NP vs QMA_\log(2)

Abstract

Although it is believed unlikely that $\NP$-hard problems admit efficient quantum algorithms, it has been shown that a quantum verifier can solve NP-complete problems given a "short" quantum proof; more precisely, NP\subseteq QMA_{\log}(2) where QMA_{\log}(2) denotes the class of quantum Merlin-Arthur games in which there are two unentangled provers who send two logarithmic size quantum witnesses to the verifier. The inclusion NP\subseteq QMA_{\log}(2) has been proved by Blier and Tapp by stating a quantum Merlin-Arthur protocol for 3-coloring with perfect completeness and gap 1/24n^6. Moreover, Aaronson et al. have shown the above inclusion with a constant gap by considering $\widetilde{O}(\sqrt{n})$ witnesses of logarithmic size. However, we still do not know if QMA_{\log}(2) with a constant gap contains NP. In this paper, we show that 3-SAT admits a QMA_{\log}(2) protocol with the gap 1/n^{3+\epsilon}} for every constant \epsilon>0.