A central challenge in the verification of quantum computers is benchmarking their performance as a whole and demonstrating their computational capabilities. In this work, we find a universal model of quantum computation, Bell sampling, that can be used for both of those tasks and thus provides an ideal stepping stone towards fault-tolerance. In Bell sampling, we measure two copies of a state prepared by a quantum circuit in the transversal Bell basis. We show that the Bell samples are classically intractable to produce and at the same time constitute what we call a circuit shadow: from the Bell samples we can efficiently extract information about the quantum circuit preparing the state, as well as diagnose circuit errors. In addition to known properties that can be efficiently extracted from Bell samples, we give several new and efficient protocols: an estimator of state fidelity, a test for the depth of the circuit and an algorithm to estimate a lower bound to the number of T gates in the circuit. With some additional measurements, our algorithm learns a full description of states prepared by circuits with low T-count.
Despite the wide usage of parametric point processes in theory and applications, a sound goodness-of-fit procedure to test whether a given parametric model is appropriate for data coming from a self-exciting point processes has been missing in the literature. In this work, we establish a bootstrap-based goodness-of-fit test which empirically works for all kinds of self-exciting point processes (and even beyond). In an infill-asymptotic setting we also prove its asymptotic consistency, albeit only in the particular case that the underlying point process is inhomogeneous Poisson.
The rapid pace of development in quantum computing technology has sparked a proliferation of benchmarks for assessing the performance of quantum computing hardware and software. Good benchmarks empower scientists, engineers, programmers, and users to understand a computing system's power, but bad benchmarks can misdirect research and inhibit progress. In this Perspective, we survey the science of quantum computer benchmarking. We discuss the role of benchmarks and benchmarking, and how good benchmarks can drive and measure progress towards the long-term goal of useful quantum computations, i.e., "quantum utility". We explain how different kinds of benchmark quantify the performance of different parts of a quantum computer, we survey existing benchmarks, critically discuss recent trends in benchmarking, and highlight important open research questions in this field.
Traditional assessments of tackling in American Football often only consider the number of tackles made, without adequately accounting for their context and importance for the game. Aiming for improvement, we develop a metric that quantifies the value of a tackle in terms of the prevented expected points (PEP). Specifically, we compare the real end-of-play yard line of tackles with the predicted yard line given the hypothetical situation that the tackle had been missed. For this, we use high-resolution tracking data, that capture the position and velocity of players, and a random forest to account for uncertainty and multi-modality in yard-line prediction. Moreover, we acknowledge the difference in the importance of tackles by assigning an expected points value to each individual tree prediction of the random forest. Finally, to relate the value of tackles to a player's ability to tackle, we fit a suitable mixed-effect model to the PEP values. Our approach contributes to a deeper understanding of defensive performances in American football and offers valuable insights for coaches and analysts.
We consider the problem of detecting gradual changes in the sequence of mean functions from a not necessarily stationary functional time series. Our approach is based on the maximum deviation (calculated over a given time interval) between a benchmark function and the mean functions at different time points. We speak of a gradual change of size $\Delta $, if this quantity exceeds a given threshold $\Delta>0$. For example, the benchmark function could represent an average of yearly temperature curves from the pre-industrial time, and we are interested in the question if the yearly temperature curves afterwards deviate from the pre-industrial average by more than $\Delta =1.5$ degrees Celsius, where the deviations are measured with respect to the sup-norm. Using Gaussian approximations for high-dimensional data we develop a test for hypotheses of this type and estimators for the time where a deviation of size larger than $\Delta$ appears for the first time. We prove the validity of our approach and illustrate the new methods by a simulation study and a data example, where we analyze yearly temperature curves at different stations in Australia.
A common method for estimating the Hessian operator from random samples on a low-dimensional manifold involves locally fitting a quadratic polynomial. Although widely used, it is unclear if this estimator introduces bias, especially in complex manifolds with boundaries and nonuniform sampling. Rigorous theoretical guarantees of its asymptotic behavior have been lacking. We show that, under mild conditions, this estimator asymptotically converges to the Hessian operator, with nonuniform sampling and curvature effects proving negligible, even near boundaries. Our analysis framework simplifies the intensive computations required for direct analysis.
