The oracle identification problem (OIP) is, given a set $S$ of $M$ Boolean oracles out of $2^{N}$ ones, to determine which oracle in $S$ is the current black-box oracle. We can exploit the information that candidates of the current oracle is restricted to $S$. The OIP contains several concrete problems such as the original Grover search and the Bernstein-Vazirani problem. Our interest is in the quantum query complexity, for which we present several upper and lower bounds. They are quite general and mostly optimal: (i) The query complexity of OIP is $O(\sqrt{N\log M \log N}\log\log M)$ for {\it any} $S$ such that $M = |S| > N$, which is better than the obvious bound $N$ if $M < 2^{N/\log^{3}N}$. (ii) It is $O(\sqrt{N})$ for {\it any} $S$ if $|S| = N$, which includes the upper bound for the Grover search as a special case. (iii) For a wide range of oracles ($|S| = N$) such as random oracles and balanced oracles, the query complexity is $Θ(\sqrt{N/K})$, where $K$ is a simple parameter determined by $S$.
We present a construction of a general oracle operator for a real-valued function on the Boolean cube. As an application, we use such operators in Shyamsundar's Non-Boolean Amplitude Amplification [arXiv:2102.04975] to solve binary optimization problems with a non-adiabatic algorithm.
This paper generalizes the quantum amplitude amplification and amplitude estimation algorithms to work with non-boolean oracles. The action of a non-boolean oracle $U_φ$ on an eigenstate $|x\rangle$ is to apply a state-dependent phase-shift $φ(x)$. Unlike boolean oracles, the eigenvalues $\exp(iφ(x))$ of a non-boolean oracle are not restricted to be $\pm 1$. Two new oracular algorithms based on such non-boolean oracles are introduced. The first is the non-boolean amplitude amplification algorithm, which preferentially amplifies the amplitudes of the eigenstates based on the value of $φ(x)$. St…
Our problem is to evaluate a multi-valued Boolean function $F$ through oracle calls. If $F$ is one-to-one and the size of its domain and range is the same, then our problem can be formulated as follows: Given an oracle $f(a,x): \{0,1\}^n\times\{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ and a fixed (but hidden) value $a_0$, we wish to obtain the value of $a_0$ by querying the oracle $f(a_0,x)$. Our goal is to minimize the number of such oracle calls (the query complexity) using a quantum mechanism. Two popular oracles are the EQ-oracle defined as $f(a,x)=1$ iff $x=a$ and the IP-oracle defined as $f(a,x)= a\cdot x \…
We study the probability of making an error if, by querying an oracle a fixed number of times, we declare constant a randomly chosen n-bit Boolean function. We compare the classical and the quantum case, and we determine for how many oracle-queries k and for how many bits n one querying procedure is more efficient than the other.
Bernstein-Vazirani algorithm (the one-query algorithm) can identify a completely specified linear Boolean function using a single query to the oracle with certainty. The first aim of the paper is to show that if the provided Boolean function is affine, then one more query to the oracle (the two-query algorithm) is required to identify the affinity of the function with certainty. The second aim of the paper is to show that if the provided Boolean function is incompletely defined, then the one-query and the two-query algorithms can be used as bounded-error quantum polynomial algorithms to identi…
We propose a quantum algorithm (in the form of a quantum oracle) that estimates the closeness of a given Boolean function to one that satisfies the ``strict avalanche criterion'' (SAC). This algorithm requires $n$ queries of the Boolean function oracle, where $n$ is the number of input variables, this is fewer than the queries required by the classical algorithm to perform the same task. We compare our approach with other quantum algorithms that may be used for estimating the closeness to SAC and it is shown our algorithm verifies SAC with the fewest possible calls to quantum oracle and requir…
Given a prior probability distribution over a set of possible oracle functions, we define a number of queries to be useless for determining some property of the function if the probability that the function has the property is unchanged after the oracle responds to the queries. A familiar example is the parity of a uniformly random Boolean-valued function over $\{1,2,...,N\}$, for which $N-1$ classical queries are useless. We prove that if $2k$ classical queries are useless for some oracle problem, then $k$ quantum queries are also useless. For such problems, which include classical threshold …
Key Laboratory of System Software (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院软件研究所系统软件重点实验室）；Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University（清华大学计算机科学与技术系）；Centre for Quantum Software and Information, University of Technology Sydney（悉尼科技大学量子软件与信息中心）
Phanous Research and Innovation Centre（Phanous研究与创 新中心）
In the oracle identification problem we have oracle access to bits of an unknown string $x$ of length $n$, with the promise that it belongs to a known set $C\subseteq\{0,1\}^n$. The goal is to identify $x$ using as few queries to the oracle as possible. We develop a quantum query algorithm for this problem with query complexity $O\left(\sqrt{\frac{n\log M }{\log(n/\log M)+1}}\right)$, where $M$ is the size of $C$. This bound is already derived by Kothari in 2014, for which we provide a more elegant simpler proof.
