Entanglement in the Grover's Search Algorithm

Quantum Algorithms have long captured the imagination of computer scientists and physicists primarily because of the speed up achieved by them over their classical counterparts using principles of quantum mechanics. Entanglement is believed to be the primary phenomena behind this speed up. However their precise role in quantum algorithms is yet unclear. In this article, we explore the nature of entanglement in the Grover’s search algorithm. This algorithm enables searching of elements from an unstructured database quadratically faster than the best known classical algorithm. Geometric measure of entanglement has been used to quantify and analyse entanglement across iterations of the algorithm. We reveal how the entanglement varies with increase in the number of qubits and also with the number of marked or solution states. Numerically, it is seen that the behaviour of the maximum value of entanglement is monotonous with the number of qubits. Also, for a given value of the number of qubits, a change in the marked states alters the amount of entanglement. The amount of entanglement in the final state of the algorithm has been shown to depend solely on the nature of the marked states. Explicit analytical expressions are given showing the variation of entanglement with the number of iterations and the global maximum value of entanglement attained across all iterations of the algorithm.