aiqbench analysis
QuanVI introduces a scalable, quantum-inspired algorithm that resolves high-dimensional scaling issues in score-based variational inference by leveraging density operators and matrix product operator structures. This approach effectively handles degeneracy in low-energy subspaces while maintaining accuracy on complex Bayesian posterior approximations without requiring actual quantum hardware. The method represents a significant theoretical advancement for machine learning practitioners seeking to overcome the parameter explosion inherent in traditional eigenvalue-based formulations.
QuanVI: Score-based Variational Inference via Quantum Maximally Mixed States
arXiv:2609.39164v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Score-based variational inference (VI) provides an alternative to Kullback--Leibler (KL)-based VI by minimizing the Fisher divergence between the variational distribution and the target. A prior score-VI approach formulates this optimization as an eigenvalue problem, with the variational distribution constructed from low-energy eigenstates. However, this eigenvalue-based formulation faces two high-dimensional obstacles: an intractably large parameter count due to exponential scaling and non-uniqueness of individual eigenvectors in degenerate or nearly degenerate low-energy subspaces. We propose QuanVI, a scalable quantum-inspired algorithm that combines a mixed-state density-operator formulation with a quantum tensor network (QTN) parameterization using the matrix product operator (MPO) structure. In degenerate low-energy subspaces, the density-operator formulation represents the subspace by its maximally mixed state rather than relying on a non-unique individual eigenvector, while the QTN parameterization compresses the density operator to avoid exponential parameter growth. Experiments and ablations show that QuanVI agrees with exact solutions in low dimensions and scales to high-dimensional synthetic and Bayesian posterior-approximation benchmarks, including challenging non-Gaussian targets.
Abstract:Score-based variational inference (VI) provides an alternative to Kullback--Leibler (KL)-based VI by minimizing the Fisher divergence between the variational distribution and the target. A prior score-VI approach formulates this optimization as an eigenvalue problem, with the variational distribution constructed from low-energy eigenstates. However, this eigenvalue-based formulation faces two high-dimensional obstacles: an intractably large parameter count due to exponential scaling and non-uniqueness of individual eigenvectors in degenerate or nearly degenerate low-energy subspaces. We propose QuanVI, a scalable quantum-inspired algorithm that combines a mixed-state density-operator formulation with a quantum tensor network (QTN) parameterization using the matrix product operator (MPO) structure. In degenerate low-energy subspaces, the density-operator formulation represents the subspace by its maximally mixed state rather than relying on a non-unique individual eigenvector, while the QTN parameterization compresses the density operator to avoid exponential parameter growth. Experiments and ablations show that QuanVI agrees with exact solutions in low dimensions and scales to high-dimensional synthetic and Bayesian posterior-approximation benchmarks, including challenging non-Gaussian targets.
Machine Learning (cs.LG)
arXiv:2609.39164 [cs.LG]
(or arXiv:2609.39164v1 [cs.LG] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.39164 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
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