We study the quantum moment problem: Given a conditional probability distribution together with some polynomial constraints, does there exist a quantum state rho and a collection of measurement operators such that (i) the probability of obtaining a particular outcome when a particular measurement is performed on rho is specified by the conditional probability distribution, and (ii) the measurement operators satisfy the constraints. For example, the constraints might specify that some measurement operators must commute.
We show that if an instance of the quantum moment problem is unsatisfiable, then there exists a certificate of a particular form proving this. Our proof is based on a recent result in algebraic geometry, the noncommutative Positivstellensatz of Helton and McCullough [Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., 356(9):3721, 2004].
A special case of the quantum moment problem is to compute the value of one-round multi-prover games with entangled provers. Under the conjecture that the provers need only share states in finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, we prove that a hierarchy of semidefinite programs similar to the one given by Navascues, Pironio and Acin [Phys. Rev. Lett., 98:010401, 2007] converges to the entangled value of the game. It follows that the class of languages recognized by a multi-prover interactive proof system where the provers share entanglement is recursive.
We prove a strong limitation on the ability of entangled provers to collude in a multiplayer game. Our main result is the first nontrivial lower bound on the class MIP* of languages having multi-prover interactive proofs with entangled provers; namely MIP* contains NEXP, the class of languages decidable in non-deterministic exponential time. While Babai, Fortnow, and Lund (Computational Complexity 1991) proved the celebrated equality MIP = NEXP in the absence of entanglement, ever since the introduction of the class MIP* it was open whether shared entanglement between the provers could weaken …
We consider one-round games between a classical verifier and two provers. One of the main questions in this area is the \emph{parallel repetition question}: If the game is played $\ell$ times in parallel, does the maximum winning probability decay exponentially in $\ell$? In the classical setting, this question was answered in the affirmative by Raz. More recently the question arose whether the decay is of the form $(1-Θ(\eps))^\ell$ where $1-\eps$ is the value of the game and $\ell$ is the number of repetitions. This question is known as the \emph{strong parallel repetition question} and was …
We present a protocol that transforms any quantum multi-prover interactive proof into a nonlocal game in which questions consist of logarithmic number of bits and answers of constant number of bits. As a corollary, this proves that the promise problem corresponding to the approximation of the nonlocal value to inverse polynomial accuracy is complete for QMIP*, and therefore NEXP-hard. This establishes that nonlocal games are provably harder than classical games without any complexity theory assumptions. Our result also indicates that gap amplification for nonlocal games may be impossible in ge…
Non-signaling proofs, motivated by quantum computation, have found applications in cryptography and hardness of approximation. An important open problem is characterizing the power of no-signaling proofs. It is known that 2-prover no-signaling proofs are characterized by PSPACE, and that no-signaling proofs with $poly(n)$-provers are characterized by EXP. However, the power of $k$-prover no-signaling proofs, for $2<k<poly(n)$ remained an open problem. We show that $k$-prover no-signaling proofs (with negligible soundness) for $k=O(\sqrt{\log n})$ are contained in PSPACE. We prove this via two …
We consider one-round games between a classical verifier and two provers who share entanglement. We show that when the constraints enforced by the verifier are `unique' constraints (i.e., permutations), the value of the game can be well approximated by a semidefinite program. Essentially the only algorithm known previously was for the special case of binary answers, as follows from the work of Tsirelson in 1980. Among other things, our result implies that the variant of the unique games conjecture where we allow the provers to share entanglement is false. Our proof is based on a novel `quantum…
We show that the maximum success probability of players sharing quantum entanglement in a two-player game with classical questions of logarithmic length and classical answers of constant length is NP-hard to approximate to within constant factors. As a corollary, the inclusion $\mathrm{NEXP}\subseteq\mathrm{MIP}^*$, first shown in [IV12] with three provers, holds with two provers only. The proof is based on a simpler, improved analysis of the low-degree test Raz and Safra (STOC'97) against two entangled provers.
