This paper addresses two problems in the context of two-party communication complexity of functions. First, it concludes the line of research which can be viewed as demonstrating qualitative advantage of quantum communication in the three most common communication “layouts”: two-way interactive communication, one-way communication and simultaneous message passing (SMP). I demonstrate a functional (problem c̅E̅q̅T̅, whose communication complexity is O (log n)2) in the quantum version of the SMP and Ω̃ (√n) in the classical (randomized) version of SMP. Second, this paper contributes to understanding the power of the weakest commonly studied regime of quantum communication-SMP with quantum messages and without shared randomness (the latter restriction can be viewed as a somewhat artificial way of making the quantum model “as weak as possible”). Our function c̅E̅q̅T̅ has an efficient solution in this regime as well, which means that even lacking shared randomness, quantum SMP can be exponentially stronger than its classical counterpart with shared randomness.
This paper addresses two problems in the context of two-party communication complexity of functions. First, it concludes the line of research which can be viewed as demonstrating qualitative advantage of quantum communication in the three most common communication “layouts”: two-way interactive communication, one-way communication and simultaneous message passing (SMP). I demonstrate a functional (problem c̅E̅q̅T̅, whose communication complexity is O (log n)2) in the quantum version of the SMP and Ω̃ (√n) in the classical (randomized) version of SMP. Second, this paper contributes to understanding the power of the weakest commonly studied regime of quantum communication-SMP with quantum messages and without shared randomness (the latter restriction can be viewed as a somewhat artificial way of making the quantum model “as weak as possible”). Our function c̅E̅q̅T̅ has an efficient solution in this regime as well, which means that even lacking shared randomness, quantum SMP can be exponentially stronger than its classical counterpart with shared randomness.
The private simultaneous messages model is a non-interactive version of the multiparty secure computation, which has been intensively studied to examine the communication cost of the secure computation. We consider its quantum counterpart, the private simultaneous quantum messages (PSQM) model, and examine the advantages of quantum communication and prior entanglement of this model. In the PSQM model, k parties P1,…,Pk initially share a common random string (or entangled states in a stronger setting), and they have private classical inputs x1,…,xk. Every Pi generates a quantum message from the private input xi and the shared random string (entangled states), and then sends it to the referee R. Receiving the messages, R computes F(x1,…,xk). Then, R learns nothing except for F(x1,…,xk) as the privacy condition. We obtain the following results for this PSQM model. (1) We demonstrate that the privacy condition inevitably increases the communication cost in the two-party PSQM model as well as in the classical case presented by Applebaum, Holenstein, Mishra, and Shayevitz. In particular, we prove a lower bound (3−o(1))n of the communication complexity in two-party PSQM protocols with a shared random string for random Boolean functions of 2n-bit input, which is larger than the trivial upper bound 2n of the communication complexity without the privacy condition. (2) We demonstrate a factor two gap between the communication complexity of PSQM protocols with shared entangled states and with shared random strings by designing a multiparty PSQM protocol with shared entangled states for a total function that extends the two-party equality function. (3) We demonstrate an exponential gap between the communication complexity of PSQM protocols with shared entangled states and with shared random strings for a two-party partial function.
Computing many instances jointly can reduce communication per instance. We ask whether such savings occur in the simultaneous-message-passing (SMP) model and how they depend on quantum messages and shared resources. For every finite total function f and fixed error 0≤ε<1, we prove that the optimal worst-case communication per instance for fn converges to D∥(f)=log∣Row(f)∣+log∣Col(f)∣, where Row(f) and Col(f) are the sets of distinct rows and columns of the table (f(x,y))x,y. This holds for classical and quantum SMP without shared entanglement, with or without shared randomness. Thus, transmitting row and column indices is asymptotically optimal, even with bounded error, joint computation, and quantum messages. In particular, the exponential advantage of quantum fingerprinting for a single instance of equality without shared randomness disappears in the asymptotic rate. We also prove that the same threshold governs an exponential strong converse: every fixed worst-case communication rate below it forces the probability of computing all n outputs correctly to decay as 2−Ω(n), even on average under a fixed product input distribution. With shared randomness, the optimal expected communication rate is (1−ε)D∥(f). Entanglement shared between each sender and the referee halves both rates; arbitrary tripartite entanglement gives no further reduction. The results extend to a class of total relations and yield one-way characterizations with D∥(f) replaced by log∣Row(f)∣. Our proof reduces SMP to one-way communication and relates successful computation to sampling based on quantum min-entropy; we also give a simpler proof of the key lemma using the pretty-good measurement.
