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arXiv2026

Distributed Quantum Property Testing with Quantum Carrier Pigeons

We introduce a framework for distributed quantum inference under communication constraints. In our model, $m$ distributed nodes each receive one copy of an unknown $d$-dimensional quantum state $ρ$, before communicating via a constrained one-way communication channel with a central node, which aims to infer some property of $ρ$. This framework generalizes the classical distributed inference framework introduced by Acharya, Canonne, and Tyagi [COLT 2019], by allowing quantum resources such as quantum communication and shared entanglement. Within this setting, we focus on the fundamental problem of quantum state certification: Given a complete description of some state $σ$, decide whether $ρ=σ$ or $\|ρ-σ\|_1\geq ε$. Additionally, we focus on the case of limited communication between distributed nodes and the central node: we assume each communication channel is limited to only $n_c$ bits and $n_q$ qubits with $n_c + n_q \leq \log d$. When all nodes can make use of a shared source of randomness, we show that the copy complexity of distributed state certification is $Θ(\frac{d^2}{2^{n_q} 2^{n_c/2}ε^2})$. We further demonstrate that shared randomness is necessary to achieve the above complexity, by proving an $Ω(\frac{d^3}{4^{n_q} 2^{n_c} ε^2})$ lower bound in the $\textit{private-coin}$ setting. Moreover, we develop a private-coin algorithm that matches this bound up to a $\sqrt{\log d}$ factor, showing this complexity is near-optimal. Together, our work establishes a general framework for distributed quantum inference with communication constraints and characterizes the complexity of distributed state certification with limited communication.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Towards unsupervised representation learning for quantum data: quantum models with inference and generation

With quantum sensors, simulators and networks emerging, a future of quantum technology may produce quantum states as data---that is, coherently rather than as classical measurement records---thus motivating the study of suitable quantum generalisations of modern machine learning, including the automated, unsupervised extraction of useful representations. Two ingredients are central to the latter: inference, mapping observations to latent representations, and generation, mapping latent states back to synthetic data. Both are related to each other and to joint distributions for training models by the chain-rule of classical probability theory. The fact that quantum states however lack such universal, standard factorisation property thus poses a challenge. Here we develop a conceptual and mathematical framework for unsupervised representation learning from quantum data. Models are joint quantum states over visible and latent systems; state-over-time maps provide a notion of factorisation into a marginal state and inference (generation) channel; models with inference (generation) are ambiguous states---states for which such factorisation obtains---subject to a further consistency condition on extended inference maps as data extension. These stipulations are restrictive: we show that non-trivial models must feature non-linear such maps to the extended space. For three representative state-over-time maps, we completely characterise the ambiguous states, uncovering a hierarchy tied to the positive-partial-transpose (PPT) criterion from entanglement theory. Notably, the Leifer-Spekkens construction supports inference and generation exactly for model classes of PPT states, thus allowing genuinely quantum visible-latent correlations. We also formulate quantum counterparts of exact and approximate inference training, explore weaker notions of data extension and sketch a future research programme.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Complexity Amplification from Compression in Quantum Random Access Optimization

Compressed quantum encodings aim to overcome hardware limitations towards tackling challenging problems at scale, with many classical variables mapped onto noncommuting observables of fewer qubits. Classically, relaxations such as the semidefinite program formulation of MaxCut trade solution quality for computational efficiency. By contrast, quantum relaxations based on compression can amplify the worst-case complexity of the problem being solved. We study quantum random access optimization (QRAO), a special case of the Pauli correlation encoding (PCE) framework that assigns up to three binary variables to the Pauli $X$, $Y$, and $Z$ observables of each qubit, with the packing choices determining the compressed Hamiltonian to be optimized. We identify explicit QRAO optimal energy promise problems complete for NP, StoqMA, and QMA, with inverse-polynomial promise gaps for the latter two. Our problem reductions preserve inverse-polynomial promise gaps without requiring gadgets or ancillas. For any prescribed packing, we show that weighted MaxCut instances compress, up to a known shift and rescaling, to arbitrary nonnegative-weight pairwise Pauli couplings allowed by the packing. For QRAO, using one aligned axis gives an NP-complete energy problem. Using two or three positive aligned Pauli axes generally gives QMA-complete problems, while their bipartite restrictions lie in StoqMA. We show that this computational hardness survives compilation and is practically relevant. Notably, this result applies directly to the current QRAO compiler implementation in Qiskit Optimization 0.7.0, confirming our hardness results are not artifacts of artificial or contrived packing rules. Altogether our results identify worst-case complexity barriers arising from quantum compression, while making no broad claims about typical cases or the performance and trainability of algorithm pipelines that use it.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Quantum bivariate bicycle codes with weight-8 checks surpassing the BB benchmark

