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arXiv:1603.03757 · Leibniz international proceedings in informatics

Nondeterministic Quantum Communication Complexity: the Cyclic Equality Game and Iterated Matrix Multiplication

Harry Buhrman, Matthias Christandl, Jeroen Zuiddam

Published Mar 11, 2016• 9 citations
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Abstract

We study nondeterministic multiparty quantum communication with a quantum generalization of broadcasts. We show that, with number-in-hand classical inputs, the communication complexity of a Boolean function in this communication model equals the logarithm of the support rank of the corresponding tensor, whereas the approximation complexity in this model equals the logarithm of the border support rank. This characterisation allows us to prove a log-rank conjecture posed by Villagra et al. for nondeterministic multiparty quantum communication with message-passing. The support rank characterization of the communication model connects quantum communication complexity intimately to the theory of asymptotic entanglement transformation and algebraic complexity theory. In this context, we introduce the graphwise equality problem. For a cycle graph, the complexity of this communication problem is closely related to the complexity of the computational problem of multiplying matrices, or more precisely, it equals the logarithm of the asymptotic support rank of the iterated matrix multiplication tensor. We employ Strassen's laser method to show that asymptotically there exist nontrivial protocols for every odd-player cyclic equality problem. We exhibit an efficient protocol for the 5-player problem for small inputs, and we show how Young flattenings yield nontrivial complexity lower bounds.

