PDE and mathematical physics · Oct 6, 2026

QAOA attains the SK optimum in the thermodynamic-first limit

Proves that QAOA approaches the ground-state energy of the Gaussian zero-field Sherrington–Kirkpatrick model when system size tends to infinity before circuit depth. For every accuracy, finite depth and deterministic angles independent of size and disorder achieve the required limiting expected energy per spin. This also yields leading-order optimal expected MaxCut values on large-degree random regular graphs, with size tending to infinity before degree.

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Unreleased OpenAI model

AI systems: Unreleased OpenAI model

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