We show that the value of a general two-prover quantum game cannot be computed by a semi-definite program ofvpolynomial size (unless P=NP), a method that has been successful in more restricted quantum games. More precisely, we show that proof of membership in the NP-complete problem GAP-3D-Matching can be obtained by a 2-prover, 1-round quantum interactive proof system where the provers share entanglement, with perfect completeness and soundness s=1-2^(-O(n)), and such that the space of the verifier and the size of the messages are O(log n). This implies that QMIP^*_{log n,1,1-2^(-O(n))} \nsub…
This paper studies quantum refereed games, which are quantum interactive proof systems with two competing provers: one that tries to convince the verifier to accept and the other that tries to convince the verifier to reject. We prove that every language having an ordinary quantum interactive proof system also has a quantum refereed game in which the verifier exchanges just one round of messages with each prover. A key part of our proof is the fact that there exists a single quantum measurement that reliably distinguishes between mixed states chosen arbitrarily from disjoint convex sets having…
The quantum PCP (QPCP) conjecture states that all problems in QMA, the quantum analogue of NP, admit quantum verifiers that only act on a constant number of qubits of a polynomial size quantum proof and have a constant gap between completeness and soundness. Despite an impressive body of work trying to prove or disprove the quantum PCP conjecture, it still remains widely open. The above-mentioned proof verification statement has also been shown equivalent to the QMA-completeness of the Local Hamiltonian problem with constant relative gap. Nevertheless, unlike in the classical case, no equivale…
We study tensor norms over Banach spaces and their relations to quantum information theory, in particular their connection with two-prover games. We consider a version of the Hilbertian tensor norm $γ_2$ and its dual $γ_2^*$ that allow us to consider games with arbitrary output alphabet sizes. We establish direct-product theorems and prove a generalized Grothendieck inequality for these tensor norms. Furthermore, we investigate the connection between the Hilbertian tensor norm and the set of quantum probability distributions, and show two applications to quantum information theory: firstly, we…
BellQMA protocols are a subclass of multi-prover quantum Merlin-Arthur protocols in which the verifier is restricted to perform nonadaptive,unentangled measurements on the quantum states received from each Merlin. In this paper, we prove that m-clause 3-SAT instances have BellQMA proofs of satisfiability with constant soundness gap, in which O(sqrt(m)polylog(m)) Merlins each send O(log m) qubits to Arthur. Our result answers a question of Aaronson et al., who gave a protocol with similar parameters that used entangled measurements; the analysis of our protocol is significantly simpler than tha…
We prove a deterministic exponential time upper bound for Quantum Merlin-Arthur games with k unentangled provers. This is the first non-trivial upper bound of QMA(k) better than NEXP and can be considered an exponential improvement, unless EXP=NEXP. The key ideas of our proof are to use perturbation theory to reduce the QMA(2)-complete Separable Sparse Hamiltonian problem to a variant of the Separable Local Hamiltonian problem with an exponentially small promise gap, and then to decide this instance using epsilon-net methods. Our results imply an exponential time algorithm for the Pure State N…
We establish the first hardness results for the problem of computing the value of one-round games played by a verifier and a team of provers who can share quantum entanglement. In particular, we show that it is NP-hard to approximate within an inverse polynomial the value of a one-round game with (i) quantum verifier and two entangled provers or (ii) classical verifier and three entangled provers. Previously it was not even known if computing the value exactly is NP-hard. We also describe a mathematical conjecture, which, if true, would imply hardness of approximation to within a constant. We …
We consider the problem of a particular kind of quantum correlation that arises in some two-party games. In these games, one player is presented with a question they must answer, yielding an outcome of either 'win' or 'lose'. Molina and Watrous (arXiv:1104.1140) studied such a game that exhibited a perfect form of hedging, where the risk of losing a first game can completely offset the corresponding risk for a second game. This is a non-classical quantum phenomenon, and establishes the impossibility of performing strong error-reduction for quantum interactive proof systems by parallel repetiti…
