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arXiv:quant-ph/0202111

Quantum statistical zero-knowledge

John Watrous

Published Feb 20, 2002• 14 citations
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Abstract

In this paper we propose a definition for (honest verifier) quantum statistical zero-knowledge interactive proof systems and study the resulting complexity class, which we denote QSZK. We prove several facts regarding this class that establish close connections between classical statistical zero-knowledge and our definition for quantum statistical zero-knowledge, and give some insight regarding the effect of this zero-knowledge restriction on quantum interactive proof systems.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0202111

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In this paper we propose a definition for (honest verifier) quantum statistical zero-knowledge interactive proof systems and study the resulting complexity class, which we denote QSZK. We prove several facts regarding this class that establish close connections between classical statistical zero-knowledge and our definition for quantum statistical zero-knowledge, and give some insight regarding the effect of this zero-knowledge restriction on quantum interactive proof systems.
In this paper we propose a definition for (honest verifier) quantum statistical zero-knowledge interactive proof systems and study the resulting complexity class, which we denote QSZK/sub HV/. We prove several facts regarding this class, including: the following problem is a complete promise problem for QSZKHV: given instructions for preparing two mixed quantum states, are the states close together or far apart in the trace norm metric? This problem is a quantum generalization of the complete promise problem of Sahai and Vadhan (1997) for (classical) statistical zero-knowledge; QSZK/sub HV/ is closed under complement; QSZK/sub HV//spl sube/PSPACE. (At present it is not known if arbitrary quantum interactive proof systems can be simulated in PSPACE even for one-round proof systems); any polynomial-round honest verifier quantum statistical zero-knowledge proof system can be simulated by a two-message (i.e., one-round) honest verifier quantum statistical zero-knowledge proof system. Similarly, any polynomial-round honest verifier quantum statistical zero-knowledge proof system can be simulated by a three-message public-coin honest verifier quantum statistical zero-knowledge proof system. These facts establish close connections between classical statistical zero-knowledge and our definition for quantum statistical zero-knowledge, and give some insight regarding the effect of this zero-knowledge restriction on quantum interactive proof systems. The relationship between our definition and possible definitions of general (i.e., not necessarily honest) quantum statistical zero-knowledge are also discussed.
This paperprovesthat several interactiveproofsystems are zero-knowledgeagainstquantumattacks. This includes a few well-known classical zero-knowledge proof systems as well as quantum interactive proof systems for the complexity class QSZK HV , which comprises all problems having “honest verifier” quantum statistical zero-knowledge proofs. It is also proved that zero-knowledge proofs for every languagein NP exist that are secure against quantumattacks, assuming the existence of quantumcomputationally concealing commitment schemes. Previously no non-trivial problems were known to be zeroknowledge against quantum attacks, except in restricted settings such as the honest-verifierand common reference string models. This paper therefore establishes for the first time that true zero-knowledge is indeed possible in the presence of quantum information.
This paper proves that several interactive proof systems are zero-knowledge against general quantum attacks. This includes the well-known Goldreich-Micali-Wigderson classical zero-knowledge protocols for Graph Isomorphism and Graph 3-Coloring (assuming the existence of quantum computationally concealing commitment schemes in the second case). Also included is a quantum interactive protocol for a complete problem for the complexity class of problems having "honest verifier" quantum statistical zero-knowledge proofs, which therefore establishes that honest verifier and general quantum statistical zero-knowledge are equal: QSZK = QSZKHV. Previously no non-trivial proof systems were known to be zero-knowledge against quantum attacks, except in restricted settings such as the honest-verifier and common reference string models. This paper therefore establishes for the first time that true zero-knowledge is indeed possible in the presence of quantum information and computation.
This paper proves that several interactive proof systems are zero-knowledge against quantum attacks. This includes a few well-known classical zero-knowledge proof systems as well as quantum interactive proof systems for the complexity class HVQSZK, which comprises all problems having "honest verifier" quantum statistical zero-knowledge proofs. It is also proved that zero-knowledge proofs for every language in NP exist that are secure against quantum attacks, assuming the existence of quantum computationally concealing commitment schemes. Previously no non-trivial proof systems were known to be zero-knowledge against quantum attacks, except in restricted settings such as the honest-verifier and common reference string models. This paper therefore establishes for the first time that true zero-knowledge is indeed possible in the presence of quantum information and computation.
Quantum information and computation provide a fascinating twist on the notion of proofs in computational complexity theory. For instance, one may consider a quantum computational analogue of the complexity class NP, known as QMA, in which a quantum state plays the role of a proof (also called a certificate or witness), and is checked by a polynomial-time quantum computation. For some problems, the fact that a quantum proof state could be a superposition over exponentially many classical states appears to offer computational advantages over classical proof strings. In the interactive proof system setting, one may consider a verifier and one or more provers that exchange and process quantum information rather than classical information during an interaction for a given input string, giving rise to quantum complexity classes such as QIP, QSZK, and QMIP* that represent natural quantum analogues of IP, SZK, and MIP. While quantum interactive proof systems inherit some properties from their classical counterparts, they also possess distinct and uniquely quantum features that lead to an interesting landscape of complexity classes based on variants of this model. In this survey we provide an overview of many of the known results concerning quantum proofs, computational models based on this concept, and properties of the complexity classes they define. In particular, we discuss non-interactive proofs and the complexity class QMA, single-prover quantum interactive proof systems and the complexity class QIP, statistical zero-knowledge quantum interactive proof systems and the complexity class QSZK, and multiprover interactive proof systems and the complexity classes QMIP, QMIP*, and MIP*.
The complexity class Quantum Statistical Zero-Knowledge (QSZK\mathsf{QSZK}QSZK), introduced by Watrous (FOCS 2002) and later refined in Watrous (SICOMP, 2009), has the best known upper bound QIP(2)∩co-QIP(2)\mathsf{QIP(2)} \cap \text{co-}\mathsf{QIP(2)}QIP(2)∩co-QIP(2), which was simplified following the inclusion QIP(2)⊆PSPACE\mathsf{QIP(2)} \subseteq \mathsf{PSPACE}QIP(2)⊆PSPACE established in Jain, Upadhyay, and Watrous (FOCS 2009). Here, QIP(2)\mathsf{QIP(2)}QIP(2) denotes the class of promise problems that admit two-message quantum interactive proof systems in which the honest prover is typically computationally unbounded, and co-QIP(2)\text{co-}\mathsf{QIP(2)}co-QIP(2) denotes the complement of QIP(2)\mathsf{QIP(2)}QIP(2). We slightly improve this upper bound to QIP(2)∩co-QIP(2)\mathsf{QIP(2)} \cap \text{co-}\mathsf{QIP(2)}QIP(2)∩co-QIP(2) with a quantum linear-space honest prover. Specifically, the honest prover uses space linear in the size of the transcript of the original QSZK\mathsf{QSZK}QSZK proof system. A similar improvement also applies to the upper bound for the non-interactive variant NIQSZK\mathsf{NIQSZK}NIQSZK. Our main techniques are algorithmic versions of the Holevo-Helstrom measurement and the Uhlmann transform, both implementable in quantum linear space, implying polynomial-time complexity in the state dimension, using the recent space-efficient quantum singular value transformation of Le Gall, Liu, and Wang (CC, to appear).