Quantum annealing for industry applications: introduction and review.

Quantum annealing (QA) is a heuristic quantum optimization algorithm that can be used to solve combinatorial optimization problems. In recent years, advances in quantum technologies have enabled the development of small- and intermediate-scale quantum processors that implement the QA algorithm for programmable use. Specifically, QA processors produced by D-Wave systems have been studied and tested extensively in both research and industrial settings across different disciplines.