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Algorithms · PromiseBQP-complete problem

Quadratically signed weight enumerators

A quadratically signed weight enumerator is the sum S(A, B, x, y) = Σ (−1)^(bᵀBb) x^|b| y^(n−|b|) over the 0/1 vectors b with Ab = 0. Given that the diagonal of A is the identity, that k and l are positive integers, and a promise that |S(A, lwtr(A), k, l)| is at least (k² + l²)^(n/2)/2, determine the sign of S.

Attested & literatureUpdated

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  • Record typeLiterature reference
  • Speedup class (secondary source)Superpolynomial
  • Primary source on the speedupNot stated by the primary source — the full text of arXiv:quant-ph/9909094 — abstract, sections I through V and appendix A. The paper's claim is a polynomial-equivalence and BQP-completeness result, not a speedup: an oracle for the sign problem makes classical probabilistic computation as powerful as quantum computation. No statement anywhere compares a quantum algorithm's cost with a classical algorithm's cost for a shared task. was read and makes no such claim
  • Reported costNot stated by the sources read
  • Papers1

A quadratically signed weight enumerator is the sum S(A, B, x, y) = Σ (−1)^(bᵀBb) x^|b| y^(n−|b|) over the 0/1 vectors b with Ab = 0. Given that the diagonal of A is the identity, that k and l are positive integers, and a promise that |S(A, lwtr(A), k, l)| is at least (k² + l²)^(n/2)/2, determine the sign of S. Knill and Laflamme expand a quantum circuit's amplitude by multiplying out its gate sequence, writing each gate as (4 + 3σ̃)/5 so that the product becomes a sum over 0/1 vectors with signs given by a quadratic form. That sum is then recognized as an instance of the quadratically signed weight enumerator above. The two directions follow: an oracle deciding the sign of such a sum lets a classical probabilistic machine simulate a quantum computer, and conversely a quantum computer can decide the sign under the promise, so the problem is BQP-complete. A more restricted variant is shown to be solvable by the one-bit model of quantum computation, in which only a single qubit is initialized and the rest of the register is maximally mixed. The paper is a bridge between quantum computation and a purely combinatorial quantity, not a faster way of computing anything.

References

  • Quantum Computation and Quadratically Signed Weight Enumerators

    E. Knill, R. Laflamme · 1999

    Primary source. Consult it for the expansion of a circuit amplitude into a signed sum over 0/1 vectors, for the exact promise the completeness results are stated under, and for the authors' own remark in the conclusion that this promise may be difficult to verify — which is the reason this record carries no complexity and makes no speedup claim.

Attested & literature
  • Peer-reviewed paper
Method
Curation only. The problem statement was recorded from the literature; the speedup class is checked against the record's own primary paper, which does not state it; the primary reference's title, authors and submission year were read from its arXiv abs page; the complexity claim was taken from a clause of that paper's abstract (The source states no complexity bound for this record, because its results are equivalence and completeness theorems rather than an algorithm with a runtime. The only asymptotic figures in the text are internal steps: section III, proof of Theorem 7 — "By using binary search on x, the desired probability can be determined to within O(ǫ/N) in O(log(N/ǫ)) queries" — and section IV — "these gates can be approximated to within O(ǫ/N) using the standard ones with polylog(N/ǫ) overhead in gates". Read for this: the abstract, sections I through V and appendix A.). No circuit was constructed, simulated or run.
Result
Pass · the record's problem, speedup class and primary reference agree with the two sources named above.
Caveat
This is a literature record: nothing was constructed, compiled, simulated or run, and no weight enumerator was evaluated here. The Zoo files this entry as a superpolynomial speedup; the paper it cites claims no speedup at all, and states a polynomial equivalence between quantum computation and classical probabilistic computation given an oracle for this sum. Nothing here should be read as a quantum algorithm that beats a classical one. The completeness results are stated for promise problems, and the authors themselves name that as a disadvantage relative to other BQP-hard problems, observing that factoring and discrete logarithm have the advantage of not requiring a potentially difficult to verify promise — so an instance of this problem is not obviously one you can check you are allowed to hand to the algorithm. Two questions are left open in the paper: whether the converse of the one-bit-model theorem holds, and whether a simulation theorem analogous to the main one holds for the one-bit model. The record therefore states no complexity rather than borrowing a figure from an internal step.
Quantum Computation and Quadratically Signed Weight Enumerators ↗
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curated reference
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weight enumeratorbqp-completeone-bit modelpromise problemising partition function

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