The optimization task was defined as finding a superior initial state for structural relaxation, denoted by bit string 𝐪 , which will lead to the minimum total energy after the relaxation calculations, using as few cycles as possible. Note that in the initial configurations of 24Cx × 8 x , multiple configurations can be considered to have the same symmetry. Thus, from a symmetry consideration, in a case where the configuration suggested by 𝐪 * in the third step had already been