Perfect zero knowledge for quantum multiprover interactive proofs

In this work we consider the interplay between multiprover interactive proofs, quantum entanglement, and zero knowledge proofs - notions that are central pillars of complexity theory, quantum information and cryptography. In particular, we study the relationship between the complexity class MIP$^*$, the set of languages decidable by multiprover interactive proofs with quantumly entangled provers, and the class PZKMIP$^*$, which is the set of languages decidable by MIP$^*$ protocols that furthermore possess the perfect zero knowledge property. Our main result is that the two classes are equal, i.e., MIP$^* =$ PZKMIP$^*$. This result provides a quantum analogue of the celebrated result of Ben-Or, Goldwasser, Kilian, and Wigderson (STOC 1988) who show that MIP $=$ PZKMIP (in other words, all classical multiprover interactive protocols can be made zero knowledge). We prove our result by showing that every MIP$^*$ protocol can be efficiently transformed into an equivalent zero knowledge MIP$^*$ protocol in a manner that preserves the completeness-soundness gap. Combining our transformation with previous results by Slofstra (Forum of Mathematics, Pi 2019) and Fitzsimons, Ji, Vidick and Yuen (STOC 2019), we obtain the corollary that all co-recursively enumerable languages (which include undecidable problems as well as all decidable problems) have zero knowledge MIP$^*$ protocols with vanishing promise gap

A Complete Problem for Statistical Zero Knowledge

We present the first complete problem for SZK, the class of (promise) problems possessing statistical zero-knowledge proofs (against an honest verifier). The problem, called STATISTICAL DIFFERENCE, is to decide whether two efficiently samplable distributions are either statistically close or far apart. This gives a new characterization of SZK that makes no reference to interaction or zero knowledge. We propose the use of complete problems to unify and extend the study of statistical zero knowledge. To this end, we examine several consequences of our Completeness Theorem and its proof, such as: * A way to make every (honest-verifier) statistical zero-knowledge proof very communication efficient, with the prover sending only one bit to the verifier (to achieve soundness error 1/2). * Simpler proofs of many of the previously known results about statistical zero knowledge, such as the Fortnow and Aiello--Håstad upper bounds on the complexity of SZK and Okamoto's result that SZK is closed under complement. * Strong closure properties of SZK which amount to constructing statistical zero-knowledge proofs for complex assertions built out of simpler assertions already shown to be in SZK. * New results about the various measures of "knowledge complexity," including a collapse in the hierarchy corresponding to knowledge complexity in the "hint" sense. * Algorithms for manipulating the statistical difference between efficiently samplable distributions, including transformations which "polarize" and "reverse" the statistical relationship between a pair of distributions.Engineering and Applied Science

The Round Complexity of Quantum Zero-Knowledge

We study the round complexity of zero-knowledge for QMA (the quantum analogue of NP). Assuming the quantum quasi-polynomial hardness of the learning with errors (LWE) problem, we obtain the following results: - 2-Round statistical witness indistinguishable (WI) arguments for QMA. - 4-Round statistical zero-knowledge arguments for QMA in the plain model, additionally assuming the existence of quantum fully homomorphic encryption. This is the first protocol for constant-round statistical zero-knowledge arguments for QMA. - 2-Round computational (statistical, resp.) zero-knowledge for QMA in the timing model, additionally assuming the existence of post-quantum non-parallelizing functions (time-lock puzzles, resp.). All of these protocols match the best round complexity known for the corresponding protocols for NP with post-quantum security. Along the way, we introduce and construct the notions of sometimes-extractable oblivious transfer and sometimes-simulatable zero-knowledge, which might be of independent interest

On the Randomness Complexity of Interactive Proofs and Statistical Zero-Knowledge Proofs

