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Quantum Science and Technology

Automatic generation of Grover quantum oracles for arbitrary data structures

Raphael Seidel, Colin Kai‐Uwe Becker, Sebastian Bock, Nikolay Tcholtchev, Ilie-Daniel Gheorghe-Pop, Manfred Hauswirth

Published Jan 3, 2023• 22 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract The steadily growing research interest in quantum computing—together with the accompanying technological advances in the realization of quantum hardware—fuels the development of meaningful real-world applications, as well as implementations for well-known quantum algorithms. One of the most prominent examples till today is Grover’s algorithm, which can be used for efficient search in unstructured databases. Quantum oracles that are frequently masked as black boxes play an important role in Grover’s algorithm. Hence, the automatic generation of oracles is of paramount importance. Moreover, the automatic generation of the corresponding circuits for a Grover quantum oracle is deeply linked to the synthesis of reversible quantum logic, which—despite numerous advances in the field—still remains a challenge till today in terms of synthesizing efficient and scalable circuits for complex Boolean functions. In this paper, we present a flexible method for automatically encoding unstructured databases into oracles, which can then be efficiently searched with Grover’s algorithm. Furthermore, we develop a tailor-made method for quantum logic synthesis, which vastly improves circuit complexity over other current approaches. Finally, we present another logic synthesis method that considers the requirements of scaling onto real world backends. We compare our method with other approaches through evaluating the oracle generation for random databases and analyzing the resulting circuit complexities using various metrics.

