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arXiv:quant-ph/0605181 · New Journal of Physics

The BQP-hardness of approximating the Jones polynomial

Dorit Aharonov, Itai Arad

Published Mar 23, 2011• 108 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A celebrated important result due to Freedman et al (2002 Commun. Math. Phys. 227 605–22) states that providing additive approximations of the Jones polynomial at the k th root of unity, for constant k =5 and k ⩾7, is BQP-hard. Together with the algorithmic results of Aharonov et al (2005) and Freedman et al (2002 Commun. Math. Phys. 227 587–603), this gives perhaps the most natural BQP-complete problem known today and motivates further study of the topic. In this paper, we focus on the universality proof; we extend the result of Freedman et al (2002) to k s that grow polynomially with the number of strands and crossings in the link, thus extending the BQP-hardness of Jones polynomial approximations to all values to which the AJL algorithm applies (Aharonov et al 2005), proving that for all those values, the problems are BQP-complete. As a side benefit, we derive a fairly elementary proof of the Freedman et al density result, without referring to advanced results from Lie algebra representation theory, making this important result accessible to a wider audience in the computer science research community. We make use of two general lemmas we prove, the bridge lemma and the decoupling lemma , which provide tools for establishing the density of subgroups in SU( n ). Those tools seem to be of independent interest in more general contexts of proving the quantum universality. Our result also implies a completely classical statement, that the multiplicative approximations of the Jones polynomial, at exactly the same values, are #P-hard, via a recent result due to Kuperberg (2009 arXiv:0908.0512). Since the first publication of those results in their preliminary form (Aharonov and Arad 2006 arXiv:quant-ph/0605181), the methods we present here have been used in several other contexts (Aharonov and Arad 2007 arXiv:quant-ph/0702008; Peter and Stephen 2008 Quantum Inf. Comput. 8 681). The present paper is an improved and extended version of the results presented by Aharonov and Arad (2006) and includes discussions of the developments since then.

