title: Critically damped quantum search.
abstract: Although measurement and unitary processes can accomplish any quantum evolution in principle, thinking in terms of dissipation and damping can be powerful. We propose a modification of Grover's algorithm in which the idea of damping plays a natural role. Remarkably, we find that there is a critical damping value that divides between the quantum O(sqrt[N]) and classical O(N) search regimes. In addition, by allowing the damping to vary in a fashion we describe, one obtains a fixed-point quantum search algorithm in which ignorance of the number of targets increases the number of oracle queries only by a factor of 1.5.
authors.affiliation: Science Applications International Corporation, Arlington, Virginia 22203, USA.
authors.forename: Ari
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mizel