Generalisations of the bent property of a Boolean function are presented, by proposing spectral analysis of the Boolean function with respect to a well-chosen set of local unitary transforms. Quadratic Boolean functions are related to simple graphs and it is shown that the orbit generated by some graph transforms can be found within the spectra of certain unitary transform sets. The flat spectra of a quadratic Boolean function with respect to those transforms are related to modified versions of its associated adjacency matrix. The flat spectra of concrete recursive structures are found using this method. We derive a spectral interpretation of the interlace polynomials (in one or two variables) of a graph and we relate to one of them a quantum measure of entanglement of the associated quantum state. We characterise the values of the spectra of a quadratic Boolean function. We give a formula for the weight hierarchy for a binary linear code in terms of a modified interlace polynomial. We derive as well a spectral interpretation of the pivot operation on a graph and generalise this operation to hypergraphs. We enumerate the number of inequivalent pivot orbits for small numbers of vertices. We also construct a family of Boolean functions of degree higher than two with a large number of flat spectra with respect to the {I,H}n set of transforms, and compute a lower bound on this number. We show how to change the degree of a Boolean function via pivot operation. Finally, we give concrete formulae for the spectra of a wide range of vectors with respect to well-chosen transforms sets.
Generalisations of the bent property of a Boolean function are presented, by proposing spectral analysis of the Boolean function with respect to a well-chosen set of local unitary transforms. Quadratic Boolean functions are related to simple graphs and it is shown that the orbit generated by some graph transforms can be found within the spectra of certain unitary transform sets. The flat spectra of a quadratic Boolean function with respect to those transforms are related to modified versions of its associated adjacency matrix. The flat spectra of concrete recursive structures are found using this method. We derive a spectral interpretation of the interlace polynomials (in one or two variables) of a graph and we relate to one of them a quantum measure of entanglement of the associated quantum state. We characterise the values of the spectra of a quadratic Boolean function. We give a formula for the weight hierarchy for a binary linear code in terms of a modified interlace polynomial. We derive as well a spectral interpretation of the pivot operation on a graph and generalise this operation to hypergraphs. We enumerate the number of inequivalent pivot orbits for small numbers of vertices. We also construct a family of Boolean functions of degree higher than two with a large number of flat spectra with respect to the {I,H}n set of transforms, and compute a lower bound on this number. We show how to change the degree of a Boolean function via pivot operation. Finally, we give concrete formulae for the spectra of a wide range of vectors with respect to well-chosen transforms sets.
We study objects that can be represented as graphs, error-correcting codes, quantum states, or Boolean functions. It is known that self-dual additive codes, which can also be interpreted as quantum states, can be represented as graphs, and that two codes are equivalent when the corresponding graphs are equivalent with respect to local complementation (LC). We give classifications of such codes. Circulant graph codes are introduced, and it is shown that some of these codes have highly regular graph representations. We show that the orbit of a bipartite graph under edge local complementation (ELC) corresponds to the equivalence class of a binary linear code. We classify ELC orbits, give a new method for classifying binary linear codes, and show that the information sets and the minimum distance of a code can be derived from the corresponding ELC orbit. Self-dual additive codes over GF(4) can also be interpreted as quadratic Boolean functions. In this context we define PARIHN, peak-to-average power ratio with respect to the {I, H, N}n transform, and prove that PARIHN equals the size of the maximum independent set over the associated LC orbit of graphs. We define the aperiodic propagation criteria (APC) of a Boolean function, and show that it is related to the minimum distance of a self-dual additive code over GF(4), and to the degree of entanglement in the associated quantum state. We give a generalization to non-quadratic Boolean functions, and relate APC to known cryptographic criteria. Interlace polynomials encode many properties of the LC and ELC orbits of a graph. We enumerate interlace polynomials and circle graphs, show that there exist non-unimodal interlace polynomials, and relate properties of interlace polynomials to properties of codes and quantum states. We define self-dual bent functions, and provide constructions and classifications.
A short introduction to quantum error correction is given, and it is shown that zero-dimensional quantum codes can be represented as self-dual additive codes over GF(4) and also as graphs. We show that graphs representing several such codes with high minimum distance can be described as nested regular graphs having minimum regular vertex degree and containing long cycles. Two graphs correspond to equivalent quantum codes if they are related by a sequence of local complementations. We use this operation to generate orbits of graphs, and thus classify all inequivalent self-dual additive codes over GF(4) of length up to 12, where previously only all codes of length up to 9 were known. We show that these codes can be interpreted as quadratic Boolean functions, and we define non-quadratic quantum codes, corresponding to Boolean functions of higher degree. We look at various cryptographic properties of Boolean functions, in particular the propagation criteria. The new aperiodic propagation criterion (APC) and the APC distance are then defined. We show that the distance of a zero-dimensional quantum code is equal to the APC distance of the corresponding Boolean function. Orbits of Boolean functions with respect to the {I,H,N}^n transform set are generated. We also study the peak-to-average power ratio with respect to the {I,H,N}^n transform set (PAR_IHN), and prove that PAR_IHN of a quadratic Boolean function is related to the size of the maximum independent set over the corresponding orbit of graphs. A construction technique for non-quadratic Boolean functions with low PAR_IHN is proposed. It is finally shown that both PAR_IHN and APC distance can be interpreted as partial entanglement measures.