We study the randomness complexity of interactive proofs and zero-knowledge proofs. In particular, we ask whether it is possible to reduce the randomness complexity, R, of the verifier to be comparable with the number of bits, C_V, that the verifier sends during the interaction. We show that such randomness sparsification is possible in several settings. Specifically, unconditional sparsification can be obtained in the non-uniform setting (where the verifier is modelled as a circuit), and in the uniform setting where the parties have access to a (reusable) common-random-string (CRS). We further show that constant-round uniform protocols can be sparsified without a CRS under a plausible worst-case complexity-theoretic assumption that was used previously in the context of derandomization. All the above sparsification results preserve statistical-zero knowledge provided that this property holds against a cheating verifier. We further show that randomness sparsification can be applied to honest-verifier statistical zero-knowledge (HVSZK) proofs at the expense of increasing the communication from the prover by R-F bits, or, in the case of honest-verifier perfect zero-knowledge (HVPZK) by slowing down the simulation by a factor of 2^{R-F}. Here F is a new measure of accessible bit complexity of an HVZK proof system that ranges from 0 to R, where a maximal grade of R is achieved when zero-knowledge holds against a "semi-malicious" verifier that maliciously selects its random tape and then plays honestly. Consequently, we show that some classical HVSZK proof systems, like the one for the complete Statistical-Distance problem (Sahai and Vadhan, JACM 2003) admit randomness sparsification with no penalty. Along the way we introduce new notions of pseudorandomness against interactive proof systems, and study their relations to existing notions of pseudorandomness

Spatial isolation implies zero knowledge even in a quantum world

Zero knowledge plays a central role in cryptography and complexity. The seminal work of Ben-Or et al. (STOC 1988) shows that zero knowledge can be achieved unconditionally for any language in NEXP, as long as one is willing to make a suitable physical assumption: if the provers are spatially isolated, then they can be assumed to be playing independent strategies. Quantum mechanics, however, tells us that this assumption is unrealistic, because spatially-isolated provers could share a quantum entangled state and realize a non-local correlated strategy. The MIP* model captures this setting. In this work we study the following question: does spatial isolation still suffice to unconditionally achieve zero knowledge even in the presence of quantum entanglement? We answer this question in the affirmative: we prove that every language in NEXP has a 2-prover zero knowledge interactive proof that is sound against entangled provers; that is, NEXP ⊆ ZK-MIP*. Our proof consists of constructing a zero knowledge interactive PCP with a strong algebraic structure, and then lifting it to the MIP* model. This lifting relies on a new framework that builds on recent advances in low-degree testing against entangled strategies, and clearly separates classical and quantum tools. Our main technical contribution is the development of new algebraic techniques for obtaining unconditional zero knowledge; this includes a zero knowledge variant of the celebrated sumcheck protocol, a key building block in many probabilistic proof systems. A core component of our sumcheck protocol is a new algebraic commitment scheme, whose analysis relies on algebraic complexity theory

Spatial isolation implies zero knowledge even in a quantum world

Zero knowledge plays a central role in cryptography and complexity. The seminal work of Ben-Or et al. (STOC 1988) shows that zero knowledge can be achieved unconditionally for any language in NEXP, as long as one is willing to make a suitable physical assumption: if the provers are spatially isolated, then they can be assumed to be playing independent strategies. Quantum mechanics, however, tells us that this assumption is unrealistic, because spatially-isolated provers could share a quantum entangled state and realize a non-local correlated strategy. The MIP* model captures this setting. In this work we study the following question: does spatial isolation still suffice to unconditionally achieve zero knowledge even in the presence of quantum entanglement? We answer this question in the affirmative: we prove that every language in NEXP has a 2-prover zero knowledge interactive proof that is sound against entangled provers; that is, NEXP ⊆ ZK-MIP*. Our proof consists of constructing a zero knowledge interactive PCP with a strong algebraic structure, and then lifting it to the MIP* model. This lifting relies on a new framework that builds on recent advances in low-degree testing against entangled strategies, and clearly separates classical and quantum tools. Our main technical contribution is the development of new algebraic techniques for obtaining unconditional zero knowledge; this includes a zero knowledge variant of the celebrated sumcheck protocol, a key building block in many probabilistic proof systems. A core component of our sumcheck protocol is a new algebraic commitment scheme, whose analysis relies on algebraic complexity theory