  By using a previously established exact characterization of the ground state
of random potential systems in the thermodynamic limit, we determine the ground
and first excited energy levels of quantum random energy models, discrete and
continuous. We rigorously establish the existence of a universal first order
quantum phase transition, obeyed by both the ground and the first excited
states. The presence of an exponentially vanishing minimal gap at the
transition is general but, quite interestingly, the gap averaged over the
realizations of the random potential is finite. This fact leaves still open the
chance for some effective quantum annealing algorithm, not necessarily based on
a quantum adiabatic scheme.
