Deep quantum neural networks equipped with backpropagation on a superconducting processor

Deep learning and quantum computing have achieved dramatic progresses in recent years. The interplay between these two fast-growing fields gives rise to a new research frontier of quantum machine learning. In this work, we report the first experimental demonstration of training deep quantum neural networks via the backpropagation algorithm with a six-qubit programmable superconducting processor. In particular, we show that three-layer deep quantum neural networks can be trained efficiently to learn two-qubit quantum channels with a mean fidelity up to 96.0% and the ground state energy of molecular hydrogen with an accuracy up to 93.3% compared to the theoretical value. In addition, six-layer deep quantum neural networks can be trained in a similar fashion to achieve a mean fidelity up to 94.8% for learning single-qubit quantum channels. Our experimental results explicitly showcase the advantages of deep quantum neural networks, including quantum analogue of the backpropagation algorithm and less stringent coherence-time requirement for their constituting physical qubits, thus providing a valuable guide for quantum machine learning applications with both near-term and future quantum devices.Comment: 7 pages (main text) + 11 pages (Supplementary Information), 10 figure

Beating the break-even point with a discrete-variable-encoded logical qubit

Quantum error correction (QEC) aims to protect logical qubits from noises by utilizing the redundancy of a large Hilbert space, where an error, once it occurs, can be detected and corrected in real time. In most QEC codes, a logical qubit is encoded in some discrete variables, e.g., photon numbers. Such encoding schemes make the codewords orthogonal, so that the encoded quantum information can be unambiguously extracted after processing. Based on such discrete-variable encodings, repetitive QEC demonstrations have been reported on various platforms, but there the lifetime of the encoded logical qubit is still shorter than that of the best available physical qubit in the entire system, which represents a break-even point that needs to be surpassed for any QEC code to be of practical use. Here we demonstrate a QEC procedure with a logical qubit encoded in photon-number states of a microwave cavity, dispersively coupled to an ancilla superconducting qubit. By applying a pulse featuring a tailored frequency comb to the ancilla, we can repetitively extract the error syndrome with high fidelity and perform error correction with feedback control accordingly, thereby exceeding the break-even point by about 16% lifetime enhancement. Our work illustrates the potential of the hardware-efficient discrete-variable QEC codes towards a reliable quantum information processor.Comment: Main text: 8 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; Supplement: 12 pages, 8 figures, 2 table

Unpack the relational and behavioral outcomes of internal CSR: Highlighting dialogic communication and managerial facilitation

•Internal CSR affects the sub-types of employee-organization relationships differently.•Organization-public dialogic communication about CSR positively affects communal relationship.•Management behaviors that facilitate employee CSR involvement positively affect exchange relationship.•Communal relationship will increase employee’s positive megaphoning and decrease their negative megaphoning behaviors.•Exchange relationship will increase both positive and negative megaphoning behaviors for employees. This study examines how corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication and management contributes to internal public relationship building and employees’ megaphoning behaviors. Specifically, it investigates how organization-public dialogic communication (OPDC) about CSR and organizational leaders’ facilitation behaviors for employees’ CSR engagement influence employees’ perceptions of two distinct types of organization-public relationships: communal and exchange relationships. Structural equation modeling results of 660 online survey responses suggest that OPDC has a positive association with communal relationships and negative association with exchange relationships. Facilitation behavior positively contributes to exchange relationships. Both communal and exchange relationships are positively associated with employees’ positive megaphoning. Yet, negative megaphoning is negatively linked with communal relationships and positively linked with exchange relationships. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on internal CSR communication and management. More importantly, it uncovers the nuanced effects of CSR on employee-organization communal and exchange relationship building

The interplay between post-crisis response strategy and pre-crisis corporate associations in the context of CSR crises

•A typology of corporate association-based crisis response strategies is proposed.•The effects of two association-based (CA vs. CSR) response strategies are compared.•Prior associations and crisis response strategies jointly impact consumer outcomes.•Overall, a CSR-related response is more effective in dealing with a CSR crisis. How should a company respond to a crisis that is related to its social responsibility by capitalizing on consumers’ existing corporate associations? To answer this question, the present study focuses on two primary types of corporate associations, corporate ability (CA) associations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) associations, and proposes two different types of response strategies that are association-based: CA strategy and CSR strategy. Drawing on the framework of CA-CSR, Expectancy Violation Theory, and information processing literature, this study examines whether and how these crisis response strategies interact with consumers’ pre-crisis associations and collectively influence consumer reactions in times of CSR crises. Results of two experiments render support for the predicted interaction effect. Furthermore, the results show that crisis response diagnosticity and novelty, as perceived by consumers with varied pre-crisis associations, serve as the underlying process explanations that drive the observed interaction effect. Theoretical contributions and practical implications of these results to crisis communication are also discussed

Building consumer communal relationships through cause‐related marketing: From the perspective of persuasion knowledge

This study investigates the value of cause‐related marketing (CRM) campaigns in consumer relationship management. Specifically, following the tenets of persuasion knowledge model and equity theory, this study proposes that the effect of consumers' inferences of companies' manipulative intent (IMI) in CRM campaigns on consumer–brand communal relationships is contingent on consumers' knowledge about the degree to which the companies and the social cause benefit from the campaigns. A panel of 506 U.S. consumers was recruited to complete an online survey. Results reveal that when consumers believe that nonprofit partners benefit more from a CRM campaign than the company does, IMI positively affects consumer–brand communal relationships. However, when consumers perceive greater corporate benefits than social benefits, IMI negatively affects consumer–brand communal relationships. These results present a convincing case that in order to cultivate a long‐term communal relationship with consumers, companies should promote their CRM programs by highlighting these programs' social benefits and impact. If such programs are considered to yield more corporate benefits, companies should make efforts to mitigate the negative impact that IMI may bring to consumer–brand communal relationships. This study also advances our existing understanding of communal relationships and CRM by unveiling how CRM‐related factors collectively influence corporate building of a long‐term communal relationship with consumers. We hope to inspire future researchers who are interested in bridging CRM and communal relationship literature to inform effective CRM practice