We study a new type of separations between quantum and classical communication complexity, separations that are 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. Our main result qualitatively matches the strongest known separation between quantum and classical communication complexity Gavinsky (2016) and is obtained using a quantum protocol where all parties are efficient. More precisely, we give an explicit partial Boolean function f over inputs of length N , such that: f can be computed by a simultaneous-message quantum protocol with communication complexity polylog( N ) (where at the beginning of the protocol Alice and Bob also have polylog( N ) entangled EPR pairs). Any classical randomized protocol for f , with any number of rounds, has communication complexity at least Ω~(N1/4) . All parties in the quantum protocol of Item (1) (Alice, Bob and the referee) can be implemented by quantum circuits of size polylog( N ) (where Alice and Bob have oracle access to their inputs). Items (1), (2) qualitatively match the strongest known separation between quantum and classical communication complexity, proved by Gavinsky (2016). Item (3) is new. (Our result is incomparable to the one of Gavinsky. While he obtained a quantitatively better lower bound of Ω(N1/2) in the classical case, the referee in his quantum protocol is inefficient). Exponential separations of quantum and classical communication complexity have been studied in numerous previous works, but to the best of our knowledge the efficiency of the parties in the quantum protocol has not been addressed, and in most previous separations the quantum parties seem to be inefficient. The only separations that we know of that have efficient quantum parties are the recent separations that are based on lifting Göös et al. (2017), Chattopadhyay et al. (2019a). However, these separations seem to require quantum protocols with at least two rounds of communication, so they imply a separation of two-way quantum and classical communication complexity, but they do not give the stronger separations of simultaneous-message quantum communication complexity vs. two-way classical communication complexity (or even one-way quantum communication complexity vs. two-way classical communication complexity). Our proof technique is completely new, in the context of communication complexity, and is based on techniques from Raz & Tal (2019). Our function f is based on a lift of the forrelation problem, using xor as a gadget.
We study the relative power of public randomness and quantum communication in the multiparty Simultaneous Message Passing (SMP) model. By analyzing a total Boolean function and a relational problem, we establish polynomial and exponential separations between classical public-coin protocols and quantum protocols without shared randomness or prior entanglement.
We first introduce XOR Equality, a total Boolean function in which each of k players receives an unrestricted string xj∈{0,1}n, and the referee must decide whether x1⊕⋯⊕xk=0n. For k≥8 and worst-case error at most 1/3, we prove quantum lower bounds of Ω(min{n,k2}) on total communication and Ω(min{n/k,k}) on maximum message length. A classical public-coin protocol uses two bits per player with error at most 1/4. For n=k2 and worst-case error at most 1/3, we prove that quantum protocols require maximum message length Ω(n) qubits, whereas two public-coin bits per player suffice.
We then turn to relations, for which we obtain exponential separations. Specifically, we study Multiparty Index Coordination, a k-player generalization of the two-player relation studied by Gavinsky, Kempe, Regev, and de Wolf (STOC 2006). We prove an unambiguous quantum lower bound of Ω(n1−1/k) on maximum message length, matched by a classical private-coin protocol. For any fixed error ε∈(0,1/8), we also prove a bounded-error quantum lower bound of Ω(n(k−1)/(k+1)) while we show that public-coin protocols solve the relation unambiguously with maximum message length O(logn), giving exponential separations in both regimes. The implicit constants are independent of k, and both quantum lower bounds become linear when k≥clogn for any fixed c>0.
In 1999 Raz demonstrated a partial function that had an efficient quantum two-way communication protocol but no efficient classical two-way protocol and asked, whether there existed a function with an efficient quantum one-way protocol, but still no efficient classical two-way protocol. In 2010 Klartag and Regev demonstrated such a function and asked, whether there existed a function with an efficient quantum simultaneous-messages protocol, but still no efficient classical two-way protocol. In this work we answer the latter question affirmatively and present a partial function Shape, which can be computed by a protocol sending entangled simultaneous messages of poly-logarithmic size, and whose classical two-way complexity is lower bounded by a polynomial.
In 1999 Raz demonstrated a partial function that had an efficient quantum two-way communication protocol but no efficient classical two-way protocol and asked whether there existed a function with an efficient quantum one-way protocol, but still no efficient classical two-way protocol. In 2010 Klartag and Regev demonstrated such a function and asked whether there existed a function with an efficient quantum simultaneous-messages protocol, but still no efficient classical two-way protocol. In this work we answer the latter question affirmatively and present a partial function Shape that can be computed by a protocol sending entangled simultaneous messages of poly-logarithmic size, and whose classical two-way complexity is lower bounded by a polynomial.