Bivariate bicycle (BB) codes of Bravyi \emph{et al.}~\cite{Bravyi2024} are quantum low-density parity-check codes with weight-$6$ checks, exemplified by $[[144,12,12]]$ with $kd^2/n=12$. We develop the algebraic structure theory of BB-type codes with weight-$8$ checks (weight-$4$ generator polynomials) and use it, together with an exactly validated search pipeline, to construct and certify new codes. We prove an exact dimension formula $k=2\dim R/(A,B)$ (forcing even $k$), a $4\ell m$-element symmetry group on generator pairs, an $X/Z$ distance equality $d_X=d_Z$, and a family of subgroup-coset kernel vectors giving rigorous distance upper bounds and a design rule for high-distance constructions; all distances are computed exhaustively by a cross-validated bit-mask verifier. At $n=144$ the pipeline returns a census of $53$ codes whose strongest members surpass the BB benchmark: $[[144,6,d\ge 15]]$ exceeds the benchmark distance $12$ (certified $d\ge 15$), $[[144,10,12]]$ reaches it with weight-$8$ checks, and $[[144,16,10]]$ encodes a third more logical qubits at $kd^2/n=11.11$ ($7.4\%$ below benchmark) while decoding no worse. At $n=72$, $[[72,14,8]]$ attains $kd^2/n=12.44$---more than twice the same-length BB code---and decodes better; a circuit-level memory experiment places our weight-$8$ codes at $\approx 0.1\%$ pseudo-threshold versus $\approx 0.4\%$ for the BB reference under an identical model, quantifying the threshold cost of the heavier checks. All structural statements are verified numerically on the whole census.

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arXiv2026

QCxSimulation: Scatter-Aware X-Ray Projection Radiography via Discrete-Time Quantum Walks

X-ray projection radiography is a non-invasive imaging technique used in medical diagnostics and industrial inspection. The simulation of X-ray projections is commonly used to optimise acquisition protocols and improve image quality before performing costly scans. Classical photon transport simulations that include realistic X-ray scattering physics are computationally expensive because they require the sampling of a large number of distinct scattering paths. This limits the practical exploration of parameter spaces such as beam energy. Quantum computing offers the potential to solve high-dimensional problems faster by making use of quantum properties such as superposition. This work introduces a discrete-time quantum walk algorithm that simulates the transport of X-ray photons through heterogeneous volumes. It approximates the physics of X-ray projection radiography, including processes such as photoelectric absorption and higher-order scattering, including Compton and Rayleigh scattering. The quantum walk encodes all admissible photon paths into a single quantum state, enabling all scattering histories to be propagated simultaneously via the superposition principle. This quantum state representation enables flexible readout of various imaging modalities, including the primary, i.e., unscattered, image, or images exclusively containing Rayleigh and Compton scattering of specified orders. A quantitative comparison with classically computed reference simulations shows that the proposed quantum walk accurately reproduces radiographic projections, given the limitations of the underlying physical model. These results indicate that quantum circuits for X-ray transport can produce accurate radiographic images and imply that, as quantum hardware scales up, these algorithms could outperform classical Monte Carlo-based approaches in large-scale, scatter-aware virtual imaging studies.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

