critic: Off-Policy Maximum Entropy Deep Reinforcement Learning with a Stochastic Actorcited by 4,635
  4. 2015Continuous control with deep reinforcement learningcited by 3,279
  5. 2018Addressing Function Approximation Error in Actor-Critic Methodscited by 2,302
  6. 2018Soft Actor-Critic Algorithms and Applicationscited by 1,179
  7. 2019Dota 2 with Large Scale Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 1,084
  8. 2017Deep Reinforcement Learning that Matterscited by 727
  9. 2018Supervised learning with quantum enhanced feature spacescited by 654
  10. 2018Barren plateaus in quantum neural network training landscapescited by 624
  11. 2019Parameterized quantum circuits as machine learning modelscited by 330
  12. 2020A rigorous and robust quantum speed-up in supervised machine learningcited by 270
13 more
  1. 2021Maximum Entropy RL (Provably) Solves Some Robust RL Problemscited by 169
  2. 2019Variational Quantum Circuits for Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 165
  3. 2018Learning to Walk via Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 153
  4. 2020Absence of Barren Plateaus in Quantum Convolutional Neural Networkscited by 124
  5. 2021Provably efficient machine learning for quantum many-body problemscited by 91
  6. 2020Effect of barren plateaus on gradient-free optimizationcited by 79
  7. 2020Reinforcement Learning with Quantum Variational Circuitscited by 74
  8. 2020TensorFlow Quantum: A Software Framework for Quantum Machine Learningcited by 72
  9. 2018q-means: A quantum algorithm for unsupervised machine learningcited by 55
  10. 2019Learning to Optimize Variational Quantum Circuits to Solve Combinatorial Problemscited by 30
  11. 2020Cost Function Dependent Barren Plateaus in Shallow Parametrized Quantum Circuitscited by 26
  12. 2020Policy Gradient based Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithmcited by 14
  13. 2020Noise-Robust End-to-End Quantum Control using Deep Autoregressive Policy Networkscited by 6

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2022: 1; 2023: 0; 2024: 3; 2025: 3; 2026: 1.

8 papers.

  1. 2024Practical and efficient quantum circuit synthesis and transpiling with Reinforcement Learningcited by 21
  2. 2024Reinforcement learning with learned gadgets to tackle hard quantum problems on real hardwarecited by 7
  3. 2025TensorRL-QAS: Reinforcement learning with tensor networks for improved quantum architecture searchcited by 6
  4. 2025Optimizing the non-Clifford-count in unitary synthesis using Reinforcement Learningcited by 5
  5. 2022An Empirical Review of Optimization Techniques for Quantum Variational Circuitscited by 2
  6. 2025BenchRL-QAS: Benchmarking reinforcement learning algorithms for quantum architecture searchcited by 2
  7. 2026QFlowNet: Fast, Diverse, and Efficient Unitary Synthesis with Generative Flow Networkscited by 1
  8. 2024Model-free Distortion Canceling and Control of Quantum Devicescited by 0