p=1 QAOA ansatz, 3-qubit SK-like instance (referencing arXiv:2607.08708)

This card demonstrates a small QAOA (Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm) ansatz primitive, referencing arXiv:2607.08708 ("Absence of quantum advantage for approximate spin glass optimization") by Sels and Morone. Per its abstract, that paper performs a semiclassical, large-spin S analysis of QAOA on the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick (SK) model using the truncated Wigner approximation. Fixing the QAOA angles to previously determined optimal S=1/2 values, the authors report a non-monotonic dependence of the final energy on the spin: the abstract states that at small S the semiclassics is dominated by noise while the large-S limit is constrained by the exponential growth of initial fluctuations, that for depth-p QAOA the optimal balance occurs at S of order p with the final energy converging to the Parisi value like log(p)/p, and that removing the initial noise and re-optimizing yields 1/p convergence.

The circuit here is our own small construction of the QAOA ansatz structure: a single-layer (p=1) ansatz on three qubits for an all-to-all (SK-like) Ising cost with unit couplings. It prepares a uniform superposition with Hadamards, applies cost-phase rotations on each pair via CX-RZ-CX, then a transverse-field RX mixer on every qubit. The rotation angles are illustrative placeholder values chosen only for demonstration; they are NOT the optimal angles studied in the paper and encode no claim about them.

This is a deterministic state-vector simulator run executed on Provenova, not a reproduction of the paper's SK-model analysis or any energy value it reports. It is inspired by the paper's subject (the QAOA ansatz) and does not imply endorsement by the authors.