This paper gives the first formal treatment of a quantum analogue of multi-prover interactive proof systems. It is proved that the class of languages having quantum multi-prover interactive proof systems is necessarily contained in NEXP, under the assumption that provers are allowed to share at most polynomially many prior-entangled qubits. This implies that, in particular, if provers do not share any prior entanglement with each other, the class of languages having quantum multi-prover interactive proof systems is equal to NEXP. Related to these, it is shown that, in the case a prover does no…
We give a quantum interactive proof system for the local Hamiltonian problem on n qubits in which (i) the verifier has a single round of interaction with five entangled provers, (ii) the verifier sends a classical message on O(log n) bits to each prover, who reply with a constant number of qubits, and (iii) completeness and soundness are separated by an inverse polynomial in n. As the same class of proof systems, without entanglement between the provers, is included in QCMA, our result provides the first indication that quantum multiprover interactive proof systems with entangled provers may b…
A central question in quantum information theory and computational complexity is how powerful nonlocal strategies are in cooperative games with imperfect information, such as multi-prover interactive proof systems. This paper develops a new method for proving limits of nonlocal strategies that make use of prior entanglement among players (or, provers, in the terminology of multi-prover interactive proofs). Instead of proving the limits for usual isolated provers who initially share entanglement, this paper proves the limits for "commuting-operator provers", who share private space, but can app…
The problem of reliably certifying the outcome of a computation performed by a quantum device is rapidly gaining relevance. We present two protocols for a classical verifier to verifiably delegate a quantum computation to two non-communicating but entangled quantum provers. Our protocols have near-optimal complexity in terms of the total resources employed by the verifier and the honest provers, with the total number of operations of each party, including the number of entangled pairs of qubits required of the honest provers, scaling as $O(g\log g)$ for delegating a circuit of size $g$. This i…
We show a general method of compiling any $k$-prover non-local game into a single-prover interactive game maintaining the same (quantum) completeness and (classical) soundness guarantees (up to negligible additive factors in a security parameter). Our compiler uses any quantum homomorphic encryption scheme (Mahadev, FOCS 2018; Brakerski, CRYPTO 2018) satisfying a natural form of correctness with respect to auxiliary (quantum) input. The homomorphic encryption scheme is used as a cryptographic mechanism to simulate the effect of spatial separation, and is required to evaluate $k-1$ prover strat…
We prove that the family of embezzlement states defined by van Dam and Hayden [vanDamHayden2002] is universal for both quantum and classical entangled two-prover non-local games with an arbitrary number of rounds. More precisely, we show that for each $ε>0$ and each strategy for a k-round two-prover non-local game which uses a bipartite shared state on 2m qubits and makes the provers win with probability $ω$, there exists a strategy for the same game which uses an embezzlement state on $2m + 2m/ε$ qubits and makes the provers win with probability $ω-\sqrt{2ε}$. Since the value of a game can be…
We study multiprover interactive proof systems. The power of classical multiprover interactive proof systems, in which the provers do not share entanglement, was characterized in a famous work by Babai, Fortnow, and Lund (Computational Complexity 1991), whose main result was the equality MIP = NEXP. The power of quantum multiprover interactive proof systems, in which the provers are allowed to share entanglement, has proven to be much more difficult to characterize. The best known lower-bound on MIP* is NEXP, due to Ito and Vidick (FOCS 2012). As for upper bounds, MIP* could be as large as RE,…
We study the problem of approximating the commuting-operator value of a two-player non-local game. It is well-known that it is $\mathrm{NP}$-complete to decide whether the classical value of a non-local game is 1 or $1- ε$. Furthermore, as long as $ε$ is small enough, this result does not depend on the gap $ε$. In contrast, a recent result of Fitzsimons, Ji, Vidick, and Yuen shows that the complexity of computing the quantum value grows without bound as the gap $ε$ decreases. In this paper, we show that this also holds for the commuting-operator value of a game. Specifically, in the language o…
The behavior of games repeated in parallel, when played with quantumly entangled players, has received much attention in recent years. Quantum analogues of Raz's classical parallel repetition theorem have been proved for many special classes of games. However, for general entangled games no parallel repetition theorem was known. We prove that the entangled value of a two-player game $G$ repeated $n$ times in parallel is at most $c_G n^{-1/4} \log n$ for a constant $c_G$ depending on $G$, provided that the entangled value of $G$ is less than 1. In particular, this gives the first proof that the…
