This paper shows that a continuous-time quantum walk is able locate a target in a tree structure with a speed comparable to the Grover's algorithm for unstructured databases and with a high success probability.
Grover's quantum algorithm was developed to solve the problem of searching an unstructured database for a certain unique element. In general, this problem can be formulated as follows: an unstructured database consists of elements and contains one unique element that has a certain property that can be tested with polynomial complexity, and which must be found with minimal time and complexity. Classical methods require querying the database to find the desired element, while Grover's algorithm allows you to perform only approximately steps, which are iterations of the procedure, to the database and be sure that the resulting element will be exactly the desired element with a probability close to 1. As in quantum algorithms aimed at cryptanalysis of symmetric transformations, Grover's algorithm repeats the procedure (Grover's iteration) to increase the probability of obtaining the correct result. Similarly to such algorithms in Grover's method, when iterations are continued after reaching the required number of iterations, the probability of obtaining the correct result decreases. This is due to the fact that during the execution of Grover's iteration, a rotation is performed in the complex space. Thus, each iteration, making a turn, brings the register closer and closer to the desired state, but at a certain point a maximum closeness is reached, at which the continued use of iterations will lead to a turn past the desired state, which will move the state of the system away from the desired state. The database for this algorithm can be any search space consisting of a certain number of elements. So, for example, it can be applied to find a secret key for a symmetric cryptograms formation or to find a collision for a hashing function.
This article reviews recent progress in quantum database search algorithms. The subject is presented in a self-contained and pedagogical way. The problem of searching a large database (a Hilbert space) for a target item is performed by the famous Grover algorithm which locates the target item with high probability and a quadratic speed-up compared with the corresponding classical algorithm. If the database is partitioned into blocks and one is searching for the block containing the target item instead of the target item itself, then the problem is referred to as partial search. Partial search trades accuracy for speed and the most efficient version is the Grover–Radhakrishnan–Korepin (GRK) algorithm. The target block can be further partitioned into sub-blocks so that GRK's can be performed in a sequence called a hierarchy. We study the Grover search and GRK partial search in detail and prove that a GRK hierarchy is less efficient than a direct GRK partial search. Both the Grover search and the GRK partial search can be generalized to the case with several target items (or target blocks for a GRK). The GRK partial search algorithm can also be represented in terms of group theory.
In this article, we propose a new strategy to exploit Grover's algorithm for unstructured search problems. We first show that running Grover's routine with a reduced number of iterations but allowing several trials presents a complexity advantage while keeping the same success probability. Then, by a theoretical analysis of the performance, we provide a generic procedure to parameterize the number of iterationskwithin one shot of Grover's algorithm and the maximum number of trialsT, given a targeted successpand the size of the databaseN. At the end, we highlight that this new approach permits to reduce the computational time by at least 10% forp≥0.999independently of the size of the database.
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 structure.
In this work we study Grover's algorithm for quantum computers. This algorithm promises to search in an unstructured database in time comparable with a square root of the number of objects. A description of basic quantum computer principles is followed by the original Grover's formulation and a proof of the algorithm, as well as a later geometrical description of the algorithm. We also mention their suitability for educational purposes. We also include a description of the Grover's algorithm in a programming language, which makes it possible to simulate a quantum computing on classical computers.