Martín Larocca, Supanut Thanasilp, Samson Wang, Kunal Sharma, Jacob Biamonte, Patrick J. Coles, Lukasz Cincio, Jarrod R. McClean, Zoë Holmes, M. Cerezo
{"title":"Barren plateaus in variational quantum computing","authors":"Martín Larocca, Supanut Thanasilp, Samson Wang, Kunal Sharma, Jacob Biamonte, Patrick J. Coles, Lukasz Cincio, Jarrod R. McClean, Zoë Holmes, M. Cerezo","doi":"10.1038/s42254-025-00813-9","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Variational quantum computing offers a flexible computational approach with a broad range of applications. However, a key obstacle to realizing their potential is the barren plateau (BP) phenomenon. When a model exhibits a BP, its parameter optimization landscape becomes exponentially flat and featureless as the problem size increases. Importantly, all the moving pieces of an algorithm — choices of ansatz, initial state, observable, loss function and hardware noise — can lead to BPs if they are ill-suited. As BPs strongly impact on trainability, researchers have dedicated considerable effort to develop theoretical and heuristic methods to understand and mitigate their effects. As a result, the study of BPs has become a thriving area of research, influencing and exchanging ideas with other fields such as quantum optimal control, tensor networks and learning theory. This article provides a review of the current understanding of the BP phenomenon. Barren plateaus are widely considered as one of the main limitations for variational quantum algorithms. This Review summarizes the latest understandings of barren plateaus, indicating its causes, architecture that will suffer from this phenomenon, and discusses strategies that can — and cannot — avoid it.","PeriodicalId":19024,"journal":{"name":"Nature Reviews Physics","volume":"7 4","pages":"174-189"},"PeriodicalIF":44.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Nature Reviews Physics","FirstCategoryId":"101","ListUrlMain":"https://www.nature.com/articles/s42254-025-00813-9","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PHYSICS, APPLIED","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Variational quantum computing offers a flexible computational approach with a broad range of applications. However, a key obstacle to realizing their potential is the barren plateau (BP) phenomenon. When a model exhibits a BP, its parameter optimization landscape becomes exponentially flat and featureless as the problem size increases. Importantly, all the moving pieces of an algorithm — choices of ansatz, initial state, observable, loss function and hardware noise — can lead to BPs if they are ill-suited. As BPs strongly impact on trainability, researchers have dedicated considerable effort to develop theoretical and heuristic methods to understand and mitigate their effects. As a result, the study of BPs has become a thriving area of research, influencing and exchanging ideas with other fields such as quantum optimal control, tensor networks and learning theory. This article provides a review of the current understanding of the BP phenomenon. Barren plateaus are widely considered as one of the main limitations for variational quantum algorithms. This Review summarizes the latest understandings of barren plateaus, indicating its causes, architecture that will suffer from this phenomenon, and discusses strategies that can — and cannot — avoid it.
期刊介绍:
Nature Reviews Physics is an online-only reviews journal, part of the Nature Reviews portfolio of journals. It publishes high-quality technical reference, review, and commentary articles in all areas of fundamental and applied physics. The journal offers a range of content types, including Reviews, Perspectives, Roadmaps, Technical Reviews, Expert Recommendations, Comments, Editorials, Research Highlights, Features, and News & Views, which cover significant advances in the field and topical issues. Nature Reviews Physics is published monthly from January 2019 and does not have external, academic editors. Instead, all editorial decisions are made by a dedicated team of full-time professional editors.