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 t…
We present a strong parallel repetition theorem for the entangled value of multi-player, one-round free games (games where the inputs come from a product distribution). Our result is the first parallel repetition theorem for entangled games involving more than two players. Furthermore, our theorem applies to games where the players are allowed to output (possibly entangled) quantum states as answers. More specifically, let $G$ be a $k$-player free game, with entangled value $\mathrm{val}^*(G) = 1 - ε$. We show that the entangled value of the $n$-fold repetition of $G$, $\mathrm{val}^*(G^{\otim…
We present two parallel repetition theorems for the entangled value of multi-player, one-round free games (games where the inputs come from a product distribution). Our first theorem shows that for a $k$-player free game $G$ with entangled value $\mathrm{val}^*(G) = 1 - ε$, the $n$-fold repetition of $G$ has entangled value $\mathrm{val}^*(G^{\otimes n})$ at most $(1 - ε^{3/2})^{Ω(n/sk^4)}$, where $s$ is the answer length of any player. In contrast, the best known parallel repetition theorem for the classical value of two-player free games is $\mathrm{val}(G^{\otimes n}) \leq (1 - ε^2)^{Ω(n/s)…
The class $\MIP^*$ of promise problems that can be decided through an interactive proof system with multiple entangled provers provides a complexity-theoretic framework for the exploration of the nonlocal properties of entanglement. Little is known about the power of this class. The only proposed approach for establishing upper bounds is based on a hierarchy of semidefinite programs introduced independently by Pironio et al. and Doherty et al. This hierarchy converges to a value that is only known to coincide with the provers' maximum success probability in a given proof system under a plausib…
We show that for any eps>0 the problem of finding a factor (2-eps) approximation to the entangled value of a three-player XOR game is NP-hard. Equivalently, the problem of approximating the largest possible quantum violation of a tripartite Bell correlation inequality to within any multiplicative constant is NP-hard. These results are the first constant-factor hardness of approximation results for entangled games or quantum violations of Bell inequalities shown under the sole assumption that P \neq NP. They can be thought of as an extension of Hastad's optimal hardness of approximation results…
We study the behavior of the entangled value of two-player one-round projection games under parallel repetition. We show that for any projection game $G$ of entangled value 1-eps < 1, the value of the $k$-fold repetition of G goes to zero as O((1-eps^c)^k), for some universal constant c\geq 1. Previously parallel repetition with an exponential decay in $k$ was only known for the case of XOR and unique games. To prove the theorem we extend an analytical framework recently introduced by Dinur and Steurer for the study of the classical value of projection games under parallel repetition. Our proo…
First, we consider the problem of deciding whether a nonlocal game admits a perfect entangled strategy that uses projective measurements on a maximally entangled shared state. Via a polynomial-time Karp reduction, we show that independent set games are the hardest instances of this problem. Secondly, we show that if every independent set game whose entangled value is equal to one admits a perfect entangled strategy, then the same holds for all symmetric synchronous games. Finally, we identify combinatorial lower bounds on the classical and entangled values of synchronous games in terms of vari…
We show a parallel repetition theorem for the entangled value $ω^*(G)$ of any two-player one-round game $G$ where the questions $(x,y) \in \mathcal{X}\times\mathcal{Y}$ to Alice and Bob are drawn from a product distribution on $\mathcal{X}\times\mathcal{Y}$. We show that for the $k$-fold product $G^k$ of the game $G$ (which represents the game $G$ played in parallel $k$ times independently), $ ω^*(G^k) =\left(1-(1-ω^*(G))^3\right)^{Ω\left(\frac{k}{\log(|\mathcal{A}| \cdot |\mathcal{B}|)}\right)} $, where $\mathcal{A}$ and $\mathcal{B}$ represent the sets from which the answers of Alice and Bob…
We prove an explicit upper bound on the amount of entanglement required by any strategy in a two-player cooperative game with classical questions and quantum answers. Specifically, we show that every strategy for a game with n-bit questions and n-qubit answers can be implemented exactly by players who share an entangled state of no more than 5n qubits--a bound which is optimal to within a factor of 5/2. Previously, no upper bound at all was known on the amount of entanglement required even to approximate such a strategy. It follows that the problem of computing the value of these games is in N…
