An identification is found between meta-learning and the problem of determining the ground state of a randomly generated Hamiltonian drawn from a known ensemble. A model-agnostic meta-learning approach is proposed to solve the associated learning problem and a preliminary experimental study of random Max-Cut problems indicates that the resulting Meta Variational Monte Carlo accelerates training and improves convergence.
A notion of quantum natural evolution strategies is introduced, which provides a geometric synthesis of a number of known quantum/classical algorithms for performing classical black-box optimization. Recent work of Gomes et al. [2019] on heuristic co
mbinatorial optimization using neural quantum states is pedagogically reviewed in this context, emphasizing the connection with natural evolution strategies. The algorithmic framework is illustrated for approximate combinatorial optimization problems, and a systematic strategy is found for improving the approximation ratios. In particular it is found that natural evolution strategies can achieve approximation ratios competitive with widely used heuristic algorithms for Max-Cut, at the expense of increased computation time.
We present the extension of variational Monte Carlo (VMC) to the calculation of electronic excitation energies and oscillator strengths using time-dependent linear-response theory. By exploiting the analogy existing between the linear method for wave
-function optimisation and the generalised eigenvalue equation of linear-response theory, we formulate the equations of linear-response VMC (LR-VMC). This LR-VMC approach involves the first-and second-order derivatives of the wave function with respect to the parameters. We perform first tests of the LR-VMC method within the Tamm-Dancoff approximation using single-determinant Jastrow-Slater wave functions with different Slater basis sets on some singlet and triplet excitations of the beryllium atom. Comparison with reference experimental data and with configuration-interaction-singles (CIS) results shows that LR-VMC generally outperforms CIS for excitation energies and is thus a promising approach for calculating electronic excited-state properties of atoms and molecules.
Variational Monte Carlo (VMC) is an approach for computing ground-state wavefunctions that has recently become more powerful due to the introduction of neural network-based wavefunction parametrizations. However, efficiently training neural wavefunct
ions to converge to an energy minimum remains a difficult problem. In this work, we analyze optimization and sampling methods used in VMC and introduce alterations to improve their performance. First, based on theoretical convergence analysis in a noiseless setting, we motivate a new optimizer that we call the Rayleigh-Gauss-Newton method, which can improve upon gradient descent and natural gradient descent to achieve superlinear convergence with little added computational cost. Second, in order to realize this favorable comparison in the presence of stochastic noise, we analyze the effect of sampling error on VMC parameter updates and experimentally demonstrate that it can be reduced by the parallel tempering method. In particular, we demonstrate that RGN can be made robust to energy spikes that occur when new regions of configuration space become available to the sampler over the course of optimization. Finally, putting theory into practice, we apply our enhanced optimization and sampling methods to the transverse-field Ising and XXZ models on large lattices, yielding ground-state energy estimates with remarkably high accuracy after just 200-500 parameter updates.
We provide a pedagogical introduction to the two main variants of real-space quantum Monte Carlo methods for electronic-structure calculations: variational Monte Carlo (VMC) and diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC). Assuming no prior knowledge on the subject,
we review in depth the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm used in VMC for sampling the square of an approximate wave function, discussing details important for applications to electronic systems. We also review in detail the more sophisticated DMC algorithm within the fixed-node approximation, introduced to avoid the infamous Fermionic sign problem, which allows one to sample a more accurate approximation to the ground-state wave function. Throughout this review, we discuss the statistical methods used for evaluating expectation values and statistical uncertainties. In particular, we show how to estimate nonlinear functions of expectation values and their statistical uncertainties.
The authors present a technique using variational Monte Carlo to solve for excited states of electronic systems. The technique is based on enforcing orthogonality to lower energy states, which results in a simple variational principle for the excited
states. Energy optimization is then used to solve for the excited states. An application to the well-characterized benzene molecule, in which ~10,000 parameters are optimized for the first 12 excited states.Agreement within approximately 0.15 eV is obtained with higher scaling coupled cluster methods; small disagreements with experiment are likely due to vibrational effects.