Quantum voting, inspired by quantum game theory, provides a framework in which the quantum majority rule (QMR) constitution of Bao and Yunger Halpern [Phys. Rev. A 95, 062306 (2017)] violates the quantum analogue of Arrow's impossibility theorem. We evaluate this QMR constitution analytically on classical profile data and implement its final measurement stage as a quantum circuit, running on both noiseless simulators and noisy IBM quantum hardware to map how realistic noise deforms the resulting societal ranking distribution. Moderate-high single-qubit noise does not change the qualitative behavior of QMR, whereas strong noise shifts the distribution toward other dominant winners than the classical one. We quantify this behavior using winner-agreement rates, Condorcet-winner flip rates, and Jensen-Shannon divergence between societal ranking distributions. In a second, exploratory component, we demonstrate an explicitly entanglement-based variant of the QMR constitution that serves as a testbed for multi-voter quantum correlations under noise, which we refer to as the QMR2-inspired variant. There, GHZ-type and separable superpositions over opposite rankings have the same expectation values but respond very differently to noise. Taken together, these two components connect the abstract QMR constitution to concrete implementations on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices and highlight design considerations for future quantum voting protocols.
Quantum voting, inspired by quantum game theory, provides a framework in which the quantum majority rule (QMR) constitution of Bao and Yunger Halpern [Phys. Rev. A 95, 062306 (2017)] violates the quantum analogue of Arrow's impossibility theorem. We evaluate this QMR constitution analytically on classical profile data and implement its final measurement stage as a quantum circuit, running on both noiseless simulators and noisy IBM quantum hardware to map how realistic noise deforms the resulting societal ranking distribution. Moderate-high single-qubit noise does not change the qualitative behavior of QMR, whereas strong noise shifts the distribution toward other dominant winners than the classical one. We quantify this behavior using winner-agreement rates, Condorcet-winner flip rates, and Jensen-Shannon divergence between societal ranking distributions. In a second, exploratory component, we demonstrate an explicitly entanglement-based variant of the QMR constitution that serves as a testbed for multi-voter quantum correlations under noise, which we refer to as the QMR2-inspired variant. There, GHZ-type and separable superpositions over opposite rankings have the same expectation values but respond very differently to noise. Taken together, these two components connect the abstract QMR constitution to concrete implementations on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices and highlight design considerations for future quantum voting protocols.
We introduce a quantum voting protocol that uses superposition and entanglement to enable anonymous voting with trusted voting machines, in a centralized setting with a single machine and in a distributed setting where several machines are linked to a voting center through quantum channels. A voter selects a candidate through a restricted ballot interface; the machine encodes the vote as a phase-flip operation, controlled by the voter's identity register, on an entangled candidate state. Tallying is performed by interference with a reference branch followed by a measurement of the candidate register, which reproduces the vote distribution without iterative classical counting. Because every tallying run consumes the quantum state, the machines store the cast choices classically and replay the voting stage for each run. The protocol uses only basic quantum gates (Hadamard and controlled-Z). We provide analytical examples (4 voters with 2 candidates and 8 voters with 3 candidates) and numerical experiments that simulate ideal conditions, depolarizing, memory, readout, and gate noise, faulty or mistaken ballots, larger instances with confidence intervals, and sampling convergence. The simulations reproduce the theoretical tally probabilities in the ideal case and show how the tally is distorted by noise and by faulty ballots; no error correction or mitigation is applied. Voter anonymity is formalized as the indistinguishability of tallying transcripts under vote permutations, and an identity-dephasing step renders the identity register exactly maximally mixed under the stated trust assumptions. The numbers of protocol runs needed for exact tallying and for winner identification are analyzed explicitly.
Abstract We present an experimental implementation of the multiplayer Quantum Volunteer's Dilemma on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) hardware, executed on the ibm_kingston backend via Qiskit Runtime. The game is evaluated for N = 2 to 9 players under four transpiler optimization levels, with 20 independent repetitions per configuration and 2048 shots per circuit, including post-processing readout error correction via mthree. Target-state fidelity decays with system size but remains above 70% (corrected) through N = 9. With readout correction, the global average payoff reproduces the quantum theoretical benchmark exactly for N ≤ 6 and exceeds the classical Nash equilibrium across the full tested range. Optimization level 2 is selected as the reference configuration after gate count analysis reveals that levels 2 and 3 produce identical transpiled circuits, with level 2 achieving superior fidelity stability. A Hamming distance analysis of raw measurement counts shows that single-qubit errors dominate at small N, with multi-qubit contributions growing beyond N = 6. A calibration-based digital twin captures global payoff trends but exhibits a linear fidelity decay profile that diverges from the hardware behavior at large N, exposing the limits of first-order independent per-qubit noise models. These results demonstrate that aggregate quantum advantage in multiplayer games is robust to NISQ noise conditions across the full tested range, while the practical observability of state-level advantage is constrained to N ≤ 8 under post-processed readout correction.
