1,564 research outputs found
Bounds on the Power of Constant-Depth Quantum Circuits
We show that if a language is recognized within certain error bounds by
constant-depth quantum circuits over a finite family of gates, then it is
computable in (classical) polynomial time. In particular, our results imply
EQNC^0 is contained in P, where EQNC^0 is the constant-depth analog of the
class EQP. On the other hand, we adapt and extend ideas of Terhal and
DiVincenzo (quant-ph/0205133) to show that, for any family F of quantum gates
including Hadamard and CNOT gates, computing the acceptance probabilities of
depth-five circuits over F is just as hard as computing these probabilities for
circuits over F. In particular, this implies that NQNC^0 = NQACC = NQP = coC=P
where NQNC^0 is the constant-depth analog of the class NQP. This essentially
refutes a conjecture of Green et al. that NQACC is contained in TC^0
(quant-ph/0106017)
Oracles and query lower bounds in generalised probabilistic theories
We investigate the connection between interference and computational power
within the operationally defined framework of generalised probabilistic
theories. To compare the computational abilities of different theories within
this framework we show that any theory satisfying three natural physical
principles possess a well-defined oracle model. Indeed, we prove a subroutine
theorem for oracles in such theories which is a necessary condition for the
oracle to be well-defined. The three principles are: causality (roughly, no
signalling from the future), purification (each mixed state arises as the
marginal of a pure state of a larger system), and strong symmetry existence of
non-trivial reversible transformations). Sorkin has defined a hierarchy of
conceivable interference behaviours, where the order in the hierarchy
corresponds to the number of paths that have an irreducible interaction in a
multi-slit experiment. Given our oracle model, we show that if a classical
computer requires at least n queries to solve a learning problem, then the
corresponding lower bound in theories lying at the kth level of Sorkin's
hierarchy is n/k. Hence, lower bounds on the number of queries to a quantum
oracle needed to solve certain problems are not optimal in the space of all
generalised probabilistic theories, although it is not yet known whether the
optimal bounds are achievable in general. Hence searches for higher-order
interference are not only foundationally motivated, but constitute a search for
a computational resource beyond that offered by quantum computation.Comment: 17+7 pages. Comments Welcome. Published in special issue
"Foundational Aspects of Quantum Information" in Foundations of Physic
Determining Acceptance Possibility for a Quantum Computation is Hard for PH
It is shown that determining whether a quantum computation has a non-zero probability of accepting is at least as hard as the polynomial time hierarchy. This hardness result also applies to determining in general whether a given quantum basis state appears with nonzero amplitude in a superposition, or whether a given quantum bit has positive expectation value at the end of a quantum computation
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