Quantum search with multiple walk steps per oracle query

Abstract

We identify a key difference between quantum search by discrete- and continuous-time quantum walks: a discrete-time walk typically performs one walk step per oracle query, whereas a continuous-time walk can effectively perform multiple walk steps per query while only counting query time. As a result, we show that continuous-time quantum walks can outperform their discrete-time counterparts, even though both achieve quadratic speedups over their corresponding classical random walks. To provide greater equity, we allow the discrete-time quantum walk to also take multiple walk steps per oracle query while only counting queries. Then it matches the continuous-time algorithm's runtime, but such that it is a cubic speedup over its corresponding classical random walk. This yields the first example of a greater-than-quadratic speedup for quantum search over its corresponding classical random walk.