The quantum cost function concentration dependency on the parametrization expressivity
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Abstract (arXiv)
Although we are currently in the era of noisy intermediate scale quantum devices, several studies are being conducted with the aim of bringing machine learning to the quantum domain. Currently, quantum variational circuits are one of the main strategies used to build such models. However, despite its widespread use, we still do not know what are the minimum resources needed to create a quantum machine learning model. In this article, we analyze how the expressiveness of the parametrization affects the cost function. We analytically show that the more expressive the parametrization is, the more the cost function will tend to concentrate around a value that depends both on the chosen observable and on the number of qubits used. For this, we initially obtain a relationship between the expressiveness of the parametrization and the mean value of the cost function. Afterwards, we relate the expressivity of the parametrization with the variance of the cost function. Finally, we show some numerical simulation results that confirm our theoretical-analytical predictions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that these two important aspects of quantum neural networks are explicitly connected.
Key facts. Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 20 of its 49 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 17 Jan 2023.
Builds on
20 of 49 references.
References · 20
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8 more
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- 2021Hybrid quantum convolutional neural networks model for COVID-19 prediction using chest X-Ray imagescited by 16
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Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2023: 1; 2024: 4; 2025: 1.
6 papers.
- 2024Barren Plateaus in Variational Quantum Computingcited by 130
- 2023Does provable absence of barren plateaus imply classical simulability?cited by 78
- 2024Graph Neural Networks on Quantum Computerscited by 4
- 2024Quantum neural network with ensemble learning to mitigate barren plateaus and cost function concentrationcited by 2
- 2024Barren plateaus are amplified by the dimension of quditscited by 2
- 2025On the Design of Expressive and Trainable Pulse-based Quantum Machine Learning Modelscited by 0
- 2025On the Design of Expressive and Trainable Pulse-based Quantum Machine Learning Models7 Aug 2025
- 2024Graph Neural Networks on Quantum Computers27 May 2024
- 2024Barren plateaus are amplified by the dimension of qudits13 May 2024
- 2024Barren Plateaus in Variational Quantum Computing1 May 2024
- 2024Quantum neural network with ensemble learning to mitigate barren plateaus and cost function concentration8 Feb 2024
- 2023Does provable absence of barren plateaus imply classical simulability?14 Dec 2023