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arXiv:2307.16133

Universal approach to deterministic spatial search via alternating quantum walks

Qing‐Wen Wang, Ying Jiang, Shiguang Feng, Lvzhou Li

Published Jul 30, 2023• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Spatial search is an important problem in quantum computation, which aims to find a marked vertex on a graph. We propose a novel approach for designing deterministic quantum search algorithms on a variety of graphs via alternating quantum walks. Our approach is universal because it does not require an instance-specific analysis for different graphs. We highlight the flexibility of our approach by proving that for Johnson graphs, rook graphs, complete-square graphs and complete bipartite graphs, our quantum algorithms can find the marked vertex with $100\%$ success probability and achieve quadratic speedups over classical algorithms. This not only gives an alternative succinct way to prove the existing results, but also leads to new interesting findings on more general graphs.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2307.16133

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Spatial search is an important problem in quantum computation, which aims to find a marked vertex on a graph. We propose a novel approach for designing deterministic quantum search algorithms on a variety of graphs via alternating quantum walks. Our approach is universal because it does not require an instance-specific analysis for different graphs. We highlight the flexibility of our approach by proving that for Johnson graphs, rook graphs, complete-square graphs and complete bipartite graphs, our quantum algorithms can find the marked vertex with 100%100\%100% success probability and achieve quadratic speedups over classical algorithms. This not only gives an alternative succinct way to prove the existing results, but also leads to new interesting findings on more general graphs.
In this article, we present a succinct algorithmic framework via alternating quantum walks, unifying quantum spatial search, state transfer, and uniform sampling on a large class of graphs. Using the framework, we can achieve exact uniform sampling over all vertices and perfect state transfer between any two vertices, provided that eigenvalues of Laplacian matrix of the graph are all integers. Furthermore, if the graph is vertex transitive as well, then we can achieve deterministic quantum spatial search that finds a marked vertex with probability 100100%100. In contrast, existing quantum search algorithms generally have a certain probability of failure. Even if the graph is not vertex transitive, such as the complete bipartite graph, we can still adjust the algorithmic framework to obtain deterministic spatial search, which thus shows the flexibility of it. Besides unifying and improving plenty of previous results, our work provides results on more graphs. The approach is easy to use since it has a succinct formalism that depends only on the depth of the Laplacian eigenvalue set of the graph, and may shed light on the solution of more problems related to graphs.
Searching via quantum walk is a topic that has been extensively studied. Most previous results provide approximate solutions, while in this paper we prove an algorithm that can find a marked vertex certainly. We adopt the coined discrete-time quantum walk (DTQW) model with adjusted operators and prove that, on complete bipartite graphs, when parameters are set properly, coined DTQW can deterministically find a marked vertex, i.e., the success probability is exactly 1. Before this paper there have been results of an alternating continuous-time quantum walk method that achieve deterministic spatial search, but this paper provides a deterministic quantum spatial search result via DTQW, while maintaining a quadratic speedup compared to classical algorithms. We also provide the quantum circuit implementation. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
Abstract Searching for an unknown marked vertex on a given graph (also known as spatial search) is an extensively discussed topic in the area of quantum algorithms, with a plethora of results based on different quantum walk models and targeting various types of graphs. Most of these algorithms have a non‐zero probability of failure. In recent years, there have been some efforts to design quantum spatial search algorithms with success probability. However, these works either only work for very special graphs or only for the case where there is only one marked vertex. In this work, a different and elegant approach to quantum spatial search is proposed, obtaining deterministic quantum search algorithms that can find a marked vertex with certainty on any Laplacian integral graph with any predetermined proportion of marked vertices. Thus, this work discovers the largest class of graphs that allow deterministic quantum search, making it easy to design deterministic quantum search algorithms for many graphs, subsuming different graphs discussed in previous works, in a unified framework.
Abstract The spatial search problem aims to find a marked vertex of a finite graph using a dynamic with two constraints: (1) the walker has no compass and (2) the walker can check whether a vertex is marked only after reaching it. This problem is a generalization of unsorted database search and has many applications to algorithms. Classical algorithms that solve the spatial search problem are based on random walks and the computational complexity is determined by the hitting time. On the other hand, quantum algorithms are based on quantum walks and the computational complexity is determined not only by the number of steps to reach a marked vertex, but also by the success probability, since we need to perform a measurement at the end of the algorithm to determine the walker’s position. In this work, we address the spatial search problem on Johnson graphs using the coined quantum walk model. Since Johnson graphs are vertex- and distance-transitive, we have found an invariant subspace of the Hilbert space, which aids in the calculation of the computational complexity. We have shown that, for every fixed diameter, the asymptotic success probability is 1/2 after taking π N / ( 2 2 ) steps, where N is the number of vertices of the Johnson graph.
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 Childs and Goldstone spatial search algorithm on the same class of graphs, which we show can only amplify to 50% probability. Our method uses $\ensuremath{\lceil}\frac{\ensuremath{\pi}}{2\sqrt{2}}\sqrt{N}\ensuremath{\rceil}$ marked vertex phase shifts for an NNN-vertex graph, making it comparable to Grover's algorithm for an unstructured search. It is expected that this framework can be readily extended to deterministic spatial search on other families of graph structures.
Abstract How to design deterministic spatial search algorithms is a difficult but important problem. This paper presents a deterministic search algorithm on complete bipartite graphs with optimal runtime scaling. Our algorithm adopts the simple form of alternating iterations of an oracle and a continuous-time quantum walk operator, which is a generalization of Grover's search algorithm. To address the case of the number of marked vertices being unknown, we construct a quantum counting algorithm based on the spectrum structure of the search operator. This is a non-trivial example of quantum counting for spatial search. To implement the continuous-time quantum walk operator, we perform Hamiltonian simulation in the quantum circuit model and simulate it on the IBM quantum computing platform Qiskit.