Quantum Mechanics Helps in Searching for a Needle in a Haystack
- 3C-404A Bell Labs, 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, New Jersey 07974 (United States)
Quantum mechanics can speed up a range of search applications over unsorted data. For example, imagine a phone directory containing N names arranged in completely random order. To find someone`s phone number with a probability of 50{percent}, any classical algorithm (whether deterministic or probabilistic) will need to access the database a minimum of 0.5N times. Quantum mechanical systems can be in a superposition of states and simultaneously examine multiple names. By properly adjusting the phases of various operations, successful computations reinforce each other while others interfere randomly. As a result, the desired phone number can be obtained in only O({radical}(N)) accesses to the database. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}
- OSTI ID:
- 549697
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 79, Issue 2; Other Information: PBD: Jul 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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