Andrew Sornborger

Generalization bounds are a critical tool to assess the training data requirements of Quantum Machine Learning (QML). In this work, we prove the first out-of-distribution generalization guarantees in QML, where we require a trained model to perform well even on testing data drawn from a distribution different from the training data distribution. Namely, we establish out-of-distribution generalization for the task of learning an unknown unitary using a quantum neural network and for a broad class of training and testing distributions. In particular, we show that one can learn the action of a unitary on entangled states using only product state training data. Since product states can be prepared using only single-qubit gates, this advances the near-term prospects of QML for learning quantum dynamics, and further opens up new methods for both the classical and quantum compilation of quantum circuits. Based on these insights, we propose a QML-based algorithm for simulating quantum dynamics on near-term quantum hardware and rigorously prove its resource-efficiency in terms of qubit and training data requirements. We also demonstrate the viability of this algorithm through numerical experiments, both in classical simulations and on quantum hardware. Finally, we embed this algorithm in a broader framework for using QML methods for quantum dynamical simulation on NISQ devices.