Quantum walks with atoms offer a quadratic speedup

Gabriel Almeida, Raul Santos, Lara Janiurek and Yasser Omar detail a new method for implementing quantum walks on complex networks using arrays of Rydberg atoms. The researchers propose an efficient algorithm for constructing the tessellations necessary for these staggered quantum walks, using the scalability, reconfigurable connectivity and native multi-qubit gates inherent to Rydberg atom platforms. This work demonstrates performance consistent with a quadratic speedup in spatial search algorithms, bringing quantum solutions closer to practical use for network problems in fields like optimization and materials science. Rydberg atoms offer a pathway to quantum walks on networks previously…