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    Efficient simulation of Szegedy quantum walk formulations and algorithms

    Sergio A. Ortega1,* and Daniel K. Park1,2,3,†

    • 1Department of Statistics and Data Science, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea
    • 2Department of Applied Statistics, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea
    • 3Department of Quantum Information, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea

    • *Contact author: s.a.ortega@yonsei.ac.kr
    • †Contact author: dkd.park@yonsei.ac.kr

    Phys. Rev. A 114, 052410 – Published 3 November, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/ktmv-xv6h

    Abstract

    Quantum walks provide a versatile framework for quantum algorithms across a wide range of applications. We develop efficient classical simulation methods for Szegedy quantum walks that avoid explicit construction of the full unitary evolution operator. Unlike previous approaches restricted to a particular walk formulation, our framework is built from fundamental update and reflection operators, enabling the simulation of a broader class of Szegedy walk formulations. We further extend these methods to phase-estimation-based algorithms coupled to the walk, including implementations suitable for large sparse graphs. The resulting methods achieve optimal O(N2) complexity for dense graphs with N nodes. For sparse graphs, the computational cost scales linearly with the number of edges, which is O(N) in many cases. We implement the framework in the Python package sqwlib and illustrate its capabilities through simulations of representative algorithms, including quantum simulated annealing and quantum search on graphs. These results provide a practical tool for studying Szegedy-walk-based algorithms numerically beyond purely analytical treatments.

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