A fast quantum mechanical algorithm for database search
Lov K. Grover
备注：
8 pages, single postscript file. This is an updated version of a paper that was originally presented at STOC 1996. The algorithm is the same; however, the proof has been simplified by using a new interpretation termed "inversion about average." Also a few recently discovered insights have been added. Journal Ref.: Proceedings, 28th Annual ACM Symposium on the Theory of Computing (STOC), May 1996, pages 212-219
Imagine a phone directory containing N names arranged in completely random order. In order to find someone's phone number with a 50% probability, any classical algorithm (whether deterministic or probabilistic) will need to look at a minimum of N/2 names. Quantum mechanical systems can be in a superposition of states and simultaneously examine multiple names. By properly adjusting the phases of various operations, successful computations reinforce each other while others interfere randomly. As a result, the desired phone number can be obtained in only O(sqrt(N)) steps. The algorithm is within a small constant factor of the fastest possible quantum mechanical algorithm.
A modification of Grover's algorithm is proposed, which can be used directly as a fast database search. An explicit two q-bit example is displayed in detail. We discuss the case where the database has multiple entries corresponding to the same target value.
This paper shows that a quantum mechanical algorithm that can query information relating to multiple items of the database, can search a database in a single query (a query is defined as any question to the database to which the database has to return a (YES/NO) answer). A classical algorithm will be limited to the information theoretic bound of at least O(log N) queries (which it would achieve by using a binary search).
A framework is presented for the design and analysis of quantum mechanical algorithms, the sqrt(N) step quantum search algorithm is an immediate consequence of this framework. It leads to several other search-type applications - several examples are presented. Also, it leads to quantum mechanical algorithms for problems not immediately connected with search - two such algorithms are presented for estimating the mean and median of statistical distributions. Both algorithms require fewer steps than the fastest possible classical algorithms; also both are considerably simpler and faster than exis…
In this paper we give a quantum mechanical algorithm that can search a database by a single query, when the number of solutions is more than a quarter. It utilizes modified Grover operator of arbitrary phase.
We present a class of fast quantum algorithms, based on Bernstein and Vazirani's parity problem, that retrieve the entire contents of a quantum database $Y$ in a single query. The class includes binary search problems and coin-weighing problems. Our methods far exceed the efficiency of classical algorithms which are bounded by the classical information-theoretic bound. We show the connection between classical algorithms based on several compression codes and our quantum-mechanical method.
Consider the problem of estimating the median of N items to a precision epsilon, i.e., the estimate should be such that, with a high probability, the number of items, with values both smaller than and larger than this estimate, is less than N*(1+epsilon)/2. Any classical algorithm to do this will need at least O(1/epsilon^2) samples. Quantum mechanical systems can simultaneously carry out multiple computations due to their wave like properties. This paper describes an O(1/epsilon) step algorithm for the above estimation.
We propose a feasible scheme to cool down a mechanical resonator (MR) in a three-mirror cavity optomechanical system with controllable external optical drives. Under the Born-Oppenheimer (BO) approximation, the whole dynamics of the mechanical resonator and cavities is reduced to that of a time-dependent harmonic oscillator, whose effective frequency can be controlled through the optical driving fields. The fast cooling of the MR can be realized by controlling the amplitude of the optical drives. Significantly, we further show that the ground-state cooling may be achieved via the three-mirror …
Quantum algorithm can find target item in a database faster than any classical. One can trade accuracy for speed and find a part of the database (a block) containing the target item even faster: this is partial search. One can think of partial search in following terms: an exact address of the target item is given by a sequence of many bites, but we want to find only several first bites of the address. We consider different partial search algorithms consisting of a sequence of global and local searches and suggest the optimal one. Global search consists of the standard Grover iterations for th…
Database search has wide applications and is used as a subroutine in many important algorithms. We shall consider a database with one target item. Quantum algorithm finds the target item in a database faster than any classical algorithm. It frequently occurs in practice that only a portion of information about the target item is interesting, or we need to find a group of items sharing some common feature as the target item. This problem is in general formulated as search for a part of the database [a block] containing the target item, instead of the item itself. This is partial search. Partial…
We consider a database separated into blocks. Blocks containing target items are called target blocks. Blocks without target items are called non-target blocks. We consider a case, when each target block has the same number of target items. We present a fast quantum algorithm, which finds one of the target blocks. Our algorithm is based on Grover-Radhakrishnan algorithm of partial search. We minimize the number of queries to the oracle.
