Kernel-based dequantization of variational QML without Random Fourier Features

Abstract: There is currently a huge effort to understand the potential and limitations of variational quantum machine learning (QML) based on the optimization of parameterized quantum circuits. Recent proposals toward dequantizing variational QML models for regression problems include approaches based on kernel methods with carefully chosen kernel functions, approximated via Random Fourier Features (RFF). In this short note we show that for a wide range of instances, this approach can be simplified. More specifically, we show that the kernels whose evaluation is approximated by RFF in this dequantization algorithm can in fact often be evaluated exactly and efficiently classically. As such, our results enhance the toolkit for kernel-based dequantization of variational QML.