Spatial Search on Graphs with Multiple Targets using Flip-flop Quantum Walk

Abstract

We analyse the eigenvalue and eigenvector structure of the flip-flop quantum walk on regular graphs, explicitly demonstrating how it is quadratically faster than the classical random walk. Then we use it in a controlled spatial search algorithm with multiple target states, and determine the oracle complexity as a function of the spectral gap and the number of target states. The oracle complexity is optimal as a function of the graph size and the number of target states, when the spectral gap of the adjacency matrix is $\Theta(1)$. It is also optimal for spatial search on $D>4$ dimensional hypercubic lattices. Otherwise it matches the best result available in the literature, with a much simpler algorithm. Our results also yield bounds on the classical hitting time of random walks on regular graphs, which may be of independent interest.