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arXiv:2607.08517

Quantum Communication Lower Bounds for Search Problems via Matrix Discrepancy

Minbo Gao, Chenghua Liu, Guangxu Yang, Tianyi Zhang

quant-phSubmitted Jul 9, 2026• Announced Jul 10, 2026• 0 citations
v1 · Jul 9, 2026v2 · Oct 4, 2026
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Abstract

We study one-way quantum communication lower bounds for search problems. Unlike decision problems, search problems can have many valid outputs, which pose a fundamental barrier to standard quantum lower-bound techniques. We overcome this by developing a novel method based on matrix discrepancy, which allows us to bound the output measurements of a quantum protocol jointly. As applications of our method, we establish the first tight quantum lower bounds for two fundamental search problems in some natural parameter regimes: collision finding and triangle finding. For collision finding, we prove a tight $Ω(N^{1/4})$ one-way quantum communication lower bound. Previously, the best-known quantum communication lower bound for collision finding was $Ω(N^{1/12})$ due to Göös and Jain (RANDOM 2022), and no stronger bound was known even under the one-way restriction. For triangle finding in graph streams, we prove a one-pass quantum streaming space lower bound of $Ω\left(\sqrt{Δ_V}\right)$ for graphs with $m$ edges, $Θ(m)$ triangles, and constant $Δ_E$, where $Δ_V$ and $Δ_E$ denote the maximum number of triangles sharing a common vertex and edge, respectively, under the condition that $1\le Δ_V\le m^{2/3}$. This constitutes the first nontrivial quantum space lower bound in this regime, matching the classical upper bound of Jayaram and Kallaugher (RANDOM 2021) up to logarithmic factors. Notably, our method also recovers the classical lower bound of Kallaugher and Price (SODA 2017) through an entirely different argument, avoiding their Boolean-Hidden-Matching reduction that breaks down for quantum protocols.

