Chapter 16: Variational Quantum Algorithms

This section is already in the book plan, but it has not been written fully yet. The book owner can press Generate section to write this part with the language model connected to TheoryTrace.

Section plan:

Places QAOA in the broader family of variational quantum algorithms, covering ansatz design, expectation-value estimation, classical optimizers, barren plateaus, gradients, shot noise, and convergence challenges.