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Quantum interactive proofs with competing provers

Gus Gutoski, John Watrous

Published Jan 1, 2005• 29 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Abstract. This paper studies quantum refereed games, which are quantum interactive proof systems with two competing provers: one that tries to convince the verifier to accept and the other that tries to convince the verifier to reject. We prove that every language having an ordinary quantum interactive proof system also has a quantum refereed game in which the verifier exchanges just one round of messages with each prover. A key part of our proof is the fact that there exists a single quantum measurement that reliably distinguishes between mixed states chosen arbitrarily from disjoint convex sets having large minimal trace distance from one another. We also show how to reduce the probability of error for some classes of quantum refereed games. 1

Related papers

Upper bounds for quantum interactive proofs with competing provers

Gus Gutoski

Refereed games are interactive proof systems with two competing provers: one that tries to convince the verifier to accept and another that tries to convince the verifier to reject. In quantum refereed games, the provers and verifier may perform quantum computations and exchange quantum messages. One may consider games with a bounded or unbounded number of rounds of messages between the verifier and provers. In this paper, we prove classical upper bounds on the power of both one-round and many-round quantum refereed games. In particular, we use semidefinite programming to show that many-round quantum refereed games are contained in NEXP. It then follows from the symmetric nature of these games that they are also contained in coNEXP. We also show that one-round quantum refereed games are contained in EXP by supplying a separation oracle for use with the ellipsoid method for convex feasibility.

IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity (CCC)•Jan 1, 2005•13 citations

Short Quantum Games

Gus Gutoski

In this thesis we introduce quantum refereed games, which are quantum interactive proof systems with two competing provers. We focus on a restriction of this model that we call "short quantum games" and we prove an upper bound and a lower bound on the expressive power of these games. For the lower bound, we prove that every language having an ordinary quantum interactive proof system also has a short quantum game. An important part of this proof is the establishment of a quantum measurement that reliably distinguishes between quantum states chosen from disjoint convex sets. For the upper bound, we show that certain types of quantum refereed games, including short quantum games, are decidable in deterministic exponential time by supplying a separation oracle for use with the ellipsoid method for convex feasibility.

arXiv:cs/0511017•Jan 1, 2005•1 citation

Coherent state exchange in multi-prover quantum interactive proof systems

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We show that any number of parties can coherently exchange any one pure quantum state for another, without communication, given prior shared entanglement. Two applications of this fact to the study of multi-prover quantum interactive proof systems are given. First, we prove that there exists a one-round two-prover quantum interactive proof system for which no finite amount of shared entanglement allows the provers to implement an optimal strategy. More specifically, for every fixed input string, there exists a sequence of strategies for the provers, with each strategy requiring more entanglement than the last, for which the probability for the provers to convince the verifier to accept approaches 1. It is not possible, however, for the provers to convince the verifier to accept with certainty with a finite amount of shared entanglement. The second application is a simple proof that multi-prover quantum interactive proofs can be transformed to have near-perfect completeness by the addition of one round of communication.

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PSPACE has 2-round quantum interactive proof systems

John Watrous

In this paper we consider quantum interactive proof systems, i.e., interactive proof systems in which the prover and verifier may perform quantum computations and exchange quantum messages. It is proved that every language in PSPACE has a quantum interactive proof system that requires only two rounds of communication between the prover and verifier, while having exponentially small (one-sided) probability of error. It follows that quantum interactive proof systems are strictly more powerful than classical interactive proof systems in the constant-round case unless the polynomial time hierarchy collapses to the second level.

arXiv:cs/9901015•Jan 27, 1999•6 citations

PSPACE has constant-round quantum interactive proof systems

John Watrous

We introduce quantum interactive proof systems, which are interactive proof systems in which the prover and verifier may perform quantum computations and exchange quantum messages. It is proved that every language in PSPACE has a quantum interactive proof system that requires a total of only three messages to be sent between the prover and verifier and has exponentially small (one-sided) probability of error. It follows that quantum interactive proof systems are strictly more powerful than classical interactive proof systems in the constant-round case unless the polynomial time hierarchy collapses to the second level.

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Quantum interaction can superactivate cheating under parallel repetition

Archishna Bhattacharyya, Laura Mančinska, Yuming Zhao

We study interactive multiprover games and many-round protocols in which the communication between the verifier and the provers is quantum. Parallel repetition is known to suppress soundness error of classical two-prover games arbitrarily close to zero, as shown by Raz (STOC '95), even with quantum strategies as shown by Yuen (ICALP '16), and Bavarian, Vidick and Yuen (STOC '17). Yet, we show that quantum communication can have the opposite, unexpected effect. Specifically, we exhibit a one-round quantum game and two-round $\mathsf{QMIP}$ protocols whose local (unentangled) value is strictly less than one for a single instance, yet equals one under $n$-fold parallel repetition for every $n \geq 2$. The key is that parallel repetition not only imposes additional winning conditions but also supplies additional quantum resources as entanglement in the exchanged states can be exploited jointly across copies. Our multiround examples build on superactivation of zero-error capacities of quantum channels. To establish this connection, we introduce quantum games and interactive protocols which capture the one-shot zero-error classical and quantum capacities, both with and without entanglement assistance. Our constructions use quantum-state verification and a teleportation-based reduction from two rounds to one. In contrast, when shared entanglement is allowed, we show that parallel repetition cannot increase the entangled value when at most $3$ messages are exchanged, consistent with classical results of Bellare, Impagliazzo and Naor (FOCS '97), and that of single-prover systems by Kitaev and Watrous (STOC '00). Combining this monotonicity with our quantum game-channel correspondence, we show that entanglement-assisted zero-error classical and quantum capacities cannot be superactivated.

