Quantum Decision Transformers (QDT): Synergistic Entanglement and Interference for Offline Reinforcement Learning
On the map: Offline RL and imitation learning from data → Decision transformers and sequence modeling
Abstract (arXiv)
Offline reinforcement learning enables policy learning from pre-collected datasets without environment interaction, but existing Decision Transformer (DT) architectures struggle with long-horizon credit assignment and complex state-action dependencies. We introduce the Quantum Decision Transformer (QDT), a novel architecture incorporating quantum-inspired computational mechanisms to address these challenges. Our approach integrates two core components: Quantum-Inspired Attention with entanglement operations that capture non-local feature correlations, and Quantum Feedforward Networks with multi-path processing and learnable interference for adaptive computation. Through comprehensive experiments on continuous control tasks, we demonstrate over 2,000% performance improvement compared to standard DTs, with superior generalization across varying data qualities. Critically, our ablation studies reveal strong synergistic effects between quantum-inspired components: neither alone achieves competitive performance, yet their combination produces dramatic improvements far exceeding individual contributions. This synergy demonstrates that effective quantum-inspired architecture design requires holistic co-design of interdependent mechanisms rather than modular component adoption. Our analysis identifies three key computational advantages: enhanced credit assignment through non-local correlations, implicit ensemble behavior via parallel processing, and adaptive resource allocation through learnable interference. These findings establish quantum-inspired design principles as a promising direction for advancing transformer architectures in sequential decision-making, with implications extending beyond reinforcement learning to neural architecture design more broadly.
Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Decision transformers and sequence modeling, one of 13 directions in Offline RL and imitation learning from data. Builds on 56 of its 84 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 9 Dec 2025.
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56 of 84 references.
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- 2022Dichotomy of Control: Separating What You Can Control from What You Cannot24 Oct
- 2022Q-learning Decision Transformer: Leveraging Dynamic Programming for Conditional Sequence Modelling in Offline RL8 Sep
- 2022Online Decision Transformer11 Feb
- 2021Offline Reinforcement Learning as One Big Sequence Modeling Problem3 Jun
- 2021Decision Transformer: Reinforcement Learning via Sequence Modeling2 Jun
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