Abstract Optimization problems are critical across various domains, yet existing quantum algorithms, despite their great potential, struggle with scalability and accuracy due to excessive reliance on entanglement. To address these limitations, we propose a variational quantum optimization algorithm (VQOA), which employs an ansatz based solely on quantum superposition, where single-qubit rotation gates function analogously to neurons in classical deep neural networks. This ansatz, which can be regarded as quantum neural networks, significantly reduces circuit complexity, enhances noise robustness, mitigates Barren Plateau issues, and enables efficient partitioning for highly complex, large-scale optimization. Furthermore, we introduce distributed VQOA (DVQOA), which integrates high-performance computing with quantum computing to achieve superior performance. These features enable a significant acceleration of material optimization tasks (e.g., metamaterial design), achieving more than 50 × speedup compared to state-of-the-art optimization algorithms. Beyond material design, DVQOA efficiently solves quantum chemistry problems and N -ary ( N ≥2) optimization problems involving higher-order interactions, outperforming classical deep neural networks. These advantages establish DVQOA as a highly promising and versatile solver for real-world problems, demonstrating the practical benefits of the quantum-classical approach.
Kim et al. (Sat,) studied this question.