Unanswered Questions
337 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
16
votes
0answers
457 views
Quantum machine learning after Ewin Tang
Recently, a series of research papers have been released (this, this and this, also this) that provide classical algorithms with the same runtime as quantum machine learning algorithms for the same ...
14
votes
0answers
257 views
Quantum simulation of environment-assisted quantum walks in photosynthetic energy transfer
This question is related to Can the theory of quantum computation assist in the miniaturization of transistors? and Is Quantum Biocomputing ahead of us?
About 10 years ago, several papers discussed ...
11
votes
0answers
157 views
Devising “structured initial guesses” for random parametrized quantum circuits to avoid getting stuck in a flat plateau
The recent McClean et al. paper Barren plateaus in quantum neural network training landscapes shows that for a wide class of reasonable parameterized quantum circuits, the probability that the ...
10
votes
0answers
444 views
Is there a list of accessible open problems in quantum computing from a theoretical computer science perspective?
(Classical) theoretical computer science (TCS) has a number of outstanding open problems that can easily be instantiated in a manner that is accessible to a wider general public.
For example, ...
9
votes
0answers
148 views
How many two-qubit gates are required to implement a general N-qubit unitary?
Is there a known formula or a scaling behaviour for how many two-qubit gates are required to construct a general N-qubit unitary?
I suppose there are several cases to consider:
Exact representation ...
9
votes
0answers
149 views
Quantum Walk: Why the need of adding “tail” nodes to the root?
As stated in the question, I have found in several papers (e.g. 1, 2) that in order to perform a quantum walk on a given tree it is necessary to add some nodes to the root $r$, say $r^{'}$ and $r^{"}$....
8
votes
0answers
67 views
Does higher channel fidelity imply higher entanglement fidelity?
Consider two noisy quantum channels (CPTP maps), $\Phi_1^A$ and $\Phi_2^A$, acting on a system $A$. Suppose that for any pure state $\left|\psi\right>\in \mathcal H_A$,
$$
F\big(\psi, \Phi_1^A(\psi)...
8
votes
0answers
96 views
Reference that explains how to read 3d topological diagrams for surface code computations
I like making diagrams to describe computations. For the surface code, an excellent tool is 3d topological diagrams. Here is an example diagram (made by me in SketchUp):
The basic idea is that white ...
8
votes
0answers
68 views
Active improving of nanodiamond surfaces for NV centers?
This question is related (and complementary) to "Passive improving of nanodiamond surfaces for NV centers?".
Nitrogen-Vacancy centers (NVs) have astonishing quantum properties, which make them ...
8
votes
0answers
130 views
Does the Curry-Howard correspondence have a quantum-specific type system?
In Wikipedia we can read that
the Curry–Howard correspondence is a correspondence between formal proof calculi and type systems for models of computation. In particular, it splits into two ...
7
votes
1answer
117 views
On the distribution of the fidelity of a random product state with an arbitrary many-qubit state
Consider an arbitrary $n$-qubit state $\lvert \psi \rangle$. How much do we understand about the probability distribution of the fidelity of $\lvert \psi \rangle$ with a tensor product $\lvert \alpha \...
7
votes
0answers
109 views
What are examples of non-oracular versions of famous oracular problems?
Most quantum algorithms proposed, including Deutsch-Jozsa, Simon's, Bernstein-Vazirani etc, involve querying an oracle. If I understand correctly, the speedups depend on the oracle being efficiently ...
7
votes
0answers
118 views
Relation between quantum entanglement and quantum state complexity
Both quantum entanglement and quantum state complexity are important in quantum information processing. They are usually highly correlated, i.e., roughly a state with a higher entanglement corresponds ...
7
votes
0answers
142 views
Does the GLOA have any advantage over the Solovay-Kitaev algorithm?
The Solvay Kitaev algorithm was discovered long before the Group Leaders Optimization algorithm and it has some nice theoretical properties. As far as I understand, both have exactly the same goals: ...
7
votes
0answers
120 views
Estimate/determine Bures separability probabilities making use of corresponding Hilbert-Schmidt probabilities
For two-qubit states, represented by a $4\times 4$ density matrix, the generic state is described by 15 real parameters. For ease of calculation, it can help to consider restricted families of states, ...
