---
res:
  bibo_abstract:
  - The quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) is a variational quantum
    algorithm, where a quantum computer implements a variational ansatz consisting
    of p layers of alternating unitary operators and a classical computer is used
    to optimize the variational parameters. For a random initialization, the optimization
    typically leads to local minima with poor performance, motivating the search for
    initialization strategies of QAOA variational parameters. Although numerous heuristic
    initializations exist, an analytical understanding and performance guarantees
    for large p remain evasive.We introduce a greedy initialization of QAOA which
    guarantees improving performance with an increasing number of layers. Our main
    result is an analytic construction of 2p + 1 transition states—saddle points with
    a unique negative curvature direction—for QAOA with p + 1 layers that use the
    local minimum of QAOA with p layers. Transition states connect to new local minima,
    which are guaranteed to lower the energy compared to the minimum found for p layers.
    We use the GREEDY procedure to navigate the exponentially increasing with p number
    of local minima resulting from the recursive application of our analytic construction.
    The performance of the GREEDY procedure matches available initialization strategies
    while providing a guarantee for the minimal energy to decrease with an increasing
    number of layers p. @eng
  bibo_authorlist:
  - foaf_Person:
      foaf_givenName: Stefan
      foaf_name: Sack, Stefan
      foaf_surname: Sack
      foaf_workInfoHomepage: http://www.librecat.org/personId=dd622248-f6e0-11ea-865d-ce382a1c81a5
    orcid: 0000-0001-5400-8508
  - foaf_Person:
      foaf_givenName: Raimel A
      foaf_name: Medina Ramos, Raimel A
      foaf_surname: Medina Ramos
      foaf_workInfoHomepage: http://www.librecat.org/personId=CE680B90-D85A-11E9-B684-C920E6697425
    orcid: 0000-0002-5383-2869
  - foaf_Person:
      foaf_givenName: Richard
      foaf_name: Kueng, Richard
      foaf_surname: Kueng
  - foaf_Person:
      foaf_givenName: Maksym
      foaf_name: Serbyn, Maksym
      foaf_surname: Serbyn
      foaf_workInfoHomepage: http://www.librecat.org/personId=47809E7E-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
    orcid: 0000-0002-2399-5827
  bibo_doi: 10.1103/physreva.107.062404
  bibo_issue: '6'
  bibo_volume: 107
  dct_date: 2023^xs_gYear
  dct_identifier:
  - UT:001016927100012
  dct_isPartOf:
  - http://id.crossref.org/issn/2469-9926
  - http://id.crossref.org/issn/2469-9934
  dct_language: eng
  dct_publisher: American Physical Society@
  dct_title: Recursive greedy initialization of the quantum approximate optimization
    algorithm with guaranteed improvement@
...