Improved quantum backtracking algorithms using effective resistance estimates
Bibliographic record
Abstract
We investigate quantum backtracking algorithms of the type introduced by Montanaro (Montanaro, arXiv:1509.02374). These algorithms explore trees of unknown structure and in certain settings exponentially outperform their classical counterparts. Some of the previous work focused on obtaining a quantum advantage for trees in which a unique marked vertex is promised to exist. We remove this restriction by recharacterizing the problem in terms of the effective resistance of the search space. In this paper, we present a generalization of one of Montanaro's algorithms to trees containing $k$ marked vertices, where $k$ is not necessarily known a priori. Our approach involves using amplitude estimation to determine a near-optimal weighting of a diffusion operator, which can then be applied to prepare a superposition state with support only on marked vertices and ancestors thereof. By repeatedly sampling this state and updating the input vertex, a marked vertex is reached in a logarithmic number of steps. The algorithm thereby achieves the conjectured bound of $\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{\mathcal{O}}(\sqrt{T{R}_{\mathrm{max}}})$ for finding a single marked vertex and $\stackrel{\ifmmode \tilde{}\else \~{}\fi{}}{\mathcal{O}}(k\sqrt{T{R}_{\mathrm{max}}})$ for finding all $k$ marked vertices, where $T$ is an upper bound on the tree size and ${R}_{\mathrm{max}}$ is the maximum effective resistance encountered by the algorithm. This constitutes a speedup over Montanaro's original procedure in both the case of finding one and the case of finding multiple marked vertices in an arbitrary tree.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.009 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.006 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".