Quantum Interactive Proof Systems Research Articles

Secure Cloud Quantum Computing with Verification Based on Quantum Interactive Proof

In cloud quantum computing, a classical client delegate quantum computing to a remote quantum server. An important property of cloud quantum computing is the verifiability: the client can check the integrity of the server. Whether such a classical verification of quantum computing is possible or not is one of the most important open problems in quantum computing. We tackle this problem from the view point of quantum interactive proof systems. Dr Tomoyuki Morimae is part of the Quantum Information Group at the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics at Kyoto University, Japan. He leads a team which is concerned with two main research subjects: quantum supremacy and the verification of quantum computing.

Generalized Quantum Arthur--Merlin Games

This paper investigates the role of interaction and coins in public-coin quantum interactive proof systems (also called quantum Arthur-Merlin games). While prior works focused on classical public coins even in the quantum setting, the present work introduces a generalized version of quantum Arthur-Merlin games where the public coins can be quantum as well: the verifier can send not only random bits, but also halves of EPR pairs. First, it is proved that the class of two-turn quantum Arthur-Merlin games with quantum public coins, denoted qq-QAM in this paper, does not change by adding a constant number of turns of classical interactions prior to the communications of the qq-QAM proof systems. This can be viewed as a quantum analogue of the celebrated collapse theorem for AM due to Babai. To prove this collapse theorem, this paper provides a natural complete problem for qq-QAM: deciding whether the output of a given quantum circuit is close to a totally mixed state. This complete problem is on the very line of the previous studies investigating the hardness of checking the properties related to quantum circuits, and is of independent interest. It is further proved that the class qq-QAM_1 of two-turn quantum-public-coin quantum Arthur-Merlin proof systems with perfect completeness gives new bounds for standard well-studied classes of two-turn interactive proof systems. Finally, the collapse theorem above is extended to comprehensively classify the role of interaction and public coins in quantum Arthur-Merlin games: it is proved that, for any constant m>1, the class of problems having an m-turn quantum Arthur-Merlin proof system is either equal to PSPACE or equal to the class of problems having a two-turn quantum Arthur-Merlin game of a specific type, which provides a complete set of quantum analogues of Babai's collapse theorem.

Operational meaning of quantum measures of recovery

Several information measures have recently been defined which capture the notion of "recoverability." In particular, the fidelity of recovery quantifies how well one can recover a system $A$ of a tripartite quantum state, defined on systems $ABC$, by acting on system $C$ alone. The relative entropy of recovery is an associated measure in which the fidelity is replaced by relative entropy. In this paper, we provide concrete operational interpretations of the aforementioned recovery measures in terms of a computational decision problem and a hypothesis testing scenario. Specifically, we show that the fidelity of recovery is equal to the maximum probability with which a computationally unbounded quantum prover can convince a computationally bounded quantum verifier that a given quantum state is recoverable. The quantum interactive proof system giving this operational meaning requires four messages exchanged between the prover and verifier, but by forcing the prover to perform his actions in superposition, we construct a different proof system that requires only two messages. The result is that the associated decision problem is in QIP(2) and another argument establishes it as hard for QSZK (both classes contain problems believed to be difficult to solve for a quantum computer). We finally prove that the regularized relative entropy of recovery is equal to the optimal Type II error exponent when trying to distinguish many copies of a tripartite state from a recovered version of this state, such that the Type I error is constrained to be no larger than a constant.

