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Quantum Information Processing

Understanding mathematics of Grover’s algorithm

Paweł J. Szabłowski

Published May 1, 2021• 17 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract We analyze the mathematical structure of the classical Grover’s algorithm and put it within the framework of linear algebra over the complex numbers. We also generalize it in the sense, that we are seeking not the one ‘chosen’ element (sometimes called a ‘solution’) of the dataset, but a set ofmsuch ‘chosen’ elements (out of $$n>m)$$ n>m) . Besides, we do not assume that the so-called initial superposition is uniform. We assume also that we have at our disposal an oracle that ‘marks,’ by a suitable phase change $$\varphi $$ φ , all these ‘chosen’ elements. In the first part of the paper, we construct a unique unitary operator that selects all ‘chosen’ elements in one step. The constructed operator is uniquely defined by the numbers $$\varphi $$ φ and $$\alpha $$ α which is a certain function of the coefficients of the initial superposition. Moreover, it is in the form of a composition of two so-called reflections. The result is purely theoretical since the phase change required to reach this heavily depends on $$\alpha $$ α . In the second part, we construct unitary operators having a form of composition of two or more reflections (generalizing the constructed operator) given the set of orthogonal versors. We find properties of these operations, in particular, their compositions. Further, by considering a fixed, ‘convenient’ phase change $$\varphi ,$$ φ, and by sequentially applying the so-constructed operator, we find the number of steps to find these ‘chosen’ elements with great probability. We apply this knowledge to study the generalizations of Grover’s algorithm ( $$m=1,\phi =\pi $$ m=1,ϕ=π ), which are of the form, the found previously, unitary operators.

DOI
10.1007/s11128-021-03125-w

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A new approach to the classical limit of Grover’s algorithm is discussed by assuming a very rapid dephasing of a system between consecutive Grover’s unitary operations, which drives pure quantum states to decohered mixed states. One can identify a specific element among [Formula: see text] unsorted elements by a probability of the order of unity after [Formula: see text] steps of classical amplification, which is realized by a combination of Grover’s unitary operation and rapid dephasing, in contrast to [Formula: see text] steps in quantum mechanical amplification. The initial two-state system with enormously unbalanced existence probabilities, which is realized by a chosen specific state and a superposition of all the rest of the states among [Formula: see text] unsorted states, is crucial in the present analysis of classical amplification. This analysis illustrates Grover’s algorithm in extremely noisy circumstances. A similar increase from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text] steps due to the loss of quantum coherence takes place in the analog model of Farhi and Gutmann where the entanglement does not play an obvious role. This supports a view that entanglement is crucial in quantum computation to describe quantum states by a set of qubits, but the actual speedup of the quantum computation is based on quantum coherence.

