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Scalable, self-verifying variational quantum eigensolver using adiabatic warm starts
Bojan Žunkovič, Marco Ballarin, Lewis Wright, Michael Lubasch·February 19, 2026
Quantum Physics
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Abstract
We study an adiabatic variant of the variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) in which VQE is performed iteratively for a sequence of Hamiltonians along an adiabatic path. We derive the conditions under which gradient-based optimization successfully prepares the adiabatic ground states. These conditions show that the barren plateau problem and local optima can be avoided. Additionally, we propose using energy-standard-deviation measurements at runtime to certify eigenstate accuracy and verify convergence to the global optimum.