"Train classical, deploy quantum" requires rethinking generalization

Generative models have become central across science and industry, from image and text synthesis to the design of molecules and materials. Quantum generative models are considered one of the most promising applications for quantum computers, since a quantum circuit naturally produces samples from the distribution it encodes, and for suitable circuits that distribution is believed to be hard for any classical computer to reproduce. A leading strategy trains these models on a classical computer and reserves the quantum device for generating samples at deployment. This is possible when the training loss can be evaluated on a classical computer. A prime example is the maximum mean discrepancy (MMD$^2$), a moment-matching loss that compares the model and the data through their Pauli-$Z$ correlations. Research so far has asked whether such models can be trained and whether their sampling is hard; whether minimizing such an objective yields a model that generalizes, rather than one that merely reproduces the training statistics, remains poorly understood. We benchmark a broad set of quantum and classical generative models by direct sampling and show that models trained with a moment-matching loss generally show worse generalization than the likelihood-trained models. We show this on two application-inspired datasets: first a cardinality-constrained dataset at up to $30$ qubits and second a dataset of genomic single-nucleotide variants, whose valid set is the observed data. These results indicate that a converged moment-matching loss is not a reliable measure of generalization, and that train-classical, deploy-quantum workflows will need approaches that target generalization directly, leaving open whether better training objectives suffice or whether the model architectures themselves must change.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Promises should be taken seriously: On relativization with promise problems

Relativization is concerned with comparing computational models with black-box access to an oracle. For promise problems, black-box access is not canonical due to inputs outside of the promise being unconstrained. We study two semantics for such access. Under robust queries, a machine must correctly answer regardless of the completion of the problem,, while loose access requires that the internal choices of a machine do not change based on off-promise queries. Our first result separates the language and promise settings. Namely, we construct an oracle $O$ such that $\mathsf{P}^O = \mathsf{BQP}^O = \mathsf{AWPP}^O$, but $\mathsf{PromiseBQP}^O\not\subseteq\mathsf{PromiseP}^O_{\mathsf{/poly}}$. In particular, $\mathsf{BPP}^O = \mathsf{BQP}^O$, but $\mathsf{PromiseBQP}^O \neq \mathsf{PromiseBPP}^O$, showing that results for languages need not transfer to promises. Next, we use loose queries to strengthen the upper bound on the Quantum-Classical Polynomial Hierarchy from $\mathsf{P}^{\mathsf{PP}^{\mathsf{PP}}}$ to $\mathsf{QCPH} \subseteq \mathsf{BP\cdot PP} \subseteq \mathsf{PromiseBPP}^{\mathsf{PP}}$. The same proof also shows $\mathsf{PP}^\mathsf{PromiseBQP} = \mathsf{PP}$. Additionally, we show that $\mathsf{PromiseBQP}$, even when given quantum advice, is self-low under robust queries. Finally, we exhibit an obstruction to transferring language-level counting results to promise classes. Although $\mathsf{AWPP}$ and $\mathsf{APP}$ are low for $\mathsf{PP}$, a corresponding promise analogue would collapse the counting hierarchy as $\mathsf{GapP} \subseteq \mathsf{FP}^{\mathsf{PromiseAWPP}}$. This motivates the introduction of $\mathsf{PromisePostBQP^*}$, which restricts $\mathsf{PostBQP}$ to input-indepencent postselection. By showing that it is low for \PP, we obtain $\mathsf{PP}^{\mathsf{PromiseYQP^*}} = \mathsf{PP}$.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2026

Rotational Bell-State Loop-Back Key Establishment and Agreement Certification for Passive Users

Server-aided Bell-state networks with sequential local encoding are an established approach to mediated key distribution. Against this background, we study a Loop-Back architecture in which two source-free, detector-free users transform the same traveling qubit. Alice privately samples $r\in\mathbb{Z}*2^2$, prepares $|β_r\rangle$ over the complete Bell basis, retains one qubit, and uses $r$ as the reference for the returned pair. A deterministic Pauli-composition mode, $U*{\mathrm{eff}}=U_2U_1$, serves as a reference to prior serial-unitary protocols. The main extension instead uses the two same-axis settings $R(\pmα)$ and a reference-versus-complement Bell test. Opposite rotations cancel, whereas equal rotations add, so $P(C\mid\mathrm{disagreement})=0$ and $P(C\mid\mathrm{agreement})=\sin^2(2α)$. At $α=π/8$, agreement is certified with probability $1/2$, and the overall conclusive-key probability is $1/4$ for unbiased choices. The same event supplies one shared raw-key bit. For the Pauli mode, a one-qubit Pauli twirl hides either user's factor from an endpoint mediator that may prepare an arbitrary qubit--ancilla state and choose the final measurement, provided the other Pauli is uniform and the traveler is inaccessible between users. The rotational guarantee is narrower: common-sign privacy holds only for the prescribed Bell source and coarse-grained instrument. A polarization implementation can normalize the private reference to the singlet and use a beam splitter with verified two-photon detection; loss produces a third, discarded outcome. The proposal is theoretical and does not claim composable security or experimental validation.

