A ΨMAX Feature Presentation

BQP
=
C E
PSP A P
Scott’s Grab Bag o’
Cheap Yuks

Scott Aaronson (IAS)

Dr. Scott’s Grab Bag
o’ Cheap Yuks

Scott Aaronson (IAS)

Outlook on the Future of
Quantum Computing

Scott Aaronson (IAS)

 The Remarkable
Ubiquity of Postselection

Scott Aaronson (IAS)

The Stupendous
Strength of
Postselection

Scott Aaronson (IAS)

The Hunky, Rippling
Manliness of
Postselection

Scott Aaronson (IAS)

Lessons Learned in the
Gottesman Institute of
Comedy

Scott Aaronson (IAS)

The Amazing Power of
Postselection

Scott Aaronson (IAS)

 What IS Postselection?
Learning something about a question by
conditioning on the fact that you’re asking it.

BERKELEY CAMBRIDGE
 What about the
quantum case?

“Anthropic Computing”: A foolproof way to

solve NP-complete problems in polynomial time

Input: A Boolean formula ϕ

(1) Accept the many-worlds interpretation
(2) Generate a random truth assignment X
(3) If X doesn’t satisfy ϕ, kill yourself
 In This Talk…
I’ll study what you could do with a quantum
computer, IF you could measure a qubit and
postselect on its being |1〉

This will lead to:

• An extremely simple proof of the celebrated
Beigel-Reingold-Spielman theorem
• Limitations on quantum advice and one-way
communication
• Unrelativized quantum circuit lower bounds
• And more!
 I hereby define a new
complexity class…

PostBQP
(Postselected BQP)

Class of languages decidable by a bounded-

error polynomial-time quantum computer, if
at any time you can measure a qubit that
has a nonzero probability of being |1〉, and
assume the outcome will be |1〉
Another Important Animal: PP
Class of languages decidable by a
nondeterministic poly-time Turing machine
that accepts iff the majority of its paths do

PSPACE
P#P=PPP
PP
NP
P
 Theorem: PostBQP = PP
Easy half: PostBQP ⊆ PP
Adleman, DeMarrais, and Huang (1997) showed
BQP ⊆ PP using “Feynman sum-over-histories”
Idea: Write acceptance and rejection
probabilities as sums of exponentially many
easy-to-compute terms; then use PP to decide
which sum is greater
For PostBQP, just sum over postselected
outcomes only
 To Show PP ⊆ PostBQP…
Given a Boolean function f:{0,1}n{0,1},
let s=|{x : f(x)=1}|. Need to decide if s>2n-1

From 2 n / 2
 x f  x we can easily prepare
x 0,1
n

 
 2 n
 s 0  s 1
, H 
1/ 2  2n  0  1/ 2  2n  2 s  1

2  s  s 2  s   s2
n 2 2 n 2

Goal: Decide if these amplitudes have the

same or  s
opposite 0  
signs1/ 2  2 n
 2s  1
Yields  :  / in first qubit
 s    / 2for
  2 some
 2 s  α,β.
2 2 2 n 2
Prepare α|0〉|ψ〉+β|1〉H|ψ〉
Then postselect on second qubit being |1〉
 To Show PP ⊆ PostBQP…
1 Suppose s and 2n-2sif
On the other hand,
 are both
2n-2s positive then
is negative,
we won’t. QED
Then by trying β/α = 2i
0 for all i∈{-n,…,n}, we’ll
eventually get close to
0 1
 
2
 s 0   1/ 2  2n  2 s  1
Yields   /  : in first qubit
 2 s 2    2 / 2   2n  2 s 
2
Totally unexpectedly, the PostBQP=PP
theorem turned out to have implications
for classical complexity theory…
Beigel, Reingold, Spielman 1990: PP is
“closed under intersection”
Solved a problem that was open for 18 years…

Observation: PostBQP is trivially closed

under intersection ⇒ PP is too
Given L1,L2∈PostBQP, to decide if x∈L1 and x
∈L2, postselect on both computations
succeeding, and accept iff they both accept
Other Classical Results Proved With
Quantum Techniques:
Kerenidis & de Wolf, A., Aharonov & Regev, …
 Other Results that
PostBQP=PP Makes Simpler

P|| PP
= PP (Fortnow and Reingold)

PP = PP
BQP
(Fortnow and Rogers)

QMA ⊆ PP (Kitaev and Watrous)

 Quantum Advice
Mike & Ike: “We know that many
systems in Nature ‘prefer’ to sit in
highly entangled states of many
systems; might it be possible to
exploit this preference to obtain
extra computational power?”

BQP/qpoly: Class of languages decidable by

polynomial-size, bounded-error quantum circuits,
given a polynomial-size quantum advice state |
ψn〉 that depends only on the input length n
How powerful is quantum advice?

