Investigating parameters in the multi-angle approximate optimization algorithm

The multi-angle ansatz for QAOA (ma-QAOA) is a modification of the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA), which is used to approximately solve combinatorial optimization problems. This modification can improve the approximation ratio by increasing the number of classical parameters from two per iteration to n+m for MaxCut on a graph. Here, n is the number of vertices of the graph and m is the number of edges. A large proportion of the parameters for ma-QAOA receive a value of zero when solving MaxCut on a collection of eight-vertex, fifty-vertex, and one-hundred vertex graphs, so their associated gates can be removed from the circuit implementation which decreases the circuit depth. In this poster, we investigate the relationship between parameters that receive a value of zero and properties of the associated edges and vertices.This work was supported by DARPA ONISQ program under award W911NF-20-2-0051.