We establish a lower bound of $\Omega{(\sqrt{n})}$ on the bounded-error quantum query complexity of read-once Boolean functions, providing evidence for the conjecture that $\Omega(\sqrt{D(f)})$ is a lower bound for all Boolean functions.Our technique extends a result of Ambainis, based on the idea that successful computation of a function requires ``decoherence'' ... more >>>

We revisit the oft-neglected 'recursive Fourier sampling' (RFS) problem, introduced by Bernstein and Vazirani to prove an oracle separation between BPP and BQP. We show that the known quantum algorithm for RFS is essentially optimal, despite its seemingly wasteful need to uncompute information. This implies that, to place BQP outside ... more >>>

We present a novel technique, based on the Jensen-Shannon divergence
from information theory, to prove lower bounds on the query complexity
of sampling algorithms that approximate functions over arbitrary
domain and range. Unlike previous methods, our technique does not
use a reduction from a binary decision problem, but rather ... more >>>

This paper introduces a framework for quantum exact learning via queries, the so-called quantum protocol. It is shown that usual protocols in the classical learning setting have quantum counterparts. A combinatorial notion, the general halving dimension, is also introduced. Given a quantum protocol and a target concept class, the general ... more >>>

For any given Boolean formula $\phi(x_1,\dots,x_n)$, one can
efficiently construct (using \emph{arithmetization}) a low-degree
polynomial $p(x_1,\dots,x_n)$ that agrees with $\phi$ over all
points in the Boolean cube $\{0,1\}^n$; the constructed polynomial
$p$ can be interpreted as a polynomial over an arbitrary field
$\mathbb{F}$. The problem ... more >>>

Any proof of P!=NP will have to overcome two barriers: relativization
and natural proofs. Yet over the last decade, we have seen circuit
lower bounds (for example, that PP does not have linear-size circuits)
that overcome both barriers simultaneously. So the question arises of
whether there ... more >>>

Is there a general theorem that tells us when we can hope for exponential speedups from quantum algorithms, and when we cannot? In this paper, we make two advances toward such a theorem, in the black-box model where most quantum algorithms operate.

First, we show that for any problem that ... more >>>

Span programs form a linear-algebraic model of computation, with span program "size" used in proving classical lower bounds. Quantum query complexity is a coherent generalization, for quantum algorithms, of classical decision-tree complexity. It is bounded below by a semi-definite program (SDP) known as the general adversary bound. We connect these ... more >>>

The direct product problem is a fundamental question in complexity theory which seeks to understand how the difficulty of computing a function on each of $k$ independent inputs scales with $k$.
We prove the following direct product theorem (DPT) for query complexity: if every $T$-query algorithm
has success probability at ... more >>>

Quantum query complexity measures the number of input bits that must be read by a quantum algorithm in order to evaluate a function. Hoyer et al. (2007) have generalized the adversary semi-definite program that lower-bounds quantum query complexity. By giving a matching algorithm, we show that the general adversary lower ... more >>>

We describe a reduction from the problem of unordered search(with a unique solution) to the problem of inverting a permutation. Since there is a straightforward reduction in the reverse direction, the problems are essentially equivalent.

The reduction helps us bypass the Bennett-Bernstein-Brassard-Vazirani hybrid argument (1997} and the Ambainis quantum adversary ... more >>>

We introduce a new quantum adversary method to prove lower bounds on the query complexity of the quantum state generation problem. This problem encompasses both, the computation of partial or total functions and the preparation of target quantum states. There has been hope for quite some time that quantum ... more >>>

We show that any quantum algorithm to decide whether a function $f:\left[n\right] \rightarrow\left[ n\right] $ is a permutation or far from a permutation\ must make $\Omega\left( n^{1/3}/w\right) $ queries to $f$, even if the algorithm is given a $w$-qubit quantum witness in support of $f$ being a permutation. This implies ... more >>>

A theorem of Green, Tao, and Ziegler can be stated as follows: if $R$ is a pseudorandom distribution, and $D$ is a dense distribution of $R,$ then $D$ can be modeled as a distribution $M$ which is dense in uniform distribution such that $D$ and $M$ are indistinguishable. The reduction ... more >>>

We show that the black-box complexity with memory restriction one of the $n$-dimensional $\onemax$ function class is at most $2n$. This disproves the $\Theta(n \log n)$ conjecture of Droste, Jansen, and Wegener (Theory of Computing Systems 39 (2006) 525--544).

