Span programs are an important model of quantum computation due to their tight correspondence with quantum query complexity. For any decision problem $f$, the minimum complexity of a span program for $f$ is equal, up to a constant factor, to the quantum query complexity of $f$. Moreover, this correspondence is constructive. A span program for $f$ with complexity $C$ can be compiled into a bounded error quantum algorithm for $f$ with query complexity $O(C)$, and vice versa.
In this work, we prove an analogous connection for quantum time complexity. In particular, we show how to convert a quantum algorithm for $f$ with time complexity $T$ into a span program for $f$ such that it compiles back into a quantum algorithm for $f$ with time complexity $\widetilde{O}(T)$. While the query complexity of quantum algorithms obtained from span programs is well-understood, it is not generally clear how to implement certain query-independent operations in a time-efficient manner. We show that for span programs derived from algorithms with a time-efficient implementation, we can preserve the time efficiency when implementing the span program. This means in particular that span programs not only fully capture quantum query complexity, but also quantum time complexity.
One practical advantage of being able to convert quantum algorithms to span programs in a way that preserves time complexity is that span programs compose very nicely. We demonstrate this by improving Ambainis's variable-time quantum search result using our construction through a span program composition for the OR function.
While quantum computers hold the promise of significant computational speedups, the limited size of early quantum machines motivates the study of space-bounded quantum computation. We relate the quantum space complexity of computing a function f with one-sided error to the logarithm of its span program size, a classical quantity that is well-studied in attempts to prove formula size lower bounds. In the more natural bounded error model, we show that the amount of space needed for a unitary quantum algorithm to compute f with bounded (two-sided) error is lower bounded by the logarithm of its ap…
The general adversary bound is a semi-definite program (SDP) that lower-bounds the quantum query complexity of a function. We turn this lower bound into an upper bound, by giving a quantum walk algorithm based on the dual SDP that has query complexity at most the general adversary bound, up to a logarithmic factor. In more detail, the proof has two steps, each based on "span programs," a certain linear-algebraic model of computation. First, we give an SDP that outputs for any boolean function a span program computing it that has optimal "witness size." The optimal witness size is shown to coin…
Span programs characterize the quantum query complexity of binary functions $f:\{0,\ldots,\ell\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ up to a constant factor. In this paper we generalize the notion of span programs for functions with non-binary input/output alphabets $f: [\ell]^n \to [m]$. We show that non-binary span program characterizes the quantum query complexity of any such function up to a constant factor. We argue that this non-binary span program is indeed the generalization of its binary counterpart. We also generalize the notion of span programs for a special class of relations. Learning graphs provide a…
Span programs are a model of computation that have been used to design quantum algorithms, mainly in the query model. For any decision problem, there exists a span program that leads to an algorithm with optimal quantum query complexity, but finding such an algorithm is generally challenging. We consider new ways of designing quantum algorithms using span programs. We show how any span program that decides a problem $f$ can also be used to decide "property testing" versions of $f$, or more generally, approximate the span program witness size, a property of the input related to $f$. For example…
Span program is a linear-algebraic model of computation which can be used to design quantum algorithms. For any Boolean function there exists a span program that leads to a quantum algorithm with optimal quantum query complexity. In general, finding such span programs is not an easy task. In this work, given a query access to the adjacency matrix of a simple graph $G$ with $n$ vertices, we provide two new span-program-based quantum algorithms: an algorithm for testing if the graph is bipartite that uses $O(n\sqrt{n})$ quantum queries; an algorithm for testing if the graph is connected that use…
Recently, span programs have been shown to be equivalent to quantum query algorithms. It is an open problem whether this equivalence can be utilized in order to come up with new quantum algorithms. We address this problem by providing span programs for some linear algebra problems. We develop a notion of a high level span program, that abstracts from loading input vectors into a span program. Then we give a high level span program for the rank problem. The last section of the paper deals with reducing a high level span program to an ordinary span program that can be solved using known quantum …