Could it let us solve problems that are not

even recursively enumerable given
classical advice of similar size?!
 Limitations of Quantum Advice
NP ⊄ BQP/qpoly relative to an oracle
(Uses direct product theorem for quantum search)

BQP/qpoly ⊆ PostBQP/poly
( = PP/poly)
Closely related: for all (partial or total) Boolean
functions f : {0,1}n × {0,1}m  {0,1},
D ( f ) = O ( mQ ( f ) log Q ( f ) ).
1 1
ε
1
ε
 Alice’s Classical Advice
Bob, suppose you used the
x1 maximally mixed state in place of your
quantum advice. Then x1 is the
x2 lexicographically first input for which
you’dGiven
output an
theinput
right answer
x, with
probability lessBob
clearly lets than ½.
But suppose you succeeded on x1,
decide in PostBQP
and usedwhether
the resulting
x∈Lreduced state
as your advice. Then x2 is the
lexicographically first input after x1 for
which you’d output the right answer
with probability less than ½...
But how many inputs must Alice specify?
We can boost a quantum advice state so
that the error probability on any input is at
most (say) 2-100n; then Bob can reuse the
advice on as many inputs as he likes

We can decompose the maximally mixed

state on p(n) qubits as the boosted advice
plus 2p(n)-1 orthogonal states

Alice needs to specify at most p(n) inputs

x1,x2,…, since each one cuts Bob’s total
success probability by least half, but the
probability must be Ω(2-p(n)) by the end
PPP Does Not Have Quantum
Circuits of Size nk
U: Picks a size-nk quantum
circuit uniformly at random ∉ x0
and runs it
∈ x1
Does U accept x0 w.p. ≥ ½?
x2
If yes, set x0∉L
Conditioned on deciding x0
x3
If 0∈L U accept x
no, set xdoes
correctly,
Conditioned on deciding x10
x4
and x≥1 ½?
w.p. correctly, does U
If yes, set x1∉L≥ ½? x5
accept x2 w.p.
If
If no, setxx1∈L
yes,set 2∉L
If no, set x ∈L
For any k, defines a language L that does not
have quantum circuits of size nk
Even works for
Why? Intuitively,
quantumeach iteration cuts the
circuits
number of potential circuits in half, but there
with quantum
k
n
were at most ~ advice!
2 circuits to begin with
On the other hand, clearly L ∈ PPP
 Also…
If a function f:{0,1}n{0,1} has a polynomial-
size quantum circuit, then a PostBQP machine
can find such a circuit using queries to f
Even
Intuition: Guess worksinputs
random for x and quantum
t
quantum circuits
circuits Ct. Repeatedly use postselection to find
with quantum
advice!
• An input xt on which Ct fails

