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Optimization of 16-Element Quantum Search on IBMQ

Wei Zi, Shuai Yang, Cheng Guo, Xiaoming Sun

Published Sep 1, 2021• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Unstructured searching, which is to find the marked element from a given unstructured data set, is a widely studied problem in computer science. It is well known that Grover algorithm provides a quadratic speedup to solve unstructured search problem compared with the classical algorithm. This algorithm has received a lot of attention due to the strong versatility. In this manuscript, we report experimental results of searching a unique target from 16 elements on five different quantum devices of IBM quantum Experience (IBMQ). We first implement the original Grover algorithm on these devices. However, the experiment probability of success of finding the correct target is almost the same as random choice. We then optimize the quantum circuit size of the search algorithm. The oracle operator and diffusion operator are two of the most costly operators in Grover algorithm. For the 16-element quantum search algorithm, both the oracle operator and diffusion operator consist of a triple controlled [Formula: see text] gate ([Formula: see text]) and some single-qubit gates. So we optimize the implementation of the [Formula: see text] gate according to the qubits layout of different quantum devices. On the ibmq_santiago, the experimental success rate of the 16-element quantum search algorithm is increased to [Formula: see text] by the optimization, which is better than all the published experiments implemented on IBMQ devices. For other IBMQ devices, the experimental success rate of 16-element quantum search also has been significantly improved. We then try to further reduce the size of the quantum circuit by modifying the Grover algorithm, with a tolerable loss of the theoretical success probability. On ibmq_quito, the experimental success rate is further improved from 25.23% to 27.56% after optimization. These experimental results show the importance of circuit optimization and algorithm optimization in the Noisy-Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era.

DOI
10.1142/s2010324721400038

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Unstructured searching, which is to find the marked element from a given unstructured data set, is a widely studied problem in computer science. It is well known that Grover algorithm provides a quadratic speedup to solve unstructured search problem compared with the classical algorithm. This algorithm has received a lot of attention due to the strong versatility. In this manuscript, we report experimental results of searching a unique target from 16 elements on five different quantum devices of IBM quantum Experience (IBMQ). We first implement the original Grover algorithm on these devices. However, the experiment probability of success of finding the correct target is almost the same as random choice. We then optimize the quantum circuit size of the search algorithm. The oracle operator and diffusion operator are two of the most costly operators in Grover algorithm. For the 16-element quantum search algorithm, both the oracle operator and diffusion operator consist of a triple controlled [Formula: see text] gate ([Formula: see text]) and some single-qubit gates. So we optimize the implementation of the [Formula: see text] gate according to the qubits layout of different quantum devices. On the ibmq_santiago, the experimental success rate of the 16-element quantum search algorithm is increased to [Formula: see text] by the optimization, which is better than all the published experiments implemented on IBMQ devices. For other IBMQ devices, the experimental success rate of 16-element quantum search also has been significantly improved. We then try to further reduce the size of the quantum circuit by modifying the Grover algorithm, with a tolerable loss of the theoretical success probability. On ibmq_quito, the experimental success rate is further improved from 25.23% to 27.56% after optimization. These experimental results show the importance of circuit optimization and algorithm optimization in the Noisy-Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era.
Target item searching in large-scale, unstructured text databases is a major computational task for traditional systems and usually requires algorithms whose time complexity is on the order ofO(N)O(N)O(N). Quantum computing presents a strong competitor by using Grover's algorithm, where theoretically the search complexity comes down toO(N)O(\sqrt{N})O(N​), making faster retrieval possible. This research considers the design and assessment of Grover's algorithm as it is used to find a target word in a paragraph. The process entails encoding a group of unique words into a quantum register and implementing a circuit that incorporates a bespoke oracle and a diffusion operator to amplify the probability amplitude of the target state. Performance was evaluated in two situations: an ideal noise-free simulation with Qiskit's AerSimulator and a real-world run on IBM's quantum hardware. Simulation results demonstrated always-high accuracy in identifying the target word. But tests on real quantum machines indicated that the reliability of the algorithm decreases with an increase in qubits. Though circuits of up to five qubits had tolerable accuracy, larger configurations were plagued by noise, gate errors, and decoherence effects. These results highlight both the potential of quantum search algorithms for text processing and the limitations of NISQ today.
Grover's quantum search algorithm provides a proven quadratic speedup over classical linear search for unstructured databases. While its theoretical advantage is well established, experimental validation on real noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) hardware remains limited by noise, decoherence, and hardware constraints. In this work, we present an experimental comparison between classical linear search and Grover's quantum search algorithm executed on IBM Quantum real superconducting hardware using Qiskit Runtime. A four-qubit implementation corresponding to a 16-element search space is evaluated across multiple experimental runs. The results demonstrate consistent amplitude amplification, achieving an average success probability of 54.25% and an amplification factor of 8.68× over random guessing. Although classical execution remains faster in wall-clock time due to quantum hardware overhead, the experiment empirically validates the algorithmic advantage of Grover's search and quantifies the performance gap between ideal and real quantum processors in the NISQ era.
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.
We propose new quantum circuit designs for the Grover oracle, i.e., the oracle of Grover’s algorithm, to solve the vertex cover problem (VCP) efficiently. Grover’s algorithm is an unstructured quantum search algorithm to search a target data item out of N data pieces by calling the oracle O(N)\mathrm{O}(\sqrt{N})O(N​) times. It represents a quadratic speedup compared to the classical unstructured data sequential search algorithm, which requires O(N) oracle calls. We are in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era in which quantum computers have a limited number of qubits, short decoherence time, and low gate fidelity. It is thus desirable to design quantum circuits with three properties: (1) a reduced number of qubits, (2) shorter quantum depth, and (3) fewer gates. We created novel designs of a quantum counter and a quantum semaphore to be applied to the Grover oracle to have the three properties. Through the IBM Quantum Lab service, we executed Grover’s algorithm with the novel quantum circuit designs to solve the VCP to validate the design correctness.
Quantum computing has noteworthy speedup over classical computing by taking advantage of quantum parallelism, i.e., the superposition of states. In particular, quantum search is widely used in various computationally hard problems. Grover's search algorithm finds the target element in an unsorted database with quadratic speedup than classical search and has been proved to be optimal in terms of the number of queries to the database. The challenge, however, is that Grover's search algorithm leads to high numbers of quantum gates, which make it infeasible for the Noise-Intermediate-Scale-Quantum (NISQ) computers. In this paper, we propose a novel hardware efficient quantum search algorithm to overcome this challenge. Our key idea is to replace the global diffusion operation with low-cost local diffusions. Our analysis shows that our algorithm has similar oracle complexity to the original Grover's search algorithm while significantly reduces the circuit depth and gate count. The circuit cost reduction leads to a remarkable improvement in the system success rates, paving the way for quantum search on NISQ machines.
We present a quantum algorithm for solving the unstructured search problem with one marked element. Our algorithm allows generating quantum circuits that use asymptotically fewer additional quantum gates than the famous Grover's algorithm and may be successfully executed on noisy intermediate-scale quantum devices. We prove that our algorithm is optimal in the total number of elementary gates up to a multiplicative constant. As many NP-hard problems are, in fact, not unstructured, we also describe the partial uncompute technique which exploits the oracle structure and allows a significant reduction in the number of elementary gates required to find the solution. Combining these results allows us to use an asymptotically smaller number of elementary gates than Grover's algorithm in various applications, keeping the number of queries to the oracle essentially the same. We show how the results can be applied to solve hard combinatorial problems, for example, Unique kkk-SAT. Additionally, we show how to asymptotically reduce the number of elementary gates required to solve the unstructured search problem with multiple marked elements.