Quantum Proofs

Quantum information and computation provide a fascinating twist on the notion of proofs in computational complexity theory. For instance, one may consider a quantum computational analogue of the complexity class \class{NP}, known as QMA, in which a quantum state plays the role of a proof (also called a certificate or witness), and is checked by a polynomial-time quantum computation. For some problems, the fact that a quantum proof state could be a superposition over exponentially many classical states appears to offer computational advantages over classical proof strings. In the interactive proof system setting, one may consider a verifier and one or more provers that exchange and process quantum information rather than classical information during an interaction for a given input string, giving rise to quantum complexity classes such as QIP, QSZK, and QMIP* that represent natural quantum analogues of IP, SZK, and MIP. While quantum interactive proof systems inherit some properties from their classical counterparts, they also possess distinct and uniquely quantum features that lead to an interesting landscape of complexity classes based on variants of this model. In this survey we provide an overview of many of the known results concerning quantum proofs, computational models based on this concept, and properties of the complexity classes they define. In particular, we discuss non-interactive proofs and the complexity class QMA, single-prover quantum interactive proof systems and the complexity class QIP, statistical zero-knowledge quantum interactive proof systems and the complexity class \class{QSZK}, and multiprover interactive proof systems and the complexity classes QMIP, QMIP*, and MIP*.

Stronger Methods of Making Quantum Interactive Proofs Perfectly Complete

This paper presents stronger methods of achieving perfect completeness in quantum interactive proofs. It is proved that any problem in QMA has a two-message quantum interactive proof system with perfect completeness and constant soundness error, where the verifier has only to send a constant number of halves of EPR pairs. This in particular implies that the class QMA is necessarily included by the class ${{QIP}_1(2)}$ of problems having two-message quantum interactive proofs with perfect completeness, which gives the first nontrivial upper bound for QMA in terms of quantum interactive proofs. It is also proved that any problem having an m-message quantum interactive proof system necessarily has an (m+1)-message quantum interactive proof system with perfect completeness for every ${m \geq 2}$. This improves the previous construction due to Kitaev and Watrous, which increases the number of messages by two to achieve perfect completeness, if not using the parallelization result.

Interactive proofs with quantum finite automata

Following an early work of Dwork and Stockmeyer on interactive proof systems whose verifiers are two-way probabilistic finite automata, the authors initiated in 2004 a study on the computational power of quantum interactive proof systems whose verifiers are particularly limited to quantum finite automata. As a follow-up to the authors' early journal publication [J. Comput. System Sci., vol. 75, pp. 255–269, 2009], we further investigate the quantum nature of interactions between provers and verifiers by studying how various restrictions on quantum interactive proof systems affect the language recognition power of the proof systems. In particular, we examine three intriguing restrictions that (i) provers always behave in a classical fashion, (ii) verifiers always reveal to provers the information on their next moves, and (iii) the number of interactions between provers and verifiers is bounded.

Constant-space quantum interactive proofs against multiple provers

We present upper and lower bounds of the computational complexity of the two-way communication model of multiple-prover quantum interactive proof systems whose verifiers are limited to measure-many two-way quantum finite automata. We prove that (i) the languages recognized by those multiple-prover systems running in expected polynomial time are exactly the ones in NEXP, the nondeterministic exponential-time complexity class, (ii) if we further require verifiers to be one-way quantum finite automata, then their associated proof systems recognize context-free languages but not beyond languages in NE, the nondeterministic linear exponential-time complexity class, and moreover, (iii) when no time bound is imposed, the proof systems become as powerful as Turing machines. The first two results answer affirmatively an open question, posed by Nishimura and Yamakami [J. Comput. System Sci. 75 (2009) 255–269], of whether multiple-prover quantum interactive proof systems are more powerful than single-prover ones. Our proofs are simple and intuitive, although they heavily rely on an earlier result on multiple-prover classical interactive proof systems of Feige and Shamir [J. Comput. System Sci. 44 (1992) 259–271].