Attempts to separate the power of classical and quantum models of computation have a long history. The ultimate goal are exponential separations for computational (promise) problems, however, these do not come a dime a dozen: while there were some early successes in the form of hidden subgroup problems for abelian groups–which generalizes Shor’s factoring algorithm perhaps most faithfully–only for a handful of non-abelian groups efficient quantum algorithms were found. Recently, problems have gotten increased attention that seek to identify hidden sub-structures of other combinatorial and algebraic objects besides groups, notably the quantum algorithms by Childs, Schulman, and Vazirani for shifted subset problems for spheres over a finite field. In this paper we provide new examples for exponential separations by considering hidden shift problems that are defined for several classes of highly non-linear Boolean functions. These so-called bent functions arise in cryptography, where their property of having perfectly flat Fourier spectra on the Boolean hypercube gives them resilience against certain types of attack. We present quantum algorithms that solve the hidden shift problems for several well-known classes of bent functions in polynomial time with a constant number of queries, while the classical query complexity is shown to be exponential. Our approach uses a technique that exploits the duality between bent functions and their Fourier transforms. We also give a quantum algorithm that solves the hidden shift problem for quadratic forms that might be of independent interest. This algorithm can also be used to find approximating polynomials and shifts for functions with large Gowers U3 norm. 1 1
In this paper we introduce the study of quantum boolean functions, which are unitary operators f whose square is the identity: f^2 = I. We describe several generalisations of well-known results in the theory of boolean functions, including quantum property testing; a quantum version of the Goldreich-Levin algorithm for finding the large Fourier coefficients of boolean functions; and two quantum versions of a theorem of Friedgut, Kalai and Naor on the Fourier spectra of boolean functions. In order to obtain one of these generalisations, we prove a quantum extension of the hypercontractive inequality of Bonami, Gross and Beckner.
Graph states form a large family of quantum states that are in one-to-one correspondence with mathematical graphs. Graph states are used in many applications, such as measurement-based quantum computation, as multipartite entangled resources. It is thus crucial to understand when two such states have the same entanglement, i.e. when they can be transformed into each other using only local operations. In this case, we say that the graph states are LU-equivalent (local unitary). If the local operations are restricted to the so-called Clifford group, we say that the graph states are LC-equivalent (local Clifford). Interestingly, a simple graph rule called local complementation fully captures LC-equivalence, in the sense that two graph states are LC-equivalent if and only if the underlying graphs are related by a sequence of local complementations. While it was once conjectured that two LU-equivalent graph states are always LC-equivalent, counterexamples do exist and local complementation fails to fully capture the entanglement of graph states. We introduce in this thesis a generalization of local complementation that does fully capture LU-equivalence. Using this characterization, we prove the existence of an infinite strict hierarchy of local equivalences between LC- and LU-equivalence. This also leads to the design of a quasi-polynomial algorithm for deciding whether two graph states are LU-equivalent, and to a proof that two LU-equivalent graph states are LC-equivalent if they are defined on at most 19 qubits. Furthermore, we study graph states that are universal in the sense that any smaller graph state, defined on any small enough set of qubits, can be induced using only local operations. We provide bounds and an optimal, probabilistic construction.
Graph-theoretic structures play a central role in the description and analysis of quantum systems. In this work, we introduce a new class of quantum states, called Aα-graph states, which are constructed from either unweighted or weighted graphs by taking the normalised convex combination of the degree matrix D and the adjacency matrix AG of a graph G. The constructed states are different from the standard graph states arising from stabiliser formalism. Our approach is also different from the approach used by Braunstein et al. This class of states depend on a tunable mixing parameter α∈(0,1]. We first establish the conditions under which the associated operator ραAG is positive semidefinite and hence represents a valid quantum state. We then derive a positive partial transposition (PPT) condition for Aα-graph states in terms of graph parameters. This PPT condition involves only the Frobenius norm of the adjacency matrix of the graph, the degrees of the vertices and the total number of vertices. For simple graphs, we obtain the range of the parameter α for which the Aα-graph states represent a class of entangled states. We then develop a graph-theoretic formulation of a moments-based entanglement detection criterion, focusing on the recently proposed p3-PPT criterion, which relies on the second and third moments of the partial transposition. Since the estimation of these moments is experimentally accessible via randomised measurements, swap operations, and machine-learning-based protocols, our approach provides a physically relevant framework for detecting entanglement in structured quantum states derived from graphs. This work bridges graph theory and moments-based entanglement detection, offering a new perspective on the role of combinatorial structures in quantum correlations.