DOI
10.1088/1367-2630/13/3/035019

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A celebrated important result due to Freedman et al (2002 Commun. Math. Phys. 227 605–22) states that providing additive approximations of the Jones polynomial at the k th root of unity, for constant k =5 and k ⩾7, is BQP-hard. Together with the algorithmic results of Aharonov et al (2005) and Freedman et al (2002 Commun. Math. Phys. 227 587–603), this gives perhaps the most natural BQP-complete problem known today and motivates further study of the topic. In this paper, we focus on the universality proof; we extend the result of Freedman et al (2002) to k s that grow polynomially with the number of strands and crossings in the link, thus extending the BQP-hardness of Jones polynomial approximations to all values to which the AJL algorithm applies (Aharonov et al 2005), proving that for all those values, the problems are BQP-complete. As a side benefit, we derive a fairly elementary proof of the Freedman et al density result, without referring to advanced results from Lie algebra representation theory, making this important result accessible to a wider audience in the computer science research community. We make use of two general lemmas we prove, the bridge lemma and the decoupling lemma , which provide tools for establishing the density of subgroups in SU( n ). Those tools seem to be of independent interest in more general contexts of proving the quantum universality. Our result also implies a completely classical statement, that the multiplicative approximations of the Jones polynomial, at exactly the same values, are #P-hard, via a recent result due to Kuperberg (2009 arXiv:0908.0512). Since the first publication of those results in their preliminary form (Aharonov and Arad 2006 arXiv:quant-ph/0605181), the methods we present here have been used in several other contexts (Aharonov and Arad 2007 arXiv:quant-ph/0702008; Peter and Stephen 2008 Quantum Inf. Comput. 8 681). The present paper is an improved and extended version of the results presented by Aharonov and Arad (2006) and includes discussions of the developments since then.
Freedman, Kitaev, and Wang [arXiv:quant-ph/0001071], and later Aharonov, Jones, and Landau [arXiv:quant-ph/0511096], established a quantum algorithm to "additively" approximate the Jones polynomial V(L,t) at any principal root of unity t. The strength of this additive approximation depends exponentially on the bridge number of the link presentation. Freedman, Larsen, and Wang [arXiv:math/0103200] established that the approximation is universal for quantum computation at a non-lattice, principal root of unity; and Aharonov and Arad [arXiv:quant-ph/0605181] established a uniform version of this result. In this article, we show that any value-dependent approximation of the Jones polynomial at these non-lattice roots of unity is #P-hard. If given the power to decide whether |V(L,t)| > a or |V(L,t)| < b for fixed constants a > b > 0, there is a polynomial-time algorithm to exactly count the solutions to arbitrary combinatorial equations. In our argument, the result follows fairly directly from the universality result and Aaronson's theorem that PostBQP = PP [arXiv:quant-ph/0412187].
Freedman, Kitaev, and Wang proved the equivalence between quantum field theory and quantum computation, and consequently showed that the problem of approximating the Jones polynomial (a knot invariant) at the fifth root of unity is BQP-complete. Recently, Aharonov, Jones, and Landau proposed a concrete quantum algorithm, called the AJL algorithm, that approximates the Jones polynomial at the kkkth root of unity in polynomial time. In this paper, we propose a new method for implementing the AJL algorithm, which improves the performance from O(mnlog⁡2k)O(mn\log^2k)O(mnlog2k) to O(mn)O(mn)O(mn). Here, nnn is the number of strands, mmm is the number of the crossings in a braid. Since, in the AJL algorithm, mmm and kkk are assumed to be given as polynomials in nnn, the difference in the performance between the original implementation and our design is significant if kkk is a large-degree polynomial.
We analyze relationships between quantum computation and a family of generalizations of the Jones polynomial. Extending recent work by Aharonov et al., we give efficient quantum circuits for implementing the unitary Jones-Wenzl representations of the braid group. We use these to provide new quantum algorithms for approximately evaluating a family of specializations of the HOMFLYPT two-variable polynomial of trace closures of braids. We also give algorithms for approximating the Jones polynomial of a general class of closures of braids at roots of unity. Next we provide a self-contained proof of a result of Freedman et al. that any quantum computation can be replaced by an additive approximation of the Jones polynomial, evaluated at almost any primitive root of unity. Our proof encodes two-qubit unitaries into the rectangular representation of the eight-strand braid group. We then give QCMA-complete and PSPACE-cornplete problems which are based on braids. We conclude with direct proofs that evaluating the Jones polynomial of the plat closure at most primitive roots of unity is a #P-hard problem, while learning its most significant bit is PP-hard, circumventing the usual route through the Tutte polynomial and graph coloring.
We analyze relationships between quantum computation and a family of generalizations of the Jones polynomial. Extending recent work by Aharonov et al., we give efficient quantum circuits for implementing the unitary Jones-Wenzl representations of the braid group. We use these to provide new quantum algorithms for approximately evaluating a family of specializations of the HOMFLYPT two-variable polynomial of trace closures of braids. We also give algorithms for approximating the Jones polynomial of a general class of closures of braids at roots of unity. Next we provide a self-contained proof of a result of Freedman et al.\ that any quantum computation can be replaced by an additive approximation of the Jones polynomial, evaluated at almost any primitive root of unity. Our proof encodes two-qubit unitaries into the rectangular representation of the eight-strand braid group. We then give QCMA-complete and PSPACE-complete problems which are based on braids. We conclude with direct proofs that evaluating the Jones polynomial of the plat closure at most primitive roots of unity is a \#P-hard problem, while learning its most significant bit is PP-hard, circumventing the usual route through the Tutte polynomial and graph coloring.
The quantum algorithm of AJL [3] (following the work of Freedman et al. [10]) to approximate the Jones polynomial, is of a new type: rather than using the quantum Fourier transform, it encodes the local combinatorial structure of the problem by the relations of an algebra, called the Temperley-Lieb algebra, whose matrix representation is then applied, using a quantum computer. By the results of [11], the problems this algorithm solves are the first non trivial BQP-complete problems. A natural question is whether it is possible to generalize this algorithm to other points of the famous Tutte polynomial, of which the Jones polynomial is a special case. However, the only points for which
We show that the problem of approximately evaluating the Tutte polynomial of triangular graphs at the points (q, 1/q) of the Tutte plane is BQP-complete for (most) roots of unity q. We also consider circular graphs and show that the problem of approximately evaluating the Tutte polynomial of these graphs at the point (e2πi/5, e-2πi/5) is DQC1-complete and at points [Formula: see text] for some integer k is in BQP. To show that these problems can be solved by a quantum computer, we rely on the relation of the Tutte polynomial of a planar G graph with the Jones and HOMFLY polynomial of the alternating link D(G) given by the medial graph of G. In the case of our graphs the corresponding links are equal to the plat and trace closures of braids. It is known how to evaluate the Jones and HOMFLY polynomial for closures of braids. To establish the hardness results, we use the property that the images of the generators of the braid group under the irreducible Jones–Wenzl representations of the Hecke algebra have finite order. We show that for each braid b we can efficiently construct a braid [Formula: see text] such that the evaluation of the Jones and HOMFLY polynomials of their closures at a fixed root of unity leads to the same value and that the closures of [Formula: see text] are alternating links.