Large Language Models Can Help Mitigate Barren Plateaus in Quantum Neural Networks

Abstract

In the era of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computing, Quantum Neural Networks (QNNs) have emerged as a promising approach for various applications, yet their training is often hindered by barren plateaus (BPs), where gradient variance vanishes exponentially as the qubit size increases. Most initialization-based mitigation strategies rely heavily on pre-designed static parameter distributions, thereby lacking adaptability to diverse model sizes or data conditions. To address these limitations, we propose AdaInit, a foundational framework that leverages large language models with the submartingale property to iteratively synthesize initial parameters for QNNs that yield non-negligible gradient variance, thereby mitigating BPs. Unlike conventional one-shot initialization methods, AdaInit adaptively explores the parameter space by incorporating dataset characteristics and gradient feedback, with theoretical guarantees of convergence to finding a set of effective initial parameters for QNNs. We provide rigorous theoretical analyses of the submartingale-based process and empirically validate that AdaInit consistently outperforms existing initialization methods in maintaining higher gradient variance across various QNN scales. We believe this work may initiate a new avenue to mitigate BPs.