We consider the problem of learning stabilizer states with noise in the Probably Approximately Correct (PAC) framework of Aaronson (2007) for learning quantum states. In the noiseless setting, an algorithm for this problem was recently given by Rocchetto (2018), but the noisy case was left open. Motivated by approaches to noise tolerance from classical learning theory, we introduce the Statistical Query (SQ) model for PAC-learning quantum states, and prove that algorithms in this model are indeed resilient to common forms of noise, including classification and depolarizing noise. We prove an exponential lower bound on learning stabilizer states in the SQ model. Even outside the SQ model, we prove that learning stabilizer states with noise is in general as hard as Learning Parity with Noise (LPN) using classical examples. Our results position the problem of learning stabilizer states as a natural quantum analogue of the classical problem of learning parities: easy in the noiseless setting, but seemingly intractable even with simple forms of noise.
We consider the problem of learning stabilizer states with noise in the Probably Approximately Correct (PAC) framework of Aaronson (2007) for learning quantum states. In the noiseless setting, an algorithm for this problem was recently given by Rocchetto (2018), but the noisy case was left open. Motivated by approaches to noise tolerance from classical learning theory, we introduce the Statistical Query (SQ) model for PAC-learning quantum states, and prove that algorithms in this model are indeed resilient to common forms of noise, including classification and depolarizing noise. We prove an exponential lower bound on learning stabilizer states in the SQ model. Even outside the SQ model, we prove that learning stabilizer states with noise is in general as hard as Learning Parity with Noise (LPN) using classical examples. Our results position the problem of learning stabilizer states as a natural quantum analogue of the classical problem of learning parities: easy in the noiseless setting, but seemingly intractable even with simple forms of noise.
We propose a learning model called the quantum statistical learning QSQ model, which extends the SQ learning model introduced by Kearns to the quantum setting. Our model can be also seen as a restriction of the quantum PAC learning model: here, the learner does not have direct access to quantum examples, but can only obtain estimates of measurement statistics on them. Theoretically, this model provides a simple yet expressive setting to explore the power of quantum examples in machine learning. From a practical perspective, since simpler operations are required, learning algorithms in the QSQ model are more feasible for implementation on near-term quantum devices. We prove a number of results about the QSQ learning model. We first show that parity functions, (log n)-juntas and polynomial-sized DNF formulas are efficiently learnable in the QSQ model, in contrast to the classical setting where these problems are provably hard. This implies that many of the advantages of quantum PAC learning can be realized even in the more restricted quantum SQ learning model. It is well-known that weak statistical query dimension, denoted by WSQDIM(C), characterizes the complexity of learning a concept class C in the classical SQ model. We show that log(WSQDIM(C)) is a lower bound on the complexity of QSQ learning, and furthermore it is tight for certain concept classes C. Additionally, we show that this quantity provides strong lower bounds for the small-bias quantum communication model under product distributions. Finally, we introduce the notion of private quantum PAC learning, in which a quantum PAC learner is required to be differentially private. We show that learnability in the QSQ model implies learnability in the quantum private PAC model. Additionally, we show that in the private PAC learning setting, the classical and quantum sample complexities are equal, up to constant factors.
We develop a framework for learning from noisy quantum experiments in which fault-tolerant devices access uncharacterized systems through noisy couplings. Introducing the complexity class NBQP ("noisy BQP''), we model noisy fault-tolerant quantum computers that cannot generally error-correct the oracle systems they query. Using this class, we prove that while noise can eliminate the exponential quantum learning advantages of unphysical, noiseless learners, a superpolynomial gap remains between NISQ and fault-tolerant devices. Turning to canonical learning tasks in noisy settings, we find that the exponential two-copy advantage for purity testing collapses under local depolarizing noise. Nevertheless, we identify a setting motivated by AdS/CFT in which noise-resilient physical structure restores this quantum learning advantage. We then analyze noisy Pauli shadow tomography, deriving lower bounds characterizing how instance size, quantum memory and noise jointly control sample complexity, and design algorithms with parametrically matching scalings. We study similar tradeoffs in quantum metrology, and show that the Heisenberg-limited sensitivity of existing error-correction-based protocols persists only up to a timescale inverse-polynomial in the error rate per probe qubit. Together, our results demonstrate that the primitives underlying quantum-enhanced experiments are fundamentally fragile to noise, and that realizing meaningful quantum advantages in future experiments will require interfacing noise-robust physical properties with available algorithmic techniques.
