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 be used to search spatial regions. Some of the results are already known, but many are new. For large $N$, the random walks converge to the same evolution, both taking $N \ln(1/ε)$ time to reach a success probability of $1-ε$. In contrast, the discrete-time quantum walk asymptotically takes $π\sqrt{N}/2\sqrt{2}$ timesteps to reach a success probability of $1/2$, while the continuous-time quantum walk takes $π\sqrt{N}/2$ time to reach a success probability of $1$.
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 simple circuit implementation of the oracle for Grover's quantum search of a real unstructured classical database is proposed. The oracle contains a kind of quantumly accessible classical memory, which stores the database.
Given an item and a list of values of size $N$. It is required to decide if such item exists in the list. Classical computer can search for the item in O(N). The best known quantum algorithm can do the job in $O(\sqrt{N})$. In this paper, a quantum algorithm will be proposed that can search an unstructured list in O(1) to get the YES/NO answer with certainty.
In classical computing, analog approaches have sometimes appeared to be more powerful than they really are. This occurs when resources, particularly precision, are not appropriately taken into account. While the same should also hold for analog quantum computing, precision issues are often neglected from the analysis. In this work we present a classical analog algorithm for unstructured search that can be viewed as analogous to the quantum adiabatic unstructured search algorithm devised by Roland and Cerf [Phys. Rev. A 65, 042308 (2002)]. We show that similarly to its quantum counterpart, the …
Grover's quantum algorithm for an unstructured search problem and the Count algorithm by Brassard et al. are generalized to the case when the initial state is arbitrarily and maximally entangled. This ansatz might be relevant with quantum subroutines, when the computational qubits and the environment are coupled, and in general when the control over the quantum system is partial.
The quantum adiabatic unstructured search algorithm is one of only a handful of quantum adiabatic optimization algorithms to exhibit provable speedups over their classical counterparts. With no fault tolerance theorems to guarantee the resilience of such algorithms against errors, understanding the impact of imperfections on their performance is of both scientific and practical significance. We study the robustness of the algorithm against various types of imperfections: limited control over the interpolating schedule, Hamiltonian misspecification, and interactions with a thermal environment. …
Nonlinear variants of quantum mechanics can solve tasks that are impossible in standard quantum theory, such as perfectly distinguishing nonorthogonal states. Here we derive the optimal protocol for distinguishing two states of a qubit using the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, a model of nonlinear quantum mechanics that arises as an effective description of Bose-Einstein condensates. Using this protocol, we present an algorithm for unstructured search in the Gross-Pitaevskii model, obtaining an exponential improvement over a previous algorithm of Meyer and Wong. This result establishes a limitation…
Detection of symmetry is vital to problem solving. Most of the problems of computer vision and computer graphics and machine intelligence in general, can be reduced to symmetry detection problem. Unstructured search problem can also be looked upon from symmetry detection point of view. Unstructured search can be thought as searching a binary string satisfying some search condition in an unsorted list of binary strings. In this paper unstructured search problem is reduced to function bilateral symmetry detection problem with polynomial overhead in terms of the size of the input. Keywords: Unstr…
This paper describes a novel approach to solving unstructured search problems using a classical, signal-based emulation of a quantum computer. The classical nature of the representation allows one to perform subspace projections in addition to the usual unitary gate operations. Although bandwidth requirements will limit the scale of problems that can be solved by this method, it can nevertheless provide a significant computational advantage for problems of limited size. In particular, we find that, for the same number of noisy oracle calls, the proposed subspace projection method provides a hi…
So far, only the results on 3 qubit spaces (both on superconducting and ion-trap realisations of quantum processors) have beaten the classical unstructured search in the expected number of oracle calls using optimal protocols in both settings. We present experimental results on running unstructured search in spaces defined by 4, 5 and 6 qubits on ion-trapped quantum processor. Our best circuits obtained respectively 66\%, 26\% and 6\% average probability of measuring the marked element. In the case of 4 and 5 qubit spaces we obtained fewer expected number of oracle calls required to find a mar…
Quantifying the flatness of the objective-function landscape associated with unstructured parameterized quantum circuits is important for understanding the performance of variational algorithms utilizing a "hardware-efficient ansatz", particularly for ensuring that a prohibitively flat landscape -- a so-called "barren plateau" -- is avoided. For a model of such ansätze, we relate the typical landscape flatness to a certain family of random walks, enabling us to derive a Monte Carlo algorithm for efficiently, classically estimating the landscape flatness for any architecture. The statistical pi…
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($…
In this paper, we show reduction methods for search algorithms on graphs using quantum walks. By using a graph partitioning method called equitable partition for the the given graph, we determine "effective subspace" for the search algorithm to reduce the size of the problem. We introduce the equitable partition for quantum walk based search algorithms and show how to determine "effective subspace" and reduced operator.