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arXiv2026

Towards Scaling Quantum Fine-Tuning of Foundational Time Series Models for Classification

Time-series foundation models produce rich embeddings, but whether quantum models can exploit them, and how far hybrid classical-quantum architectures scale, remains unclear. We address this by fine-tuning Chronos for power-grid event classification (PSML-5) with a quantum head on the model's embeddings. Grouping embeddings by physical sensor type before summarization already surpasses the best published baseline built for this benchmark, and with finer-grained features the quantum head outperforms a larger classical multilayer perceptron on identical inputs by 1.7-2.0 percentage points of balanced accuracy. Yet the gains saturate: past a point, feeding more information to the same fixed-width register yields no improvement. We show the bottleneck is neither the supply of information nor circuit expressiveness, but the bandwidth of the data intake. To overcome this limitation, we introduce the wing module, a self-contained few-qubit circuit that feeds additional information into the core circuit through a sparse, one-way coupling. Under a preregistered four-seed protocol, we attach wings to a fixed 12-qubit core with fixed features. Balanced accuracy increases with each added wing, from 83.6% with no wings (13 qubits, including a post-selection qubit) to 85.2% with two (19 qubits). Ablations establish that a circuit enlarged without new information gains nothing, while a wing fed information from the wrong sample harms accuracy. These results reframe scaling for quantum fine-tuning: added qubits help when they carry added inputs, not merely more parameters. Wings offer a modular and stable route to widening that bandwidth.

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arXiv2026

Quantum Message Passing Convergence and Vanishing Block-Error Probability for Random LDPC Codes

Belief propagation with quantum messages (BPQM) is a quantum algorithm that decodes classical codes transmitted over classical--quantum channels. It realizes optimal decoding on tree factor graphs over pure-state classical-quantum channels. However, this tree-based analysis does not ensure vanishing block-error probability for LDPC Tanner graphs with cycles. In this work, we construct a two-stage BPQM decoder for random $q$-ary LDPC codes over symmetric $q$-ary pure-state channels, where $q$ is prime, and prove that its ensemble-average block-error probability vanishes as the blocklength $N$ tends to infinity. For regular ensembles with $d_v\geq3$, fidelity bounds yield double-exponential decay of the average symbol-error probability throughout the BPQM success region. We apply depth-$\ell$ BPQM to coordinates with tree neighbourhoods and treat the remaining coordinates as erasures. With a suitable $\ell=Θ(\log\log N)$, a noncommutative union bound controls the BPQM decoding errors, while the minimum-distance property guarantees erasure recovery. We also extend the analysis to finite-support irregular ensembles. These results are relevant to quantum algorithms based on Regev's reduction, where coherent decoding uncomputes a codeword register. Decoded quantum interferometry (DQI) uses a closely related Fourier-based framework that reduces sparse max-LINSAT optimization problems to LDPC decoding problems on pure-state channels. Our results justify the use of BPQM in the decoding step of DQI and of coding-theoretic algorithms based on Regev's reduction whenever the code is drawn from one of the random LDPC ensembles analyzed here and the induced memoryless symmetric pure-state channel lies in the BPQM success region.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Do Quantum AIs Dream in Paths? Path-Integral Slow Thinking through Grover Interference