Let $C$ be a (fan-in $2$) Boolean circuit of size $s$ and depth $d$, and let $x$ be an input for $C$. Assume that a verifier that knows $C$ but doesn't know $x$ can access the low degree extension of $x$ at one random point. Two competing provers try to ... more >>>

We propose an abstract framework for studying search-to-decision reductions for NP. Specifically, we study the following witness finding problem: for a hidden nonempty set $W\subseteq\{0,1\}^n$, the goal is to output a witness in $W$ with constant probability by making randomized queries of the form ``is $Q\cap W$ nonempty?''\ where $Q\subseteq\{0,1\}^n$. ... more >>>

We study the $\leadingones$ game, a Mastermind-type guessing game first
regarded as a test case in the complexity theory of randomized search
heuristics. The first player, Carole, secretly chooses a string $z \in \{0,1\}^n$ and a
permutation $\pi$ of $[n]$.
The goal of the second player, Paul, is to ... more >>>

Suppose we are given an oracle that claims to approximate the permanent for most matrices $X$, where $X$ is chosen from the Gaussian ensemble (the matrix entries are i.i.d. univariate complex Gaussians). Can we test that the oracle satisfies this claim? This paper gives a polynomial-time algorithm for the task.

We prove that the randomized decision tree complexity of the recursive majority-of-three is $\Omega(2.6^d)$, where $d$ is the depth of the recursion. The proof is by a bottom up induction, which is same in spirit as the one in the proof of Saks and Wigderson in their FOCS 1986 paper ... more >>>

The polynomial method and the adversary method are the two main techniques to prove lower bounds on quantum query complexity, and they have so far been considered as unrelated approaches. Here, we show an explicit reduction from the polynomial method to the multiplicative adversary method. The proof goes by extending ... more >>>

We study the query complexity of Weak Parity: the problem of computing the parity of an n-bit input string, where one only has to succeed on a 1/2+eps fraction of input strings, but must do so with high probability on those inputs where one does succeed. It is well-known that ... more >>>

For a Boolean function $f,$ let $D(f)$ denote its deterministic decision tree complexity, i.e., minimum number of (adaptive) queries required in worst case in order to determine $f.$ In a classic paper,
Rivest and Vuillemin \cite{rv} show that any non-constant monotone property $\mathcal{P} : \{0, 1\}^{n \choose 2} \to ... more >>>

We achieve essentially the largest possible separation between quantum and classical query complexities. We do so using a property-testing problem called Forrelation, where one needs to decide whether one Boolean function is highly correlated with the Fourier transform of a second function. This problem can be solved using 1 quantum ... more >>>

In this work, we construct the first locally-correctable codes (LCCs), and locally-testable codes (LTCs) with constant rate, constant relative distance, and sub-polynomial query complexity. Specifically, we show that there exist binary LCCs and LTCs with block length $n$, constant rate (which can even be taken arbitrarily close to 1), constant ... more >>>

In 1986, Saks and Wigderson conjectured that the largest separation between deterministic and zero-error randomized
query complexity for a total boolean function is given by the function $f$ on $n=2^k$ bits defined by a complete binary tree
of NAND gates of depth $k$, which achieves $R_0(f) = O(D(f)^{0.7537\ldots})$. ... more >>>

We construct a total Boolean function $f$ satisfying
$R(f)=\tilde{\Omega}(Q(f)^{5/2})$, refuting the long-standing
conjecture that $R(f)=O(Q(f)^2)$ for all total Boolean functions.
Assuming a conjecture of Aaronson and Ambainis about optimal quantum speedups for partial functions,
we improve this to $R(f)=\tilde{\Omega}(Q(f)^3)$.
Our construction is motivated by the Göös-Pitassi-Watson function
but does not ... more >>>

An error correcting code is said to be \emph{locally testable} if
there is a test that checks whether a given string is a codeword,
or rather far from the code, by reading only a small number of symbols
of the string. Locally testable codes (LTCs) are both interesting
in their ... more >>>

We show a power 2.5 separation between bounded-error randomized and quantum query complexity for a total Boolean function, refuting the widely believed conjecture that the best such separation could only be quadratic (from Grover's algorithm). We also present a total function with a power 4 separation between quantum query complexity ... more >>>

Given a problem which is intractable for both quantum and classical algorithms, can we find a sub-problem for which quantum algorithms provide an exponential advantage? We refer to this problem as the "sculpting problem." In this work, we give a full characterization of sculptable functions in the query complexity setting. ... more >>>

Local search proved to be an extremely useful tool when facing hard optimization problems (e.g. via the simplex algorithm, simulated annealing, or genetic algorithms). Although powerful, it has its limitations: there are functions for which exponentially many queries are needed to find a local optimum. In many contexts the optimization ... more >>>

