Extension To Space With Multiple Targets
If, instead of 1 matching entry, there are k matching entries, the same algorithm works but the number of iterations must be π(N/k)1/2/4 instead of πN1/2/4. There are several ways to handle the case if k is unknown. For example, one could run Grover's algorithm several times, with
iterations. For any k, one of iterations will find a matching entry with a sufficiently high probability. The total number of iterations is at most
which is still O(N1/2). It can be shown that this could be improved. If the number of marked items is k, where k is unknown, there is an algorithm that finds the solution in queries. This fact is used in order to solve the collision problem.
Read more about this topic: Grover's Algorithm
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