Operator-level quantum acceleration of non-logconcave sampling

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Authors: Jiaqi Leng, Zhiyan Ding, Zherui Chen, Lin Lin
Cited by: 0
References: 51

Abstract

Sampling from probability distributions of the form [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is a continuous potential, is a fundamental task across physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, and statistics. However, when [Formula: see text] is nonconvex, the resulting distribution becomes non-logconcave, and classical methods such as Langevin dynamics often exhibit poor performance. We introduce a quantum algorithm that provably accelerates a broad class of continuous-time sampling dynamics. For Langevin dynamics, our method encodes the target Gibbs measure into the amplitudes of a quantum state, identified as the kernel of a block matrix derived from a factorization of the Witten Laplacian operator. This connection enables Gibbs sampling via singular value thresholding and yields up to a quartic quantum speedup over best-known classical Langevin-based methods in the non-logconcave setting. Building on this framework, we further develop the first quantum algorithm that accelerates replica exchange Langevin diffusion, a widely used method for sampling from complex, rugged energy landscapes.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture Quantum Information and Cryptography Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies

Publication details

Journal / source
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Volume
123
Issue
8
Pages
e2512789123–e2512789123
Publication date
20 February 2026
Language
EN