Efficient Quantum Algorithm for Identifying Hidden Polynomials

We consider a natural generalization of an abelian Hidden Subgroup Problem where the subgroups and their cosets correspond to graphs of linear functions over a finite field F with d elements. The hidden functions of the generalized problem are not restricted to be linear but can also be m-variate polynomial functions of total degree n>=2. The problem of identifying hidden m-variate polynomials of degree less or equal to n for fixed n and m is hard on a classical computer since Omega(sqrt{d}) black-box queries are required to guarantee a constant success probability. In contrast, we present a quantum algorithm that correctly identifies such hidden polynomials for all but a finite number of values of d with constant probability and that has a running time that is only polylogarithmic in d.Comment: 17 page

Efficient enumeration of solutions produced by closure operations

In this paper we address the problem of generating all elements obtained by the saturation of an initial set by some operations. More precisely, we prove that we can generate the closure of a boolean relation (a set of boolean vectors) by polymorphisms with a polynomial delay. Therefore we can compute with polynomial delay the closure of a family of sets by any set of "set operations": union, intersection, symmetric difference, subsets, supersets $\dots$). To do so, we study the $Membership_{\mathcal{F}}$ problem: for a set of operations $\mathcal{F}$, decide whether an element belongs to the closure by $\mathcal{F}$ of a family of elements. In the boolean case, we prove that $Membership_{\mathcal{F}}$ is in P for any set of boolean operations $\mathcal{F}$. When the input vectors are over a domain larger than two elements, we prove that the generic enumeration method fails, since $Membership_{\mathcal{F}}$ is NP-hard for some $\mathcal{F}$. We also study the problem of generating minimal or maximal elements of closures and prove that some of them are related to well known enumeration problems such as the enumeration of the circuits of a matroid or the enumeration of maximal independent sets of a hypergraph. This article improves on previous works of the same authors.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure. Long version of the article arXiv:1509.05623 of the same name which appeared in STACS 2016. Final version for DMTCS journa