The Hidden Subgroup Problem (HSP) unifies several landmark quantum algorithms, yet systematic exploration of its variants and modern applications has slowed. This paper revives HSP-based algorithm design by examining new group structures with direct relevance to post-quantum cryptography, lattice problems, and structured optimization. We classify a family of finite and continuous groups-extensions and semi-direct products of abelian groups, matrix groups, and certain non-abelian groups-according to their Fourier-theoretic properties and the feasibility of efficient quantum Fourier transforms (QFTs). For each class, we determine whether the HSP admits an efficient quantum algorithm, a subexponential-time quantum algorithm, or appears intractable even quantumly. We construct explicit algorithms for eight new problem families, including structured lattice enumeration, automorphism groups of certain graphs, and algebraic attack primitives appearing in code-based and multivariate cryptosystems. For these, we show superpolynomial quantum speedups over all known classical approaches under standard complexity assumptions. We also discuss how approximate and block-encoded QFTs can be combined with variational post-processing to make some of these HSP algorithms more NISQ-friendly. Our results demonstrate that algebraic-structure-based quantum algorithms remain a rich and underexploited direction with both theoretical depth and potential cryptanalytic and optimization applications.
The Hidden Subgroup Problem (HSP) unifies several landmark quantum algorithms, yet systematic exploration of its variants and modern applications has slowed. This paper revives HSP-based algorithm design by examining new group structures with direct relevance to post-quantum cryptography, lattice problems, and structured optimization. We classify a family of finite and continuous groups-extensions and semi-direct products of abelian groups, matrix groups, and certain non-abelian groups-according to their Fourier-theoretic properties and the feasibility of efficient quantum Fourier transforms (QFTs). For each class, we determine whether the HSP admits an efficient quantum algorithm, a subexponential-time quantum algorithm, or appears intractable even quantumly. We construct explicit algorithms for eight new problem families, including structured lattice enumeration, automorphism groups of certain graphs, and algebraic attack primitives appearing in code-based and multivariate cryptosystems. For these, we show superpolynomial quantum speedups over all known classical approaches under standard complexity assumptions. We also discuss how approximate and block-encoded QFTs can be combined with variational post-processing to make some of these HSP algorithms more NISQ-friendly. Our results demonstrate that algebraic-structure-based quantum algorithms remain a rich and underexploited direction with both theoretical depth and potential cryptanalytic and optimization applications.
The Hidden Subgroup Problem (HSP) provides the fundamental framework for most quantum algorithms. Until very recently, all known problems where quantum computation provides a super-polynomial speedup over classical algorithms have been variants of the HSP for particular abelian groups. Examples include factoring integers and computing the discrete log, for which Shor found efficient quantum algorithms. The algorithm for these problems may be viewed as consisting of the main HSP solution plus an ad hoc method of dealing with the particular variant. In this dissertation, we give a systematic way of dealing with all these variants. The key component of our solution is a new theorem about the robustness of Fourier sampling. The purpose of this theorem is to better understand the structure underlying existing algorithms as well as to provide an algorithmic tool for the construction of future quantum algorithms. In addition, we also derive a new algorithm for computing the quantum Fourier transform which is asymptotically faster than any previously known algorithm. By contrast, the nonabelian HSP is wide open. It includes as a special case the longstanding open question of graph isomorphism, where the group is the symmetric group, S n . It is natural to carry over the abelian HSP algorithm to the nonabelian case. We show that in the case that the hidden subgroup is normal, this algorithm succeeds in reconstructing the subgroup in polynomial time. On the other hand, we give evidence that this algorithm is inadequate to even distinguish a trivial subgroup from an involution in t...
Several early quantum algorithms, including Simon's algorithm and Shor's period-finding are instances of the hidden subgroup problem (HSP) over finite abelian groups. No polynomial-time quantum algorithm is known for the HSP over arbitrary non-abelian finite groups. The non-Abelian case is of particular interest because some instances, such as the dihedral and symmetric group HSPs, are connected to lattice problems and graph isomorphism, respectively.
In this work, we give polynomial-time quantum algorithms for two further families containing non-Abelian groups. First, we consider groups of the form G=A⋊φZpk, with A finite Abelian, p prime, k∈N and the action of Zpk is generated by the scalar automorphism a↦μa, for some μ∈ZExp(A)×, where Exp(A) is the exponent of A. Our algorithm is efficient when A has bounded generator rank and Exp(A)/p=polylog(∣G∣). This includes the case A=ZN for N∈N and k=1, studied by Bacon, Childs and van Dam (FOCS 2005), and A=Zqr with q prime and r∈N studied by van Dam and Dey (TQC 2014). Second, we give a polynomial-time quantum algorithm for finite quasi-Hamiltonian groups under a mild assumption on the input structure. Quasi-Hamiltonian groups are finite nilpotent groups with modular subgroup lattice, or equivalently the finite groups in which every subgroup is permutable. As far as we know, this is the first quantum algorithm to exploit the modularity of the subgroup lattice for solving the HSP. This extends, under the aforementioned structured input assumption, the quantum algorithm for Dedekind groups given by Hallgren, Russell, and Ta-Shma (SIAM J. Comput. 32, 2003).