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 qu…
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 …
It is questionable that Grover algorithm may be more valuable than a classical one, when a partial information is given in a unstructured database. In this letter, to consider quantum search when a partial information is given, we replace the Fourier transform in the Grover algorithm with the Haar wavelet transform. We then, given a partial information $L$ to a unstructured database of size $N$, show that there is the improved speedup, $O(\sqrt{N/L})$.
In this paper, we consider a continuous-time quantum walk based search algorithm. We introduce equitable partition of the graph and perfect state transfer on it. By these two methods, we can calculate the success probability and the finding time of the search algorithm. In addition, we gave some examples of graphs that we can calculate the success probability and the finding time.
We mainly study exceptional configuration for coined quantum walk search. For searching on a two-dimensional grid by AKR algorithm, we find some new classes of exceptional configurations that cannot be found by the AKR algorithm effectively and the known diagonal configuration can be regarded as its special case. Meanwhile, we give two modified quantum walk models that can improve the success probability in the exceptional configurations by numerical simulation. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of generalized exceptional configuration and consider search by quantum walk on a cycle with Gr…
In typical discrete-time quantum walk algorithms, one measures the position of the walker while ignoring its internal spin/coin state. Rather than neglecting the information in this internal state, we show that additionally measuring it doubles the success probability of many quantum spatial search algorithms. For example, this allows Grover's unstructured search problem to be solved with certainty, rather than with probability 1/2 if only the walker's position is measured, so the additional measurement yields a search algorithm that is twice as fast as without it, on average. Thus the interna…
This paper examines the stability of the quantum random walk search algorithm, when the walk coin is constructed by generalized Householder reflection and additional phase shift, against inaccuracies in the phases used to construct the coin. The optimization of the algorithm is done by numerical methods - Monte Carlo, neural networks, and supervised machine learning. The results of numerical simulations show that, with such a construction of the Householder reflection, the algorithm is more stable to inaccuracies in the specific values of these phases, as long as it is possible to control the …
Perfect state transfer between two marked vertices of a graph by means of discrete-time quantum walk is analyzed. We consider the quantum walk search algorithm with two marked vertices, sender and receiver. It is shown by explicit calculation that for the coined quantum walks on star graph and complete graph with self-loops perfect state transfer between the sender and receiver vertex is achieved for arbitrary number of vertices $N$ in $O(\sqrt{N})$ steps of the walk. Finally, we show that Szegedy's walk with queries on complete graph allows for state transfer with unit fidelity in the limit o…
In the typical spatial search problems solved by continuous-time quantum walk, changing the location of the marked vertices does not alter the search problem. In this paper, we consider search when this is no longer true. In particular, we analytically solve search on the "simplex of $K_M$ complete graphs" with all configurations of two marked vertices, two configurations of $M+1$ marked vertices, and two configurations of $2(M+1)$ marked vertices, showing that the location of the marked vertices can dramatically influence the required jumping rate of the quantum walk, such that using the wron…
There has been a very large body of research on searching a marked vertex on a graph based on quantum walks, and Grover's algorithm can be regarded as a quantum walk-based search algorithm on a special graph. However, the existing quantum walk-based search algorithms suffer severely from the soufflé problem which mainly means that the success probability of finding a marked vertex could shrink dramatically even to zero when the number of search steps is greater than the right one, thus heavily reducing the robustness and practicability of the algorithm. Surprisingly, while the soufflé problem …
An ideal quantum walk transitions from one vertex to another with perfect fidelity, but in physical systems, the particle may be hindered by potential energy barriers. Then the particle has some amplitude of tunneling through the barriers, and some amplitude of staying put. We investigate the algorithmic consequence of such barriers for the quantum walk formulation of Grover's algorithm. We prove that the failure amplitude must scale as $O(1/\sqrt{N})$ for search to retain its quantum $O(\sqrt{N})$ runtime; otherwise, it searches in classical $O(N)$ time. Thus searching larger "databases" requ…