arXiv:1804.10082•Modern Physics Letters A•Mar 1, 2019•6 citations
Abstract We analyze the mathematical structure of the classical Grover’s algorithm and put it within the framework of linear algebra over the complex numbers. We also generalize it in the sense, that we are seeking not the one ‘chosen’ element (sometimes called a ‘solution’) of the dataset, but a set ofmsuch ‘chosen’ elements (out of n>m)n>m)n>m) n>m) . Besides, we do not assume that the so-called initial superposition is uniform. We assume also that we have at our disposal an oracle that ‘marks,’ by a suitable phase change φ\varphi φ φ , all these ‘chosen’ elements. In the first part of the paper, we construct a unique unitary operator that selects all ‘chosen’ elements in one step. The constructed operator is uniquely defined by the numbers φ\varphi φ φ and α\alpha α α which is a certain function of the coefficients of the initial superposition. Moreover, it is in the form of a composition of two so-called reflections. The result is purely theoretical since the phase change required to reach this heavily depends on α\alpha α α . In the second part, we construct unitary operators having a form of composition of two or more reflections (generalizing the constructed operator) given the set of orthogonal versors. We find properties of these operations, in particular, their compositions. Further, by considering a fixed, ‘convenient’ phase change φ,\varphi ,φ, φ, and by sequentially applying the so-constructed operator, we find the number of steps to find these ‘chosen’ elements with great probability. We apply this knowledge to study the generalizations of Grover’s algorithm ( m=1,ϕ=πm=1,\phi =\pi m=1,ϕ=π m=1,ϕ=π ), which are of the form, the found previously, unitary operators.
IntroductionFor a search problem associated with a unsorted database, the remarkable Grover's quantum algorithm (1) provides a quadratic speedup over its classical counterpart.The search problem can be described as follows: for a given function f , there exists one unknown element in the set {0, 1, ..., N -1} that satisfies f (x)=-1, say x = τ, whereas the other N -1o n e sg i v e f (x)=1.How many times of evaluations of f are required to determine the element τ for f (τ)=-1?Through a conventional algorithm, one needs O(N) trials to achieve this aim.How about the utility of quantum algorithm for the search?For the scenario in the quantum world, the search problem can be rephrased in the quantum mechanical language: for a given unitary operator I τ , that is sometimes called the oracle operator, and a set of state vectors (orthonormal basis): s = {|0 , |1 , ..., |N -1 }, I τ |x = |x for all states in the set except I τ |x = -|x for x = τ.H owma n yqueriesofI τ are required to determine |τ ?By Grover's algorithm, one needs only O( √ N) quantum mechanical steps to find the marked state |τ out.It has been shown that Grover's algorithm is optimal since it needs minimal oracle calls to perform a quantum search (2).The quantum searching process will be briefly reviewed as follows.The first step of Grover's algorithm is to prepare a superposition state of all elements with uniform probability amplitude:Then apply the Grover kernel G = -I η I τ to |s ,w h er eI η is a unitary operator and contains no bias against the marked state.For large N,a f t e ra b o u tm = π √ N/4 repetitions of G operations, the probability to observe |τ is close to one, i.e., G m |s ∼ |τ .( 2 ) Since every single G involves one query of I τ ,onlyO( √ N) searching steps are required for a quantum search task.In what follows, we will first investigate on the general SU(2) formulation for the kernel of Grover's searching operator G.The discussions of quantum searching certainty, robustness, and the analog analogue version of the Grover's algorithm will be given afterwards.
Since a quantum system is inevitably influenced by some unpredictable perturbations,we thereby conclude that all the experimental realizations of Grover quantum search algorithm reported were,in fact,achieved in a three-dimensional complex subspace.We also prove that in a two-dimensional complex subspace,for any given initial superposition of basis states |γ0〉=cos β0|α〉+sin β0eiζ|β〉(β0 is a small positive real number,ζ is an arbitrary real number),there exists a set of solutions Fj={(θj,θj-1,…,θ1),(φj,φj-1,…,φ1)} such that a desired state can be found with certainty for some positive integer j≥2,where the phase rotation angles θl and φl are real numbers but not equal to 2k′π,1≤l≤j,k′ is an arbitrary integer.If it is only required that a desired state can be found with high success probability,then as the total number of the desired and undesired states in an unsorted database is sufficiently large the above set of solutions Fj can be written in the form Σji=1θl=Σji=1φl.for a relatively small positive integer j.
A classical limit of Grover's algorithm is discussed by assuming a very rapid decoherence (or dephasing) between consecutive Grover's unitary operations, which leads pure quantum states to completely decohered mixed states. One can identify a specific element among NNN unsorted elements by a probability of the order of unity after k∼N/4k\sim N/4k∼N/4 steps of classical amplification defined by the decohered mixed states, in contrast to Grover's k∼πN/4k\sim \pi \sqrt{N}/4k∼πN​/4 steps in quantum mechanical amplification. This difference is caused by the loss of quantum coherence with or without the loss of entanglement depending on each case.
