Release Release 0.22.0 · PennyLaneAI/pennylane

New features since last release

Quantum circuit cutting ✂️

You can now run N-wire circuits on devices with fewer than N wires, by strategically placing WireCut operations that allow their circuit to be partitioned into smaller fragments, at a cost of needing to perform a greater number of device executions. Circuit cutting is enabled by decorating a QNode with the @qml.cut_circuit transform. (#2107) (#2124) (#2153) (#2165) (#2158) (#2169) (#2192) (#2216) (#2168) (#2223) (#2231) (#2234) (#2244) (#2251) (#2265) (#2254) (#2260) (#2257) (#2279)

The example below shows how a three-wire circuit can be run on a two-wire device:
```
dev = qml.device("default.qubit", wires=2)

@qml.cut_circuit
@qml.qnode(dev)
def circuit(x):
    qml.RX(x, wires=0)
    qml.RY(0.9, wires=1)
    qml.RX(0.3, wires=2)

    qml.CZ(wires=[0, 1])
    qml.RY(-0.4, wires=0)

    qml.WireCut(wires=1)

    qml.CZ(wires=[1, 2])

    return qml.expval(qml.grouping.string_to_pauli_word("ZZZ"))
```
Instead of executing the circuit directly, it will be partitioned into smaller fragments according to the WireCut locations, and each fragment executed multiple times. Combining the results of the fragment executions will recover the expected output of the original uncut circuit.
```
>>> x = np.array(0.531, requires_grad=True)
>>> circuit(0.531)
0.47165198882111165
```
Circuit cutting support is also differentiable:
```
>>> qml.grad(circuit)(x)
-0.276982865449393
```
For more details on circuit cutting, check out the qml.cut_circuit documentation page or Peng et. al.

Conditional operations: quantum teleportation unlocked 🔓🌀

Support for mid-circuit measurements and conditional operations has been added, to enable use cases like quantum teleportation, quantum error correction and quantum error mitigation. (#2211) (#2236) (#2275)

Two new functions have been added to support this capability:

qml.measure() places mid-circuit measurements in the middle of a quantum function.
qml.cond() allows operations and quantum functions to be conditioned on the result of a previous measurement.

For example, the code below shows how to teleport a qubit from wire 0 to wire 2:

dev = qml.device("default.qubit", wires=3)
input_state = np.array([1, -1], requires_grad=False) / np.sqrt(2)

@qml.qnode(dev)
def teleport(state):
    # Prepare input state
    qml.QubitStateVector(state, wires=0)

    # Prepare Bell state
    qml.Hadamard(wires=1)
    qml.CNOT(wires=[1, 2])

    # Apply gates
    qml.CNOT(wires=[0, 1])
    qml.Hadamard(wires=0)

    # Measure first two wires
    m1 = qml.measure(0)
    m2 = qml.measure(1)

    # Condition final wire on results
    qml.cond(m2 == 1, qml.PauliX)(wires=2)
    qml.cond(m1 == 1, qml.PauliZ)(wires=2)

    # Return state on final wire
    return qml.density_matrix(wires=2)

We can double-check that the qubit has been teleported by computing the overlap between the input state and the resulting state on wire 2:

>>> output_state = teleport(input_state)
>>> output_state
tensor([[ 0.5+0.j, -0.5+0.j],
        [-0.5+0.j,  0.5+0.j]], requires_grad=True)
>>> input_state.conj() @ output_state @ input_state
tensor(1.+0.j, requires_grad=True)

For a full description of new capabilities, refer to the Mid-circuit measurements and conditional operations section in the documentation.

