We present a new way of encoding a quantum computation into a three-local Hamiltonian. Our construction is novel in that it does not include any terms that induce legal-illegal clock transitions. Therefore, the weights of the terms in the Hamiltonian do not scale with the size of the problem as in previous constructions. This improves the construction by Kempe and Regev [Quantum Inf. Comput. 3, 258–264 (2003); e-print quant-ph∕0302079] who were the first to prove that three-local Hamiltonian is complete for the complexity class QMA, the quantum analog of NP. Quantum k-SAT, a restricted version of the local Hamiltonian problem using only projector terms, was introduced by Bravyi (e-print quant-ph∕0602108) as an analog of the classical k-SAT problem. Bravyi proved that quantum 4-SAT is complete for the class QMA with one-sided error (QMA1) and that quantum 2-SAT is in P. We give an encoding of a quantum circuit into a quantum 4-SAT Hamiltonian using only three-local terms. As an intermediate step to this three-local construction, we show that quantum 3-SAT for particles with dimensions 3×2×2 (a qutrit and two qubits) is QMA1 complete. The complexity of quantum 3-SAT with qubits remains an open question.
We present a new way of encoding a quantum computation into a three-local Hamiltonian. Our construction is novel in that it does not include any terms that induce legal-illegal clock transitions. Therefore, the weights of the terms in the Hamiltonian do not scale with the size of the problem as in previous constructions. This improves the construction by Kempe and Regev [Quantum Inf. Comput. 3, 258–264 (2003); e-print quant-ph∕0302079] who were the first to prove that three-local Hamiltonian is complete for the complexity class QMA, the quantum analog of NP. Quantum k-SAT, a restricted version of the local Hamiltonian problem using only projector terms, was introduced by Bravyi (e-print quant-ph∕0602108) as an analog of the classical k-SAT problem. Bravyi proved that quantum 4-SAT is complete for the class QMA with one-sided error (QMA1) and that quantum 2-SAT is in P. We give an encoding of a quantum circuit into a quantum 4-SAT Hamiltonian using only three-local terms. As an intermediate step to this three-local construction, we show that quantum 3-SAT for particles with dimensions 3×2×2 (a qutrit and two qubits) is QMA1 complete. The complexity of quantum 3-SAT with qubits remains an open question.
Quantum 3-SAT Is QMA1-Complete
Quantum satisfiability is a constraint satisfaction problem that generalizes classical boolean satisfiability. In the quantum k-SAT problem, each constraint is specified by a k-local projector and is satisfied by any state in its nullspace. Bravyi showed that quantum 2-SAT can be solved efficiently on a classical computer and that quantum k-SAT with k≥4 is QMA1-complete [S. Bravyi, Efficient Algorithm for a Quantum Analogue of 2-SAT, eprint arXiv:quant-ph/0602108, 2006]. Quantum 3-SAT was known to be contained in QMA1 [Bravyi, 2006], but its computational hardness was unknown until now. We prove that quantum 3-SAT is QMA1-hard, and therefore complete for this complexity class.
Quantum satisfiability is a constraint satisfaction problem that generalizes classical boolean satisfiability. In the quantum k-SAT problem, each constraint is specified by a k-local projector and is satisfied by any state in its nullspace. Bravyi showed that quantum 2-SAT can be solved efficiently on a classical computer and that quantum k-SAT with k ≥ 4 is QMA1-complete [4]. Quantum 3-SAT was known to be contained in QMA1[4], but its computational hardness was unknown until now. We prove that quantum 3-SAT is QMA1-hard, and therefore complete for this complexity class.
A major goal of quantum complexity theory is to understand which computational problems can be solved with access to certain quantum resources. The subfield of Hamiltonian complexity specifically considers computational problems that ask about properties of local Hamiltonians, which are of critical importance in quantum complexity because they can be viewed as quantum generalizations of classical constraint satisfaction problems. In this work, we study the complexity of certain restricted variants of the Quantum-k-Sat problem, a quantum analog of the NP-complete k-Sat problem. We introduce new variants of Quantum-k-Sat which place a basis restriction on the input Hamiltonian H = Σᵢ hᵢ . Each variant is defined by a fixed collection of bases B₁, . . . , Bᵣ of n-qubit space. We require that each Hamiltonian term hi must be diagonal in one of these bases. Our results resolve the complexity of certaim basis-restricted variants of Quantum-k-Sat. First we show the Quantum-6-Sat problem with Hamiltonian terms restricted to be diagonal in an X/Z mixed basis is QMA₁-complete. Second, we combine basis restriction with the restriction of commutativity, and show the following easiness result, which applies generally to higher-level quantum systems (qudits) and bases Q and R (which are real-valued and satisfy an overlap condition): The commmuting Quantum-Sat problem on qudits, where Hamiltonian terms are either diagonal in the Q basis, the R basis, or a single mixed Q/R basis, is in NP.
