Explaining Grover's algorithm with a colony of ants: a pedagogical model for making quantum technology comprehensible

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Schalkers, Merel A, Dankers, Kamiel, Wimmer, Michael, Vermaas, Pieter
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Schalkers, Merel A
Dankers, Kamiel
Wimmer, Michael
Vermaas, Pieter
author_facet Schalkers, Merel A
Dankers, Kamiel
Wimmer, Michael
Vermaas, Pieter
contents The rapid growth of quantum technologies requires an increasing number of physicists, computer scientists, and engineers who can work on these technologies. For educating these professionals, quantum mechanics should stop being perceived as incomprehensible. In this paper we contribute to this change by presenting a pedagogical model for explaining Grover's search algorithm, a prominent quantum algorithm. This model visualizes the three main steps of Grover's algorithm and, in addition to explaining the algorithm itself, introduces three key principles of quantum mechanics: superposition, interference, and state collapse at measurement. The pedagogical model, visualized by a video, is called the "Ant Colony Maze model". It represents the search problems as finding the exit of a maze, and visualizes Grover's search algorithm as a strategy by which a colony of ants finds that exit.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_00014
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Explaining Grover's algorithm with a colony of ants: a pedagogical model for making quantum technology comprehensible
Schalkers, Merel A
Dankers, Kamiel
Wimmer, Michael
Vermaas, Pieter
Popular Physics
Quantum Physics
The rapid growth of quantum technologies requires an increasing number of physicists, computer scientists, and engineers who can work on these technologies. For educating these professionals, quantum mechanics should stop being perceived as incomprehensible. In this paper we contribute to this change by presenting a pedagogical model for explaining Grover's search algorithm, a prominent quantum algorithm. This model visualizes the three main steps of Grover's algorithm and, in addition to explaining the algorithm itself, introduces three key principles of quantum mechanics: superposition, interference, and state collapse at measurement. The pedagogical model, visualized by a video, is called the "Ant Colony Maze model". It represents the search problems as finding the exit of a maze, and visualizes Grover's search algorithm as a strategy by which a colony of ants finds that exit.
title Explaining Grover's algorithm with a colony of ants: a pedagogical model for making quantum technology comprehensible
topic Popular Physics
Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.00014