English

Velocity Verlet-based optimization for variational quantum eigensolvers

Quantum Physics 2026-03-11 v1 Optimization and Control

Abstract

The Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) is a key algorithm for near-term quantum computers, yet its performance is often limited by the classical optimization of circuit parameters. We propose using the velocity Verlet algorithm, inspired by classical molecular dynamics, to address this challenge. By introducing an inertial "velocity" term, our method efficiently explores complex energy landscapes. We compare its performance against standard optimizers on H2_2 and LiH molecules. For H2_2, our method achieves chemical accuracy with fewer quantum circuit evaluations than L-BFGS-B. For LiH, it attains the lowest final energy, demonstrating its potential for high-accuracy VQE simulations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.09862,
  title  = {Velocity Verlet-based optimization for variational quantum eigensolvers},
  author = {Rinka Miura},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.09862},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Main text: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:13:19.584Z