Construction method of hybrid quantum long-short term memory neural network for image classification

Abstract

Long-short term memory (LSTM) neural network solves the problems of long-term dependence, gradient disappearance and gradient explosion by introducing memory units, and is widely used in time series analysis and prediction. Combining quantum computing with LSTM neural network will help to improve its computational efficiency and reduce the number of model parameters, thus significantly improving the performance of traditional LSTM neural network. This paper proposes a hybrid quantum LSTM (hybrid quantum long-short term memory, HQLSTM) network model that can be used to realize the image classification. It uses variable quantum circuits to replace the nerve cells in the classical LSTM network to realize the memory function of the quantum network. At the same time, it introduces Choquet integral operator to enhance the degree of aggregation between data. The memory cells in the HQLSTM network are composed of multiple variation quantum circuits (VQC) that can realize different functions. Each VQC consists of three parts: the coding layer, which uses angle coding to reduce the complexity of network model design; the variation layer, which is designed with quantum natural gradient optimization algorithm, so that the gradient descent direction does not target specific parameters, thereby optimizing the parameter update process and improving the generalization and convergence speed of the network model; the measurement layer, which uses the Pauli Z gate to measure, and the expected value of the measurement result is input to the next layer to extract useful information from the quantum circuit. The experimental results on the MNIST, FASHION-MNIST and CIFAR datasets show that the HQLSTM model achieves higher image classification accuracy and lower loss value than the classical LSTM model and quantum LSTM model. At the same time, the network space complexity of HQLSTM and quantum LSTM are significantly reduced compared with the classical LSTM network.