TY - JOUR AB - Variational quantum algorithms are promising algorithms for achieving quantum advantage on nearterm devices. The quantum hardware is used to implement a variational wave function and measure observables, whereas the classical computer is used to store and update the variational parameters. The optimization landscape of expressive variational ansätze is however dominated by large regions in parameter space, known as barren plateaus, with vanishing gradients, which prevents efficient optimization. In this work we propose a general algorithm to avoid barren plateaus in the initialization and throughout the optimization. To this end we define a notion of weak barren plateaus (WBPs) based on the entropies of local reduced density matrices. The presence of WBPs can be efficiently quantified using recently introduced shadow tomography of the quantum state with a classical computer. We demonstrate that avoidance of WBPs suffices to ensure sizable gradients in the initialization. In addition, we demonstrate that decreasing the gradient step size, guided by the entropies allows WBPs to be avoided during the optimization process. This paves the way for efficient barren plateau-free optimization on near-term devices. AU - Sack, Stefan AU - Medina Ramos, Raimel A AU - Michailidis, Alexios AU - Kueng, Richard AU - Serbyn, Maksym ID - 11471 IS - 2 JF - PRX Quantum KW - General Medicine SN - 2691-3399 TI - Avoiding barren plateaus using classical shadows VL - 3 ER - TY - JOUR AB - Microwave photonics lends the advantages of fiber optics to electronic sensing and communication systems. In contrast to nonlinear optics, electro-optic devices so far require classical modulation fields whose variance is dominated by electronic or thermal noise rather than quantum fluctuations. Here we demonstrate bidirectional single-sideband conversion of X band microwave to C band telecom light with a microwave mode occupancy as low as 0.025 ± 0.005 and an added output noise of less than or equal to 0.074 photons. This is facilitated by radiative cooling and a triply resonant ultra-low-loss transducer operating at millikelvin temperatures. The high bandwidth of 10.7 MHz and total (internal) photon conversion efficiency of 0.03% (0.67%) combined with the extremely slow heating rate of 1.1 added output noise photons per second for the highest available pump power of 1.48 mW puts near-unity efficiency pulsed quantum transduction within reach. Together with the non-Gaussian resources of superconducting qubits this might provide the practical foundation to extend the range and scope of current quantum networks in analogy to electrical repeaters in classical fiber optic communication. AU - Hease, William J AU - Rueda Sanchez, Alfredo R AU - Sahu, Rishabh AU - Wulf, Matthias AU - Arnold, Georg M AU - Schwefel, Harald G.L. AU - Fink, Johannes M ID - 9114 IS - 2 JF - PRX Quantum SN - 2691-3399 TI - Bidirectional electro-optic wavelength conversion in the quantum ground state VL - 1 ER -