Span program is a linear-algebraic model of computation originally proposed for studying the complexity theory. Recently, it has become a useful tool for designing quantum algorithms. In this paper, we present a time-efficient span-program-based quantum algorithm for the following problem. Let $T$ be an arbitrary tree. Given query access to the adjacency matrix of a graph $G$ with $n$ vertices, we need to determine whether $G$ contains $T$ as a subgraph, or $G$ does not contain $T$ as a minor, under the promise that one of these cases holds. We call this problem the subgraph/not-a-minor proble…
The formula-evaluation problem is defined recursively. A formula's evaluation is the evaluation of a gate, the inputs of which are themselves independent formulas. Despite this pure recursive structure, the problem is combinatorially difficult for classical computers. A quantum algorithm is given to evaluate formulas over any finite boolean gate set. Provided that the complexities of the input subformulas to any gate differ by at most a constant factor, the algorithm has optimal query complexity. After efficient preprocessing, it is nearly time optimal. The algorithm is derived using the span …
Besides the Hidden Subgroup Problem, the second large class of quantum speed-ups is for functions with constant-sized 1-certificates. This includes the OR function, solvable by the Grover algorithm, the distinctness, the triangle and other problems. The usual way to solve them is by quantum walk on the Johnson graph. We propose a solution for the same problems using span programs. The span program is a computational model equivalent to the quantum query algorithm in its strength, and yet very different in its outfit. We prove the power of our approach by designing a quantum algorithm for the t…
We give a quantum algorithm for evaluating formulas over an extended gate set, including all two- and three-bit binary gates (e.g., NAND, 3-majority). The algorithm is optimal on read-once formulas for which each gate's inputs are balanced in a certain sense. The main new tool is a correspondence between a classical linear-algebraic model of computation, "span programs," and weighted bipartite graphs. A span program's evaluation corresponds to an eigenvalue-zero eigenvector of the associated graph. A quantum computer can therefore evaluate the span program by applying spectral estimation to th…
We introduce a span program that decides st-connectivity, and generalize the span program to develop quantum algorithms for several graph problems. First, we give an algorithm for st-connectivity that uses O(n d^{1/2}) quantum queries to the n x n adjacency matrix to decide if vertices s and t are connected, under the promise that they either are connected by a path of length at most d, or are disconnected. We also show that if T is a path, a star with two subdivided legs, or a subdivision of a claw, its presence as a subgraph in the input graph G can be detected with O(n) quantum queries to t…
The relationship between efficient quantum gate synthesis and control theory has been a topic of interest in the quantum control literature. Motivated by this work, we describe in the present article how the dynamic programming technique from optimal control may be used for the optimal synthesis of quantum circuits. We demonstrate simulation results on an example system on SU(2), to obtain plots related to the gate complexity and sample paths for different logic gates.
The complexity of semidefinite programs for testing $k$-block-positivity
Mathematics Research Center, School of Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen（香港中文大学（深圳）理学院科研中心）；Université de Lyon, Inria, ENS de Lyon, UCBL, LIP（里昂大学、法国国家信息与自动化研究所、里昂高等师范学校、里昂第一大学、里昂数学研究所）；QICI Quantum Information and Computation Initiative, School of Computing and Data Science, The University of Hong Kong（香港大学计算与数据科学学院量子信息计算倡议中心）；Kyoto University, Mathematics department（京都大学数学系）
In this paper, the space complexity of nonuniform quantum computations is investigated. The model chosen for this are quantum branching programs, which provide a graphic description of sequential quantum algorithms. In the first part of the paper, simulations between quantum branching programs and nonuniform quantum Turing machines are presented which allow to transfer lower and upper bound results between the two models. In the second part of the paper, different variants of quantum OBDDs are compared with their deterministic and randomized counterparts. In the third part, quantum branching p…
We show that a certain tensor norm, the completely bounded norm, can be expressed by a semidefinite program. This tensor norm recently attracted attention in the field of quantum computing, where it was used by Arunachalam, Briët and Palazuelos for characterizing the quantum query complexity of Boolean functions. Combined with their results, we obtain a new characterization of the quantum query complexity through semidefinite programming. Using the duality theory of semidefinite programming we obtain a new type of certificates for large query complexity. We show that our class of certificates …
Quantum span program algorithms for function evaluation commonly have reduced query complexity when promised that the input has a certain structure. We design a modified span program algorithm to show these speed-ups persist even without having a promise ahead of time, and we extend this approach to the more general problem of state conversion. For example, there is a span program algorithm that decides whether two vertices are connected in an $n$-vertex graph with $O(n^{3/2})$ queries in general, but with $O(\sqrt{k}n)$ queries if promised that, if there is a path, there is one with at most $…
