Markov Chain Monte-Carlo Enhanced Variational Quantum Algorithms

Abstract: Variational quantum algorithms are poised to have significant impact on high-dimensional optimization, with applications in classical combinatorics, quantum chemistry, and condensed matter. Nevertheless, the optimization landscape of these algorithms is generally nonconvex, causing suboptimal solutions due to convergence to local, rather than global, minima. In this work, we introduce a variational quantum algorithm that uses classical Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques to provably converge to global minima. These performance gaurantees are derived from the ergodicity of our algorithm's state space and enable us to place analytic bounds on its time-complexity. We demonstrate both the effectiveness of our technique and the validity of our analysis through quantum circuit simulations for MaxCut instances, solving these problems deterministically and with perfect accuracy. Our technique stands to broadly enrich the field of variational quantum algorithms, improving and gauranteeing the performance of these promising, yet often heuristic, methods.