← Atlas

Algorithms · Quantum query algorithm

Commutativity testing of a matrix set by quantum walk

Given oracle access to k matrices of size n × n, where a query names a matrix index x together with a pair of indices i, j and returns the ij entry of the x-th matrix, decide whether all k of the matrices commute with one another.

Attested & literatureUpdated

View frozen graph

A small worked example, computed in your browser. It is not a result from this record's papers.

A discrete-time quantum walk on a 4-cycle

One coin qubit, two position qubits (4 positions on a cycle), 3 steps starting at position 0.

q0q1q2Step 1 of 3 · Quantum walk step (4-cycle)Quantum walk step (4-cycle)Step 2 of 3 · Quantum walk step (4-cycle)Quantum walk step (4-cycle)Step 3 of 3 · Quantum walk step (4-cycle)Quantum walk step (4-cycle)

Step 1 of 3 · Quantum walk step (4-cycle)

Probability of each outcome after this step

  • 01150%
  • 11050%
  1. Flips the coin with a Hadamard, then shifts the position by +1 if the coin is |1⟩ or -1 mod 4 if the coin is |0⟩; with the coin in superposition, both shifts happen at once, entangling coin and position.

    Probability leaves the outcome it was on and appears on 2 entirely different ones — not one outcome is populated both before and after. This is the step that entangles the qubits: from here on no single qubit has a state of its own, only the register as a whole does.

  2. The same coin flip and shift, applied again.

    Probability leaves all 2 outcomes it was on and appears on 4 entirely different ones — not one outcome is populated both before and after.

  3. The same coin flip and shift, a third time.

    Probability leaves all 4 outcomes it was on and appears on 2 entirely different ones — not one outcome is populated both before and after. The entanglement comes apart here: each qubit has a state of its own again.

Readout The position always reads 3, for either value of the coin: constructive interference on this small cycle concentrates the walk onto a single position after exactly 3 steps.

Open in Studio
  • Record typeLiterature reference
  • Speedup class (secondary source)Polynomial
  • Primary source on the speedupNot checked against the primary source yet
  • Reported costO(k^(4/5) n^(9/5)) oracle queries to decide whether all k of the n × n matrices commute; the Zoo states that classically the task requires Ω(k n²) queries. The abstract separately states a lower bound of Ω(k^(1/2) n) for the problem, obtained with Ambainis's lower-bounding technique, so the two bounds the abstract gives do not meet.
  • Papers1

Nobody has reviewed this record for gaps yet.

References

  • Quantum Algorithm for Commutativity Testing of a Matrix Set

    Yuki Kelly Itakura · 2005

    Primary source: it applies Szegedy's theorem relating the hitting time of a classical random walk to that of a quantum walk to the commutativity of a matrix set, states the O(k^(4/5) n^(9/5)) algorithm quoted in the complexity field together with a lower bound of Ω(k^(1/2) n), and compares Szegedy's walk against Ambainis's on the triangle finding and matrix verification problems. Consult it for the walk the upper bound is built on and for which similar problems the generalized technique is claimed to cover.

Attested & literature
  • Peer-reviewed paper
Method
Curation only. The problem statement was recorded from the literature; the speedup class is not yet checked against the record's own primary paper; the primary reference's title, authors and submission year were read from its arXiv abs page; the complexity claim was taken from a clause of that paper's abstract (abstract of arXiv:quant-ph/0509206: "We give an O(k^{4/5}n^{9/5}) algorithm as well as a lower bound of Omega(k^{1/2}n)", with the technique named earlier in the same abstract, "We also present Ambainis's method of lower bounding technique (quant-ph/0002066) to obtain a lower bound for this problem"; Quantum Algorithm Zoo entry "Matrix Commutativity" (LaTeX rendered into Unicode): "this can be achieved on a quantum computer using O(k^(4/5)n^(9/5)) queries, whereas classically this requires Ω( k n² ) queries."). No circuit was constructed, simulated or run.
Result
Pass · the record's problem, speedup class and primary reference agree with the two sources named above.
Caveat
This is a literature record: no oracle was instantiated, no circuit was built, compiled, simulated or run, and no set of matrices was tested for commutativity. All three figures above count oracle queries in the black-box model, so gate count, circuit depth, the memory the walk needs in order to hold matrix entries and the constant factors hidden by O(·) and Ω(·) are all outside this record. The paper's upper and lower bounds do not meet — O(k^(4/5) n^(9/5)) against Ω(k^(1/2) n) — so nothing here establishes that the algorithm is optimal, and because both expressions carry two free parameters, which term dominates depends on how k and n are related. The Zoo's Ω(k n²) is the Zoo's own statement about the classical query cost and is a different claim from the paper's Ω(k^(1/2) n); the quoted clause of the abstract does not name the model its lower bound is stated for, attributing only the technique to Ambainis. The generalization the abstract claims to "a broader range of similar problems" is not delimited here, and the comparison of Szegedy's walk with Ambainis's on triangle finding and matrix verification is reported, not reproduced.
Quantum Algorithm for Commutativity Testing of a Matrix Set ↗
Kind
curated reference
Reviewed by
Leona Quantum curation pass
License
Citation metadata only; source publication terms apply
matrix commutativityquantum walkquery complexityoracleszegedy quantization

Atlas stars stay in the public catalog. Saving this entry to your workspace starts an unstarred private copy.