# Quantum Annealing for Clustering

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1408.2035 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1408.2035/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 9 Aug 2014.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [QUBO Decision Tree: Annealing Machine Extends Decision Tree Splitting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.09772/) (2023)
- [Quantum Annealing for Machine Learning: Applications in Feature Selection, Instance Selection, and Clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.15063/) (2025)
- [QUBO-inspired Molecular Fingerprint for Chemical Property Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.10179/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper studies quantum annealing (QA) for clustering, which can be seen as an extension of simulated annealing (SA). We derive a QA algorithm for clustering and propose an annealing schedule, which is crucial in practice. Experiments show the proposed QA algorithm finds better clustering assignments than SA. Furthermore, QA is as easy as SA to implement.