In this work, we consider the following family of two prover one-round games. In the CHSH_q game, two parties are given x,y in F_q uniformly at random, and each must produce an output a,b in F_q without communicating with the other. The players' objective is to maximize the probability that their outputs satisfy a+b=xy in F_q. This game was introduced by Buhrman and Massar (PRA 2005) as a large alphabet generalization of the celebrated CHSH game---which is one of the most well-studied two-prover games in quantum information theory, and which has a large number of applications to quantum crypto…
In this thesis we introduce quantum refereed games, which are quantum interactive proof systems with two competing provers. We focus on a restriction of this model that we call "short quantum games" and we prove an upper bound and a lower bound on the expressive power of these games. For the lower bound, we prove that every language having an ordinary quantum interactive proof system also has a short quantum game. An important part of this proof is the establishment of a quantum measurement that reliably distinguishes between quantum states chosen from disjoint convex sets. For the upper bound…
In this thesis, we answer several questions about the behaviour of prover-verifier interactions under parallel repetition when quantum information is allowed, and the verifier acts independently in them. We first consider the case in which a value is associated with each of the possible outcomes of an interaction. We prove that it is not possible for the prover to improve on the optimum average value per repetition by repeating the protocol multiple times in parallel. We look then at games in which the outcomes are classified into two types, winning outcomes and losing outcomes. We ask what is…
We show that any language in nondeterministic time $\exp(\exp(\cdots \exp(n)))$, where the number of iterated exponentials is an arbitrary function $R(n)$, can be decided by a multiprover interactive proof system with a classical polynomial-time verifier and a constant number of quantum entangled provers, with completeness $1$ and soundness $1 - \exp(-C\exp(\cdots\exp(n)))$, where the number of iterated exponentials is $R(n)-1$ and $C>0$ is a universal constant. The result was previously known for $R=1$ and $R=2$; we obtain it for any time-constructible function $R$. The result is based on a c…
We consider a class of two-prover interactive proof systems where each prover returns a single bit to the verifier and the verifier's verdict is a function of the XOR of the two bits received. We show that, when the provers are allowed to coordinate their behavior using a shared entangled quantum state, a perfect parallel repetition theorem holds in the following sense. The prover's optimal success probability for simultaneously playing a collection of XOR proof systems is exactly the product of the individual optimal success probabilities. This property is remarkable in view of the fact that,…
Maximally entangled Eisert-Lewenstein-Wilkens games are analyzed. For a general class of gate operators defined in the previous papers of the first author the general conditions are derived which allow to determine the form of gate operators leading to maximally entangled games. The construction becomes particularly simple provided one does distinguish between games differing by relabelling of strategies. Some examples are presented.
A pseudo-telepathy game is a nonlocal game which can be won with probability one using some finite-dimensional quantum strategy but not using a classical one. Our central question is whether there exist two-party pseudo-telepathy games which cannot be won with probability one using a maximally entangled state. Towards answering this question, we develop conditions under which maximally entangled states suffice. In particular, we show that maximally entangled states suffice for weak projection games which we introduce as a relaxation of projection games. Our results also imply that any pseudo-t…
In this paper, we show that the zero-knowledge construction for Hamiltonian cycle remains secure against quantum adversaries in the relativistic setting. Our main technical contribution is a tool for studying the action of consecutive measurements on a quantum state which in turn gives upper bounds on the value of some entangled games. This allows us to prove the security of our protocol against quantum adversaries. We also prove security bounds for the (single-round) relativistic string commitment and bit commitment in parallel against quantum adversaries. As an additional consequence of our …
We develop an octonionic representation of the payoff function for three player, two strategy, maximally entangled quantum games in order to obtain computationally friendly version of this function. This computational capability is then exploited to analyze and potentially classify the Nash equilibria in the quantum games.