This paper examines the performance of spatial search where the Grover diffusion operator is replaced by continuous-time quantum walks on a class of interdependent networks. We prove that for a set of optimal quantum walk times and marked vertex phase shifts, a deterministic algorithm for structured spatial search is established that finds the marked vertex with 100% probability. This improves on the original spatial search algorithm on the same class of graphs, which we show can only amplify to 50% probability. Our method uses $\left\lceil\fracπ{2\sqrt{2}}\sqrt{N}\right\rceil$ marked vertex p…
Continuous-time quantum walks are natural tools for spatial search, where one searches for a marked vertex in a graph. Sometimes, the structure of the graph causes the walker to get trapped, such that the probability of finding the marked vertex is limited. We give an example with two linked cliques, proving that the captive probability can be liberated by increasing the weights of the links. This allows the search to succeed with probability 1 without increasing the energy scaling of the algorithm. Further increasing the weights, however, slows the runtime, so the optimal search requires weig…
Lackadaisical quantum walk(LQW) has been an efficient technique in searching a target state from a database which is distributed on a two-dimensional lattice. We numerically study the quantum search algorithm based on the lackadaisical quantum walk on one- and two-dimensions. It is observed that specific values of the self-loop weight at each vertex of the graph is responsible for such speedup of the algorithm. Searching for a target state on one-dimensional lattice with periodic boundary conditions is possible using lackadaisical quantum walk, which can find a target state with $\mathcal{O}(1…
The search of an unstructured database amounts to finding one element having a certain property out of $N$ elements. The classical search with an oracle checking one element at a time requires on average $N/2$ steps. The Grover algorithm for the quantum search, and its unitary Hamiltonian evolution analogue, accomplish the search asymptotically optimally in $\mathcal{O} (\sqrt{N})$ time steps. We reformulate the search problem as a dissipative Markov process acting on an $N$-level system weakly coupled to a thermal bath. Assuming that the energy levels of the system represent the database elem…
We study the discrete-time quantum walk-based search for a marked vertex on a graph. By considering various structures in which not all vertices are equivalent, we investigate the relationship between the successful search probability and the position of the marked vertex, in particular its centrality. We find that the maximum value of the search probability does not necessarily increase as the marked vertex becomes more central and we investigate an interesting relationship between the frequency of the successful search probability and the centrality of the marked vertex.
The defining feature of memoryless quantum walks is that they operate on the vertex space of a graph, and therefore can be used to produce search algorithms with minimal memory. We present a memoryless walk that can find a unique marked vertex on a two-dimensional grid. Our walk is based on the construction proposed by Falk, which tessellates the grid with squares of size $2 \times 2$. Our walk uses minimal memory, $O(\sqrt{N \log N})$ applications of the walk operator, and outputs the marked vertex with vanishing error probability. To accomplish this, we apply a selfloop to the marked vertex …
Quantum walks are standard tools for searching graphs for marked vertices, and they often yield quadratic speedups over a classical random walk's hitting time. In some exceptional cases, however, the system only evolves by sign flips, staying in a uniform probability distribution for all time. We prove that the one-dimensional periodic lattice or cycle with any arrangement of marked vertices is such an exceptional configuration. Using this discovery, we construct a search problem where the quantum walk's random sampling yields an arbitrary speedup in query complexity over the classical random …
Quantum walks have been very successful in the development of search algorithms in quantum information, in particular in the development of spatial search algorithms. However, the construction of continuous-time quantum search algorithms in two-dimensional lattices has proved difficult, requiring additional degrees of freedom. Here, we demonstrate that continuous-time quantum walk search is possible in two-dimensions by changing the search topology to a graphene lattice, utilising the Dirac point in the energy spectrum. This is made possible by making a change to standard methods of marking a …
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 …
A randomly walking quantum particle evolving by Schrödinger's equation searches for a unique marked vertex on the "simplex of complete graphs" in time $Θ(N^{3/4})$. In this paper, we give a weighted version of this graph that preserves vertex-transitivity, and we show that the time to search on it can be reduced to nearly $Θ(\sqrt{N})$. To prove this, we introduce two novel extensions to degenerate perturbation theory: an adjustment that distinguishes the weights of the edges, and a method to determine how precisely the jumping rate of the quantum walk must be chosen.
