We identify a key difference between quantum search by discrete- and continuous-time quantum walks: a discrete-time walk typically performs one walk step per oracle query, whereas a continuous-time walk can effectively perform multiple walk steps per query while only counting query time. As a result, we show that continuous-time quantum walks can outperform their discrete-time counterparts, even though both achieve quadratic speedups over their corresponding classical random walks. To provide greater equity, we allow the discrete-time quantum walk to also take multiple walk steps per oracle query while only counting queries. Then it matches the continuous-time algorithm's runtime, but such that it is a cubic speedup over its corresponding classical random walk. This yields the first example of a greater-than-quadratic speedup for quantum search over its corresponding classical random walk.
We present a detailed circuit implementation of Szegedy's quantization of the Metropolis-Hastings walk. This quantum walk is usually defined with respect to an oracle. We find that a direct implementation of this oracle requires costly arithmetic operations and thus reformulate the quantum walk in a way that circumvents the implementation of that specific oracle and which closely follows the classical Metropolis-Hastings walk. We also present heuristic quantum algorithms that use the quantum walk in the context of discrete optimization problems and numerically study their performances. Our num…
Our problem is to evaluate a multi-valued Boolean function $F$ through oracle calls. If $F$ is one-to-one and the size of its domain and range is the same, then our problem can be formulated as follows: Given an oracle $f(a,x): \{0,1\}^n\times\{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ and a fixed (but hidden) value $a_0$, we wish to obtain the value of $a_0$ by querying the oracle $f(a_0,x)$. Our goal is to minimize the number of such oracle calls (the query complexity) using a quantum mechanism. Two popular oracles are the EQ-oracle defined as $f(a,x)=1$ iff $x=a$ and the IP-oracle defined as $f(a,x)= a\cdot x \…
Szegedy's quantum walk is a quantization of a classical random walk or Markov chain, where the walk occurs on the edges of the bipartite double cover of the original graph. To search, one can simply quantize a Markov chain with absorbing vertices. Recently, Santos proposed two alternative search algorithms that instead utilize the sign-flip oracle in Grover's algorithm rather than absorbing vertices. In this paper, we show that these two algorithms are exactly equivalent to two algorithms involving coined quantum walks, which are walks on the vertices of the original graph with an internal deg…
Quantum walks, being the quantum analogue of classical random walks, are expected to provide a fruitful source of quantum algorithms. A few such algorithms have already been developed, including the `glued trees' algorithm, which provides an exponential speedup over classical methods, relative to a particular quantum oracle. Here, we discuss the possibility of a quantum walk algorithm yielding such an exponential speedup over possible classical algorithms, without the use of an oracle. We provide examples of some highly symmetric graphs on which efficient quantum circuits implementing quantum …
We study the query complexity of quantum learning problems in which the oracles form a group $G$ of unitary matrices. In the simplest case, one wishes to identify the oracle, and we find a description of the optimal success probability of a $t$-query quantum algorithm in terms of group characters. As an application, we show that $Ω(n)$ queries are required to identify a random permutation in $S_n$. More generally, suppose $H$ is a fixed subgroup of the group $G$ of oracles, and given access to an oracle sampled uniformly from $G$, we want to learn which coset of $H$ the oracle belongs to. We c…
We study the problem of identifying an n-bit string using a single quantum query to an oracle that computes the Hamming distance between the query and hidden strings. The standard action of the oracle on a response register of dimension r is by powers of the cycle (1...r), all of which, of course, commute. We introduce a new model for the action of an oracle--by general permutations in S_r--and explore how the success probability depends on r and on the map from Hamming distances to permutations. In particular, we prove that when r = 2, for even n the success probability is 1 with the right ch…
Query complexity is a common tool for comparing quantum and classical computation, and it has produced many examples of how quantum algorithms differ from classical ones. Here we investigate in detail the role that oracles play for the advantage of quantum algorithms. We do so by using a simulation framework, Quantum Simulation Logic (QSL), to construct oracles and algorithms that solve some problems with the same success probability and number of queries as the quantum algorithms. The framework can be simulated using only classical resources at a constant overhead as compared to the quantum r…
