# vFedProtoQNAS: Prototype-Guided Personalized Quantum Neural Architecture Search for Virtual Federated Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.01718 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01718/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 13 of its 26 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Oct 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [FjORD: Fair and Accurate Federated Learning under heterogeneous targets with Ordered Dropout](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.13451/) (2021)
- [Federated Learning from Pre-Trained Models: A Contrastive Learning Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.10083/) (2022)
- [FedRolex: Model-Heterogeneous Federated Learning with Rolling Sub-Model Extraction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.01548/) (2022)
- [Federated Quantum Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.12010/) (2021)
- [Quantum Federated Learning with Quantum Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.00005/) (2021)
- [Foundations of Quantum Federated Learning Over Classical and Quantum Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.14516/) (2023)
- [Federated Model Heterogeneous Matryoshka Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.00488/) (2024)
- [An Upload-Efficient Scheme for Transferring Knowledge From a Server-Side Pre-trained Generator to Clients in Heterogeneous Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.15760/) (2024)
- [FedSSA: Semantic Similarity-based Aggregation for Efficient Model-Heterogeneous Personalized Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.09006/) (2023)
- [NeFL: Nested Model Scaling for Federated Learning with System Heterogeneous Clients](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.07761/) (2023)
- [Fast Quantum Convolutional Neural Networks for Low-Complexity Object Detection in Autonomous Driving Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.01370/) (2023)
- [SuperFedNAS: Cost-Efficient Federated Neural Architecture Search for On-Device Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.10879/) (2023)
- [Curriculum Guided Personalized Subgraph Federated Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.00402/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Quantum federated learning (QFL) has emerged as a promising approach for collaboratively training compact quantum neural networks (QNNs) over distributed private data on resource-constrained devices. However, differences in device capabilities make a single shared QNN architecture unsuitable for all clients. While personalized quantum neural architecture search (QNAS) allows each client to select a device-specific QNN, averaging parameters across structurally different QNN architectures mixes semantically inconsistent circuit operations. To address this, prototype-guided personalized QNAS for virtual FL (vFedProtoQNAS) is proposed, where model parameters are never aggregated across clients and federated collaboration is achieved through class-wise prototype sharing. Each client independently searches and trains a client-specific QNN, computes class-wise local prototypes from latent representations, and refines them using global prototypes from the server as federated semantic anchors. Experiments demonstrate that vFedProtoQNAS improves accuracy by 3.70% over FedAvg and enhances class-consistent representation alignment.