Two-message quantum interactive proofs and the quantum separability problem

Suppose that a polynomial-time mixed-state quantum circuit, described as a sequence of local unitary interactions followed by a partial trace, generates a quantum state shared between two parties. One might then wonder, does this quantum circuit produce a state that is separable or entangled? Here, we give evidence that it is computationally hard to decide the answer to this question, even if one has access to the power of quantum computation. We begin by exhibiting a two-message quantum interactive proof system that can decide the answer to a promise version of the question. We then prove that the promise problem is hard for the class of promise problems with "quantum statistical zero knowledge" QSZK proof systems by demonstrating a polynomial-time Karp reduction from the QSZK-complete promise problem "quantum state distinguishability" to our quantum separability problem. By exploiting Knill's efficient encoding of a matrix description of a state into a description of a circuit to generate the state, we can show that our promise problem is NP-hard with respect to Cook reductions. Thus, the quantum separability problem (as phrased above) constitutes the first nontrivial promise problem decidable by a two-message quantum interactive proof system while being hard for both NP and QSZK. We also consider a variant of the problem, in which a given polynomial-time mixed-state quantum circuit accepts a quantum state as input, and the question is to decide if there is an input to this circuit which makes its output separable across some bipartite cut. We prove that this problem is a complete promise problem for the class QIP of problems decidable by quantum interactive proof systems. Finally, we show that a two-message quantum interactive proof system can also decide a multipartite generalization of the quantum separability problem.

QIP = PSPACE

This work considers the quantum interactive proof system model of computation, which is the (classical) interactive proof system model’s natural quantum computational analogue. An exact characterization of the expressive power of quantum interactive proof systems is obtained: the collection of computational problems having quantum interactive proof systems consists precisely of those problems solvable by deterministic Turing machines that use at most a polynomial amount of space (or, more succinctly, QIP = PSPACE). This characterization is proved through the use of a parallelized form of the matrix multiplicative weights update method, applied to a class of semidefinite programs that captures the computational power of quantum interactive proof systems. One striking implication of this characterization is that quantum computing provides no increase in computational power whatsoever over classical computing in the context of interactive proof systems, for it is well known that the collection of computational problems having classical interactive proof systems coincides with those problems solvable by polynomial-space computations.

Quantum Interactive Proofs with Short Messages

This paper considers three variants of quantum interactive proof systems in which short (meaning logarithmic-length) messages are exchanged between the prover and verifier. The first variant is one in which the verifier sends a short message to the prover, and the prover responds with an ordinary, or polynomial-length, message; the second variant is one in which any number of messages can be exchanged, but where the combined length of all the messages is logarithmic; and the third variant is one in which the verifier sends polynomially many random bits to the prover, who responds with a short quantum message. We prove that in all of these cases the short messages can be eliminated without changing the power of the model, so the first variant has the expressive power of QMA and the second and third variants have the expressive power of BQP. These facts are proved through the use of quantum state tomography, along with the finite quantum de Finetti theorem for the first variant.

QIP = PSPACE

The interactive proof system model of computation has been studied extensively in computational complexity theory and theoretical cryptography for more than 25 years, and has driven the development of interesting new techniques and insights in those fields. This work considers the quantum interactive proof system model, which is the classical model's natural quantum computational analog. An exact characterization of the expressive power of quantum interactive proof systems is obtained: the collection of computational problems having quantum interactive proof systems consists precisely of those problems solvable with an ordinary classical computer using at most a polynomial amount of memory (or QIP = PSPACE in complexity-theoretic terminology). One striking implication of this characterization is that it implies quantum computing provides no increase in computational power whatsoever over classical computing in the context of interactive proof systems.

On the complexity of approximating the diamond norm

The diamond norm is a norm defined over the space of quantum transformations. This norm has a natural operational interpretation: it measures how well one can distinguish between two transformations by applying them to a state of arbitrarily large dimension. This interpretation makes this norm useful in the study of quantum interactive proof systems. In this note we exhibit an efficient algorithm for computing this norm using convex programming. Independently of us, Watrous recently showed a different algorithm to compute this norm. An immediate corollary of this algorithm is a slight simplification of the argument of Kitaev and Watrous that QIP \subseteq \EXP.

