Automating quantum circuit optimization with AI agents

Abstract

Compiling quantum algorithms for real devices involves hard optimization problems that can decide whether an algorithm runs at scale. We present a general method for solving such problems with AI agents, with every result certified. It builds on autoresearch loops, in which agents iteratively improve programs against a fixed evaluator and which have recently improved quantum cryptanalysis circuits, and adds two elements: a frozen, exact verifier certifies every result, and this verifier, together with the challenge around it, is built by an agent that formulates the problem with a researcher and validates the verifier against a solved case, deliberately broken solutions and published results before any solution exists. The method applies to any optimization problem whose solutions can be verified exactly and efficiently. We apply it to three compilation problems in quantum simulation, namely fermion-to-qubit encoding, Hamiltonian layout and unitary synthesis. In each, the agents improved substantially on published or standard constructions, reducing the cost being optimized by up to 73% at the largest sizes tested and outperforming a state-of-the-art optimizer for fermion-to-qubit encodings. Every submission is a program accompanied by its agent's notes, so the ideas behind each improvement are recorded in human-readable form; later agents built on them, and we describe them here. These results open the way to automated, certified discovery across quantum circuit design and beyond.