Hybrid gate-pulse model for variational quantum algorithms

Current quantum programs are mostly synthesized and compiled on the gate-level, where quantum circuits are composed of quantum gates. However, the gate-level workflow introduces significant redundancy when quantum gates are eventually transformed into control signals, such as microwave pulses in superconducting quantum computers, and applied on quantum devices. Pulse-level optimization has gained more attention from researchers due to their advantages in terms of circuit duration. Recent works, however, are limited by their poor scalability brought by the large parameter space of control signals and the lack of gate-level “knowledge”. This paper presents a hybrid gate-pulse model that can mitigate these problems in variational quantum algorithms. PDF