The Hidden Subgroup Problem (HSP) is a computational problem which includes as special cases integer factorization, the discrete logarithm problem, graph isomorphism, and the shortest vector problem. The celebrated polynomial-time quantum algorithms for factorization and the discrete logarithm are restricted versions of a generic polynomial-time quantum solution to the HSP for abelian groups, but despite focused research no polynomial-time solution for general groups has yet been found. We propose a generalization of the HSP to include arbitrary algebraic structures and analyze this new problem on powers of 2-element algebras. We prove a complete classification of every such power as quantum tractable (i.e. polynomial-time), classically tractable, quantum intractable, or classically intractable. In particular, we identify a class of algebras for which the generalized HSP exhibits super-polynomial speedup on a quantum computer compared to a classical one.
The search for practical problems that can be solved exponentially faster on a quantum computer is one of the primary goals in research into algorithms for quantum computers. It has long been known that such speedups are only possible for highly structured problems.
We consider two problems with algebraic structure: (1) the hidden subgroup problem, where we have an unknown subgroup, a function that is constant on cosets of the subgroup, and the task is to find the unknown subgroup; (2) the hidden shift problem, where we have an unknown element of a group, a function that has been shifted by that group element, and the task is to find the unknown group element.
We show that the Fourier transform is intimately connected to both these problems. This is because the Fourier transform respects group symmetries.
For the hidden subgroup problem, we introduce the idea of using information theoretic techniques to design quantum algorithms. This consists of first finding an optimal set of measurements for distinguishing between different subgroups, followed by attempts to implement this set of measurements.
We show that the standard algorithm for the abelian hidden subgroup problem is optimal. For the nonabelian hidden subgroup problem, the optimal measurements respect the Fourier transform in that they can be implemented by first performing a Fourier transform on each coset state, measuring the name of the irreducible representation for each state, followed by a joint measurement over the resulting lower dimensional space. This shows that the “strong standard method” cannot be used to implement the optimal set of measurements.
For some instances of the hidden shift problem, we give a quantum algorithms that are exponentially faster than the best known classical algorithm. The algorithms make use of the Fourier transform in a way that may be interpreted as solving a deconvolution problem. As evidence of hardness, we give a reduction from algebraically homomorphic cryptosystems to the shifted Legendre symbol problem. This is an example of a problem which admits an exponential quantum speedup yet is not an instance of the abelian hidden subgroup problem.
We provide a survey on the Hidden Subgroup Problem (HSP), which plays an important role in studying the security of public-key cryptosystems. We first review the abelian case, where Kitaev's algorithm yields an efficient quantum solution to the HSP, recalling how classical problems (such as order finding, integer factorization, and discrete logarithm) can be formulated as abelian HSP instances. We then examine the current state of the art for non-abelian HSP, where no general efficient quantum solution is known, focusing on some relevant groups including dihedral group (connected to the shortest vector problem), symmetric groups (connected to the graph isomorphism problem), and semidirect product constructions (connected, in a special case, to the code equivalence problem). We also describe the main techniques for addressing the HSP in non-abelian cases, namely Fourier sampling and the black-box approach. Throughout the paper, we highlight the mathematical notions required and exploited in this context, providing a cryptography-oriented perspective.
We study quantum algorithms for the hidden subgroup problem (HSP). The HSP provides a unified framework for many important problems, including factoring integers, graph isomorphism problem, etc. It has been known that the problem for abelian groups can be efficiently solved. However, for non-abelian groups, it remains widely open. In this dissertation we study the problem for some specific non-abelian groups, called q-hedral groups.
We start with a quantum algorithm, proposed by Moore et al. (2003), for finding some hidden conjugate subgroups of affine groups, a special case of q-hedral groups for large q. We then adapt their algorithm to construct an algorithm for solving the hidden conjugate problem for q-hedral groups for large q and point out a difficulty in complexity analysis that involves certain exponential sums. We discuss certain bounds on these sums and present some computational data on their values to make a conjecture.
For small q, Regev (2003) gave an efficient algorithm for solving the HSP for dihedral groups (q = 2) using an oracle that solves a certain subset sum problem (SSP). A crucial step of his algorithm relies on the probability that elements in a cyclic group ZN can be expressed as sums of random elements in the group. We generalize this problem to any finite group and prove the following theorem: for any finite group G and r ≥ 32 log2 |G| + 5, if r elements from G are chosen randomly, then the 2r possible sums (or products) of the r elements will cover all the elements in G with high probability. Also, by making a further generalization of the SSP, we show that Regev's algorithm can be generalized for q-hedral groups for any fixed q. We also study this generalized subset sum problem.
In addition to the algorithm developing for small q, we give an efficient quantum algorithm for solving the coset problem and an efficient quantum algorithm for solving the hidden conjugate problem. Furthermore, we also give a survey of an algorithm for finding the largest normal subgroup in a hidden subgroup of any finite group, introduced by Hallgren et al. (2000) and provide a simplified and unified proof.