Let a Boolean function be available as a black-box (oracle) and one likes to devise an algorithm to test whether it has certain property or it is $ε$-far from having that property. The efficiency of the algorithm is judged by the number of calls to the oracle so that one can decide, with high probability, between these two alternatives. The best known quantum algorithm for testing whether a function is linear or $ε$-far $(0 < ε< \frac{1}{2})$ from linear functions requires $O(ε^{-\frac{2}{3}})$ many calls [Hillery and Andersson, Physical Review A 84, 062329 (2011)]. We show that this can be im…
In the oracle identification problem, we are given oracle access to an unknown N-bit string x promised to belong to a known set C of size M and our task is to identify x. We present a quantum algorithm for the problem that is optimal in its dependence on N and M. Our algorithm considerably simplifies and improves the previous best algorithm due to Ambainis et al. Our algorithm also has applications in quantum learning theory, where it improves the complexity of exact learning with membership queries, resolving a conjecture of Hunziker et al. The algorithm is based on ideas from classical learn…
In Weighted Model Counting (WMC) we assign weights to Boolean literals and we want to compute the sum of the weights of the models of a Boolean function where the weight of a model is the product of the weights of its literals. WMC was shown to be particularly effective for performing inference in graphical models, with a complexity of $O(n2^w)$ where $n$ is the number of variables and $w$ is the treewidth. In this paper, we propose a quantum algorithm for performing WMC, Quantum WMC (QWMC), that modifies the quantum model counting algorithm to take into account the weights. In turn, the model…
We present a constructive method to create quantum circuits that implement oracles $|x\rangle|y\rangle|0\rangle^k \mapsto |x\rangle|y \oplus f(x)\rangle|0\rangle^k$ for $n$-variable Boolean functions $f$ with low $T$-count. In our method $f$ is given as a 2-regular Boolean logic network over the gate basis $\{\land, \oplus, 1\}$. Our construction leads to circuits with a $T$-count that is at most four times the number of AND nodes in the network. In addition, we propose a SAT-based method that allows us to trade qubits for $T$ gates, and explore the space/complexity trade-off of quantum circui…
Research on quantum computing has recently gained significant momentum since first physical devices became available. Many quantum algorithms make use of so-called oracles that implement Boolean functions and are queried with highly superposed input states in order to evaluate the implemented Boolean function for many different input patterns in parallel. To simplify or enable a realization of these oracles in quantum logic in the first place, the Boolean reversible functions to be realized usually need to be broken down into several non-reversible sub-functions. However, since quantum logic i…
We define and study a new type of quantum oracle, the quantum conditional oracle, which provides oracle access to the conditional probabilities associated with an underlying distribution. Amongst other properties, we (a) obtain speed-ups over the best known quantum algorithms for identity testing, equivalence testing and uniformity testing of probability distributions; (b) study the power of these oracles for testing properties of boolean functions, and obtain an algorithm for checking whether an $n$-input $m$-output boolean function is balanced or $ε$-far from balanced; and (c) give a sub-lin…
We establish a framework for oracle identification problems in the continuous variable setting, where the stated problem necessarily is the same as in the discrete variable case, and continuous variables are manifested through a continuous representation in an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. We apply this formalism to the Deutsch-Jozsa problem and show that, due to an uncertainty relation between the continuous representation and its Fourier-transform dual representation, the corresponding Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm is probabilistic hence forbids an exponential speed-up, contrary to a previou…
We show that almost all n-bit Boolean functions have bounded-error quantum query complexity at least n/2, up to lower-order terms. This improves over an earlier n/4 lower bound of Ambainis, and shows that van Dam's oracle interrogation is essentially optimal for almost all functions. Our proof uses the fact that the acceptance probability of a T-query algorithm can be written as the sum of squares of degree-T polynomials.