quant-pharXiv:2609.31223•Sep 28, 2026•0 citations
Abstract. This paper studies quantum refereed games, which are quantum interactive proof systems with two competing provers: one that tries to convince the verifier to accept and the other that tries to convince the verifier to reject. We prove that every language having an ordinary quantum interactive proof system also has a quantum refereed game in which the verifier exchanges just one round of messages with each prover. A key part of our proof is the fact that there exists a single quantum measurement that reliably distinguishes between mixed states chosen arbitrarily from disjoint convex sets having large minimal trace distance from one another. We also show how to reduce the probability of error for some classes of quantum refereed games. 1
Refereed games are interactive proof systems with two competing provers: one that tries to convince the verifier to accept and another that tries to convince the verifier to reject. In quantum refereed games, the provers and verifier may perform quantum computations and exchange quantum messages. One may consider games with a bounded or unbounded number of rounds of messages between the verifier and provers. In this paper, we prove classical upper bounds on the power of both one-round and many-round quantum refereed games. In particular, we use semidefinite programming to show that many-round quantum refereed games are contained in NEXP. It then follows from the symmetric nature of these games that they are also contained in coNEXP. We also show that one-round quantum refereed games are contained in EXP by supplying a separation oracle for use with the ellipsoid method for convex feasibility.
In this thesis we introduce quantum refereed games, which are quantum interactive proof systems with two competing provers. We focus on a restriction of this model that we call "short quantum games" and we prove an upper bound and a lower bound on the expressive power of these games. For the lower bound, we prove that every language having an ordinary quantum interactive proof system also has a short quantum game. An important part of this proof is the establishment of a quantum measurement that reliably distinguishes between quantum states chosen from disjoint convex sets. For the upper bound, we show that certain types of quantum refereed games, including short quantum games, are decidable in deterministic exponential time by supplying a separation oracle for use with the ellipsoid method for convex feasibility.
We show that any number of parties can coherently exchange any one pure quantum state for another, without communication, given prior shared entanglement. Two applications of this fact to the study of multi-prover quantum interactive proof systems are given. First, we prove that there exists a one-round two-prover quantum interactive proof system for which no finite amount of shared entanglement allows the provers to implement an optimal strategy. More specifically, for every fixed input string, there exists a sequence of strategies for the provers, with each strategy requiring more entanglement than the last, for which the probability for the provers to convince the verifier to accept approaches 1. It is not possible, however, for the provers to convince the verifier to accept with certainty with a finite amount of shared entanglement. The second application is a simple proof that multi-prover quantum interactive proofs can be transformed to have near-perfect completeness by the addition of one round of communication.
In this paper we consider quantum interactive proof systems, i.e., interactive proof systems in which the prover and verifier may perform quantum computations and exchange quantum messages. It is proved that every language in PSPACE has a quantum interactive proof system that requires only two rounds of communication between the prover and verifier, while having exponentially small (one-sided) probability of error. It follows that quantum interactive proof systems are strictly more powerful than classical interactive proof systems in the constant-round case unless the polynomial time hierarchy collapses to the second level.
We introduce quantum interactive proof systems, which are interactive proof systems in which the prover and verifier may perform quantum computations and exchange quantum messages. It is proved that every language in PSPACE has a quantum interactive proof system that requires a total of only three messages to be sent between the prover and verifier and has exponentially small (one-sided) probability of error. It follows that quantum interactive proof systems are strictly more powerful than classical interactive proof systems in the constant-round case unless the polynomial time hierarchy collapses to the second level.
We study interactive multiprover games and many-round protocols in which the communication between the verifier and the provers is quantum. Parallel repetition is known to suppress soundness error of classical two-prover games arbitrarily close to zero, as shown by Raz (STOC '95), even with quantum strategies as shown by Yuen (ICALP '16), and Bavarian, Vidick and Yuen (STOC '17). Yet, we show that quantum communication can have the opposite, unexpected effect. Specifically, we exhibit a one-round quantum game and two-round QMIP\mathsf{QMIP}QMIP protocols whose local (unentangled) value is strictly less than one for a single instance, yet equals one under nnn-fold parallel repetition for every n≥2n \geq 2n≥2. The key is that parallel repetition not only imposes additional winning conditions but also supplies additional quantum resources as entanglement in the exchanged states can be exploited jointly across copies. Our multiround examples build on superactivation of zero-error capacities of quantum channels. To establish this connection, we introduce quantum games and interactive protocols which capture the one-shot zero-error classical and quantum capacities, both with and without entanglement assistance. Our constructions use quantum-state verification and a teleportation-based reduction from two rounds to one. In contrast, when shared entanglement is allowed, we show that parallel repetition cannot increase the entangled value when at most 333 messages are exchanged, consistent with classical results of Bellare, Impagliazzo and Naor (FOCS '97), and that of single-prover systems by Kitaev and Watrous (STOC '00). Combining this monotonicity with our quantum game-channel correspondence, we show that entanglement-assisted zero-error classical and quantum capacities cannot be superactivated.