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arXiv:2503.23500

Robust Self-testing for Synchronous Correlations and Games

Prem Nigam Kar

Published Mar 30, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

We develop an abstract operator-algebraic characterization of robust self-testing for synchronous correlations and games. Specifically, we show that a synchronous correlation is a robust self-test if and only if there is a unique state on an appropriate $C^*$-algebra that "implements" the correlation. Extending this result, we prove that a synchronous game is a robust self-test if and only if its associated $C^*$-algebra admits a unique amenable tracial state. This framework allows us to establish that all synchronous correlations and games that serve as commuting operator self-tests for finite-dimensional strategies are also robust self-tests. As an application, we recover sufficient conditions for linear constraint system games to exhibit robust self-testing. We also demonstrate the existence of a synchronous nonlocal game that is a robust self-test but not a commuting operator self-test, showing that these notions are not equivalent.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2503.23500

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We develop an abstract operator-algebraic characterization of robust self-testing for synchronous correlations and games. Specifically, we show that a synchronous correlation is a robust self-test if and only if there is a unique state on an appropriate C∗C^*C∗-algebra that "implements" the correlation. Extending this result, we prove that a synchronous game is a robust self-test if and only if its associated C∗C^*C∗-algebra admits a unique amenable tracial state. This framework allows us to establish that all synchronous correlations and games that serve as commuting operator self-tests for finite-dimensional strategies are also robust self-tests. As an application, we recover sufficient conditions for linear constraint system games to exhibit robust self-testing. We also demonstrate the existence of a synchronous nonlocal game that is a robust self-test but not a commuting operator self-test, showing that these notions are not equivalent.
We show that exact self-testing of a quantum correlation does not imply robust self-testing. Mančinska and Schmidt previously established such a separation for non-local games, but their obstruction to robustness arises from two distinct optimal correlations, with the self-tested one remaining robust. We establish the separation for a single correlation. Our proof is operator-algebraic. The main technical contribution is a general construction that associates a synchronous binary correlation to any finitely presented C*-algebra with unitary generators and real-coefficient relations. The implementing states of the correlation correspond exactly to the tracial states on the algebra. We apply this construction to an algebra with a unique finite-dimensional tracial state and a distinct amenable tracial state. By a characterization established by Zhao and independently by Kar, the resulting correlation is a self-test but not a robust self-test.
We give an operator-algebraic formulation of robust self-testing in terms of states on C*-algebras. We show that a quantum correlation p is a robust self-test only if among all (abstract) states, there is a unique one achieving p. We show that the "if" direction of this statement also holds, provided that p is optimal/perfect for a nonlocal game that has a robust game algebra. This last condition applies to many nonlocal games of interest, including all XOR games, synchronous games, and boolean constrained system (BCS) games. For those nonlocal games with robust game algebras, we prove that self-testing is equivalent to the uniqueness of finite-dimensional tracial states on the associated game algebra, and robust self-testing is equivalent to the uniqueness of amenable tracial states. Applying this tracial-state characterization of self-testing to parallel repetition, we show that a synchronous game is a self-test for perfect quantum strategies if and only if its parallel repeated version is a self-test for perfect quantum strategies. As a proof approach, we give the first quantitative Gower-Hatami theorem that is applicable to C*-algebras. Here "quantitative" means there is a constructive bound on the distance between the approximate representations and exact representations. We also demonstrate how this quantitative Gowers-Hatami theorem can be used to calculate the explicit robustness function of a self-test.
We show that the optimal commuting operator correlation for a variant of Coladangelo's two-player generalized nonlocal game, based on the embezzlement of entanglement, is a commuting operator self-test. Our result gives the first correlation self-test for an exact entanglement embezzlement protocol in the commuting operator framework. Because the unique optimal correlation necessitates the exact embezzlement of entanglement, the correlation is unrealizable using quantum tensor-product models, even if the local spaces are allowed to be infinite dimensional. As such, our result provides an example of a commuting operator self-test where the Hilbert space shared by the two parties cannot be factored into a tensor-product of local spaces that is compatible with the local measurement operators. Our main proof technique relies on Harris' unique abstract state characterization of exact embezzlement of entanglement involving Cuntz algebras.
Robust self-testing in non-local games allows a classical referee to certify that two untrustworthy players are able to perform a specific quantum strategy up to high precision. Proving robust self-testing results becomes significantly easier when one restricts the allowed strategies to symmetric projective maximally entangled (PME) strategies, which allow natural descriptions in terms of tracial von Neumann algebras. This has been exploited in the celebrated M I P ∗ = R E paper and related articles to prove robust self-testing results for synchronous games when restricting to PME strategies. However, the PME assumptions are not physical, so these results need to be upgraded to make them physically relevant. In this work, we do just that: we prove that any perfect synchronous game which is a robust self-test when restricted to PME strategies, is in fact a robust self-test for all strategies. We then apply our result to the Quantum Low Degree Test to find an efficient n -qubit test.
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We prove that any two-party correlation in the commuting operator model can be approximated using a tracially embeddable strategy, a class of strategies defined on a finite tracial von Neumann algebra, which we define in this paper. Using this characterization, we show that any approximately synchronous correlation can be approximated to the average of a collection of synchronous correlations in the commuting operator model. This generalizes the result from Vidick [JMP 2022] which only applies to finite-dimensional quantum correlations. As a corollary, we show that the quantum tensor code test from Ji et al. [FOCS 2022] follows the soundness property even under the general commuting operator model. Furthermore, we extend the state-dependent norm variant of the Gowers-Hatami theorem to finite von Neumann algebras. Combined with the aforementioned characterization, this enables us to lift many known results about robust self-testing for non-local games to the commuting operator model, including a sample efficient finite-dimensional EPR testing for the commuting operator strategies. We believe that, in addition to the contribution from this paper, this class of strategies can be helpful for further understanding non-local games in the infinite-dimensional setting.