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arXiv:2306.01233 · Leibniz international proceedings in informatics

Trade-Offs Between Entanglement and Communication

Srinivasan Arunachalam, Uma Girish

Published Jan 1, 2023• 0 citations
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Abstract

We study the advantages of quantum communication models over classical communication models that are equipped with a limited number of qubits of entanglement. In this direction, we give explicit partial functions on $n$ bits for which reducing the entanglement increases the classical communication complexity exponentially. Our separations are as follows. For every $k\ge 1$: $Q\|^*$ versus $R2^*$: We show that quantum simultaneous protocols with $\tildeΘ(k^5 \log^3 n)$ qubits of entanglement can exponentially outperform two-way randomized protocols with $O(k)$ qubits of entanglement. This resolves an open problem from [Gav08] and improves the state-of-the-art separations between quantum simultaneous protocols with entanglement and two-way randomized protocols without entanglement [Gav19, GRT22]. $R\|^*$ versus $Q\|^*$: We show that classical simultaneous protocols with $\tildeΘ(k \log n)$ qubits of entanglement can exponentially outperform quantum simultaneous protocols with $O(k)$ qubits of entanglement, resolving an open question from [GKRW06, Gav19]. The best result prior to our work was a relational separation against protocols without entanglement [GKRW06]. $R\|^*$ versus $R1^*$: We show that classical simultaneous protocols with $\tildeΘ(k\log n)$ qubits of entanglement can exponentially outperform randomized one-way protocols with $O(k)$ qubits of entanglement. Prior to our work, only a relational separation was known [Gav08]. Our techniques can also be used to show advantages of quantum communication models over hybrid classical-quantum models, i.e., models that have a large amount of both classical communication and quantum simultaneous communication.

DOI
10.4230/lipics.ccc.2023.25

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A longstanding question in quantum communication complexity is whether some task can be accomplished with a small amount of communication in the presence of entanglement, yet require much more quantum communication in the absence of entanglement. Separations of this nature were previously known for relational problems and, in the simultaneous message passing model, for partial functions. But it has remained unresolved whether any such separation exists for a total Boolean function. We resolve this question with an exponential separation in the one-way setting: we exhibit a family of total Boolean functions fn ⁣:{0,1}n×{0,1}n→{0,1}f_n\colon \{0,1\}^n \times \{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}fn​:{0,1}n×{0,1}n→{0,1} that can be computed with O(log⁡n)O(\log n)O(logn) bits of one-way classical communication given prior entanglement, but that require Ω(n1/3)Ω(n^{1/3})Ω(n1/3) qubits of one-way quantum communication without entanglement. Our function is a special case of the subgroup membership problem, first studied in the communication setting by Aaronson, Le Gall, Russell, and Tani.
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)\tilde{\Omega}\left(N^{1/4}\right)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)\Omega\left(N^{1/2}\right)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 complexity of quantum decomposable randomized encodings (QDRE). We establish a bi-directional connection between the QDRE model and the communication complexity model of quantum private simultaneous message protocols (QPSM), where classical communication is free, and quantum communication is the primary complexity measure. We show the following upper and lower bounds. (1) For every quantum channel mapping nnn to mmm qubits, we give a QPSM protocol with quantum communication mmm, using exponential pre-shared entanglement. In particular, constant-output channels have O(1)O(1)O(1) quantum communication, and classical-output channels require no quantum communication. (2) With O(n)O(n)O(n) pre-shared entanglement, every one-qubit-output channel has an O(n)O(n)O(n)-quantum-communication QPSM protocol. Conversely, there exists a channel and a constant c>0c>0c>0 for which any protocol with at most cncncn pre-shared entanglement requires Ω(n)Ω(n)Ω(n) quantum communication. (3) In contrast, we identify a structured class of quantum channels, Clifford-induced channels, for which there exist QPSM protocols with O(n)O(n)O(n) pre-shared entangled qubits and only O(1)O(1)O(1) quantum communication complexity. Through our connection, we obtain analogous upper and lower bounds on the quantum encoding size of QDRE. Our results show that the amount of pre-shared entanglement plays a central role in quantum encoding size and quantum communication complexity.
We investigates a model of hybrid classical-quantum communication complexity, in which two parties first exchange classical messages and subsequently communicate using quantum messages. We study the trade-off between the classical and quantum communication for composed functions of the form f∘Gnf\circ G^nf∘Gn, where f:{0,1}n→{±1}f:\{0,1\}^n\to\{\pm1\}f:{0,1}n→{±1} and GGG is an inner product function of Θ(log⁡n)Θ(\log n)Θ(logn) bits. To prove the trade-off, we establish a novel lifting theorem for hybrid communication complexity. This theorem unifies two previously separate lifting paradigms: the query-to-communication lifting framework for classical communication complexity and the approximate-degree-to-generalized-discrepancy lifting methods for quantum communication complexity. Our hybrid lifting theorem therefore offers a new framework for proving lower bounds in hybrid classical-quantum communication models. As a corollary, we show that any hybrid protocol communicating ccc classical bits followed by qqq qubits to compute f∘Gnf\circ G^nf∘Gn must satisfy c+q2=Ω(max⁡{deg(f),bs(f)}⋅log⁡n)c+q^2=Ω\big(\max\{\mathrm{deg}(f),\mathrm{bs}(f)\}\cdot\log n\big)c+q2=Ω(max{deg(f),bs(f)}⋅logn), where deg(f)\mathrm{deg}(f)deg(f) is the degree of fff and bs(f)\mathrm{bs}(f)bs(f) is the block sensitivity of fff. For read-once formula fff, this yields an almost tight trade-off: either they have to exchange Θ(n⋅log⁡n)Θ\big(n\cdot\log n\big)Θ(n⋅logn) classical bits or Θ~(n⋅log⁡n)\widetildeΘ\big(\sqrt n\cdot\log n\big)Θ(n​⋅logn) qubits, showing that classical pre-processing cannot significantly reduce the quantum communication required. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first non-trivial trade-off between classical and quantum communication in hybrid two-way communication complexity.
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, kkk parties P1,…,PkP_1,\ldots,P_kP1​,…,Pk​ initially share a common random string (or entangled states in a stronger setting), and they have private classical inputs x1,…,xkx_1,\ldots, x_kx1​,…,xk​. Every PiP_iPi​ generates a quantum message from the private input xix_ixi​ and the shared random string (entangled states), and then sends it to the referee RRR. Receiving the messages, RRR computes F(x1,…,xk)F(x_1,\ldots,x_k)F(x1​,…,xk​). Then, RRR learns nothing except for F(x1,…,xk)F(x_1,\ldots,x_k)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(3-o(1))n(3−o(1))n of the communication complexity in two-party PSQM protocols with a shared random string for random Boolean functions of 2n2n2n-bit input, which is larger than the trivial upper bound 2n2n2n 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.
We refine Gavinsky's framework (arXiv:2608.18784) for exponential separations between quantum and randomized communication complexity of total functions and obtain larger separations: polylogarithmic quantum communication versus Ω~(n)\tildeΩ(\sqrt n)Ω~(n​) randomized communication with two quantum messages, and versus Ω(n1−ε)Ω(n^{1-\varepsilon})Ω(n1−ε) for every fixed 0<ε<10<\varepsilon<10<ε<1 with more quantum messages.