We describe Kitaev's result from 1999, in which he defines the complexity class QMA, the quantum analog of the class NP, and shows that a natural extension of 3-SAT, namely local Hamiltonians, is QMA complete. The result builds upon the classical Cook-Levin proof of the NP completeness of SAT, but differs from it in several fundamental ways, which we highlight. This result raises a rich array of open problems related to quantum complexity, algorithms and entanglement, which we state at the end of this survey. This survey is the extension of lecture notes taken by Naveh for Aharonov's quantum computation course, held in Tel Aviv University, 2001.
The local Hamiltonian (LH) problem is the canonical QMA-complete problem introduced by Kitaev. In this paper, we show its hardness in a very strong sense: we show that the 3-local Hamiltonian problem on n qubits cannot be solved classically in time O(2(1−ε)n) for any ε>0 under the Strong Exponential-Time Hypothesis (SETH), and cannot be solved quantumly in time O(2(1−ε)n/2) for any ε>0 under the Quantum Strong Exponential-Time Hypothesis (QSETH). These lower bounds give evidence that the currently known classical and quantum algorithms for LH cannot be significantly improved.
Furthermore, we are able to demonstrate fine-grained complexity lower bounds for approximating the quantum partition function (QPF) with an arbitrary constant relative error. Approximating QPF with relative error is known to be equivalent to approximately counting the dimension of the solution subspace of QMA problems. We show the SETH and QSETH hardness to estimate QPF with constant relative error. We then provide a quantum algorithm that runs in O(2n) time for an arbitrary 1/poly(n) relative error, matching our lower bounds and improving the state-of-the-art algorithm by Bravyi, Chowdhury, Gosset, and Wocjan (Nature Physics 2022) in the low-temperature regime.
To prove our fine-grained lower bounds, we introduce the first size-preserving circuit-to-Hamiltonian construction that encodes the computation of a T-time quantum circuit acting on N qubits into a (d+1)-local Hamiltonian acting on N+O(T1/d) qubits. This improves the standard construction based on the unary clock, which uses N+O(T) qubits.
Previously, all known variants of the Quantum Satisfiability (QSAT) problem - consisting of determining whether a k-local (k-body) Hamiltonian is frustration-free - could be classified as being either in 𝖯; or complete for NP, MA, or QMA₁. Here, we present new qubit variants of this problem that are complete for BQP₁, coRP, QCMA, PI(coRP,NP), PI(BQP₁,NP), PI(BQP₁,MA), SoPU(coRP,NP), SoPU(BQP₁,NP), and SoPU(BQP₁,MA). Our result implies that a complete classification of quantum constraint satisfaction problems (QCSPs), analogous to Schaefer’s dichotomy theorem for classical CSPs, must either include these 13 classes, or otherwise show that some are equal. Additionally, our result showcases two new types of QSAT problems that can be decided efficiently, as well as the first nontrivial BQP₁-complete problem. We first construct QSAT problems on qudits that are complete for BQP₁, coRP, and QCMA. These are made by restricting the finite set of Hamiltonians to consist of elements similar to H_{init}, H_{prop}, and H_{out}, seen in the circuit-to-Hamiltonian transformation. Usually, these are used to demonstrate hardness of QSAT and Local Hamiltonian problems, and so our proofs of hardness are simple. The difficulty lies in ensuring that all Hamiltonians generated with these three elements can be decided in their respective classes. For this, we build our Hamiltonian terms with high-dimensional data and clock qudits, ternary logic, and either monogamy of entanglement or specific clock encodings. We then show how to express these problems in terms of qubits, by proving that any QCSP can be reduced to a qubit problem while maintaining the same complexity - something not believed possible classically. The remaining six problems are obtained by considering "sums" and "products" of some of the QSAT problems mentioned here. Before this work, the QSAT problems generated in this way resulted in complete problems for PI and SoPU classes that were trivially equal to NP, MA, or QMA₁. We thus commence the study of these new and seemingly nontrivial classes. While [Meiburg, 2021] first sought to prove completeness for coRP, BQP₁, and QCMA, we note that those constructions are flawed. Here, we rework them, provide correct proofs, and obtain improvements on the required qudit dimensionality.