Quantum Search Algorithm for Binary Constant Weight Codes

Abstract: A binary constant weight code is a type of error-correcting code with a wide range of applications. The problem of finding a binary constant weight code has long been studied as a combinatorial optimization problem in coding theory. In this paper, we propose a quantum search algorithm for binary constant weight codes. Specifically, the search problem is newly formulated as a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) and Grover adaptive search (GAS) is used for providing the quadratic speedup. Focusing on the inherent structure of the problem, we derive an upper bound on the minimum of the objective function value and a lower bound on the exact number of solutions. In our algebraic analysis, it was found that this proposed algorithm is capable of reducing the number of required qubits, thus enhancing the feasibility. Additionally, our simulations demonstrated that it reduces the query complexities by 63% in the classical domain and 31% in the quantum domain. The proposed approach may be useful for other quantum search algorithms and optimization problems.