In this work we study the robustness of two modifications of quantum random walk search algorithm on hypercube. In the first previously suggested modification, on each even iteration only quantum walk is applied. And in the second, the closest neighbors of the solution are measured classically. In our approach the traversing coin is constructed by both generalized Householder reflection and an additional phase multiplier and we investigate the stability of the algorithm to deviations in those phases. We have shown that the unmodified algorithm becomes more robust when a certain relation between those phases is preserved. The first modification we study here does not lead to any change in the robustness of quantum random walk search algorithm. However, when a measurement of the first and second neighbors is included, there are some differences. The most important one, in view of our study of the robustness, is an increase in the stability of the algorithm, especially for large coin dimensions.
There has been a very large body of research on searching a marked vertex on a graph based on quantum walks, and Grover's algorithm can be regarded as a quantum walk-based search algorithm on a special graph. However, the existing quantum walk-based search algorithms suffer severely from the souffl\'e problem, which mainly means that the success probability of finding a marked vertex could shrink dramatically, even to zero, when the number of search steps is greater than the right one, thus heavily reducing the robustness and practicability of the algorithm. Surprisingly, while the souffl\'e problem of Grover's algorithm has attracted enough attention, how to address this problem for general quantum walk-based search algorithms is missing in the literature. Here we initiate the study of overcoming the souffl\'e problem for quantum walk-based search algorithms by presenting a quantum walk-based search framework that achieves robustness without sacrificing the quantum speedup. In this framework, for any adjustable parameter $\ensuremath{\epsilon}$, the quantum algorithm can find a marked vertex on an
N-vertex complete bipartite graph with probability at least $1\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\epsilon}$, whenever the number of search steps
h satisfies $h\ensuremath{\ge}ln(\frac{2}{\sqrt{\ensuremath{\epsilon}}})\sqrt{N}+1$. Note that the algorithm need not know the exact number of marked vertices. Consequently, we obtain quantum search algorithms with stronger robustness and practicability.
Quantum spatial search has been widely studied with most of the study focusing on quantum walk algorithms. We show that quantum walk algorithms are extremely sensitive to systematic errors. We present a recursive algorithm which offers significant robustness to certain systematic errors. To search N items, our recursive algorithm can tolerate errors of size O(1/\sqrt{\ln N}) which is exponentially better than quantum walk algorithms for which tolerable error size is only O(\ln N/\sqrt{N}). Also, our algorithm does not need any ancilla qubit. Thus our algorithm is much easier to implement experimentally compared to quantum walk algorithms.