Train mid-circuit measurements by deferring them, via the new @qml.defer_measurements transform. (#2211) (#2236) (#2275)

If a device doesn't natively support mid-circuit measurements, the @qml.defer_measurements transform can be applied to the QNode to transform the QNode into one with terminal measurements and controlled operations:

dev = qml.device("default.qubit", wires=2)

@qml.qnode(dev)
@qml.defer_measurements
def circuit(x):
    qml.Hadamard(wires=0)

    m = qml.measure(0)

    def op_if_true():
        return qml.RX(x**2, wires=1)

    def op_if_false():
        return qml.RY(x, wires=1)

    qml.cond(m==1, op_if_true, op_if_false)()

    return qml.expval(qml.PauliZ(1))

>>> x = np.array(0.7, requires_grad=True)
>>> print(qml.draw(circuit, expansion_strategy="device")(x))
0: ──H─╭C─────────X─╭C─────────X─┤
1: ────╰RX(0.49)────╰RY(0.70)────┤  <Z>
>>> circuit(x)
tensor(0.82358752, requires_grad=True)

Deferring mid-circuit measurements also enables differentiation:

>>> qml.grad(circuit)(x)
-0.651546965338656

Debug with mid-circuit quantum snapshots 📷

A new operation qml.Snapshot has been added to assist in debugging quantum functions. (#2233) (#2289) (#2291) (#2315)

qml.Snapshot saves the internal state of devices at arbitrary points of execution.

Currently supported devices include:
- default.qubit: each snapshot saves the quantum state vector
- default.mixed: each snapshot saves the density matrix
- default.gaussian: each snapshot saves the covariance matrix and vector of means
During normal execution, the snapshots are ignored:
```
dev = qml.device("default.qubit", wires=2)

@qml.qnode(dev, interface=None)
def circuit():
    qml.Snapshot()
    qml.Hadamard(wires=0)
    qml.Snapshot("very_important_state")
    qml.CNOT(wires=[0, 1])
    qml.Snapshot()
    return qml.expval(qml.PauliX(0))
```
However, when using the qml.snapshots transform, intermediate device states will be stored and returned alongside the results.
```
>>> qml.snapshots(circuit)()
{0: array([1.+0.j, 0.+0.j, 0.+0.j, 0.+0.j]),
 'very_important_state': array([0.70710678+0.j, 0.        +0.j, 0.70710678+0.j, 0.        +0.j]),
 2: array([0.70710678+0.j, 0.        +0.j, 0.        +0.j, 0.70710678+0.j]),
 'execution_results': array(0.)}
```

Batch embedding and state preparation data 📦

Added the @qml.batch_input transform to enable batching non-trainable gate parameters. In addition, the qml.qnn.KerasLayer class has been updated to natively support batched training data. (#2069)

As with other transforms, @qml.batch_input can be used to decorate QNodes:

dev = qml.device("default.qubit", wires=2, shots=None)

@qml.batch_input(argnum=0)
@qml.qnode(dev, diff_method="parameter-shift", interface="tf")
def circuit(inputs, weights):
    # add a batch dimension to the embedding data
    qml.AngleEmbedding(inputs, wires=range(2), rotation="Y")
    qml.RY(weights[0], wires=0)
    qml.RY(weights[1], wires=1)
    return qml.expval(qml.PauliZ(1))

Batched input parameters can then be passed during QNode evaluation:

>>> x = tf.random.uniform((10, 2), 0, 1)
>>> w = tf.random.uniform((2,), 0, 1)
>>> circuit(x, w)
<tf.Tensor: shape=(10,), dtype=float64, numpy=
array([0.46230079, 0.73971315, 0.95666004, 0.5355225 , 0.66180948,
        0.44519553, 0.93874261, 0.9483197 , 0.78737918, 0.90866411])>

Even more mighty quantum transforms 🐛➡🦋

New functions and transforms of operators have been added:

qml.matrix() for computing the matrix representation of one or more unitary operators. (#2241)
qml.eigvals() for computing the eigenvalues of one or more operators. (#2248)
qml.generator() for computing the generator of a single-parameter unitary operation. (#2256)

All operator transforms can be used on instantiated operators,

>>> op = qml.RX(0.54, wires=0)
>>> qml.matrix(op)
[[0.9637709+0.j         0.       -0.26673144j]
[0.       -0.26673144j 0.9637709+0.j        ]]

Operator transforms can also be used in a functional form:

>>> x = torch.tensor(0.6, requires_grad=True)
>>> matrix_fn = qml.matrix(qml.RX)
>>> matrix_fn(x, wires=[0])
tensor([[0.9553+0.0000j, 0.0000-0.2955j],
        [0.0000-0.2955j, 0.9553+0.0000j]], grad_fn=<AddBackward0>)