Given a unitary representation of a finite group on a finite-dimensional Hilbert space, we show how to find a state whose translates under the group are distinguishable with the highest probability. We apply this to several quantum oracle problems, including the GROUP MULTIPLICATION problem, in which the product of an ordered $n$-tuple of group elements is to be determined by querying elements of the tuple. For any finite group $G$, we give an algorithm to find the product of two elements of $G$ with a single quantum query with probability $2/|G|$. This generalizes Deutsch's Algorithm from $Z_…
We investigate the connection between interference and computational power within the operationally defined framework of generalised probabilistic theories. To compare the computational abilities of different theories within this framework we show that any theory satisfying three natural physical principles possess a well-defined oracle model. Indeed, we prove a subroutine theorem for oracles in such theories which is a necessary condition for the oracle to be well-defined. The three principles are: causality (roughly, no signalling from the future), purification (each mixed state arises as th…
The set equality problem is to tell whether two sets $A$ and $B$ are equal or disjoint under the promise that one of these is the case. This problem is related to the Graph Isomorphism problem. It was an open problem to find any $ω(1)$ query lower bound when sets $A$ and $B$ are given by quantum oracles. We will show that any error-bounded quantum query algorithm that solves the set equality problem must evaluate oracles $Ω(\sqrt[5]{\frac{n}{\ln n}})$ times, where $n=|A|=|B|$.
Continuous-time quantum walks and adiabatic quantum evolution are two general techniques for quantum computing, both of which are described by Hamiltonians that govern their evolutions by Schrödinger's equation. In the former, the Hamiltonian is fixed, while in the latter, the Hamiltonian varies with time. As a result, their formulations of Grover's algorithm evolve differently through Hilbert space. We show that this difference is fundamental; they cannot be made to evolve along each other's path without introducing structure more powerful than the standard oracle for unstructured search. For…
A randomly walking quantum particle searches in Grover's $Θ(\sqrt{N})$ iterations for a marked vertex on the complete graph of $N$ vertices by repeatedly querying an oracle that flips the amplitude at the marked vertex, scattering by a "coin" flip, and hopping. Physically, however, potential energy barriers can hinder the hop and cause the search to fail, even when the amplitude of not hopping decreases with $N$. We correct for these errors by interpreting the quantum walk search as an amplitude amplification algorithm and modifying the phases applied by the coin flip and oracle such that the …
We show how a quantum walk can be used to find a marked edge or a marked complete subgraph of a complete graph. We employ a version of a quantum walk, the scattering walk, which lends itself to experimental implementation. The edges are marked by adding elements to them that impart a specific phase shift to the particle as it enters or leaves the edge. If the complete graph has N vertices and the subgraph has K vertices, the particle becomes localized on the subgraph in O(N/K) steps. This leads to a quantum search that is quadratically faster than a corresponding classical search. We show how …
Grover's quantum search algorithm provides a quadratic quantum advantage over classical algorithms across a broad class of unstructured search problems. The original protocol is probabilistic, returning the desired result with significant probability on each query, but in general, requiring several iterations of the algorithm. We present a modified version to return the correct result with certainty without having user control over the quantum search oracle. Our deterministic, two-parameter "D2p" protocol utilizes generalized phase rotations replacing the phase inversions after a standard orac…
Bernstein-Vazirani algorithm (the one-query algorithm) can identify a completely specified linear Boolean function using a single query to the oracle with certainty. The first aim of the paper is to show that if the provided Boolean function is affine, then one more query to the oracle (the two-query algorithm) is required to identify the affinity of the function with certainty. The second aim of the paper is to show that if the provided Boolean function is incompletely defined, then the one-query and the two-query algorithms can be used as bounded-error quantum polynomial algorithms to identi…