We present an experimental implementation of the multiplayer Quantum Volunteer's Dilemma on noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) hardware, executed on the ibm_kingston backend via Qiskit Runtime. The game is evaluated for N = 2 to 9 players under four transpiler optimization levels, with 20 independent repetitions per configuration and 2048 shots per circuit, including post-processing readout error correction via mthree. Target-state fidelity decays with system size but remains above 70% (corrected) through N = 9. With readout correction, the global average payoff reproduces the quantum theoretical benchmark exactly for N <= 6 and exceeds the classical Nash equilibrium across the full tested range. Optimization level 2 is selected as the reference configuration after gate count analysis reveals that levels 2 and 3 produce identical transpiled circuits, with level 2 achieving superior fidelity stability. A Hamming distance analysis of raw measurement counts shows that single-qubit errors dominate at small N, with multi-qubit contributions growing beyond N = 6. A calibration-based digital twin captures global payoff trends but exhibits a linear fidelity decay profile that diverges from the hardware behavior at large N, exposing the limits of first-order independent per-qubit noise models. These results demonstrate that aggregate quantum advantage in multiplayer games is robust to NISQ noise conditions across the full tested range, while the practical observability of state-level advantage is constrained to N <= 8 under post-processed readout correction.
Studying the computational complexity and designing fast algorithms for determining winners under voting rules are classical and fundamental questions in computational social choice. In this paper, we accelerate voting by leveraging quantum computation: we propose a quantum-accelerated voting algorithm that can be applied to any anonymous voting rule. We show that our algorithm can be quadratically faster than any classical algorithm (based on sampling with replacement) under a wide range of common voting rules, including positional scoring rules, Copeland, and single transferable voting (STV). Precisely, our quantum-accelerated voting algorithm outputs the correct winner with high probability in Θ(MOVn) time, where n is the number of votes and MOV is {\em margin of victory}, the smallest number of voters to change the winner. In contrast, any classical voting algorithm based on sampling with replacement requires Ω(MOV2n2) time under a large class of voting rules. Our theoretical results are supported by experiments under plurality, Borda, Copeland, and STV.
The advent of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices has not only opened up new possibilities to studying quantum computational benefits, but it has also presented new challenges associated with noise and short coherence times. Entanglement is one of the inherent resources that can be used to perform quantum computation and implement the performance and reliability of quantum algorithms. This paper looks at entanglement dynamics in NISQ machines subjected to natural noises. The study focuses on the problem of examining the role of various noise channels in the creation, dynamics, and decay of the entanglement during quantum operations, such as depolarizing, amplitude damping, and phase damping. The study is based on theoretical modeling and numerical simulations of multi-qubit quantum circuits to determine the stability of entangled states with respect to circuit depth and intensity of noise. Concurrence and von Neumann entropy are examples of entanglement measures that are used to characterize correlations between qubits as well as to trace the dynamics of these correlations across computational interactions. The results show that noise has major impacts on entanglement distribution, which tends to cause rapid decays in highly entangled states with increase in circuit complexity. The findings, however, also show that there are some circuit architectures and error-mitigation schemes that can somewhat sustain entanglement with moderate levels of noise. The paper also emphasizes the relevance of minimalizing sequence of gates, and reduced circuit depth in an effort to preserve useful entanglement in present-day quantum hardware. These observations help in understanding the behaviour of quantum correlations better in real world quantum devices and provide a way of developing more resilient quantum algorithms that would work on NISQ systems. In general, the article offers a systematic view on entanglement behavior in disordered quantum systems and highlights its value in the development of quantum computing applications in the near term.
Quantum voting protocols aim to offer ballot secrecy and publicly verifiable tallies using physical guarantees from quantum mechanics, rather than relying solely on computational hardness. This article surveys whether such quantum voting protocols are practical. We begin by outlining core mathematical ideas such as the superposition principle, the no-cloning theorem, and quantum entanglement. We then define a common system and threat model, identifying key actors, trust assumptions, and security goals. Representative protocol families are reviewed, including entanglement-based schemes with central tallying, self-tallying designs that enable public verification, and authority-minimized approaches that certify untrusted devices through observable correlations. Finally, we evaluate implementation challenges, including loss, noise, device imperfections, scalability, and coercion resistance, and discuss realistic near-term deployment scenarios for small-scale elections.