DOI
10.4230/lipics.itcs.2017.24

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arXiv:0809.2093•Sep 11, 2008•1 citation
We study nondeterministic multiparty quantum communication with a quantum generalization of broadcasts. We show that, with number-in-hand classical inputs, the communication complexity of a Boolean function in this communication model equals the logarithm of the support rank of the corresponding tensor, whereas the approximation complexity in this model equals the logarithm of the border support rank. This characterisation allows us to prove a log-rank conjecture posed by Villagra et al. for nondeterministic multiparty quantum communication with message-passing. The support rank characterization of the communication model connects quantum communication complexity intimately to the theory of asymptotic entanglement transformation and algebraic complexity theory. In this context, we introduce the graphwise equality problem. For a cycle graph, the complexity of this communication problem is closely related to the complexity of the computational problem of multiplying matrices, or more precisely, it equals the logarithm of the asymptotic support rank of the iterated matrix multiplication tensor. We employ Strassen's laser method to show that asymptotically there exist nontrivial protocols for every odd-player cyclic equality problem. We exhibit an efficient protocol for the 5-player problem for small inputs, and we show how Young flattenings yield nontrivial complexity lower bounds.
We study nondeterministic multiparty quantum communication with a quantum generalization of broadcasts. We show that, with number-in-hand classical inputs, the communication complexity of a Boolean function in this communication model equals the logarithm of the support rank of the corresponding tensor, whereas the approximation complexity in this model equals the logarithm of the border support rank. This characterisation allows us to prove a log-rank conjecture posed by Villagra et al. for nondeterministic multiparty quantum communication with message passing. The support rank characterization of the communication model connects quantum communication complexity intimately to the theory of asymptotic entanglement transformation and algebraic complexity theory. In this context, we introduce the graphwise equality problem. For a cycle graph, the complexity of this communication problem is closely related to the complexity of the computational problem of multiplying matrices, or more precisely, it equals the logarithm of the support rank of the iterated matrix multiplication tensor. We employ Strassen's laser method to show that asymptotically there exist nontrivial protocols for every odd-player cyclic equality problem. We exhibit an efficient protocol for the 5-player problem for small inputs, and we show how Young flattenings yield nontrivial complexity lower bounds.
In this paper we study quantum nondeterminism in multiparty communication. There are three (possibly) different types of nondeterminism in quantum computation: i) strong, ii) weak with classical proofs, and iii) weak with quantum proofs. Here we focus on the first one. A strong quantum nondeterministic protocol accepts a correct input with positive probability and rejects an incorrect input with probability 1. In this work we relate strong quantum nondeterministic multiparty communication complexity to the rank of the communication tensor in the Number-On-Forehead and Number-In-Hand models. In particular, by extending the definition proposed by de Wolf to nondeterministic tensor-rank (nrank), we show that for any boolean function f when there is no prior shared entanglement between the players, 1) in the Number-On-Forehead model the cost is upper-bounded by the logarithm of nrank(f); 2) in the Number-In-Hand model the cost is lower-bounded by the logarithm of nrank(f). Furthermore, we show that when the number of players is o(log log n), we have NQP⊈BQPNQP\nsubseteq BQPNQP⊈BQP for Number-On-Forehead communication.
This dissertation is motivated by the following fundamental questions: (a) are there any exponential gaps between quantum and classical communication complexities? (b) what is the role of entanglement in assisting quantum communications? (c) how to characterize the nonlocality of quantum operations? We study four specific problems below. 1. The communication complexity of the Hamming Distance problem. The Hamming Distance problem is for two parties to determine whether or not the Hamming distance between two n-bit strings is more than a given threshold. We prove tighter quantum lower bounds in the general two-party, interactive communication model. We also construct an efficient classical protocol in the more restricted Simultaneous Message Passing model, improving previous results. 2. The Log-Equivalence Conjecture. A major open problem in communication complexity is whether or not quantum protocols can be exponentially more efficient than classical ones for computing a total Boolean function in the two-party, interactive model. The answer is believed to be No. Razborov proved this conjecture for the most general class of functions so far. We prove this conjecture for a broader class of functions that we called block-composed functions. Our proof appears to be the first demonstration of the dual approach of the polynomial method in proving new results. 3. Classical simulations of bipartite quantum measurement. We define a new ix concept that measures the nonlocality of bipartite quantum operations. From this measure, we derive an upper bound that shows the limitation of entanglement in reducing communication costs. 4. The maximum tensor norm of bipartite superoperators. We define a maximum tensor norm to quantify the nonlocality of bipartite superoperators. We show that a bipartite physically realizable superoperator is bi-local if and only if its maximum tensor norm is 1. Furthermore, the estimation of the maximum tensor norm can also be used to prove quantum lower bounds on communication complexities.
One of the best lower bound methods for the quantum communication complexity of a function H (with or without shared entanglement) is the logarithm of the approximate rank of the communication matrix of H. This measure is essentially equivalent to the approximate gamma-2 norm and generalized discrepancy, and subsumes several other lower bounds. All known lower bounds on quantum communication complexity in the general unbounded-round model can be shown via the logarithm of approximate rank, and it was an open problem to give any separation at all between quantum communication complexity and the logarithm of the approximate rank. In this work we provide the first such separation: We exhibit a total function H with quantum communication complexity almost quadratically larger than the logarithm of its approximate rank. We construct H using the communication lookup function framework of Anshu et al. (FOCS 2016) based on the cheat sheet framework of Aaronson et al. (STOC 2016). From a starting function F, this framework defines a new function H=F_G. Our main technical result is a lower bound on the quantum communication complexity of F_G in terms of the discrepancy of F, which we do via quantum information theoretic arguments. We show the upper bound on the approximate rank of F_G by relating it to the Boolean circuit size of the starting function F.
There are three different types of nondeterminism in quantum communication: i) $\nqp$-communication, ii) $\qma$-communication, and iii) $\qcma$-communication. In this \redout{paper} we show that multiparty $\nqp$-communication can be exponentially stronger than $\qcma$-communication. This also implies an exponential separation with respect to classical multiparty nondeterministic communication complexity. We argue that there exists a total function that is hard for $\qcma$-communication and easy for $\nqp$-communication. The proof of it involves an application of the pattern tensor method and a new lower bound for polynomial threshold degree. Another important consequence of this result is that nondeterministic rank can be exponentially lower than the discrepancy bound.
One of the strongest techniques available for showing lower bounds on quantum communication complexity is the logarithm of the approximation rank of the communication matrix--the minimum rank of a matrix which is entrywise close to the communication matrix. This technique has two main drawbacks: it is difficult to compute, and it is not known to lower bound quantum communication complexity with entanglement. Linial and Shraibman recently introduced a norm, called gamma_2^{alpha}, to quantum communication complexity, showing that it can be used to lower bound communication with entanglement. Here the parameter alpha is a measure of approximation which is related to the allowable error probability of the protocol. This bound can be written as a semidefinite program and gives bounds at least as large as many techniques in the literature, although it is smaller than the corresponding alpha-approximation rank, rk_alpha. We show that in fact log gamma_2^{alpha}(A)$ and log rk_{alpha}(A)$ agree up to small factors. As corollaries we obtain a constant factor polynomial time approximation algorithm to the logarithm of approximate rank, and that the logarithm of approximation rank is a lower bound for quantum communication complexity with entanglement.