Quantum Query-to-Communication Simulation Needs a Logarithmic Overhead


Abstract in English

Buhrman, Cleve and Wigderson (STOC98) observed that for every Boolean function $f : {-1, 1}^n to {-1, 1}$ and $bullet : {-1, 1}^2 to {-1, 1}$ the two-party bounded-error quantum communication complexity of $(f circ bullet)$ is $O(Q(f) log n)$, where $Q(f)$ is the bounded-error quantum query complexity of $f$. Note that the bounded-error randomized communication complexity of $(f circ bullet)$ is bounded by $O(R(f))$, where $R(f)$ denotes the bounded-error randomized query complexity of $f$. Thus, the BCW simulation has an extra $O(log n)$ factor appearing that is absent in classical simulation. A natural question is if this factor can be avoided. H{o}yer and de Wolf (STACS02) showed that for the Set-Disjointness function, this can be reduced to $c^{log^* n}$ for some constant $c$, and subsequently Aaronson and Ambainis (FOCS03) showed that this factor can be made a constant. That is, the quantum communication complexity of the Set-Disjointness function (which is $mathsf{NOR}_n circ wedge$) is $O(Q(mathsf{NOR}_n))$. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, we show that when $ bullet = oplus$, then the extra $log n$ factor in the BCW simulation is unavoidable. In other words, we exhibit a total function $F : {-1, 1}^n to {-1, 1}$ such that $Q^{cc}(F circ oplus) = Theta(Q(F) log n)$. To the best of our knowledge, it was not even known prior to this work whether there existed a total function $F$ and 2-bit function $bullet$, such that $Q^{cc}(F circ bullet) = omega(Q(F))$.

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