The recursion equation analysis of Grover's quantum search algorithm presented by Biham et al. [Phys. Rev. A 60, 2742 (1999)] is generalized. It is applied to the large class of Grover-type algorithms in which the Hadamard transform is replaced by any other unitary transformation and the phase inversion is replaced by a rotation by an arbitrary angle. The time evolution of the amplitudes of the marked and unmarked states, for any initial complex amplitude distribution, is expressed using first-order linear difference equations. These equations are solved exactly. The solution provides the number of iterations T after which the probability of finding a marked state upon measurement is the highest, as well as the value of this probability, Pmax.{P}_{\mathrm{max}}.Pmax​. Both T and Pmax{P}_{\mathrm{max}}Pmax​ are found to depend on the averages and variances of the initial amplitude distributions of the marked and unmarked states, but not on higher moments.
Abstract This guide is based on the IBM Quantum course Phase Estimation and Factoring and focuses on Grover’s algorithm, a quantum algorithm for unstructured search problems that provides a quadratic speedup over classical approaches. In an unstructured search problem, we are given a function (often represented as an oracle) that marks one or more “correct” solutions among NNN possible candidates. A classical algorithm requires on the order of O(N)O(N)O(N) evaluations in the worst case. In contrast, Grover’s algorithm finds a solution using only O(N)O(\sqrt{N})O(N) oracle queries. This quadratic improvement implies: The quantum algorithm requires roughly the square root of the number of operations needed classically. Any classical algorithm for unstructured search must have cost at least quadratic relative to Grover’s quantum procedure. Core Idea of the Algorithm Grover’s algorithm relies on: Preparation of a uniform superposition (typically using Hadamard gates). An oracle that marks valid solutions via phase inversion. The Grover diffusion operator, which amplifies the probability amplitude of the marked states through interference. By repeatedly applying the Grover operator, the amplitude of the desired solution grows while others diminish, allowing measurement to reveal the correct answer with high probability. Practical Considerations Despite its theoretical elegance and wide applicability, the quadratic speedup of Grover’s algorithm is unlikely to yield near-term practical advantage. Modern classical hardware operates at extremely high clock rates and is vastly more mature than current quantum devices. For problem sizes accessible to today’s quantum computers, classical systems remain dominant. However, history shows that even sub-quadratic classical improvements — such as: Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) Efficient sorting algorithms like quicksort and mergesort have had transformative practical impact. The crucial distinction is that Grover’s algorithm depends on fundamentally different hardware — quantum processors — which are still in early development. Long-Term Perspective As quantum hardware advances in qubit count, coherence time, and error correction, Grover’s quadratic advantage may become practically significant for: Cryptographic key search Optimization heuristics Combinatorial search problems Amplitude amplification subroutines in broader quantum algorithms Through hands-on experimentation on IBM Q, this lesson demonstrates how theoretical amplitude amplification translates into executable quantum circuits, reinforcing the relationship between interference, probability amplitudes, and computational complexity.
A new approach to the classical limit of Grover’s algorithm is discussed by assuming a very rapid dephasing of a system between consecutive Grover’s unitary operations, which drives pure quantum states to decohered mixed states. One can identify a specific element among [Formula: see text] unsorted elements by a probability of the order of unity after [Formula: see text] steps of classical amplification, which is realized by a combination of Grover’s unitary operation and rapid dephasing, in contrast to [Formula: see text] steps in quantum mechanical amplification. The initial two-state system with enormously unbalanced existence probabilities, which is realized by a chosen specific state and a superposition of all the rest of the states among [Formula: see text] unsorted states, is crucial in the present analysis of classical amplification. This analysis illustrates Grover’s algorithm in extremely noisy circumstances. A similar increase from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text] steps due to the loss of quantum coherence takes place in the analog model of Farhi and Gutmann where the entanglement does not play an obvious role. This supports a view that entanglement is crucial in quantum computation to describe quantum states by a set of qubits, but the actual speedup of the quantum computation is based on quantum coherence.