Again, Quantum Mechanics Defies Intuition

[Guest_Jim_*]

It really should not come as a surprise that researchers have found another way that quantum mechanics defies conventional logic. One of the possible uses for quantum computing is finding items in large data sets, because there are quantum algorithms that can search far faster than any conventional system. The structure of the data set will impact the speed of the search, but researchers at the University of California, San Diego have found that the less connected it is, the faster the quantum algorithm will go.

One would expect that if you were searching for something, the easier it is to move around, the faster you would find what you are looking for. When the researchers actually modelled this scenario though, as well as a less connected system, they found the superposition-exploiting algorithm was faster with the low-connectivity system.

Source: University of California, San Diego

[ET3D]

I'm not sure why quantum algorithms being consistent with standard linear algorithms, is considered counter-intuitive. I think that the intuition here (faster to find when there's high connectivity) is counter-intuitive.