DOI
10.1088/2058-9565/acaf9d

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Abstract The steadily growing research interest in quantum computing—together with the accompanying technological advances in the realization of quantum hardware—fuels the development of meaningful real-world applications, as well as implementations for well-known quantum algorithms. One of the most prominent examples till today is Grover’s algorithm, which can be used for efficient search in unstructured databases. Quantum oracles that are frequently masked as black boxes play an important role in Grover’s algorithm. Hence, the automatic generation of oracles is of paramount importance. Moreover, the automatic generation of the corresponding circuits for a Grover quantum oracle is deeply linked to the synthesis of reversible quantum logic, which—despite numerous advances in the field—still remains a challenge till today in terms of synthesizing efficient and scalable circuits for complex Boolean functions. In this paper, we present a flexible method for automatically encoding unstructured databases into oracles, which can then be efficiently searched with Grover’s algorithm. Furthermore, we develop a tailor-made method for quantum logic synthesis, which vastly improves circuit complexity over other current approaches. Finally, we present another logic synthesis method that considers the requirements of scaling onto real world backends. We compare our method with other approaches through evaluating the oracle generation for random databases and analyzing the resulting circuit complexities using various metrics.
The steadily growing research interest in quantum computing - together with the accompanying technological advances in the realization of quantum hardware - fuels the development of meaningful real-world applications, as well as implementations for well-known quantum algorithms. One of the most prominent examples till today is Grover's algorithm, which can be used for efficient search in unstructured databases. Quantum oracles that are frequently masked as black boxes play an important role in Grover's algorithm. Hence, the automatic generation of oracles is of paramount importance. Moreover, the automatic generation of the corresponding circuits for a Grover quantum oracle is deeply linked to the synthesis of reversible quantum logic, which - despite numerous advances in the field - still remains a challenge till today in terms of synthesizing efficient and scalable circuits for complex boolean functions. In this paper, we present a flexible method for automatically encoding unstructured databases into oracles, which can then be efficiently searched with Grover's algorithm. Furthermore, we develop a tailor-made method for quantum logic synthesis, which vastly improves circuit complexity over other current approaches. Finally, we present another logic synthesis method that considers the requirements of scaling onto real world backends. We compare our method with other approaches through evaluating the oracle generation for random databases and analyzing the resulting circuit complexities using various metrics.
Several prominent quantum computing algorithms—including Grover’s search algorithm and Shor’s algorithm for finding the prime factorization of an integer—employ subcircuits termed ‘oracles’ that embed a specific instance of a mathematical function into a corresponding bijective function that is then realized as a quantum circuit representation. Designing oracles, and particularly, designing them to be optimized for a particular use case, can be a non-trivial task. For example, the challenge of implementing quantum circuits in the current era of NISQ-based quantum computers generally dictates that they should be designed with a minimal number of qubits, as larger qubit counts increase the likelihood that computations will fail due to one or more of the qubits decohering. However, some quantum circuits require that function domain values be preserved, which can preclude using the minimal number of qubits in the oracle circuit. Thus, quantum oracles must be designed with a particular application in mind. In this work, we present two methods for automatic quantum oracle synthesis. One of these methods uses a minimal number of qubits, while the other preserves the function domain values while also minimizing the overall required number of qubits. For each method, we describe known quantum circuit use cases, and illustrate implementation using an automated quantum compilation and optimization tool to synthesize oracles for a set of benchmark functions; we can then compare the methods with metrics including required qubit count and quantum circuit complexity.
Grover’s algorithm is a well-known contribution to quantum computing. It searches one value within an unordered sequence. A fundamental part of this algorithm is the so-called oracle, a quantum circuit that marks the quantum state corresponding to the desired value. In this work we present a classical algorithm that builds an oracle that performs a less-than operation, marking states representing natural numbers smaller than a given one. Results are shown to prove its functionality. This lessthan oracle implementation works on any number of qubits and does not require any ancilla qubits. Regarding depth, the proposed implementation is compared with Qiskit automatic method, Diagonal. We show that the depth of our less-than oracle implementation is always lower. In addition, a comparison with another method for oracle generation in terms of gate count is also conducted to prove the efficiency of our method. The result presented here is part of a research work that aims to achieve reusable quantum operations that can be composed to perform more complex ones.
Grover's search algorithm was originally proposed for circuit-based quantum computers. A crucial part of it is to query an oracle -- a black-box unitary operation. Generation of this oracle is formally beyond the original algorithm design. Here, we propose a realization of Grover's oracle for a large class of searching problems using a quantum annealing step. The time of this step grows only logarithmically with the size of the database. This suggests an efficient path to application of Grover's algorithm to practically important problems, such as finding the ground state of a Hamiltonian with a spectral gap over its ground state.
Context: Grover's algorithm is a powerful tool in the realm of quantum computing because it offers exponential speedup over classical linear searching for unstructured / unsorted search problems. However, it is challenging to construct efficient and scalable circuits for a multi-input control gate in the algorithm, particularly with a huge number of qubit inputs. Problem: Traditional circuit construction methods often require manual composition for the multi-input gate from basic quantum gates, which can be time consuming and error prone, thus hindering practical implementation. Moreover, the number of simple gates in the composition grows exponentially with the addition of each qubit. Method: This research provides an approach to recursively generate the oracle using Toffoli gates as the fundamental units to enhance scalability and reusability while maintaining effectiveness. The methodology leverages IBM Qiskit and Quantum Lab to simulate quantum computation to prove the practicality and feasibility. Result: The findings from the experiments between recursively and non-recursively generated circuits suggest that our recursive approach can offer comparable accuracy and computational complexity compared to the non-recursive approach. However, it tends to require a larger number of basic quantum gates due to a lack of circuit optimization. Conclusion: The results showcase the applicability of utilizing recursion as a speedy and economical alternative to generate circuits when implementing the Grover's algorithm. It not only presents potential scalability benefits, but also creates an avenue for further research on test verification and performance improvement to the computing community when running in actual quantum hardware.
Grover’s algorithm harnesses the power of quantum computing to swiftly locate specific elements in an unstructured database, outperforming classical computers in tasks like database searching. This algorithm capitalizes on the unique ability of qubits to be in both 0 and 1 states simultaneously (superposition), allowing it to scan the entire search space at once. It then boosts the probability of the target element, making it more prominent. While the foundational concepts of Grover’s algorithm are well-documented, practical implementation using quantum operators, especially for large search spaces, remains less explored beyond basic examples with a small number of qubits. Existing general synthesis techniques often involve numerous operators or are time-consuming. Our proposed methods specifically address the amplitude-amplification component of Grover’s algorithm for any size of search space. These methods detail the required types and quantities of qubits and operators, emphasizing minimal usage and efficient assembly. Developed and evaluated in Python, our methods consistently identified target elements with over 95% accuracy and achieved configurations comparably compact as those in the existing literature but at a faster pace. We anticipate that these methods facilitate practical implementations of Grover’s algorithm across various domains.