In a recent work by Novo et al. (Sci. Rep. 5, 13304, 2015), the invariant subspace method was applied to the study of continuous-time quantum walk (CTQW). The method helps to reduce a graph into a simpler version that allows more transparent analyses of the quantum walk model. In this work, we adopt the aforementioned method to investigate the optimality of a quantum walk search of a marked element on a complete multi-partite graph. We formulate the eigenbasis that would facilitate the transport between the two lowest energy eigenstates and demonstrate how to set the appropriate coupling facto…
Inspired by a class of algorithms proposed by Farhi et al. (arXiv:1411.4028), namely the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA), we present a circuit-based quantum algorithm to search for a needle in a haystack, obtaining the same quadratic speedup achieved by Grover's original algorithm. In our algorithm, the problem Hamiltonian (oracle) and a transverse field are applied alternately to the system in a periodic manner. We introduce a technique, based on spin-coherent states, to analyze the composite unitary in a single period. This composite unitary drives a closed transition betwe…
Quantum walks have been useful for designing quantum algorithms that outperform their classical versions for a variety of search problems. Most of the papers, however, consider a search space containing a single marked element only. We show that if the search space contains more than one marked element, their placement may drastically affect the performance of the search. More specifically, we study search by quantum walks on general graphs and show a wide class of configurations of marked vertices, for which search by quantum walk needs $Ω(N)$ steps, that is, it has no speed-up over the class…
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…
In the typical model, a discrete-time coined quantum walk searching the 2D grid for a marked vertex achieves a success probability of $O(1/\log N)$ in $O(\sqrt{N \log N})$ steps, which with amplitude amplification yields an overall runtime of $O(\sqrt{N} \log N)$. We show that making the quantum walk lackadaisical or lazy by adding a self-loop of weight $4/N$ to each vertex speeds up the search, causing the success probability to reach a constant near $1$ in $O(\sqrt{N \log N})$ steps, thus yielding an $O(\sqrt{\log N})$ improvement over the typical, loopless algorithm. This improved runtime m…
A quantum particle evolving by Schrödinger's equation contains, from the kinetic energy of the particle, a term in its Hamiltonian proportional to Laplace's operator. In discrete space, this is replaced by the discrete or graph Laplacian, which gives rise to a continuous-time quantum walk. Besides this natural definition, some quantum walk algorithms instead use the adjacency matrix to effect the walk. While this is equivalent to the Laplacian for regular graphs, it is different for non-regular graphs, and is thus an inequivalent quantum walk. We algorithmically explore this distinction by ana…
We investigate a quantum spatial search problem on a fractal lattice. A recent study for the Sierpinski gasket and tetrahedron made a conjecture that the dynamics of the search on a fractal lattice is determined by spectral dimension. We tackle this problem for the Sierpinski carpet, and our simulation result supports the conjecture. We also propose a scaling hypothesis of oracle calls for the quantum amplitude amplification.