The oracle identification problem (OIP) was introduced by Ambainis et al. \cite{AIKMRY04}. It is given as a set $S$ of $M$ oracles and a blackbox oracle $f$. Our task is to figure out which oracle in $S$ is equal to the blackbox $f$ by making queries to $f$. OIP includes several problems such as the Grover Search as special cases. In this paper, we improve the algorithms in \cite{AIKMRY04} by providing a mostly optimal upper bound of query complexity for this problem: ($i$) For any oracle set $S$ such that $|S| \le 2^{N^d}$ ($d < 1$), we design an algorithm whose query complexity is $O(\sqrt{N…
By considering an unreliable oracle in a query-based model of quantum learning, we present a tradeoff relation between the oracle's reliability and the reusability of quantum state of the input data. The tradeoff relation manifests as the fundamental upper bound on the reusability. This limitation on the reusability would increase the quantum access to the input data, i.e., the usage of quantum random access memory (qRAM), repeating the preparation of a superposition of `big' input data on the query failure. However, it is found that, a learner can obtain a correct answer even from an unreliab…
We define and study a new type of quantum oracle, the quantum conditional oracle, which provides oracle access to the conditional probabilities associated with an underlying distribution. Amongst other properties, we (a) obtain speed-ups over the best known quantum algorithms for identity testing, equivalence testing and uniformity testing of probability distributions; (b) study the power of these oracles for testing properties of boolean functions, and obtain an algorithm for checking whether an $n$-input $m$-output boolean function is balanced or $ε$-far from balanced; and (c) give a sub-lin…
This paper positively solves the quantum subroutine problem for fully quantum oracles. The quantum subroutine problem asks whether a quantum computer with an efficiently computable oracle can be efficiently simulated by a non-oracle quantum computer. We extends the earlier results obtained by Bennett, Bernstein, Brassard, and Vazirani, and by Aharonov, Kitaev, and Nisan to the case where the oracle evaluates a unitary operator and the computer is allowed to be in the superposition of a query state and a non-query state during computation. We also prove the robustness of {\bf EQP}, {\bf BQP}, a…
We propose a new definition of quantum Las Vegas query complexity. We show that it is exactly equal to the quantum adversary bound. This is achieved by a new and very simple way of transforming a feasible solution to the adversary optimisation problem into a quantum query algorithm. This allows us to generalise the bound to include unidirectional access, multiple input oracles, and input oracles that are not unitary. As an application, we demonstrate a separation between unidirectional and bidirectional access to an input oracle for a rather natural unitary permutation inversion problem.
In this note we study the power of so called query-limited computers. We compare the strength of a classical computer that is allowed to ask two questions to an NP-oracle with the strength of a quantum computer that is allowed only one such query. It is shown that any decision problem that requires two parallel (non-adaptive) SAT-queries on a classical computer can also be solved exactly by a quantum computer using only one SAT-oracle call, where both computations have polynomial time-complexity. Such a simulation is generally believed to be impossible for a one-query classical computer. The r…
The task of finding an entry in an unsorted list of $N$ elements famously takes $O(N)$ queries to an oracle for a classical computer and $O(\sqrt{N})$ queries for a quantum computer using Grover's algorithm. Reformulated as a spatial search problem, this corresponds to searching the complete graph, or all-to-all network, for a marked vertex by querying an oracle. In this tutorial, we derive how discrete- and continuous-time (classical) random walks and quantum walks solve this problem in a thorough and pedagogical manner, providing an accessible introduction to how random and quantum walks can…
The oracle identification problem (OIP) is, given a set $S$ of $M$ Boolean oracles out of $2^{N}$ ones, to determine which oracle in $S$ is the current black-box oracle. We can exploit the information that candidates of the current oracle is restricted to $S$. The OIP contains several concrete problems such as the original Grover search and the Bernstein-Vazirani problem. Our interest is in the quantum query complexity, for which we present several upper and lower bounds. They are quite general and mostly optimal: (i) The query complexity of OIP is $O(\sqrt{N\log M \log N}\log\log M)$ for {\it…
We address the case, when querying to the oracle in Grover's algorithm is exposed to noise including phase distortions. The oracle-box wires can be altered by an opposite party that tries to prevent correct receiving data from the oracle. This situation reflects an experienced truth that any access to prophetic knowledge cannot be common and direct. To study the problem, we introduce a simple model of collective phase distortions on the base of phase damping channel. In the model used, the success probability is not altered via the oracle-box wires {\it per se}. Phase distortions of the consid…
