The Quantum Alternating Operator Ansatz (QAOA) and its predecessor, the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm, are one of the most widely used quantum algorithms for solving combinatorial optimization problems. However, as there is yet no rigorous proof of convergence for the QAOA, we provide one in this paper. The proof involves retracing the connection between the Quantum Adiabatic Algorithm and the QAOA, and naturally suggests a refined definition of the `phase separator' and `mixer' keywords.
@article{arxiv.2302.04968,
title = {Elementary Proof of QAOA Convergence},
author = {Lennart Binkowski and Gereon Koßmann and Timo Ziegler and René Schwonnek},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.04968},
year = {2024}
}