The lazy random walk, where the walker has some probability of staying put, is a useful tool in classical algorithms. We propose a quantum analogue, the lackadaisical quantum walk, where each vertex is given $l$ self-loops, and we investigate its effects on Grover's algorithm when formulated as search for a marked vertex on the complete graph of $N$ vertices. For the discrete-time quantum walk using the phase flip coin, adding a self-loop to each vertex boosts the success probability from 1/2 to 1. Additional self-loops, however, decrease the success probability. Using instead the Ambainis, Ke…
We consider the problem of searching a general $d$-dimensional lattice of $N$ vertices for a single marked item using a continuous-time quantum walk. We demand locality, but allow the walk to vary periodically on a small scale. By constructing lattice Hamiltonians exhibiting Dirac points in their dispersion relations and exploiting the linear behaviour near a Dirac point, we develop algorithms that solve the problem in a time of $O(\sqrt N)$ for $d>2$ and $O(\sqrt N \log N)$ in $d=2$. In particular, we show that such algorithms exist even for hypercubic lattices in any dimension. Unlike previo…
We formulate Grover's unstructured search algorithm as a chiral quantum walk, where transitioning in one direction has a phase conjugate to transitioning in the opposite direction. For small phases, this breaking of time-reversal symmetry is too small to significantly affect the evolution: the system still approximately evolves in its ground and first excited states, rotating to the marked vertex in time $π\sqrt{N} / 2$. Increasing the phase does not change the runtime, but rather changes the support for the 2D subspace, so the system evolves in its first and second excited states, or its seco…
Grover's quantum search algorithm provides a way to speed up combinatorial search, but is not directly applicable to searching a physical database. Nevertheless, Aaronson and Ambainis showed that a database of N items laid out in d spatial dimensions can be searched in time of order sqrt(N) for d>2, and in time of order sqrt(N) poly(log N) for d=2. We consider an alternative search algorithm based on a continuous time quantum walk on a graph. The case of the complete graph gives the continuous time search algorithm of Farhi and Gutmann, and other previously known results can be used to show th…
This paper researches how the systematic errors in phase inversions affect the success rate and the number of iterations in optimized quantum random-walk search algorithm. Through geometric description of this algorithm, the model of the algorithm with phase errors is established and the relationship between the success rate of the algorithm, the database size, the number of iterations and the phase error is depicted. For a given sized database, we give both the maximum success rate of the algorithm and the required number of iterations when the algorithm is in the presence of phase errors. Th…
We analyze the realization of a quantum-walk search algorithm in a passive, linear optical network. The specific model enables us to consider the effect of realistic sources of noise and losses on the search efficiency. Photon loss uniform in all directions is shown to lead to the rescaling of search time. Deviation from directional uniformity leads to the enhancement of the search efficiency compared to uniform loss with the same average. In certain cases even increasing loss in some of the directions can improve search efficiency. We show that while we approach the classical limit of the gen…
We study continuous-time quantum walks mimicking the quantum search based on Grover's procedure. This allows us to consider structures, that is, databases, with arbitrary topological arrangements of their entries. We show that the topological structure of the database plays a crucial role by analyzing, both analytically and numerically, the transition from the ground to the first excited state of the Hamiltonian associated with different (fractal) structures. Additionally, we use the probability of successfully finding a specific target as another indicator of the importance of the topological…
The spatial search problem on regular lattice structures in integer number of dimensions $d\geq2$ has been studied extensively, using both coined and coinless quantum walks. The relativistic Dirac operator has been a crucial ingredient in these studies. Here we investigate the spatial search problem on fractals of non-integer dimensions. Although the Dirac operator cannot be defined on a fractal, we construct the quantum walk on a fractal using the flip-flop operator that incorporates a Klein-Gordon mode. We find that the scaling behavior of the spatial search is determined by the spectral (an…
The lackadaisical quantum walk is a lazy version of a discrete-time, coined quantum walk, where each vertex has a weighted self-loop that permits the walker to stay put. They have been used to speed up spatial search on a variety of graphs, including periodic lattices, strongly regular graphs, Johnson graphs, and the hypercube. In these prior works, the weights of the self-loops preserved the symmetries of the graphs. In this paper, we show that the self-loops can break all the symmetries of vertex-transitive graphs while providing the same computational speedups. Only the weight of the self-l…