When classically searching a database, having additional correct answers makes the search easier. For a discrete-time quantum walk searching a graph for a marked vertex, however, additional marked vertices can make the search harder by causing the system to approximately begin in a stationary state, so the system fails to evolve. In this paper, we completely characterize the stationary states, or 1-eigenvectors, of the quantum walk search operator for general graphs and configurations of marked vertices by decomposing their amplitudes into uniform and flip states. This infinitely expands the n…
We investigate a quantum spatial search problem on fractal lattices, such as Sierpinski carpets and Menger sponges. In earlier numerical studies of the Sierpinski gasket, the Sierpinski tetrahedron, and the Sierpinski carpet, conjectures have been proposed for the scaling of a quantum spatial search problem finding a specific target, which is given in terms of the characteristic quantities of a fractal geometry. We find that our simulation results for extended Sierpinski carpets and Menger sponges support the conjecture for the ${\it optimal}$ number of the oracle calls, where the exponent is …
The power of oracle access: Optimal sample and query complexity of the abelian state hidden subgroup problem
Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik（马克斯·普朗克量子光学研究所）；Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)（慕尼黑量子科学与技术中心）；Dahlem Center for Complex Quantum Systems, Freie Universität Berlin（柏林自由大学达勒姆复杂量子系统中心）
We analyse the eigenvalue and eigenvector structure of the flip-flop quantum walk on regular graphs, explicitly demonstrating how it is quadratically faster than the classical random walk. Then we use it in a controlled spatial search algorithm with multiple target states, and determine the oracle complexity as a function of the spectral gap and the number of target states. The oracle complexity is optimal as a function of the graph size and the number of target states, when the spectral gap of the adjacency matrix is $Θ(1)$. It is also optimal for spatial search on $D>4$ dimensional hypercubi…
Suppose we have k matrices of size n by n. We are given an oracle that knows all the entries of k matrices, that is, we can query the oracle an (i,j) entry of the l-th matrix. The goal is to test if each pair of k matrices commute with each other or not with as few queries to the oracle as possible. In order to solve this problem, we use a theorem of Mario Szegedy (quant-ph/0401053) that relates a hitting time of a classical random walk to that of a quantum walk. We also take a look at another method of quantum walk by Andris Ambainis (quant-ph/0311001). We apply both walks into triangle findi…
Grover's search algorithm was originally proposed for circuit-based quantum computers. A crucial part of it is to query an oracle -- a black-box unitary operation. Generation of this oracle is formally beyond the original algorithm design. Here, we propose a realization of Grover's oracle for a large class of searching problems using a quantum annealing step. The time of this step grows only logarithmically with the size of the database. This suggests an efficient path to application of Grover's algorithm to practically important problems, such as finding the ground state of a Hamiltonian with…
Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院软件研究所）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；TraverseQuantum Co., Ltd.（TraverseQuantum有限公司）；Tsinghua University（清华大学）
We present several families of graphs that allow both efficient quantum walk implementations and efficient quantum walk based search algorithms. For these graphs, we construct quantum circuits that explicitly implement the full quantum walk search algorithm, without reference to a `black box' oracle. These circuits provide a practically implementable method to explore quantum walk based search algorithms with the aim of eventual real-world applications. We also provide a numerical analysis of a quantum walk based search along a twisted toroid family of graphs, which requires O($\sqrt{n}$ log($…
Phanous Research and Innovation Centre（Phanous研究与创 新中心）
In the oracle identification problem we have oracle access to bits of an unknown string $x$ of length $n$, with the promise that it belongs to a known set $C\subseteq\{0,1\}^n$. The goal is to identify $x$ using as few queries to the oracle as possible. We develop a quantum query algorithm for this problem with query complexity $O\left(\sqrt{\frac{n\log M }{\log(n/\log M)+1}}\right)$, where $M$ is the size of $C$. This bound is already derived by Kothari in 2014, for which we provide a more elegant simpler proof.