Reinforcement learning with verifiable rewards enables large language models to think slowly, but the same training can induce policy collapse: probability concentrates onto a few successful trajectories and exploratory diversity erodes. We ask whether quantum AI can realize slow thinking differently. We formulate slow thinking as coherent dynamics over reasoning trajectories, a discrete path integral in which action sequences coexist in superposition and recombine before measurement. In our trainable realization, an exact verifier partitions the ensemble into collective accepted and rejected components that interfere under Grover amplitude amplification. A finite Grover evolution is maximized when the pre-amplification success probability lies at an analytically determined value below one, so inference itself defines an interior training target and removes the monotonic pressure toward unit success. In exact statevector simulations of a 2x3 sliding puzzle, Grover training reaches accuracy 0.95 on a 32-question training set at one round, against 0.73 for the strongest classical control. On held-out questions specialization has a cost: an untrained uniform policy read out through the same amplification remains the strongest reference on this solution-dense benchmark, and quantum training preserves far more held-out accuracy than classical training - at four rounds with matched circuit applications the two quantum models reach 3.2 and 3.9 times the strongest classical controls. The number of training questions supported by fixed-size policies trained at each amplification budget also grows faster with the budget than with matched classical repetition. These results establish a Grover-based realization of path-integral slow thinking: the interior target preserves exploratory path diversity, and ensemble-level interference converts it into verified performance.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Efficient Quantum Simulation of Variable-Coefficient Transport with Continuous Source Injection

Quantum time-marching algorithms for transport PDEs often represent variable coefficients and forcing through register-expanding dilations, block-encoding oracles, or repeated postselection. We present an alternative algorithm for a forced variable-coefficient advection-diffusion equation in flow-inspired skew-symmetric form that incorporates spatially varying velocity, viscous dissipation, and persistent source injection with a peak logical requirement of $n_q+1$ qubits. A centered skew-symmetric discretization makes the advection operator strictly skew-Hermitian for arbitrary velocity profiles, enabling an ancilla-free unitary realization using a Gray-code Trotter sequence of controlled-$R_y$ rotations. Diffusion is applied in the Fourier basis through a uniformly controlled rotation on one postselected ancilla, which is measured, reset, and reused between the two diffusion half-steps, while the source is incorporated classically through second-order Strang splitting. Statevector simulations for $N=16$ and $32$ recover second-order temporal convergence against high-accuracy classical solutions, while Richardson extrapolation gives fourth-order accuracy and reduces kernel calls by factors of four to fourteen. Independent tests through $N=256$ confirm second-order spatial consistency. We further show that the per-step ancilla failure probability is proportional to the instantaneous viscous dissipation rate, making postselection cost self-regulating over a fifty-fold viscosity range. Stable evolution is demonstrated for $5\times10^4$ time steps without observable secular error growth, while Gray-code advection accounts for $71$--$95\%$ of transpiled controlled-NOT gates. The fixed-width kernel provides a qubit-efficient building block for near-term hardware studies, although classical readout and state re-preparation remain the main obstacles to coherent multistep evolution.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Performance evaluation of variational quantum eigensolver and quantum dynamics algorithms on the advection-diffusion equation

Near-term quantum algorithms are a promising route to solving partial differential equations, but gauging their true potential requires separating algorithmic performance from sampling and hardware noise. We benchmark a ground-state variational quantum eigensolver (VQE), cast as a variational quantum linear solver, against the Trotterization, variational quantum imaginary time evolution, and adaptive variational quantum dynamics simulation methods applied to the one-dimensional advection-diffusion equation in the recent quantum-dynamics study by Alipanah et al. [Phys. Rev. Res. 7, 043318 (2025)] at matched grid and problem size. On a noiseless state-vector simulator the $N=4$ VQE drives the final-time infidelity to a numerical floor ($\sim\!10^{-14}$) once the depth reaches $L\approx5$, an \emph{algorithmic ceiling} set by exact expectation values. Evaluating the same solver with a finite number $S$ of measurement shots, still without hardware noise, makes the infidelity sampling limited, following $1-f\approx c/S$ (a best-case readout-sampling estimate, with the solution's signs assumed known), providing a regime-matched comparison with the shot-based emulator of Alipanah \emph{et al.}\ and explaining the gap to their noisy hardware runs ($>10^{-1}$). The benchmark thus decomposes the near-term error budget into algorithmic, sampling, and hardware contributions, with a matched-depth resource comparison. The formulation applies without modification across $N=4,5,6$ qubits and to a two-dimensional (eight-qubit, $16\times16$) problem evolved to $t=1$, where the state-vector VQE holds a $\sim\!10^{-7}$ algorithmic-ceiling infidelity against the sampling-limited $\sim\!10^{-5}$ of the corresponding shot-based simulation, a difference of measurement regime rather than algorithmic superiority.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Distributed Variational Quantum Linear Solver

