João Fernando Doriguello

Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods are an essential tool in classical algorithms design. Especially, the Metropolis sampling algorithm and Glauber dynamics have drastically advanced our understanding of material properties, reaction dynamics, phase transitions, and thermodynamics. Recently, there has been a new wave of quantum MCMC algorithms that draws inspiration from the cooling process in Nature to design continuous-time Quantum Markov chains (i.e., Lindbladians) satisfying (approximate) detailed balance. Nevertheless, the quantum analog of detailed balance, which has been central to classical Markov chain design and analysis, has posed a challenge to quantum algorithms design and has only recently been achieved exactly and (quasi)-locally for an efficiently implementable Lindbladian by [CKG23]. The construction of [CKG23] provably leads to an efficient Gibbs state preparation method in the high-temperature regime. However, proving fast mixing for low temperatures remains an open problem, apart from some (almost) integrable systems. Here we introduce (i) a new continuous-time Lindbladian construction that also leads to quasi-local and detailed-balanced dynamics, and (ii) show that it is fast mixing for high-temperature lattice Hamiltonians. The new construction's major advantage is that it does not increase the number of Kraus operators, which is particularly helpful for numerical studies. We exploit the resulting low Kraus rank through a (iii) novel custom variant of density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) for superoperators to provide numerical evidence for various 1D models (Transverse-field Ising, Heisenberg XXZ) that the Gibbs sampler is mixing fast. We also introduce (iv) new detailed-balanced discrete-time quantum channel variants of all existing continuous-time detailed-balanced Lindbladian construction and (v) show that they are also mixing fast at high-temperatures, and provide some preliminary (vi) resource estimates for their implementation confirming their algorithmic efficiency.

We explore the power of the unbounded Fan-Out gate and the Global Tunable gates generated by Ising-type Hamiltonians in constructing constant-depth quantum circuits, with particular attention to quantum memory devices. We propose two types of constant-depth constructions for implementing Uniformly Controlled Gates. These gates include the Fan-In gates defined by x>|b> —> |x>|b+ f(x)> for x in 0,1^n and b in 0,1, where f is a Boolean function. The first of our constructions is based on computing the one-hot encoding of the control register |x>, while the second is based on Boolean analysis and exploits different representations of f such as its Fourier expansion. Via these constructions, we obtain constant-depth circuits for the quantum counterparts of read-only and read-write memory devices — Quantum Random Access Memory (QRAM) and Quantum Random Access Gate (QRAG) — of memory size n. The implementation based on one-hot encoding requires either O(n log(n)łogłog(n)) ancillae and O(n log(n)) Fan-Out gates or O(n log(n)) ancillae and 6 Global Tunable gates. On the other hand, the implementation based on Boolean analysis requires only 2 Global Tunable gates at the expense of O(n^2) ancillae.

In this work we revisit the Boolean Hidden Matching communication problem, which was the first communication problem in the one-way model to demonstrate an exponential classical-quantum communication separation. In this problem, Alice’s bits are matched into pairs according to a partition that Bob holds. These pairs are compressed using a Parity function and it is promised that the final bit-string is equal either to another bit-string Bob holds, or its complement. The problem is to decide which case is the correct one. Here we generalize the Boolean Hidden Matching problem by replacing the parity function with an arbitrary function $f$. Efficient communication protocols are presented depending on the sign-degree of $f$. If its sign-degree is less than or equal to 1, we show an efficient classical protocol. If its sign-degree is less than or equal to $2$, we show an efficient quantum protocol. We then completely characterize the classical hardness of all symmetric functions $f$ of sign-degree greater than or equal to $2$, except for one family of specific cases. We also prove, via Fourier analysis, a classical lower bound for any function $f$ whose pure high degree is greater than or equal to $2$. Similarly, we prove, also via Fourier analysis, a quantum lower bound for any function $f$ whose pure high degree is greater than or equal to $3$. These results give a large family of new exponential classical-quantum communication separations.

One of the main candidates of post-quantum cryptography is lattice-based cryptography. Its cryptographic security against quantum attackers is based on the worst-case hardness of lattice problems like the shortest vector problem (SVP), which asks to find the shortest non-zero vector in an integer lattice. Asymptotic quantum speedups for solving SVP are known and rely on Grover's search. However, to assess the security of lattice-based cryptography against these Grover-like quantum speedups, it is necessary to carry out a precise resource estimation beyond asymptotic scalings. In this work, we perform a careful analysis on the resources required to implement several sieving algorithms aided by Grover's search for dimensions of cryptographic interests. For such, we take into account fixed-point quantum arithmetic operations, non-asymptotic Grover's search, the cost of using quantum random access memory (QRAM), different physical architectures, and quantum error correction. We find that even under very optimistic assumptions like circuit-level noise of $10^{-5}$, code cycles of 100 ns, reaction time of 1 $\mu$s, and using state-of-the-art arithmetic circuits and quantum error-correction protocols, the best sieving algorithms require $\approx 10^{13}$ physical qubits and $\approx 10^{31}$ years to solve SVP on a lattice of dimension 400, which is roughly the dimension in which SVP is to be solved in order to break the minimally secure post-quantum cryptographic standards currently being proposed by NIST. We estimate that a 6-GHz-clock-rate single-core classical computer would take roughly the same amount of time to solve the same problem. We conclude that there is currently little to no quantum speedup in the dimensions of cryptographic interest and the possibility of realising a considerable quantum speedup using quantum sieving algorithms would require significant breakthroughs in theoretical protocols and hardware development.