In this paper, we improve Bruschweiler's algorithm such that only one query is needed for searching the single object z from N=2^n unsorted elements. Our algorithm construct the new oracle query function g(.) satisfying g(x)=0 for all input x, except for one, say x=z, where g(z)=z. To store z, our algorithm extends from one ancillary qubit to n ancillary qubits. We then measure these ancillary qubits to discover z. We further use our ensemble search algorithm to attack classical public key cryptosystems. Given the ciphertext C=Ek(m, r) which is generated by the encryption function Ek(), a publ…
We show that almost all n-bit Boolean functions have bounded-error quantum query complexity at least n/2, up to lower-order terms. This improves over an earlier n/4 lower bound of Ambainis, and shows that van Dam's oracle interrogation is essentially optimal for almost all functions. Our proof uses the fact that the acceptance probability of a T-query algorithm can be written as the sum of squares of degree-T polynomials.
In the first part of the paper, we show a generic compiler that transforms any oracle algorithm that can query multiple oracles adaptively, i.e., can decide on which oracle to query at what point dependent on previous oracle responses, into a static algorithm that fixes these choices at the beginning of the execution. Compared to naive ways of achieving this, our compiler controls the blow-up in query complexity for each oracle individually, and causes a very mild blow-up only. In the second part of the paper, we use our compiler to show the security of the very efficient hash-based split-key …
When searching for a marked vertex in a graph, Szegedy's usual search operator is defined by using the transition probability matrix of the random walk with absorbing barriers at the marked vertices. Instead of using this operator, we analyze searching with Szegedy's quantum walk by using reflections around the marked vertices, that is, the standard form of quantum query. We show we can boost the probability to 1 of finding a marked vertex in the complete graph. Numerical simulations suggests that the success probability can be improved for other graphs, like the two-dimensional grid. We also …
Quantum random walks on graphs have been shown to display many interesting properties, including exponentially fast hitting times when compared with their classical counterparts. However, it is still unclear how to use these novel properties to gain an algorithmic speed-up over classical algorithms. In this paper, we present a quantum search algorithm based on the quantum random walk architecture that provides such a speed-up. It will be shown that this algorithm performs an oracle search on a database of $N$ items with $O(\sqrt{N})$ calls to the oracle, yielding a speed-up similar to other qu…
The question of whether quantum spatial search in two dimensions can be made optimal has long been an open problem. We report progress towards its resolution by showing that the oracle complexity for target location can be made optimal, by increasing the number of calls to the walk operator that incorporates the graph structure by a logarithmic factor. Our algorithm does not require amplitude amplification. An important ingredient of our algorithm is the implementation of multi-step quantum walks by graph powering, using a coin space of walk-length dependent dimension, which may be of independ…
We consider a generalization of the standard oracle model in which the oracle acts on the target with a permutation selected according to internal random coins. We describe several problems that are impossible to solve classically but can be solved by a quantum algorithm using a single query; we show that such infinity-vs-one separations between classical and quantum query complexities can be constructed from much weaker separations. We also give conditions to determine when oracle problems---either in the standard model, or in any of the generalizations we consider---cannot be solved with suc…
In his seminal work on recording quantum queries [Crypto 2019], Zhandry studied interactions between quantum query algorithms and the quantum oracle corresponding to random functions. Zhandry presented a framework for interpreting various states in the quantum space of the oracle as databases of the knowledge acquired by the algorithm and used that interpretation to provide security proofs in post-quantum cryptography. In this paper, we introduce a similar interpretation for the case when the oracle corresponds to random permutations instead of random functions. Because both random functions a…
We revisit the so-called compressed oracle technique, introduced by Zhandry for analyzing quantum algorithms in the quantum random oracle model (QROM). To start off with, we offer a concise exposition of the technique, which easily extends to the parallel-query QROM, where in each query-round the considered algorithm may make several queries to the QROM in parallel. This variant of the QROM allows for a more fine-grained query-complexity analysis. Our main technical contribution is a framework that simplifies the use of (the parallel-query generalization of) the compressed oracle technique for…
It is a useful fact in classical computer science that many search problems are reducible to decision problems; this has led to decision problems being regarded as the $\textit{de facto}$ computational task to study in complexity theory. In this work, we explore search-to-decision reductions for quantum search problems, wherein a quantum algorithm makes queries to a classical decision oracle to output a desired quantum state. In particular, we focus on search-to-decision reductions for $\mathsf{QMA}$, and show that there exists a quantum polynomial-time algorithm that can generate a witness fo…