We provide new query complexity separations against sensitivity for total Boolean functions: a power 3 separation between deterministic (and even randomized or quantum) query complexity and sensitivity, and a power 2.1 separation between certificate complexity and sensitivity. We get these separations by using a new connection between sensitivity and a ... more >>>

We study the composition question for bounded-error randomized query complexity: Is R(f o g) = Omega(R(f) R(g)) for all Boolean functions f and g? We show that inserting a simple Boolean function h, whose query complexity is only Theta(log R(g)), in between f and g allows us to prove R(f ... more >>>

In both query and communication complexity, we give separations between the class NISZK, containing those problems with non-interactive statistical zero knowledge proof systems, and the class UPP, containing those problems with randomized algorithms with unbounded error. These results significantly improve on earlier query separations of Vereschagin [Ver95] and Aaronson [Aar12] ... more >>>

Let the randomized query complexity of a relation for error probability $\epsilon$ be denoted by $\R_\epsilon(\cdot)$. We prove that for any relation $f \subseteq \{0,1\}^n \times \mathcal{R}$ and Boolean function $g:\{0,1\}^m \rightarrow \{0,1\}$, $\R_{1/3}(f\circ g^n) = \Omega(\R_{4/9}(f)\cdot\R_{1/2-1/n^4}(g))$, where $f \circ g^n$ is the relation obtained by composing $f$ and $g$. ... more >>>

Let $f:\{0,1\}^n \rightarrow \{0,1\}$ be a Boolean function. The certificate complexity $C(f)$ is a complexity measure that is quadratically tight for the zero-error randomized query complexity $R_0(f)$: $C(f) \leq R_0(f) \leq C(f)^2$. In this paper we study a new complexity measure that we call expectational certificate complexity $EC(f)$, which is ... more >>>

Consider a random sequence of $n$ bits that has entropy at least $n-k$, where $k\ll n$. A commonly used observation is that an average coordinate of this random sequence is close to being uniformly distributed, that is, the coordinate “looks random”. In this work, we prove a stronger result that ... more >>>

Let $X$ be a random variable distributed over $n$-bit strings with $H(X) \ge n - k$, where $k \ll n$. Using subadditivity we know that a random coordinate looks random. Meir and Wigderson [TR17-149] showed a random coordinate looks random to an adversary who is allowed to query around $n/k$ ... more >>>

We study the Boolean Hierarchy in the context of two-party communication complexity, as well as the analogous hierarchy defined with one-sided error randomness instead of nondeterminism. Our results provide a complete picture of the relationships among complexity classes within and across these two hierarchies. In particular, we prove a query-to-communication ... more >>>

We present a trichotomy theorem for the quantum query complexity of regular languages. Every regular language has quantum query complexity $\Theta(1)$, $\tilde{\Theta}(\sqrt n)$, or $\Theta(n)$. The extreme uniformity of regular languages prevents them from taking any other asymptotic complexity. This is in contrast to even the context-free languages, which we ... more >>>

Lifting theorems are theorems that relate the query complexity of a function $f:\left\{ 0,1 \right\}^n\to \left\{ 0,1 \right\}$ to the communication complexity of the composed function $f\circ g^n$, for some “gadget” $g:\left\{ 0,1 \right\}^b\times \left\{ 0,1 \right\}^b\to \left\{ 0,1 \right\}$. Such theorems allow transferring lower bounds from query complexity to ... more >>>

Instance complexity is a measure of goodness of an algorithm in which the performance of one algorithm is compared to others per input. This is in sharp contrast to worst-case and average-case complexity measures, where the performance is compared either on the worst input or on an average one, ... more >>>

The query model offers a concrete setting where quantum algorithms are provably superior to randomized algorithms. Beautiful results by Bernstein-Vazirani, Simon, Aaronson, and others presented partial Boolean functions that can be computed by quantum algorithms making much fewer queries compared to their randomized analogs. To date, separations of $O(1)$ vs. ... more >>>

In this work, we resolve the query complexity of global minimum cut problem for a graph by designing a randomized algorithm for approximating the size of minimum cut in a graph, where the graph can be accessed through local queries like \textsc{Degree}, \textsc{Neighbor}, and \textsc{Adjacency} queries.

Given $\epsilon \in (0,1)$, ... more >>>

Query-to-communication lifting theorems translate lower bounds on query complexity to lower bounds for the corresponding communication model. In this paper, we give a simplified proof of deterministic lifting (in both the tree-like and dag-like settings). Whereas previous proofs used sophisticated Fourier analytic techniques, our proof uses elementary counting together with ... more >>>

We give a strong direct sum theorem for computing $XOR \circ g$. Specifically, we show that the randomized query complexity of computing the XOR of $k$ instances of $g$ satisfies $\bar{R}_\varepsilon(XOR \circ g)=\Theta(\bar{R}_{\varepsilon/k}(g))$. This matches the naive success amplification bound and answers a question of Blais and Brody.