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We study one-way quantum communication lower bounds for search problems. Unlike decision problems, search problems can have many valid outputs, which pose a fundamental barrier to standard quantum lower-bound techniques. We overcome this by developing a novel method based on matrix discrepancy, which allows us to bound the output measurements of a quantum protocol jointly.
As applications of our method, we establish the first tight quantum lower bounds for two fundamental search problems in some natural parameter regimes: collision finding and triangle finding. For collision finding, we prove a tight Ω(N1/4)Ω(N^{1/4})Ω(N1/4) one-way quantum communication lower bound. Previously, the best-known quantum communication lower bound for collision finding was Ω(N1/12)Ω(N^{1/12})Ω(N1/12) due to Göös and Jain (RANDOM 2022), and no stronger bound was known even under the one-way restriction. For triangle finding in graph streams, we prove a one-pass quantum streaming space lower bound of Ω(ΔV)Ω\left(\sqrt{Δ_V}\right)Ω(ΔV​​) for graphs with mmm edges, Θ(m)Θ(m)Θ(m) triangles, and constant ΔEΔ_EΔE​, where ΔVΔ_VΔV​ and ΔEΔ_EΔE​ denote the maximum number of triangles sharing a common vertex and edge, respectively, under the condition that 1≤ΔV≤m2/31\le Δ_V\le m^{2/3}1≤ΔV​≤m2/3. This constitutes the first nontrivial quantum space lower bound in this regime, matching the classical upper bound of Jayaram and Kallaugher (RANDOM 2021) up to logarithmic factors. Notably, our method also recovers the classical lower bound of Kallaugher and Price (SODA 2017) through an entirely different argument, avoiding their Boolean-Hidden-Matching reduction that breaks down for quantum protocols.
How can random order change the role of quantum memory in streaming? Later classical input can restore the usefulness of a quantum state consumed by earlier queries. We call this replenishment. We construct an artificial problem based on Hidden Matching, with repeated coordinate data and online matching requests. It admits a one-pass quantum algorithm using polylogarithmic space in uniformly random order, but unconditionally requires polynomial space both classically in random order and quantumly when all updates precede the requests. To prove the quantum lower bound, we strengthen the consumability bounds of Gilboa, Jain, and McClean for Multiple Hidden Matching. Without prior entanglement, any quantum encoding supporting rrr independent matching requests requires Ω(r)Ω(r)Ω(r) qubits for r≤N1/2−δr\le N^{1/2-δ}r≤N1/2−δ and every fixed δ∈(0,1/2)δ\in(0,1/2)δ∈(0,1/2), even with simultaneous revelation and arbitrary joint decoding. For sequential requests, the linear bound extends through r=Θ(N)r=Θ(\sqrt N)r=Θ(N​). We also adapt Kallaugher's triangle-counting algorithm to uniformly random streams in which every edge is repeated equally often. Rebuilding the quantum sketch and resampling the classical estimator improve its expected-space bound in suitable parameter regimes. Finally, we extend the robust Noisy Gap Cycle framework of Assadi and Sundaresan to quantum streaming. A quantum communication lower bound for Block Hidden XOR yields an Ω(n)Ω(n)Ω(n) space lower bound in random edge order for large enough cycles, with consequences for several graph problems. Thus random order can enable replenishment of small quantum representations, while substantial space requirements persist for other tasks.
We prove a near optimal round-communication tradeoff for the two-party quantum communication complexity of disjointness. For protocols with r rounds, we prove a lower bound of Omega(n/r) on the communication required for computing disjointness of input size n, which is optimal up to logarithmic factors. The previous best lower bound was Omega(n/r̂2) due to Jain, Radhakrishnan and Sen. Along the way, we develop several tools for quantum information complexity, one of which is a lower bound for quantum information complexity in terms of the generalized discrepancy method. As a corollary, we get that the quantum communication complexity of any boolean function f is at most 2 ̂O(QIC(f)), where QIC(f) is the prior-free quantum information complexity of f (with error 1/3).
We show that an improvement to the best known quantum lower bound for GRAPH-COLLISION problem implies an improvement to the best known lower bound for TRIANGLE problem in the quantum query complexity model.In GRAPH-COLLISION we are given free access to a graph (V, E) and access to a function f : V → {0, 1} as a black box.We are asked to determine if there exist (u, v) ∈ E, such that f (u) = f (v) = 1.In TRIANGLE we have a black box access to an adjacency matrix of a graph and we have to determine if the graph contains a triangle.For both of these problems the known lower bounds are trivial (Ω( √ n) and Ω(n), respectively) and there is no known matching upper bound.
One of the best lower bound methods for the quantum communication complexity of a function H (with or without shared entanglement) is the logarithm of the approximate rank of the communication matrix of H. This measure is essentially equivalent to the approximate gamma-2 norm and generalized discrepancy, and subsumes several other lower bounds. All known lower bounds on quantum communication complexity in the general unbounded-round model can be shown via the logarithm of approximate rank, and it was an open problem to give any separation at all between quantum communication complexity and the logarithm of the approximate rank. In this work we provide the first such separation: We exhibit a total function H with quantum communication complexity almost quadratically larger than the logarithm of its approximate rank. We construct H using the communication lookup function framework of Anshu et al. (FOCS 2016) based on the cheat sheet framework of Aaronson et al. (STOC 2016). From a starting function F, this framework defines a new function H=F_G. Our main technical result is a lower bound on the quantum communication complexity of F_G in terms of the discrepancy of F, which we do via quantum information theoretic arguments. We show the upper bound on the approximate rank of F_G by relating it to the Boolean circuit size of the starting function F.
Searching for collisions in random functions is a fundamental computational problem, with many applications in symmetric and asymmetric cryptanalysis. When one searches for a single collision, the known quantum algorithms match the query lower bound. This is not the case for the problem of finding multiple collisions, despite its regular appearance as a sub-component in sieving-type algorithms. At EUROCRYPT 2019, Liu and Zhandry gave a query lower bound Ω(2m/3+2k/3)Ω(2^{m/3 + 2k/3})Ω(2m/3+2k/3) for finding 2k2^k2k collisions in a random function with m-bit output. At EUROCRYPT 2023, Bonnetain et al. gave a quantum algorithm matching this bound for a large range of mmm and kkk, but not all admissible values. Like many previous collision-finding algorithms, theirs is based on the MNRS quantum walk framework, but it chains the walks by reusing the state after outputting a collision. In this paper, we give a new algorithm that tackles the remaining non-optimal range, closing the problem. Our algorithm is tight (up to a polynomial factor) in queries, and also in time under a quantum RAM assumption. The idea is to extend the chained walk to a regime in which several collisions are returned at each step, and the ``walks'' themselves only perform a single diffusion layer.
We study hybrid quantum-classical algorithms in the query model. The computation consists of quantum subroutines that make at most qqq oracle queries; between subroutines, all qubits are measured and discarded. We prove matching upper and lower bounds for several problems in this model: (i) (Unbiased) Phase estimation up to a precision εεε requires Θ(1qε2)Θ(\frac{1}{q ε^2})Θ(qε21​) queries; (ii) (Unbiased) Amplitude estimation up to a precision εεε requires Θ(p(1−p)qε2)Θ(\frac{p(1-p)}{q ε^2})Θ(qε2p(1−p)​) queries; (iii) Search among NNN items requires Θ(Nq)Θ(\frac{N}{q})Θ(qN​) queries; (iv) Two level AND-OR tree (AND of mmm ORs, with nnn inputs to each OR) requires Θ(nmq)Θ(\frac{nm}{q})Θ(qnm​) queries. All of these bounds are optimal up to a constant factor, for all qqq from 1, corresponding to the classical complexity, to Q(f)Q(f)Q(f), the unrestricted quantum query complexity of the respective problem. We also derive a hybrid lower bound for distinguishing two distributions specified by a state-preparation unitary; this bound is tight up to a logarithmic factor. Besides specific lower bounds, an important contribution is developing methods for proving lower bounds on hybrid quantum algorithms (which have been very ad-hoc up to now). The first two bounds follow from a common framework: we analyze probability distributions over measurement transcripts and bound a progress measure that captures their distinguishability. The AND-OR bound requires a more delicate argument, combining two progress measures that track the information available to the algorithm classically and in quantum form, respectively.