A new decoder for the SIF test problems of the CUTEst collection is described, which produces problem files allowing the computation of values and derivatives of the objective function and constraints of most \cutest\ problems directly within ``native'' Matlab, Python or Julia, without any additional installation or interfacing with MEX files or Fortran programs. When used with Matlab, the new problem files optionally support reduced-precision computations.
Mutual information has many applications in image alignment and matching, mainly due to its ability to measure the statistical dependence between two images, even if the two images are from different modalities (e.g., CT and MRI). It considers not only the pixel intensities of the images but also the spatial relationships between the pixels. In this project, we apply the mutual information formula to image matching, where image A is the moving object and image B is the target object and calculate the mutual information between them to evaluate the similarity between the images. For comparison, we also used entropy and information-gain methods to test the dependency of the images. We also investigated the effect of different environments on the mutual information of the same image and used experiments and plots to demonstrate.
In relational verification, judicious alignment of computational steps facilitates proof of relations between programs using simple relational assertions. Relational Hoare logics (RHL) provide compositional rules that embody various alignments of executions. Seemingly more flexible alignments can be expressed in terms of product automata based on program transition relations. A single degenerate alignment rule (self-composition), atop a complete Hoare logic, comprises a RHL for $\forall\forall$ properties that is complete in the ordinary logical sense (Cook'78). The notion of alignment completeness was previously proposed as a more satisfactory measure, and some rules were shown to be alignment complete with respect to a few ad hoc forms of alignment automata. This paper proves alignment completeness with respect to a general class of $\forall\forall$ alignment automata, for a RHL comprised of standard rules together with a rule of semantics-preserving rewrites based on Kleene algebra with tests. A new logic for $\forall\exists$ properties is introduced and shown to be alignment complete. The $\forall\forall$ and $\forall\exists$ automata are shown to be semantically complete. Thus the logics are both complete in the ordinary sense. Recent work by D'Osualdo et al highlights the importance of completeness relative to assumptions (which we term entailment completeness), and presents $\forall\forall$ examples seemingly beyond the scope of RHLs. Additional rules enable these examples to be proved in our RHL, shedding light on the open problem of entailment completeness.
Conventional intelligent systems based on deep neural network (DNN) models encounter challenges in achieving human-like continual learning due to catastrophic forgetting. Here, we propose a metaplasticity model inspired by human working memory, enabling DNNs to perform catastrophic forgetting-free continual learning without any pre- or post-processing. A key aspect of our approach involves implementing distinct types of synapses from stable to flexible, and randomly intermixing them to train synaptic connections with different degrees of flexibility. This strategy allowed the network to successfully learn a continuous stream of information, even under unexpected changes in input length. The model achieved a balanced tradeoff between memory capacity and performance without requiring additional training or structural modifications, dynamically allocating memory resources to retain both old and new information. Furthermore, the model demonstrated robustness against data poisoning attacks by selectively filtering out erroneous memories, leveraging the Hebb repetition effect to reinforce the retention of significant data.
Graph-centric artificial intelligence (graph AI) has achieved remarkable success in modeling interacting systems prevalent in nature, from dynamical systems in biology to particle physics. The increasing heterogeneity of data calls for graph neural architectures that can combine multiple inductive biases. However, combining data from various sources is challenging because appropriate inductive bias may vary by data modality. Multimodal learning methods fuse multiple data modalities while leveraging cross-modal dependencies to address this challenge. Here, we survey 140 studies in graph-centric AI and realize that diverse data types are increasingly brought together using graphs and fed into sophisticated multimodal models. These models stratify into image-, language-, and knowledge-grounded multimodal learning. We put forward an algorithmic blueprint for multimodal graph learning based on this categorization. The blueprint serves as a way to group state-of-the-art architectures that treat multimodal data by choosing appropriately four different components. This effort can pave the way for standardizing the design of sophisticated multimodal architectures for highly complex real-world problems.