Deep quantum learning with long short-term memory for geodetic time
series prediction: Application to length of day prediction
Abstract
Deep quantum learning is a relatively new concept in which quantum
computing algorithms and/or devices are used to enhance the performance
of deep learning approaches. Quantum technology originally requires
quantum devices, also called quantum computers, which are specially
designed computers with hardware parts built upon the concepts of
quantum mechanics. Quantum devices are not widely available, but quantum
algorithms are increasingly gaining more attention. These algorithms use
theoretical considerations of quantum mechanics, including concepts of
superposition, entanglement, and interference. Quantum algorithms have
shown tremendous speedup and efficiency over traditional methods in many
fundamental tasks such as prime factorization and list search. As a
result of the power of quantum algorithms, they are used in deep
learning approaches to increase their performance. The combined
approach, which is normally called deep quantum learning, has shown
competitive accuracy with respect to standard deep learning approaches.
In order to take advantage of quantum algorithms for sequential data
modelling, one needs to combine them with a suitable machine learning
model, such as Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural networks. In this
study, we introduce quantum LSTM neural networks to time series
prediction tasks in geodetic science. We present a special architecture
consisting of three layers of LSTM, each having a quantum circuit with
two qubits, and a final dense layer with a linear activation function.
As an application, we focus on the ultra-short-term prediction of length
of day based on geodetic and geophysical time series. We show that these
networks can predict length of day better than the state-of-the-art
statistical and machine learning methods, especially in the final days
of the ten-day prediction window. In a test reflecting conditions of the
EOP Prediction Comparison Campaign, the prediction accuracy was 0.024,
0.045, and 0.086 ms for the one-, five-, and ten-day-ahead predictions.