As a ... more >>>

The graph isomorphism distance between two graphs $G_u$ and $G_k$ is the fraction of entries in the adjacency matrix that has to be changed to make $G_u$ isomorphic to $G_k$. We study the problem of estimating, up to a constant additive factor, the graph isomorphism distance between two graphs in ... more >>>

We prove that for every parity decision tree of depth $d$ on $n$ variables, the sum of absolute values of Fourier coefficients at level $\ell$ is at most $d^{\ell/2} \cdot O(\ell \cdot \log(n))^\ell$.
Our result is nearly tight for small values of $\ell$ and extends a previous Fourier bound ... more >>>

The purpose of this article is to initiate a systematic study of dimension-free relations between basic communication and query complexity measures and various matrix norms. In other words, our goal is to obtain inequalities that bound a parameter solely as a function of another parameter. This is in contrast to ... more >>>

Aaronson and Ambainis (STOC 2015, SICOMP 2018) claimed that the acceptance probability of every quantum algorithm that makes $q$ queries to an $N$-bit string can be estimated to within $\epsilon$ by a randomized classical algorithm of query complexity $O_q((N/\epsilon^2)^{1-1/2q})$. We describe a flaw in their argument but prove that the ... more >>>

We show that, in the black-box setting, the behavior of quantum polynomial-time (${BQP}$) can be remarkably decoupled from that of classical complexity classes like ${NP}$. Specifically:

-There exists an oracle relative to which ${NP}^{{BQP}}\not \subset {BQP}^{{PH}}$, resolving a 2005 problem of Fortnow. Interpreted another way, we show that ${AC^0}$ circuits ... more >>>

Given query access to a monotone function $f\colon\{0,1\}^n\to\{0,1\}$ with certificate complexity $C(f)$ and an input $x^{\star}$, we design an algorithm that outputs a size-$C(f)$ subset of $x^{\star}$ certifying the value of $f(x^{\star})$. Our algorithm makes $O(C(f) \cdot \log n)$ queries to $f$, which matches the information-theoretic lower bound for this ... more >>>

We introduce and study Certificate Game complexity, a measure of complexity based on the probability of winning a game where two players are given inputs with different function values and are asked to output some index $i$ such that $x_i\neq y_i$, in a zero-communication setting.

We give upper and lower ... more >>>

The study of distribution testing has become ubiquitous in the area of property testing, both for its theoretical appeal, as well as for its applications in other fields of Computer Science, and in various real-life statistical tasks.

The original distribution testing model relies on samples drawn independently from the distribution ... more >>>

We consider the following computational problem: Given a rooted tree and a ranking of its leaves, what is the minimum number of inversions of the leaves that can be attained by ordering the tree? This variation of the well-known problem of counting inversions in arrays originated in mathematical psychology. It ... more >>>

A classic result of Nisan [SICOMP '91] states that the deterministic decision tree depth complexity of every total Boolean function is at most the cube of its randomized decision tree depth complexity. The question whether randomness helps in significantly reducing the size of decision trees appears not to have been ... more >>>

We relate various complexity measures like sensitivity, block sensitivity, certificate complexity for multi-output functions to the query complexities of such functions. Using these relations, we improve upon the known relationship between pseudo-deterministic query complexity and deterministic query complexity for total search problems: We show that pseudo-deterministic query complexity is at ... more >>>

We study the problem of finding a Tarski fixed point over the $k$-dimensional grid $[n]^k$. We give a black-box reduction from the Tarski problem to the same problem with an additional promise that the input function has a unique fixed point. It implies that the Tarski problem and the unique ... more >>>

We study the relative advantage of classical and quantum distinguishers of bounded query complexity over $n$-bit strings, focusing on the case of a single quantum query. A construction of Aaronson and Ambainis (STOC 2015) yields a pair of distributions that is $\epsilon$-distinguishable by a one-query quantum algorithm, but $O(\epsilon k/\sqrt{n})$-indistinguishable ... more >>>

The generalized pigeonhole principle says that if tN + 1 pigeons are put into N holes then there must be a hole containing at least t + 1 pigeons. Let t-PPP denote the class of all total NP-search problems reducible to finding such a t-collision of pigeons. We introduce a ... more >>>

We give an algorithm for finding an $\epsilon$-fixed point of a contraction map $f:[0,1]^k\rightarrow [0,1]^k$ under the $\ell_\infty$-norm with query complexity $O (k^2\log (1/\epsilon ) )$.