In its functional form, it is fully differentiable with respect to gate arguments:

>>> loss = torch.real(torch.trace(matrix_fn(x, wires=0)))
>>> loss.backward()
>>> x.grad
tensor(-0.2955)

Some operator transform can also act on multiple operations, by passing quantum functions or tapes:

>>> def circuit(theta):
...     qml.RX(theta, wires=1)
...     qml.PauliZ(wires=0)
>>> qml.matrix(circuit)(np.pi / 4)
array([[ 0.92387953+0.j,  0.+0.j ,  0.-0.38268343j,  0.+0.j],
[ 0.+0.j,  -0.92387953+0.j,  0.+0.j,  0. +0.38268343j],
[ 0. -0.38268343j,  0.+0.j,  0.92387953+0.j,  0.+0.j],
[ 0.+0.j,  0.+0.38268343j,  0.+0.j,  -0.92387953+0.j]])

A new transform has been added to construct the pairwise-commutation directed acyclic graph (DAG) representation of a quantum circuit. (#1712)

In the DAG, each node represents a quantum operation, and edges represent non-commutation between two operations.

This transform takes into account that not all operations can be moved next to each other by pairwise commutation:

>>> def circuit(x, y, z):
...     qml.RX(x, wires=0)
...     qml.RX(y, wires=0)
...     qml.CNOT(wires=[1, 2])
...     qml.RY(y, wires=1)
...     qml.Hadamard(wires=2)
...     qml.CRZ(z, wires=[2, 0])
...     qml.RY(-y, wires=1)
...     return qml.expval(qml.PauliZ(0))
>>> dag_fn = qml.commutation_dag(circuit)
>>> dag = dag_fn(np.pi / 4, np.pi / 3, np.pi / 2)

Nodes in the commutation DAG can be accessed via the get_nodes() method, returning a list of the form (ID, CommutationDAGNode):

>>> nodes = dag.get_nodes()
>>> nodes
NodeDataView({0: <pennylane.transforms.commutation_dag.CommutationDAGNode object at 0x7f461c4bb580>, ...}, data='node')

Specific nodes in the commutation DAG can be accessed via the get_node() method:

>>> second_node = dag.get_node(2)
>>> second_node
<pennylane.transforms.commutation_dag.CommutationDAGNode object at 0x136f8c4c0>
>>> second_node.op
CNOT(wires=[1, 2])
>>> second_node.successors
[3, 4, 5, 6]
>>> second_node.predecessors
[]

Improvements

The text-based drawer accessed via qml.draw() has been optimized and improved. (#2128) (#2198)

The new drawer has:

a decimals keyword for controlling parameter rounding
a show_matrices keyword for controlling display of matrices
a different algorithm for determining positions
deprecation of the charset keyword
additional minor cosmetic changes

@qml.qnode(qml.device('lightning.qubit', wires=2))
def circuit(a, w):
    qml.Hadamard(0)
    qml.CRX(a, wires=[0, 1])
    qml.Rot(*w, wires=[1])
    qml.CRX(-a, wires=[0, 1])
    return qml.expval(qml.PauliZ(0) @ qml.PauliZ(1))

>>> print(qml.draw(circuit, decimals=2)(a=2.3, w=[1.2, 3.2, 0.7]))
0: ──H─╭C─────────────────────────────╭C─────────┤ ╭<Z@Z>
1: ────╰RX(2.30)──Rot(1.20,3.20,0.70)─╰RX(-2.30)─┤ ╰<Z@Z>

The frequencies of gate parameters are now accessible as an operation property and can be used for circuit analysis, optimization via the RotosolveOptimizer and differentiation with the parameter-shift rule (including the general shift rule). (#2180) (#2182) (#2227)
```
>>> op = qml.CRot(0.4, 0.1, 0.3, wires=[0, 1])
>>> op.parameter_frequencies
[(0.5, 1.0), (0.5, 1.0), (0.5, 1.0)]
```
When using qml.gradients.param_shift, either a custom grad_recipe or the parameter frequencies are used to obtain the shift rule for the operation, in that order of preference.

