Glossary

Variational Quantum Eigensolver

by Frank Zickert

The Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE) is a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm used to find the lowest energy (ground state) of a quantum system. It prepares a parameterized quantum state on a quantum computer, measures its energy, and uses a classical optimizer to adjust the parameters to minimize that energy. This approach reduces quantum hardware requirements by offloading the optimization loop to classical computation.