Sorting is a fundamental computational process, which facilitates subsequent searching of a database. It can be thought of as factorisation of the search process. The location of a desired item in a sorted database can be found by classical queries that inspect one letter of the label at a time. For an unsorted database, no such classical quick search algorithm is available. If the database permits quantum queries, however, then mere digitisation is sufficient for efficient search. Sorting becomes redundant with the quantum superposition of states. A quantum algorithm is written down which loc…
We revisit quantum state preparation of an oscillator by continuous linear position measurement. Quite general analytical expressions are derived for the conditioned state of the oscillator. Remarkably, we predict that quantum squeezing is possible outside of both the backaction dominated and quantum coherent oscillation regimes, relaxing experimental requirements even compared to ground-state cooling. This provides a new way to generate non-classical states of macroscopic mechanical oscillators, and opens the door to quantum sensing and tests of quantum macroscopicity at room temperature.
The main challenge in deterministic quantum state transfer in long-distance quantum communications is the transmission losses in the communication channel. To overcome this limitation, here we use the adiabatic theorem and find a lossless evolution path between two remote mechanical modes. By adiabatic variation of the effective coupling strengths between the two nodes and the intermediate optical channel modes, we engineer a transmission path for the quantum state transfer that is decoupled from the decaying fiber modes. Using our proposed method we show that one obtains a quantum state trans…
Fluctuation theorems are fundamental extensions of the second law of thermodynamics for small nonequilibrium systems. While work and heat are equally important forms of energy exchange, fluctuation relations have not been experimentally assessed for the generic situation of simultaneous mechanical and thermal changes. Thermal driving is indeed generally slow and more difficult to realize than mechanical driving. Here, we use feedback cooling techniques to implement fast and controlled temperature variations of an underdamped levitated microparticle that are one order of magnitude faster than t…
Recently, Andreas de Vries proposed a quantum algorithm that would find an element in an unsorted database exponentially faster than Grover's algorithm. We show that de Vries' algorithm does not work as intended and does not give any clue about the position of the searched element.
Pulsed optomechanical measurements enable squeezing, non-classical state creation and backaction-free sensing. We demonstrate pulsed measurement of a cryogenic nanomechanical resonator with record precision close to the quantum regime. We use these to prepare thermally squeezed and purified conditional mechanical states, and to perform full state tomography. These demonstrations exploit large photon-phonon coupling in a nanophotonic cavity to reach a single-pulse imprecision of 9 times the mechanical zero-point amplitude $x_\mathrm{zpf}$. We study the effect of other mechanical modes which lim…
Quantum search algorithms are considered in the context of protein sequence comparison in biocomputing. Given a sample protein sequence of length m (i.e m residues), the problem considered is to find an optimal match in a large database containing N residues. Initially, Grover's quantum search algorithm is applied to a simple illustrative case - namely where the database forms a complete set of states over the 2^m basis states of a m qubit register, and thus is known to contain the exact sequence of interest. This example demonstrates explicitly the typical O(sqrt{N}) speedup on the classical …
Searching and sorting used as a subroutine in many important algorithms. Quantum algorithm can find a target item in a database faster than any classical algorithm. One can trade accuracy for speed and find a part of the database (a block) containing the target item even faster, this is partial search. An example is the following: exact address of the target item is given by a sequence of many bits, but we need to know only some of them. More generally partial search considers the following problem: a database is separated into several blocks. We want to find a block with the target item, not …
