Renato Portugal – författare

This book addresses an interesting area of quantum computation called quantum walks, which play an important role in building quantum algorithms, in particular search algorithms. Quantum walks are the quantum analogue of classical random walks.

It is known that quantum computers have great power for searching unsorted databases. This power extends to many kinds of searches, particularly to the problem of finding a specific location in a spatial layout, which can be modeled by a graph. The goal is to find a specific node knowing that the particle uses the edges to jump from one node to the next.

This book is self-contained with main topics that include:

The reader will benefit from the pedagogical aspects of the book, learning faster and with more ease than would be possible from the primary research literature. Exercises and references further deepen the reader''s understanding, and guidelines for the use of computer programs to simulate the evolution of quantum walks are also provided.

The revised edition of this book offers an extended overview of quantum walks and explains their role in building quantum algorithms, in particular search algorithms.

Updated throughout, the book focuses on core topics including Grover''s algorithm and the most important quantum walk models, such as the coined, continuous-time, and Szedgedy''s quantum walk models. There is a new chapter describing the staggered quantum walk model. The chapter on spatial search algorithms has been rewritten to offer a more comprehensive approach and a new chapter describing the element distinctness algorithm has been added. There is a new appendix on graph theory highlighting the importance of graph theory to quantum walks.

As before, the reader will benefit from the pedagogical elements of the book, which include exercises and references to deepen the reader''s understanding, and guidelines for the use of computer programs to simulate the evolution of quantum walks.

Review of the first edition:

“The book is nicely written, the concepts are introduced naturally, and many meaningful connections between them are highlighted. The author proposes a series of exercises that help the reader get some working experience with the presented concepts, facilitating a better understanding. Each chapter ends with a discussion of further references, pointing the reader to major results on the topics presented in the respective chapter.” - Florin Manea, zbMATH.