The oracle identification problem (OIP) was introduced by Ambainis et al. \cite{AIKMRY04}. It is given as a set $S$ of $M$ oracles and a blackbox oracle $f$. Our task is to figure out which oracle in $S$ is equal to the blackbox $f$ by making queries to $f$. OIP includes several problems such as the Grover Search as special cases. In this paper, we improve the algorithms in \cite{AIKMRY04} by providing a mostly optimal upper bound of query complexity for this problem: ($i$) For any oracle set $S$ such that $|S| \le 2^{N^d}$ ($d < 1$), we design an algorithm whose query complexity is $O(\sqrt{N…
University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学）；IBM TJ Watson Research Center（IBM TJ沃森研究中心）；NEC Laboratories America（NEC美国实验室）
We study the quantum query complexity of the Boolean hidden shift problem. Given oracle access to f(x+s) for a known Boolean function f, the task is to determine the n-bit string s. The quantum query complexity of this problem depends strongly on f. We demonstrate that the easiest instances of this problem correspond to bent functions, in the sense that an exact one-query algorithm exists if and only if the function is bent. We partially characterize the hardest instances, which include delta functions. Moreover, we show that the problem is easy for random functions, since two queries suffice.…
Theoretical computer scientists have been debating the role of oracles since the 1970's. This paper illustrates both that oracles can give us nontrivial insights about the barrier problems in circuit complexity, and that they need not prevent us from trying to solve those problems. First, we give an oracle relative to which PP has linear-sized circuits, by proving a new lower bound for perceptrons and low- degree threshold polynomials. This oracle settles a longstanding open question, and generalizes earlier results due to Beigel and to Buhrman, Fortnow, and Thierauf. More importantly, it impl…
We study the power of nonadaptive quantum query algorithms, which are algorithms whose queries to the input do not depend on the result of previous queries. First, we show that any bounded-error nonadaptive quantum query algorithm that computes some total boolean function depending on n variables must make Omega(n) queries to the input in total. Second, we show that, if there exists a quantum algorithm that uses k nonadaptive oracle queries to learn which one of a set of m boolean functions it has been given, there exists a nonadaptive classical algorithm using O(k log m) queries to solve the …
We study the query complexity of quantum learning problems in which the oracles form a group $G$ of unitary matrices. In the simplest case, one wishes to identify the oracle, and we find a description of the optimal success probability of a $t$-query quantum algorithm in terms of group characters. As an application, we show that $Ω(n)$ queries are required to identify a random permutation in $S_n$. More generally, suppose $H$ is a fixed subgroup of the group $G$ of oracles, and given access to an oracle sampled uniformly from $G$, we want to learn which coset of $H$ the oracle belongs to. We c…
The goal in function property testing is to determine whether a black-box Boolean function has a certain property or is epsilon-far from having that property. The performance of the algorithm is judged by how many calls need to be made to the black box in order to determine, with high probability, which of the two alternatives is the case. Here we present two quantum algorithms, the first to determine whether the function is linear and the second to determine whether it is symmetric (invariant under permutations of the arguments). Both require O(epsilon^{-2/3}) calls to the oracle, which is be…
Columbia University（哥伦比亚大学）；Saarland University（萨尔兰大学）；Harvard University（哈佛大学）；University of Washington（华盛顿大学）；Stanford University（斯坦福大学）；NTT Research, Inc（NTT研究所）
In this paper we detail a classical algorithmic approach to the k-satisfiability (k-SAT) problem that is inspired by the quantum amplitude amplification algorithm. This work falls under the emerging field of quantum-inspired classical algorithms. To propose our modification, we adopt an existing problem model for k-SAT known as Universal SAT (UniSAT), which casts the Boolean satisfiability problem as a non-convex global optimization over a real-valued space. The quantum-inspired modification to UniSAT is to apply a conditioning operation to the objective function that has the effect of "amplif…
The steadily growing research interest in quantum computing - together with the accompanying technological advances in the realization of quantum hardware - fuels the development of meaningful real-world applications, as well as implementations for well-known quantum algorithms. One of the most prominent examples till today is Grover's algorithm, which can be used for efficient search in unstructured databases. Quantum oracles that are frequently masked as black boxes play an important role in Grover's algorithm. Hence, the automatic generation of oracles is of paramount importance. Moreover, …
Procedures are given below to construct symmetric and anti-symmetric quantum functions. If hidden in an oracle, such functions can be identified exactly, without iterative interrogation. This is another example of quantum search. The resulting positive (or negative) functions also serve to uniquely reorganize a superposition of states to give a basis state for testing purposes.
