Treasure Hunt in Anonymous Graphs with Quantum Pebbles by Oblivious Agents

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gaur, Gaurav, Gorain, Barun, Singh, Rishi Ranjan, Gaur, Daya
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866911136300924928
author Gaur, Gaurav
Gorain, Barun
Singh, Rishi Ranjan
Gaur, Daya
author_facet Gaur, Gaurav
Gorain, Barun
Singh, Rishi Ranjan
Gaur, Daya
contents We investigate the problem of finding a static treasure in anonymous graphs using oblivious agents and introduce a novel approach that leverages quantum information. In anonymous graphs, vertices are unlabelled, indistinguishable, and edges are locally labelled with port numbers. Agents typically rely on stationary classical pebbles placed by an oracle to guide their search. However, this classical approach is constrained by limited information transmission and high traversal complexity. Classical pebbles are not sufficient for search if the agents are oblivious. We propose the first use of quantum pebbles for search in anonymous graphs. Quantum pebbles periodically emit qubits in a fixed quantum state. Each pebble encodes the port number to the next node using a unique quantum state. The agent determines the correct path by performing measurements in multiple bases, exploiting the probabilistic nature of quantum measurement to distinguish states. We show that this strategy enables an oblivious agent to locate the treasure in $D$ steps using $D$ quantum pebbles, where $D$ is the length of the shortest path between the starting point and the treasure. Moreover, only $O((\log D + \log Δ)/(\log 1/δ))$ measurements per node are required to ensure high success probability in a graph with maximum degree $Δ$ where $δ= \cos^2(\fracπ{2Δ})$. We propose the use of quantum information as a guidance mechanism in anonymous graph search. We demonstrate that quantum pebbles can not only emulate the functionality of classical pebbles but can do so with improved efficiency, offering a promising direction for future quantum-enhanced distributed algorithms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_02909
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Treasure Hunt in Anonymous Graphs with Quantum Pebbles by Oblivious Agents
Gaur, Gaurav
Gorain, Barun
Singh, Rishi Ranjan
Gaur, Daya
Quantum Physics
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Data Structures and Algorithms
Emerging Technologies
We investigate the problem of finding a static treasure in anonymous graphs using oblivious agents and introduce a novel approach that leverages quantum information. In anonymous graphs, vertices are unlabelled, indistinguishable, and edges are locally labelled with port numbers. Agents typically rely on stationary classical pebbles placed by an oracle to guide their search. However, this classical approach is constrained by limited information transmission and high traversal complexity. Classical pebbles are not sufficient for search if the agents are oblivious. We propose the first use of quantum pebbles for search in anonymous graphs. Quantum pebbles periodically emit qubits in a fixed quantum state. Each pebble encodes the port number to the next node using a unique quantum state. The agent determines the correct path by performing measurements in multiple bases, exploiting the probabilistic nature of quantum measurement to distinguish states. We show that this strategy enables an oblivious agent to locate the treasure in $D$ steps using $D$ quantum pebbles, where $D$ is the length of the shortest path between the starting point and the treasure. Moreover, only $O((\log D + \log Δ)/(\log 1/δ))$ measurements per node are required to ensure high success probability in a graph with maximum degree $Δ$ where $δ= \cos^2(\fracπ{2Δ})$. We propose the use of quantum information as a guidance mechanism in anonymous graph search. We demonstrate that quantum pebbles can not only emulate the functionality of classical pebbles but can do so with improved efficiency, offering a promising direction for future quantum-enhanced distributed algorithms.
title Treasure Hunt in Anonymous Graphs with Quantum Pebbles by Oblivious Agents
topic Quantum Physics
Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing
Data Structures and Algorithms
Emerging Technologies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.02909