Using Entanglement in Quantum Multi-Prover Interactive Proofs

The central question in quantum multi-prover interactive proof systems is whether or not entanglement shared among provers affects the verification power of the proof system. We study for the first time positive aspects of prior entanglement and show how it can be used to parallelize any multi-prover quantum interactive proof system to a one-round system with perfect completeness, soundness bounded away from one by an inverse-polynomial in the input size, and one extra prover. Alternatively, we can also parallelize to a three-turn system with the same number of provers, where the verifier only broadcasts the outcome of a coin flip. This “public-coin” property is somewhat surprising, since in the classical case public-coin multi-prover interactive proofs are equivalent to single-prover ones.

Zero-Knowledge against Quantum Attacks

This paper proves that several interactive proof systems are zero-knowledge against general quantum attacks. This includes the well-known Goldreich-Micali-Wigderson classical zero-knowledge protocols for graph isomorphism and graph 3-coloring (assuming the existence of quantum computationally concealing commitment schemes in the second case). Also included is a quantum interactive proof system for a complete problem for the complexity class of problems having honest verifier quantum statistical zero-knowledge proofs, which therefore establishes that honest verifier and general quantum statistical zero-knowledge are equal: $\mathrm{QSZK}= \mathrm{QSZK}_{\mathrm{HV}}$. Previously no nontrivial interactive proof systems were known to be zero-knowledge against quantum attacks, except in restricted settings such as the honest verifier and common reference string models. This paper therefore establishes for the first time that true zero-knowledge is indeed possible in the presence of quantum information and computation.

An application of quantum finite automata to interactive proof systems

Quantum finite automata have been studied intensively since their introduction in late 1990s as a natural model of a quantum computer working with finite-dimensional quantum memory space. This paper seeks their direct application to interactive proof systems in which a mighty quantum prover communicates with a quantum-automaton verifier through a common communication cell. Our quantum interactive proof systems are juxtaposed to Dwork–Stockmeyer's classical interactive proof systems whose verifiers are two-way probabilistic finite automata. We demonstrate strengths and weaknesses of our systems by studying how various restrictions on the behaviors of quantum-automaton verifiers affect the power of quantum interactive proof systems.

Additivity and distinguishability of random unitary channels

A random unitary channel is one that is given by a convex combination of unitary channels. It is shown that the conjectures on the additivity of the minimum output entropy and the multiplicativity of the maximum output p-norm can be equivalently restated in terms of random unitary channels. This is done by constructing a random unitary approximation to a general quantum channel. This approximation can be constructed efficiently, and so it is also applied to the computational problem of distinguishing quantum circuits. It is shown that the problem of distinguishing random unitary circuits is as hard as the problem of distinguishing general mixed-state circuits, which is complete for the class of problems having quantum interactive proof systems.

Quantum Arthur–Merlin games

This paper studies quantum Arthur–Merlin games, which are Arthur–Merlin games in which Arthur and Merlin can perform quantum computations and Merlin can send Arthur quantum information. As in the classical case, messages from Arthur to Merlin are restricted to be strings of uniformly generated random bits. It is proved that for one-message quantum Arthur–Merlin games, which correspond to the complexity class QMA, completeness and soundness errors can be reduced exponentially without increasing the length of Merlin’s message. Previous constructions for reducing error required a polynomial increase in the length of Merlin’s message. Applications of this fact include a proof that logarithmic length quantum certificates yield no increase in power over BQP and a simple proof that $$ {\text{QMA}} \subseteq {\text{PP}}. $$ Other facts that are proved include the equivalence of three (or more) message quantum Arthur–Merlin games with ordinary quantum interactive proof systems and some basic properties concerning two-message quantum Arthur–Merlin games.

PSPACE has constant-round quantum interactive proof systems

In this paper we introduce quantum interactive proof systems, which are interactive proof systems in which the prover and verifier may perform quantum computations and exchange quantum messages. It is proved that every language in PSPACE has a quantum interactive proof system that requires a total of only three messages to be sent between the prover and verifier and has exponentially small (one-sided) probability of error. It follows that quantum interactive proof systems are strictly more powerful than classical interactive proof systems in the constant-round case unless the polynomial time hierarchy collapses to the second level.