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We achieve accuracy comparable to state-of-the-art optimization techniques in all the above cases with a lower number of circuit evaluations. Our empirical results indicate that one can use NES as a hybrid tool in tandem with other gradient-based methods for optimization of deep quantum circuits in regions with vanishing gradients.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1088\/2632-2153\/abf3ac","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,3,30]],"date-time":"2021-03-30T22:33:01Z","timestamp":1617143581000},"page":"045012","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1088\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":32,"title":["Natural evolutionary strategies for variational quantum computation"],"prefix":"10.1088","volume":"2","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8081-2310","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Abhinav","family":"Anand","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8850-7708","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Matthias","family":"Degroote","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8277-4434","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Al\u00e1n","family":"Aspuru-Guzik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"266","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"mlstabf3acbib1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"505","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-019-1666-5","article-title":"Quantum supremacy using a programmable superconducting processor","volume":"574","author":"Arute","year":"2019","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"mlstabf3acbib2","article-title":"Demonstration of quantum volume 64 on a superconducting quantum computing system","author":"Jurcevic","year":"2020"},{"key":"mlstabf3acbib3","article-title":"Demonstration of the QCCD trapped-ion quantum computer architecture","author":"Pino","year":"2020"},{"key":"mlstabf3acbib4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"79","DOI":"10.22331\/q-2018-08-06-79","article-title":"Quantum computing in the NISQ era and beyond","volume":"2","author":"Preskill","year":"2018","journal-title":"Quantum"},{"key":"mlstabf3acbib5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1088\/1367-2630\/18\/2\/023023","article-title":"The theory of variational hybrid quantum-classical algorithms","volume":"18","author":"McClean","year":"2016","journal-title":"New J. 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