Random classical codes have good error correcting properties, and yet they are notoriously hard to decode in practice. Despite many decades of extensive study, the fastest known algorithms still run in exponential time. The Learning Parity with Noise (LPN) problem, which can be seen as the task of decoding a random linear code in the presence of noise, has thus emerged as a prominent hardness assumption with numerous applications in both cryptography and learning theory. Is there a natural quantum analog of the LPN problem? In this work, we introduce the Learning Stabilizers with Noise (LSN) problem, the task of decoding a random stabilizer code in the presence of local depolarizing noise. We give both polynomial-time and exponential-time quantum algorithms for solving LSN in various depolarizing noise regimes, ranging from extremely low noise, to low constant noise rates, and even higher noise rates up to a threshold. Next, we provide concrete evidence that LSN is hard. First, we show that LSN includes LPN as a special case, which suggests that it is at least as hard as its classical counterpart. Second, we prove worst-case to average-case reductions for variants of LSN. We then ask: what is the computational complexity of solving LSN? Because the task features quantum inputs, its complexity cannot be characterized by traditional complexity classes. Instead, we show that the LSN problem lies in a recently introduced (distributional and oracle) unitary synthesis class. Finally, we identify several applications of our LSN assumption, ranging from the construction of quantum bit commitment schemes to the computational limitations of learning from quantum data.
Noise is often regarded as anathema to quantum computation, but in some settings it can be an unlikely ally. We consider the problem of learning the class of n-bit parity functions by making queries to a quantum example oracle. In the absence of noise, quantum and classical parity learning are easy and almost equally powerful, both information-theoretically and computationally. We show that in the presence of noise this story changes dramatically. Indeed, the classical learning problem is believed to be intractable, while the quantum version remains efficient. Depolarizing the qubits at the oracle's output at any constant nonzero rate does not increase the computational (or query) complexity of quantum learning more than logarithmically. However, the problem of learning from corresponding classical examples is the learning parity with noise problem, for which the best known algorithms have superpolynomial complexity. This creates the possibility of observing a quantum advantage with a few hundred noisy qubits. The presence of noise is essential for creating this quantum-classical separation.
The exponential scaling of the wave function is a fundamental property of quantum systems with far reaching implications in our ability to process quantum information. A problem where these are particularly relevant is quantum state tomography. State tomography, whose objective is to obtain an approximate description of a quantum system, can be analysed in the framework of computational learning theory. In this model, Aaronson (2007) showed that quantum states are Probably Approximately Correct (PAC)-learnable with sample complexity linear in the number of qubits. However, it is conjectured that in general quantum states require an exponential amount of computation to be learned. Here, using results from the literature on the efficient classical simulation of quantum systems, we show that stabiliser states are efficiently PAC-learnable. Our results solve an open problem formulated by Aaronson (2007) and establish a connection between classical simulation of quantum systems and efficient learnability.
Learning a classical description of a quantum state is a fundamental task in quantum computation. Among the most important classes of quantum states are stabilizer states, which play a central role in quantum error correction and fault-tolerant computation. To mitigate the effects of realistic noise, agnostic learning of stabilizer states has emerged as a natural and well-motivated problem. Recently, Chen \textit{et al.} [STOC'25, p. 429-438] resolved this problem for qubit systems by using a stabilizer bootstrapping framework. However, the agnostic learning of qudit stabilizer states remains largely unexplored, since the qudit setting introduces fundamental structural differences that prevent a direct generalization of existing qubit techniques. In this paper, we successfully generalize the stabilizer bootstrapping framework to qudit systems and present the first efficient quantum algorithm for agnostic learning of qudit stabilizer states. Specifically, given copies of an unknown n-qudit pure state ∣ψ⟩ that has fidelity τ with some stabilizer state, our algorithm outputs a stabilizer state ∣φ⟩ such that ∣⟨φ∣ψ⟩∣2≥τ−ε with high probability. The algorithm uses only single-copy and four-copy measurements, and its sample and time complexity scale as (d/τ)O(d2log(1/τ))⋅poly(n,1/ε), where the dimension d is an odd prime. As a direct corollary, our algorithm enables efficient estimation of the magic of a quantum state, as quantified by its stabilizer fidelity. Completing the picture, we also present a streamlined algorithm for the high-fidelity regime τ>cos2(π/8), establishing a qudit analogue of the threshold-based approach in prior qubit work.