Quantum-Enhanced Neural Contextual Bandit Algorithms

Abstract

Stochastic contextual bandits are fundamental for sequential decision-making but pose significant challenges for existing neural network-based algorithms, particularly when scaling to quantum neural networks (QNNs) due to issues such as massive over-parameterization, computational instability, and the barren plateau phenomenon. This paper introduces the Quantum Neural Tangent Kernel-Upper Confidence Bound (QNTK-UCB) algorithm, a novel algorithm that leverages the Quantum Neural Tangent Kernel (QNTK) to address these limitations. By freezing the QNN at a random initialization and utilizing its static QNTK as a kernel for ridge regression, QNTK-UCB bypasses the unstable training dynamics inherent in explicit parameterized quantum circuit training while fully exploiting the unique quantum inductive bias. For a time horizon $T$ and $K$ actions, our theoretical analysis reveals a significantly improved parameter scaling of $\Omega((TK)^3)$ for QNTK-UCB, a substantial reduction compared to $\Omega((TK)^8)$ required by classical NeuralUCB algorithms for similar regret guarantees. Empirical evaluations on non-linear synthetic benchmarks and quantum-native variational quantum eigensolver tasks demonstrate QNTK-UCB's superior sample efficiency in low-data regimes. This work highlights how the inherent properties of QNTK provide implicit regularization and a sharper spectral decay, paving the way for achieving ``quantum advantage'' in online learning.