In this work we consider the following problem: in a Multi-Prover environment, how close can we get to prove the validity of an NP statement in Zero-Knowledge ? We exhibit a set of two novel Zero-Knowledge protocols for the 3-COLorability problem that use two (local) provers or three (entangled) provers and only require them to reply two trits each. This greatly improves the ability to prove Zero-Knowledge statements on very short distances with very minimal equipment.
Using the representation introduced in \cite{frame}, an artificial game in quantum strategy space is proposed and studied. Although it has well-known classical correspondence, which has classical mixture strategy Nash Equilibrium states, the equilibrium state of this quantum game is an entangled strategy (operator) state of the two players. By discovering such behavior, it partially shows the independent meaning of the new representation. The idea of entanglement of strategies, instead of quantum states, is proposed, and in some sense, such entangled strategy state can be regarded as a coopera…
A two-player one-round binary game consists of two cooperative players who each replies by one bit to a message that he receives privately; they win the game if both questions and answers satisfy some predetermined property. A game is called entangled if the players are allowed to share a priori entanglement. It is well-known that the maximum winning probability (value) of entangled XOR-games (binary games in which the predetermined property depends only on the XOR of the two output bits) can be computed by a semidefinite program. In this paper we extend this result in the following sense; if …
We study the complexity of computing the commuting-operator value $ω^*$ of entangled XOR games with any number of players. We introduce necessary and sufficient criteria for an XOR game to have $ω^* = 1$, and use these criteria to derive the following results: 1. An algorithm for symmetric games that decides in polynomial time whether $ω^* = 1$ or $ω^* < 1$, a task that was not previously known to be decidable, together with a simple tensor-product strategy that achieves value 1 in the former case. The only previous candidate algorithm for this problem was the Navascués-Pironio-Acín (also know…
A model of a quantum version of classical games should reproduce the original classical games in order to be able to make a comparative analysis of quantum and classical effects. We analyze a class of symmetric multipartite entangled states and their effect on the reproducibility of the classical games. We present the necessary and sufficient condition for the reproducibility of the original classical games. Satisfying this condition means that complete orthogonal bases can be constructed from a given multipartite entangled state provided that each party is restricted to two local unitary oper…
We introduce a novel technique to give bounds to the entangled value of non-local games. The technique is based on a class of graphs used by Cabello, Severini and Winter in 2010. The upper bound uses the famous Lovász theta number and is efficiently computable; the lower one is based on the quantum independence number, which is a quantity used in the study of entanglement-assisted channel capacities and graph homomorphism games.
We propose a non-classical multi-player entangled state which eliminates the need for communication, yet can solve problems (that require coordination) better than classical approaches. For the entangled state, we propose a slater determinant of all allowed states of a filled band in a condensed matter system -- the integer quantum Hall state at filling factor 1. Such a state gives the best solution (i.e., best Nash equilibrium) for some classical stochastic problems where classical solutions are far from ideal.
We analyse the role of degree of entanglement for Vaidman's game in a setting where the players share a set of partially entangled three-qubit states. Our results show that the entangled states combined with quantum strategies may not be always helpful in winning a game as opposed to the classical strategies. We further find the conditions under which quantum strategies are always helpful in achieving higher winning probability in the game in comparison to classical strategies. Moreover, we show that a special class of W states can always be used to win the game using quantum strategies irresp…
Certification of quantum systems and operations is a central task in quantum information processing. Most current schemes rely on a tomography with fully characterised devices, while this may not be met in real experiments. Device characterisations can be removed with device-independent tests, it is technically challenging at the moment, though. In this letter, we investigate the problem of certifying entangled states and measurements via semi-quantum games, a type of non-local quantum games with well characterised quantum inputs, balancing practicality and device-independence. We first design…
