Deutsch-Jozsa (DJ) problem is one of the most important problems demonstrating the power of quantum algorithm. DJ problem can be described as a Boolean function
f:
{0,1}n→{0,1} with promising it is either constant or balanced, and the purpose is to determine which type it is. DJ algorithm can solve it exactly with one query. In this paper, we first discover the inherent structure of DJ problem in distributed scenario by giving a number of equivalence characterizations between
f being constant (balanced) and some properties of
f's subfunctions, and then we propose three distributed exact quantum algorithms for solving DJ problem. Our algorithms have essential acceleration over distributed classical deterministic algorithm, and can be extended to the case of multiple computing nodes. Compared with DJ algorithm, our algorithms can reduce the number of qubits and the depth of circuit implementing a single query operator. Therefore, we find that the structure of problem should be clarified for designing distributed quantum algorithm to solve it.
The Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm is one of the first examples of a quantum algorithm that is exponentially faster than any possible deterministic classical algorithm. It was proposed by Deutsch and Jozsa in 1992 with improvements by Cleve, Ekert, Macchiavello, and Mosca in 1998. The Deutsch-Jozsa problem is a promise problem and we can equivalently describe it as a partial function ${\text{DJ}}_{n}^{0}:{{0,1}}^{n}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{0,1}$ defined as
DJn0(x)=1 for
∣x∣=n/2,DJn0(x)=0 for
∣x∣=0,n, and it is undefined for the rest of the cases, where
n is even, and
∣x∣ is the Hamming weight of
x. The optimal quantum algorithm needs only one query to compute
DJn0 but the classical deterministic algorithm requires ${2}^{n\ensuremath{-}1}+1$ queries to compute it in the worse case. In this article, we generalize the Deutsch-Jozsa problem as
DJnk(x)=1 for
∣x∣=n/2,DJnk(x)=0 for
∣x∣ in the set ${0,1,...,k,n\ensuremath{-}k,n\ensuremath{-}k+1,...,n}$, and it is undefined for the rest of the cases, where $0\ensuremath{\le}k<n/2$. In particular, we give and prove an optimal exact quantum query algorithm with complexity
k+1 for computing the generalized Deutsch-Jozsa problem
DJnk. It is clear that the case of
k=0 is in accordance with the Deutsch-Jozsa problem. Also, we give a method for finding the approximate and exact degrees of symmetric partial Boolean functions.