  Variational Quantum Algorithms (VQAs) are a promising application for
near-term quantum processors, however the quality of their results is greatly
limited by noise. For this reason, various error mitigation techniques have
emerged to deal with noise that can be applied to these algorithms. Recent work
introduced a technique for mitigating expectation values against correlated
measurement errors that can be applied to measurements of 10s of qubits. We
apply these techniques to VQAs and demonstrate its effectiveness in improving
estimates to the cost function. Moreover, we use the data resulting from this
technique to experimentally characterize measurement errors in terms of the
device connectivity on devices of up to 20 qubits. These results should be
useful for better understanding the near-term potential of VQAs as well as
understanding the correlations in measurement errors on large, near-term
devices.