• A circuit Ct+1 that succeeds on x1,…,xt

Reminiscent of a classical learning theory
result of Bshouty, Cleve, et al.
 And now for a grand finale…
0-1-NPC - #AC0 - #L - #L/poly - #P - #W[t] - +EXP - +L - +L/poly - +P - +SAC1 - A0PP - AC - AC0 - AC0[m] - ACC0 - AH - AL
- AlgP/poly - AM - AM-EXP - AM intersect coAM - AM[polylog] - AmpMP - AmpP-BQP - AP - AP - APP - APP - APX - AUC-
SPACE(f(n)) - AVBPP - AvE - AvP - AW[P] - AWPP - AW[SAT] - AW[*] - AW[t] - βP - BH - BPE - BPEE - BPHSPACE(f(n)) -
BPL - BP•NP - BPP - BPPcc - BPPKT - BPP-OBDD - BPPpath - BPQP - BPSPACE(f(n)) - BPTIME(f(n)) - BQNC - BQNP -
BQP - BQP/log - BQP/poly - BQP/qlog - BQP/qpoly - BQP-OBDD - BQPtt/poly - BQTIME(f(n)) - k-BWBP - C=AC0 - C=L -
C=P - CFL - CLOG - CH - Check - CkP - CNP - coAM - coC=P - cofrIP - Coh - coMA - coModkP - compIP - compNP - coNE
- coNEXP - coNL - coNP - coNPcc - coNP/poly - coNQP - coRE - coRNC - coRP - coSL - coUCC - coUP - CP - CSIZE(f(n))
- CSL - CZK - D#P - Δ2P - δ-BPP - δ-RP - DET - DiffAC0 - DisNP - DistNP - DP - DQP - DSPACE(f(n)) - DTIME(f(n)) -
DTISP(t(n),s(n)) - Dyn-FO - Dyn-ThC0 - E - EE - EEE - EESPACE - EEXP - EH - ELEMENTARY - ELkP - EPTAS - k-EQBP
- EQP - EQTIME(f(n)) - ESPACE - ∃BPP - ∃NISZK - EXP - EXP/poly - EXPSPACE - FBQP - Few - FewP - FH - FNL -
FNL/poly - FNP - FO(t(n)) - FOLL - FP - FPNP[log] - FPR - FPRAS - FPT - FPTnu - FPTsu - FPTAS - FQMA - frIP - F-
TAPE(f(n)) - F-TIME(f(n)) - GA - GAN-SPACE(f(n)) - GapAC0 - GapL - GapP - GC(s(n),C) - GI - GPCD(r(n),q(n)) - G[t] -
HeurBPP - HeurBPTIME(f(n)) - HkP - HVSZK - IC[log,poly] - IP - IPP - L - LIN - LkP - LOGCFL - LogFew - LogFewNL -
LOGNP - LOGSNP - L/poly - LWPP - MA - MA' - MAC0 - MA-E - MA-EXP - mAL - MaxNP - MaxPB - MaxSNP - MaxSNP0 -
mcoNL - MinPB - MIP - MIP*[2,1] - MIPEXP - (Mk)P - mL - mNC1 - mNL - mNP - ModkL - ModkP - ModP - ModZkL - mP -
MP - MPC - mP/poly - mTC0 - NC - NC0 - NC1 - NC2 - NE - NE/poly - NEE - NEEE - NEEXP - NEXP - NEXP/poly - NIQSZK
- NISZK - NISZKh - NL - NL/poly - NLIN - NLOG - NP - NPC - NPcc - NPC - NPI - NP∩coNP - (NP∩coNP)/poly - NP/log -
NPMV - NPMV-sel - NPMVt - NPMVt-sel - NPO - NPOPB - NP/poly - (NP,P-samplable) - NPR - NPSPACE - NPSV -
NPSV-sel - NPSVt - NPSVt-sel - NQP - NSPACE(f(n)) - NT - NTIME(f(n)) - OCQ - OptP - P - P/log - P/poly - P#P - P#P[1] -
PAC0 - PBP - k-PBP - PC - Pcc - PCD(r(n),q(n)) - P-close - PCP(r(n),q(n)) - PermUP - PEXP - PF - PFCHK(t(n)) - PH - PHcc
- Φ2P - PhP - Π2P - PINC - PIO - PK - PKC - PL - PL1 - PLinfinity - PLF - PLL - PLS - PNP - PNP[k] - PNP[log] - PNP[log^2] - P-OBDD -
PODN - polyL - PostBQP - PP - PP/poly - PPA - PPAD - PPADS - PPP - PPP - PPSPACE - PQUERY - PR - PR -
PrHSPACE(f(n)) - PromiseBPP - PromiseBQP - PromiseP - PromiseRP - PrSPACE(f(n)) - P-Sel - PSK - PSPACE - PT1 -
PTAPE - PTAS - PT/WK(f(n),g(n)) - PZK - QAC0 - QAC0[m] - QACC0 - QAM - QCFL - QCMA - QH - QIP - QIP(2) - QMA -
QMA+ - QMA(2) - QMAlog - QMAM - QMIP - QMIPle - QMIPne - QNC0 - QNCf0 - QNC1 - QP - QPLIN - QPSPACE - QSZK - R
- RE - REG - RevSPACE(f(n)) - RHL - RL - RNC - RP - RPP - RSPACE(f(n)) - S2P - S2-EXP•PNP - SAC - SAC0 - SAC1 -
SAPTIME - SBP - SC - SEH - SelfNP - SFk - Σ2P - SKC - SL - SLICEWISE PSPACE - SNP - SO-E - SP - SP - span-P -
SPARSE - SPL - SPP - SUBEXP - symP - SZK - SZKh - TALLY - TC0 - TFNP - Θ2P - TreeBQP - TREE-REGULAR - UAP -
Quantum Karp-Lipton Theorem

If PP ⊂ BQP/qpoly, then the counting

PP PP PP
hierarchy—consisting of PP, PP , PP ,
etc.—collapses to PP

But there’s more: With no assumptions, PP

does not have quantum circuits of size nk

And more: PEXP requires quantum circuits

of size f(n), where f(f(n))≈2n
 Even Stronger Separations

QMAEXP (a subclass of PEXP) is not in

BQP/qpoly
T I V I Z I N G
NON RELA
QCMAEXP (a subclass of QMAEXP) is not in
BQP/poly

A0PP (a subclass of PP) does not have

quantum circuits of size nk
 Conclusions

I started out with a weird philosophical question

I ended up with seven or eight results

Try it—it works!