Estimating the ground-state energy of Hamiltonians is a fundamental task for which it is believed that quantum computers can be helpful. Several approaches have been proposed toward this goal, including algorithms based on quantum phase estimation and hybrid quantum-classical optimizers involving parameterized quantum circuits, the latter falling under the umbrella of the variational quantum eigensolver. Here, we analyze the performance of quantum Boltzmann machines for this task, which is a less explored ansatz based on parameterized thermal states and which is not known to suffer from the barren-plateau problem. We delineate a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm for this task and rigorously prove that it converges to an $\varepsilon$-approximate stationary point of the energy function optimized over parameter space, while using a number of parameterized-thermal-state samples that is polynomial in $\varepsilon^{-1}$, the number of parameters, and the norm of the Hamiltonian being optimized. Our algorithm estimates the gradient of the energy function efficiently by means of a novel quantum circuit construction that combines classical sampling, Hamiltonian simulation, and the Hadamard test, thus overcoming a key obstacle to quantum Boltzmann machine learning that has been left open since [Amin et al., Phys. Rev. X 8, 021050 (2018)]. Additionally supporting our main claims are calculations of the gradient and Hessian of the energy function, as well as an upper bound on the matrix elements of the latter that is used in the convergence analysis.

Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) demonstrate remarkable performance across a wide range of domains, with increasing emphasis on enhancing their zero-shot generalization capabilities for unseen tasks across various modalities. Instruction tuning has emerged as an effective strategy for achieving zero-shot generalization by finetuning pretrained models on diverse multimodal tasks. As the scale of MLLMs continues to grow, parameter-efficient finetuning becomes increasingly critical. However, most existing parameter-efficient approaches focus only on single modalities and often overlook the multimodal characteristics during finetuning. In this work, we introduce a novel Multimodal Prompt Tuning (M$^2$PT) approach for efficient instruction tuning of MLLMs. M$^2$PT effectively integrates visual and textual prompts into the vision encoder and language processor respectively during finetuning, facilitating the extraction and alignment of features across modalities. Empirical results on various multimodal evaluation datasets demonstrate the superior performance of our approach compared to several state-of-the-art baselines. A comprehensive set of ablation studies validates the effectiveness of our prompt design and the efficiency of our approach.

We introduce a novel Dynamic Graph Neural Network (DGNN) architecture for solving conditional $m$-steps ahead forecasting problems in temporal financial networks. The proposed DGNN is validated on simulated data from a temporal financial network model capturing stylized features of Interest Rate Swaps (IRSs) transaction networks, where financial entities trade swap contracts dynamically and the network topology evolves conditionally on a reference rate. The proposed model is able to produce accurate conditional forecasts of net variation margins up to a $21$-day horizon by leveraging conditional information under pre-determined stress test scenarios. Our work shows that the network dynamics can be successfully incorporated into stress-testing practices, thus providing regulators and policymakers with a crucial tool for systemic risk monitoring.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that the thousands of North Korean soldiers expected to reinforce Russian troops on the front line in Ukraine are pushing the almost three-year war beyond the borders of the warring parties. Western leaders say North Korea has sent some 10,000 soldiers to help Russia's military campaign and warn that its involvement in a European war could also unsettle relations in the Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia. Zelenskyy said he spoke to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and told him that 3,000 North Korean soldiers are already at military bases close to the Ukrainian front line and that he expects that deployment to increase to 12,000.

Alphabet, parent of Google and YouTube, saw a third straight quarter of better-than-anticipated gains as it reported earnings on Tuesday. The tech giant had largely exceeded analyst expectations for the previous two quarters, and Tuesday's results showed growth in both digital advertising and demand for Google Cloud. Shares rose in after-hours training. "The momentum across the company is extraordinary. Our commitment to innovation, as well as our long-term focus and investment in AI, are paying off with consumers and partners benefiting from our AI tools," said the CEO, Sundar Pichai. Analysts expected 12% year-on-year revenue growth, to 86.23bn, and earnings per share of 1.85.

A growing leak on the International Space Station has sparked fears that astronauts on board may need to evacuate, including the two stranded by Boeing's Starliner. All seven astronauts have been forced into the US side of the orbiting laboratory due to 50 'areas of concern' and four cracks in a Russian-made module. If the leaks become severe, the space station could rapidly lose oxygen and pressure. The moment Houston sounds the alarm of a threat, astronauts would have to race to shut the hatch of the leaking section and head to'lifeboats' docked on the ship. A spaceflight expert told DailyMail.com

Media figures and Democrats warned women will face dire consequences if former President Trump is re-elected. Ohio senator and Republican candidate for vice president JD Vance took aim at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's football IQ after the Democratic vice presidential nominee posted a confusing tweet during a livestream of himself playing Madden. "They parade Tim Walz around as some kind of football genius as a former football coach, and maybe I know more about football than Gov. Tim Walz does," Vance said during a rally in Saginaw, Michigan on Tuesday. The comments come after Walz teamed up with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to livestream a session of the two playing the Madden NFL video game against each other, an event that was reportedly an effort by the campaign to widen its appeal among young male voters. Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz addresses the crowd at a "Native Americans for Harris-Walz" event at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024.

More than two dozen prostitutes line a Queens New York City street soliciting sex. At the exact time Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was live-streaming her "Madden" NFL video game session with vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, on Twitch, her constituents were taking to the streets to protest rampant illegal prostitution and crime in the neighborhood she represents. The progressive "Squad" member was slammed by fellow Democrat politician Hiram Monserrate for playing the video game on the streaming service Sunday afternoon while residents from her district held a rally calling for their community to be cleaned up. "We need advocates not gamers," Monserrate, a former New York state senator who is running for State Assembly, told Fox News Digital. The Queens neighborhood is well known as a "Red Light" district, with some residents comparing the unsanitary and seedy conditions to a "Third World" country.

From holes in robotic arm to cracks in the window, astronauts have been complaining about the state of the International Space Station (ISS) for years. A NASA report this week admitted that there are 50 'areas of concern' and four cracks that could lead to an emergency evacuation from the ISS due to it leaking oxygen. NASA warned that the issues stemmed from one leak which reached its fastest growth rate yet in April of this year. If the crew makes the daring escape it would be the first time in the orbiting lab's 24-year history of housing astronauts. The first reported issues in 2013 when a piece of space debris caused a small hole in one of the orbiting outpost's solar panels.

Today in the newsletter: tech executives play phone tag with Donald Trump, the liability of AI chatbots, and talking through sharing your baby's photos online with your family. Thank you for joining me. The CEOs of the biggest tech companies in the world are looking at the neck-and-neck polls, picking up their phones, and putting their ducks in a row for a potential Donald Trump presidency. The former US president has never shied away from threatening revenge against his perceived enemies, and tech's leaders are heading off retributive regulatory scrutiny. Apple's Tim Cook, famously called "Tim Apple" by Trump during a press conference, phoned the former president to discuss Apple's European legal troubles, Trump said in an interview late last week.