Let X = (x_0,...,x_{n-1})$ be a sequence of n numbers. For ε> 0, we say that x_i is an ε-approximate median if the number of elements strictly less than x_i, and the number of elements strictly greater than x_i are each less than (1+ε)n/2. We consider the quantum query complexity of computing an ε-approximate median, given the sequence X as an oracle. We prove a lower bound of Ω(\min{{1/ε},n}) queries for any quantum algorithm that computes an ε-approximate median with any constant probability greater than 1/2. We also show how an ε-approximate median may be computed with O({1/ε}\log({1\/ε}) \…
We show that a pair of complementary dagger-Frobenius algebras, equipped with a self-conjugate comonoid homomorphism onto one of the algebras, produce a nontrivial unitary morphism on the product of the algebras. This gives an abstract understanding of the structure of an oracle in a quantum computation, and we apply this understanding to develop a new algorithm for the deterministic identification of group homomorphisms into abelian groups. We also discuss an application to the categorical theory of signal-flow networks.
We study a new type of separation between quantum and classical communication complexity which is obtained using quantum protocols where all parties are efficient, in the sense that they can be implemented by small quantum circuits with oracle access to their inputs. More precisely, we give an explicit partial Boolean function that can be computed in the quantum-simultaneous-with-entanglement model of communication, however, every interactive randomized protocol is of exponentially larger cost. Furthermore, all the parties in the quantum protocol can be implemented by quantum circuits of small…
Modeling and Resource Optimization for Quantum Oracles
Laboratory for Advanced Computing and Intelligence Engineering（先进计算与智能工程实验室）；College of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Hunan University（湖南大学计算机科学与电子工程学院）
We describe a method to upper bound the quantum query complexity of Boolean formula evaluation problems, using fundamental theorems about the general adversary bound. This nonconstructive method can give an upper bound on query complexity without producing an algorithm. For example, we describe an oracle problem which we prove (non-constructively) can be solved in $O(1)$ queries, where the previous best quantum algorithm uses a polylogarithmic number of queries. We then give an explicit $O(1)$-query algorithm for this problem based on span programs.
In recent years, quantum-enhanced machine learning has emerged as a particularly fruitful application of quantum algorithms, covering aspects of supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning. Reinforcement learning offers numerous options of how quantum theory can be applied, and is arguably the least explored, from a quantum perspective. Here, an agent explores an environment and tries to find a behavior optimizing some figure of merit. Some of the first approaches investigated settings where this exploration can be sped-up, by considering quantum analogs of classical environments, whic…
We develop two analytic lower bounds on the probability of success p of identifying a state picked from a known ensemble of pure states: a bound based on the pairwise inner products of the states, and a bound based on the eigenvalues of their Gram matrix. We use the latter to lower bound the asymptotic distinguishability of ensembles of n random quantum states in d dimensions, where n/d approaches a constant. In particular, for almost all ensembles of n states in n dimensions, p>0.72. An application to distinguishing Boolean functions (the "oracle identification problem") in quantum computatio…
