Irreversibility Enhances Quantum-Enhanced Markov-Chain Monte Carlo (opens in new tab)

Detailed balance underlies conventional Markov-chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms. Yet in classical systems, breaking detailed balance generates irreversible probability currents and can accelerate sampling. Whether irreversibility can similarly enhance quantum MCMC remains an intriguing question. Here we show that irreversibility provides a new route to improving the recent quantum-enhanced MCMC (QEMC), which combines quantum proposals with ...