The Variational Quantum Linear Solver (VQLS), a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm for solving linear systems, faces a practical scalability bottleneck: the Linear Combination of Unitaries (LCU) decomposition requires $O(L^2)$ circuit evaluations per optimizer iteration, where $L$ can grow to $4^n$ in the worst case for an $n$-qubit system. We address this computational bottleneck through two complementary strategies. First, we present a distributed VQLS (D-VQLS) framework (https://code.ornl.gov/olcf-qcfd/DVQLS.git), built on NVIDIA CUDA-Q, that enables asynchronous, scalable distribution of the $O(L^2)$ cost evaluations. Second, a fast Walsh--Hadamard transform (FWHT)-based Pauli decomposition with coefficient-amplitude pruning threshold $τ=0.01$ curbs LCU growth for the structured Toeplitz family, reducing $L$ from $O(2^n)$ to 64 for $n>6$ and compressing the circuit complexity per optimizer iteration from $O(n4^n)$ to $O(n)$. We derive the exact top-$L$ Frobenius error and connect it to worst-case solution error. For a 10-qubit tridiagonal Toeplitz system, the $L=64$ pruning yields a $256\times$ reduction---from 23 million to 90k circuits per optimizer iteration. The D-VQLS framework is validated on the NERSC Perlmutter supercomputer using multi-node, multi-GPU ideal state-vector simulations, achieving over $99.99\%$ fidelity against classical solutions on tridiagonal Toeplitz and Hele--Shaw flow benchmarks, with near-ideal strong scaling up to 24 GPUs and $95.3\%$ weak scaling efficiency at 96 GPUs processing more than 360k circuits per optimizer iteration (from larger-$L$ pruning) for the 10-qubit system. Systematic profiling identifies the optimal resource allocation for distributed quantum circuit workloads, yielding a $2.52\times$ speedup for the configurations studied.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Ancilla-Efficient QSAMPLE Preparation for Reversible Markov Chains

Preparing quantum samples (QSAMPLES), coherent encodings of stationary distributions of reversible Markov chains, is a fundamental primitive in quantum sampling, particularly for quantum simulated annealing. A central limitation of existing phase-estimation-based frameworks is the ancilla qubit overhead. In this work, we present a new end-to-end framework requiring only one ancilla qubit in the working register. The key technical ingredient is a selective phase compiler circuit using one ancilla qubit, built from a generalized quantum signal processing (GQSP)-based projector onto the 1-eigenspace of the qubitized Szegedy walk. Embedding these selective phase compilers into the fixed-point amplitude amplification (FPAA) procedure and iterating yields a quantum algorithm that, given an initial state, oracle access, lower bounds on the overlaps between adjacent states, and lower bounds on the phase gaps, outputs a QSAMPLE within any desired trace distance and thus total variation distance. The query complexity scales inversely with the square roots of both the minimum overlap and the minimum spectral gap of the Markov chains across the cooling schedule, up to polylogarithmic factors. We also perform simulations to verify how our qubit and query complexity evolve with the trace distance, and how this work compares to the previous framework. These results establish two improvements over the previous framework by Wocjan and Abeyesinghe. First, the working-register ancilla cost is reduced to one. Second, by inserting our GQSP-based selective phase compiler into the FPAA procedure, we improve the QSAMPLE transport overlap dependence from inverse minimum overlap to inverse square-root minimum overlap, relative to their Grover pi-over-three fixed-point method. Finally, as a direct application, we apply the quantum algorithm to prepare a Gibbs QSAMPLE and obtain a rigorous complexity analysis.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Parameterised graph theory for tensor networks: entanglement rerouting, structural simplification, and agnostic tomography

