  Krentel [J. Comput. System. Sci., 36, pp.490--509] presented a framework for
an NP optimization problem that searches an optimal value among
exponentially-many outcomes of polynomial-time computations. This paper expands
his framework to a quantum optimization problem using polynomial-time quantum
computations and introduces the notion of an ``universal'' quantum optimization
problem similar to a classical ``complete'' optimization problem. We exhibit a
canonical quantum optimization problem that is universal for the class of
polynomial-time quantum optimization problems. We show in a certain relativized
world that all quantum optimization problems cannot be approximated closely by
quantum polynomial-time computations. We also study the complexity of quantum
optimization problems in connection to well-known complexity classes.
