State succinctness of two-way finite automata with quantum and classical states

{\it Two-way quantum automata with quantum and classical states} (2QCFA) were introduced by Ambainis and Watrous in 2002. In this paper we study state succinctness of 2QCFA. For any $m\in {\mathbb{Z}}^+$ and any $\epsilon<1/2$, we show that: {enumerate} there is a promise problem $A^{eq}(m)$ which can be solved by a 2QCFA with one-sided error $\epsilon$ in a polynomial expected running time with a constant number (that depends neither on $m$ nor on $\varepsilon$) of quantum states and $\mathbf{O}(\log{\frac{1}{\epsilon})}$ classical states, whereas the sizes of the corresponding {\it deterministic finite automata} (DFA), {\it two-way nondeterministic finite automata} (2NFA) and polynomial expected running time {\it two-way probabilistic finite automata} (2PFA) are at least $2m+2$, $\sqrt{\log{m}}$, and $\sqrt[3]{(\log m)/b}$, respectively; there exists a language $L^{twin}(m)=\{wcw| w\in\{a,b\}^*\}$ over the alphabet $\Sigma=\{a,b,c\}$ which can be recognized by a 2QCFA with one-sided error $\epsilon$ in an exponential expected running time with a constant number of quantum states and $\mathbf{O}(\log{\frac{1}{\epsilon})}$ classical states, whereas the sizes of the corresponding DFA, 2NFA and polynomial expected running time 2PFA are at least $2^m$, $\sqrt{m}$, and $\sqrt[3]{m/b}$, respectively; {enumerate} where $b$ is a constant.Comment: 26pages, comments and suggestions are welcom

On the state complexity of semi-quantum finite automata

Some of the most interesting and important results concerning quantum finite automata are those showing that they can recognize certain languages with (much) less resources than corresponding classical finite automata \cite{Amb98,Amb09,AmYa11,Ber05,Fre09,Mer00,Mer01,Mer02,Yak10,ZhgQiu112,Zhg12}. This paper shows three results of such a type that are stronger in some sense than other ones because (a) they deal with models of quantum automata with very little quantumness (so-called semi-quantum one- and two-way automata with one qubit memory only); (b) differences, even comparing with probabilistic classical automata, are bigger than expected; (c) a trade-off between the number of classical and quantum basis states needed is demonstrated in one case and (d) languages (or the promise problem) used to show main results are very simple and often explored ones in automata theory or in communication complexity, with seemingly little structure that could be utilized.Comment: 19 pages. We improve (make stronger) the results in section

Succinctness of two-way probabilistic and quantum finite automata

We prove that two-way probabilistic and quantum finite automata (2PFA's and 2QFA's) can be considerably more concise than both their one-way versions (1PFA's and 1QFA's), and two-way nondeterministic finite automata (2NFA's). For this purpose, we demonstrate several infinite families of regular languages which can be recognized with some fixed probability greater than ${1/2}$ by just tuning the transition amplitudes of a 2QFA (and, in one case, a 2PFA) with a constant number of states, whereas the sizes of the corresponding 1PFA's, 1QFA's and 2NFA's grow without bound. We also show that 2QFA's with mixed states can support highly efficient probability amplification. The weakest known model of computation where quantum computers recognize more languages with bounded error than their classical counterparts is introduced.Comment: A new version, 21 pages, late

Implications of quantum automata for contextuality

We construct zero-error quantum finite automata (QFAs) for promise problems which cannot be solved by bounded-error probabilistic finite automata (PFAs). Here is a summary of our results: - There is a promise problem solvable by an exact two-way QFA in exponential expected time, but not by any bounded-error sublogarithmic space probabilistic Turing machine (PTM). - There is a promise problem solvable by an exact two-way QFA in quadratic expected time, but not by any bounded-error $o(\log \log n)$-space PTMs in polynomial expected time. The same problem can be solvable by a one-way Las Vegas (or exact two-way) QFA with quantum head in linear (expected) time. - There is a promise problem solvable by a Las Vegas realtime QFA, but not by any bounded-error realtime PFA. The same problem can be solvable by an exact two-way QFA in linear expected time but not by any exact two-way PFA. - There is a family of promise problems such that each promise problem can be solvable by a two-state exact realtime QFAs, but, there is no such bound on the number of states of realtime bounded-error PFAs solving the members this family. Our results imply that there exist zero-error quantum computational devices with a \emph{single qubit} of memory that cannot be simulated by any finite memory classical computational model. This provides a computational perspective on results regarding ontological theories of quantum mechanics \cite{Hardy04}, \cite{Montina08}. As a consequence we find that classical automata based simulation models \cite{Kleinmann11}, \cite{Blasiak13} are not sufficiently powerful to simulate quantum contextuality. We conclude by highlighting the interplay between results from automata models and their application to developing a general framework for quantum contextuality.Comment: 22 page