Quantum counting on the complete bipartite graph

Quantum counting is a key quantum algorithm that aims to determine the number of marked elements in a database. This algorithm is based on the quantum phase estimation algorithm and uses the evolution operator of Grover’s algorithm because its nontrivial eigenvalues are dependent on the number of marked elements. Since Grover’s algorithm can be viewed as a quantum walk on a complete graph, a natural way to extend quantum counting is to use the evolution operator of quantum-walk-based search on noncomplete graphs instead of Grover’s operator. In this paper, we explore this extension by analyzing the coined quantum walk on the complete bipartite graph with an arbitrary number of marked vertices. We show that some eigenvalues of the evolution operator depend on the number of marked vertices and using this fact we show that the quantum phase estimation can be used to obtain the number of marked vertices. The time complexity for estimating the number of marked vertices in the bipartite graph with our algorithm equates closely with that of the original quantum counting algorithm.