Kadanoff seminar: Quantum annealing and many-body localization. - Alex kamenev, University of Minnesota

I'll talk about our recent attempts to understand quantum (approximate) optimization algorithms (QAOA) and their connection to the many-body localization. It lead us to a new iterative scheme, which takes its inspiration in a cyclic cooling engine (aka kitchen fridge). We tested it on the D-Wave 5000 qubit quantum annealer with promising (and puzzling)  results.