See Vidal and Theis (2018) and Wierichs et al. (2021) for theoretical background information on the general parameter-shift rule.
No two-term parameter-shift rule is assumed anymore by default. (#2227)

Previously, operations marked for analytic differentiation that did not provide a generator, parameter_frequencies or a custom grad_recipe were assumed to satisfy the two-term shift rule. This now has to be made explicit for custom operations by adding any of the above attributes.
Most compilation transforms, and relevant subroutines, have been updated to support just-in-time compilation with jax.jit. (#1894)
The qml.draw_mpl transform supports a expansion_strategy keyword argument. (#2271)
The qml.gradients module has been streamlined and special-purpose functions moved closer to their use cases, while preserving existing behaviour. (#2200)
Added a new partition_pauli_group function to the grouping module for efficiently measuring the N-qubit Pauli group with 3 ** N qubit-wise commuting terms. (#2185)
The Operator class has undergone a major refactor with the following changes:
- Matrices: the static method Operator.compute_matrices() defines the matrix representation of the operator, and the function qml.matrix(op) computes this for a given instance. (#1996)
- Eigvals: the static method Operator.compute_eigvals() defines the matrix representation of the operator, and the function qml.eigvals(op) computes this for a given instance. (#2048)
- Decompositions: the static method Operator.compute_decomposition() defines the matrix representation of the operator, and the method op.decomposition() computes this for a given instance. (#2024) (#2053)
- Sparse matrices: the static method Operator.compute_sparse_matrix() defines the sparse matrix representation of the operator, and the method op.sparse_matrix() computes this for a given instance. (#2050)
- Linear combinations of operators: The static method compute_terms(), used for representing the linear combination of coefficients and operators representing the operator, has been added. The method op.terms() computes this for a given instance. Currently, only the Hamiltonian class overwrites compute_terms() to store coefficients and operators. The Hamiltonian.terms property hence becomes a proper method called by Hamiltonian.terms(). (#2036)
- Diagonalization: The diagonalizing_gates() representation has been moved to the highest-level Operator class and is therefore available to all subclasses. A condition qml.operation.defines_diagonalizing_gates has been added, which can be used in tape contexts without queueing. In addition, a static compute_diagonalizing_gates method has been added, which is called by default in diagonalizing_gates(). (#1985) (#1993)
- Error handling has been improved for Operator representations. Custom errors subclassing OperatorPropertyUndefined are raised if a representation has not been defined. This replaces the NotImplementedError and allows finer control for developers. (#2064) (#2287)
- A Operator.hyperparameters attribute, used for storing operation parameters that are never trainable, has been added to the operator class. (#2017)
- The string_for_inverse attribute is removed. (#2021)
- The expand() method was moved from the Operation class to the main Operator class. (#2053) (#2239)

Deprecations

There are several important changes when creating custom operations: (#2214) (#2227) (#2030) (#2061)
- The Operator.matrix method has been deprecated and Operator.compute_matrix should be defined instead. Operator matrices should be accessed using qml.matrix(op). If you were previously defining the class method Operator._matrix(), this is a a breaking change --- please update your operation to instead overwrite Operator.compute_matrix.
- The Operator.decomposition method has been deprecated and Operator.compute_decomposition should be defined instead. Operator decompositions should be accessed using Operator.decomposition().
- The Operator.eigvals method has been deprecated and Operator.compute_eigvals should be defined instead. Operator eigenvalues should be accessed using qml.eigvals(op).
- The Operator.generator property is now a method, and should return an operator instance representing the generator. Note that unlike the other representations above, this is a breaking change. Operator generators should be accessed using qml.generator(op).
- The Operation.get_parameter_shift method has been deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
  
  Instead, the functionalities for general parameter-shift rules in the qml.gradients module should be used, together with the operation attributes parameter_frequencies or grad_recipe.
Executing tapes using tape.execute(dev) is deprecated. Please use the qml.execute([tape], dev) function instead. (#2306)
The subclasses of the quantum tape, including JacobianTape, QubitParamShiftTape, CVParamShiftTape, and ReversibleTape are deprecated. Instead of calling JacobianTape.jacobian() and JacobianTape.hessian(), please use a standard QuantumTape, and apply gradient transforms using the qml.gradients module. (#2306)
qml.transforms.get_unitary_matrix() has been deprecated and will be removed in a future release. For extracting matrices of operations and quantum functions, please use qml.matrix(). (#2248)
The qml.finite_diff() function has been deprecated and will be removed in an upcoming release. Instead, qml.gradients.finite_diff() can be used to compute purely quantum gradients (that is, gradients of tapes or QNode). (#2212)
The MultiControlledX operation now accepts a single wires keyword argument for both control_wires and wires. The single wires keyword should be all the control wires followed by a single target wire. (#2121) (#2278)