Parameterised graph theory studies how the complexity of graph-theoretic problems depends on structural parameters of the input graph. This perspective has proved useful in analysing tensor-network simulation (Markov and Shi, 2008). Its implications for tensor-network representations and tomography are less well understood. In particular, which graph parameters determine whether a tensor-network state (TNS) admits a tractable matrix product state (MPS) or tree tensor network (TTN) representation, and which control the complexity of learning the state? We address these questions using parameterised graph theory. First, we show that cutwidth and tree-cutwidth bound the bond dimension overhead required to represent a TNS as an MPS or TTN. In the TTN case, tree-cutwidth also bounds the local dimension of the grouped subsystems. The proofs are based on entanglement rerouting, a tensor-network analogue of rerouting information in a classical network. Second, we derive graph-dependent upper bounds on the sample and computational complexity of realisable TNS tomography, with exponents that depend on cutwidth, tree-cutwidth, and a new graph parameter, learning complexity, which we bound in terms of degree and treewidth. We obtain these results by extending the disentangling MPS learner of (Cramer et al., 2010), as analysed further in (Bakshi et al., 2025; Lin et al., 2025), to TTNs and to tensor networks on arbitrary known graphs. Finally, we extend the framework beyond the realisable setting. For an arbitrary input state, our agnostic learner outputs a pure state whose fidelity is within additive error $ε$ of the optimum over tensor-network states on the given graph with a given bond dimension, with explicit graph-dependent bounds on sample and computational complexity.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Execution-transcript privacy for fault-tolerant surface-code memories

A fault-tolerant quantum computer runs behind a telemetry stream logging syndromes, decoder actions, resets and timing separately from the answer. Can it reveal the logical input? For a distance-$d$ rotated surface-code memory on a fixed schedule of $T=Θ(d)$ rounds, under three stated hypotheses (sector-scalar honest backbone, transcript locality, Kotecky-Preiss smallness), the channel from logical qubit to transcript is $e^{-Θ(d)}$-close in diamond norm to one that ignores the input. A statement of this kind follows generically from correctability-privacy duality. Anisotropy does not. Each logical axis pays the distance of its own coset, so under amplitude damping the computational-basis label is governed by the code's $Z$-distance $d_Z\ge d_{\min}$ and not by the code distance. Two codes of quantum distance $1$ make the gap concrete. A phase-flip code's $X$-syndrome transcript is exactly input-independent under unobserved damping, while a repetition code leaks at first order. A matched converse identifies the records that do expose it, among them a lattice-surgery parity readout. On a 156-qubit superconducting processor our sufficient certificate misses by $21.5\times$, so the theorem cannot be invoked there. Measured directly, a $d_Z=1$ memory's record identifies its input with total variation $\ge 0.927$ under randomised, label-balanced acquisition. Holding the code fixed and varying the damping exposure reproduces the parameter-free law, with exponent $0.85\pm0.03$ against a predicted $0.86$. Randomized encoding returns the statistic to the floor at no two-qubit-gate cost. Fault tolerance does not grant transcript privacy. It relocates it, and only to the logical state, not to the circuit's identity.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Sustained Performance and Energy Accounting for Nonlinear Forecasting Across Classical and Simulated Quantum Models

Energy-efficient AI should be evaluated across the full application pipeline, not only by lowest error or shortest training time. We study this through nonlinear time-series forecasting using simulated quantum reservoir computing (QRC) as an emerging-computing case study. Our evaluation spans 33 forecasting configurations and 825 completed runs on NARMA-10, NARMA-20, Mackey--Glass, Lorenz-63, and Santa Fe laser data. The core benchmark includes 775 fully instrumented runs across statistical, linear, reservoir, neural, continuous-variable Gaussian QRC, and gate-based statevector QRC models, with 50 additional variational QNN runs extending the trainable-quantum comparison. We measure NRMSE, RMSE, MAE, wall time, inference latency, peak CPU/GPU memory, parameter count, operational energy, and carbon. Since a fixed QRC encoder can generate reusable features for multiple readouts, we report both cold-start and amortized costs. We also use a Sustainable Forecasting Score (SFS), a diagnostic geometric mean of normalized predictive skill and log-scaled carbon efficiency, while retaining raw measurements and Pareto analyses. The best mean NRMSE is achieved by continuous-variable QRC with a Transformer readout (0.332), followed closely by classical TCN (0.341) and QRC+TCN (0.340). However, ESN and ridge-lag deliver the strongest sustained efficiency, with average amortized carbon of 0.014 and 0.012 gCO2 per run and SFS values of 0.814 and 0.805. Larger QRC feature maps increase cost without improving average accuracy, while gate-based statevector simulation is not competitive. These results support three practices for emerging AI systems: expose stage-level energy, use reuse-aware accounting boundaries, and co-design the feature generator or accelerator with the classical readout.

quant-ph↗