Breaking changes

The representation of an operator as a matrix has been overhauled. (#1996)

The "canonical matrix", which is independent of wires, is now defined in the static method compute_matrix() instead of _matrix. By default, this method is assumed to take all parameters and non-trainable hyperparameters that define the operation.
```
>>> qml.RX.compute_matrix(0.5)
[[0.96891242+0.j         0.        -0.24740396j]
 [0.        -0.24740396j 0.96891242+0.j        ]]
```
If no canonical matrix is specified for a gate, compute_matrix() raises a MatrixUndefinedError.
The generator property has been updated to an instance method, Operator.generator(). It now returns an instantiated operation, representing the generator of the instantiated operator. (#2030) (#2061)

Various operators have been updated to specify the generator as either an Observable, Tensor, Hamiltonian, SparseHamiltonian, or Hermitian operator.

In addition, qml.generator(operation) has been added to aid in retrieving generator representations of operators.
The argument wires in heisenberg_obs, heisenberg_expand and heisenberg_tr was renamed to wire_order to be consistent with other matrix representations. (#2051)
The property kraus_matrices has been changed to a method, and _kraus_matrices renamed to compute_kraus_matrices, which is now a static method. (#2055)
The pennylane.measure module has been renamed to pennylane.measurements. (#2236)

Bug fixes

The basis property of qml.SWAP was set to "X", which is incorrect; it is now set to None. (#2287)
The qml.RandomLayers template now decomposes when the weights are a list of lists. (#2266)
The qml.QubitUnitary operation now supports just-in-time compilation using JAX. (#2249)
Fixes a bug in the JAX interface where DeviceArray objects were not being converted to NumPy arrays before executing an external device. (#2255)
The qml.ctrl transform now works correctly with gradient transforms such as the parameter-shift rule. (#2238)
Fixes a bug in which passing required arguments into operations as keyword arguments would throw an error because the documented call signature didn't match the function definition. (#1976)
The operation OrbitalRotation previously was wrongfully registered to satisfy the four-term parameter shift rule. The correct eight-term rule will now be used when using the parameter-shift rule. (#2180)
Fixes a bug where qml.gradients.param_shift_hessian would produce an error whenever all elements of the Hessian are known in advance to be 0. (#2299)

Documentation

The developer guide on adding templates and the architecture overview were rewritten to reflect the past and planned changes of the operator refactor. (#2066)
Links to the Strawberry Fields documentation for information on the CV model. (#2259)
Fixes the documentation example for qml.QFT. (#2232)
Fixes the documentation example for using qml.sample with jax.jit. (#2196)
The qml.numpy subpackage is now included in the PennyLane API documentation. (#2179)
Improves the documentation of RotosolveOptimizer regarding the usage of the passed substep_optimizer and its keyword arguments. (#2160)
Ensures that signatures of @qml.qfunc_transform decorated functions display correctly in the docs. (#2286)
Docstring examples now display using the updated text-based circuit drawer. (#2252)
Add docstring to OrbitalRotation.grad_recipe. (#2193)

Contributors

This release contains contributions from (in alphabetical order):

Catalina Albornoz, Jack Y. Araz, Juan Miguel Arrazola, Ali Asadi, Utkarsh Azad, Sam Banning, Thomas Bromley, Olivia Di Matteo, Christian Gogolin, Diego Guala, Anthony Hayes, David Ittah, Josh Izaac, Soran Jahangiri, Nathan Killoran, Christina Lee, Angus Lowe, Maria Fernanda Morris, Romain Moyard, Zeyue Niu, Lee James O'Riordan, Chae-Yeun Park, Maria Schuld, Jay Soni, Antal Száva, David Wierichs.

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Release 0.22.0