We present a bounded-error quantum algorithm for evaluating Min-Max trees. For a tree of size N our algorithm makes N^{1/2+o(1)} comparison queries, which is close to the optimal complexity for this problem.
How low can the joint entropy of $n$ $d$-wise independent (for $dge2$) discrete random variables be, subject to given constraints on the individual distributions (say, no value may be taken by a variable with probability greater than $p$, for $p<1$)?
This question has been posed and partially answered in a recent work of Babai. In this paper we improve some of his bounds, prove new bounds in a wider range of parameters and show matching upper bounds in some special cases. In particular, we prove tight lower bounds for the min-entropy (as well as the entropy) of pairwise and three-wise independent balanced binary variables for infinitely many values of $n$.
We prove a Chernoff-like large deviation bound on the sum of non-independent random variables that have the following dependence structure. The variables $Y_1,...,Y_r$ are arbitrary Boolean functions of independent random variables $X_1,...,X_m$, mod
ulo a restriction that every $X_i$ influences at most $k$ of the variables $Y_1,...,Y_r$.
We define a new model of quantum learning that we call Predictive Quantum (PQ). This is a quantum analogue of PAC, where during the testing phase the student is only required to answer a polynomial number of testing queries. We demonstrate a relati
onal concept class that is efficiently learnable in PQ, while in any reasonable classical model exponential amount of training data would be required. This is the first unconditional separation between quantum and classical learning. We show that our separation is the best possible in several ways; in particular, there is no analogous result for a functional class, as well as for several weak
We study the simultaneous message passing (SMP) model of communication complexity, for the case where one party is quantum and the other is classical. We show that in an SMP protocol that computes some function with the first party sending q qubits a
nd the second sending c classical bits, the quantum message can be replaced by a randomized message of O(qc) classical bits, as well as by a deterministic message of O(q c log q) classical bits. Our proofs rely heavily on earlier results due to Scott Aaronson. In particular, our results imply that quantum-classical protocols need to send Omega(sqrt{n/log n}) bits/qubits to compute Equality on n-bit strings, and hence are not significantly better than classical-classical protocols (and are much worse than quantum-quantum protocols such as quantum fingerprinting). This essentially answers a recent question of Wim van Dam. Our results also imply, more generally, that there are no superpolynomial separations between quantum-classical and classical-classical SMP protocols for functional problems. This contrasts with the situation for relational problems, where exponential gaps between quantum-classical and classical-classical SMP protocols are known. We show that this surprising situation cannot arise in purely classical models: there, an exponential separation for a relational problem can be converted into an exponential separation for a functional problem.
We give the first exponential separation between quantum and classical multi-party communication complexity in the (non-interactive) one-way and simultaneous message passing settings. For every k, we demonstrate a relational communication problem b
etween k parties that can be solved exactly by a quantum simultaneous message passing protocol of cost O(log n) and requires protocols of cost n^{c/k^2}, where c>0 is a constant, in the classical non-interactive one-way message passing model with shared randomness and bounded error. Thus our separation of corresponding communication classes is superpolynomial as long as k=o(sqrt{log n / loglog n}) and exponential for k=O(1).
We show that, for any language in NP, there is an entanglement-resistant constant-bit two-prover interactive proof system with a constant completeness vs. soundness gap. The previously proposed classical two-prover constant-bit interactive proof syst
ems are known not to be entanglement-resistant. This is currently the strongest expressive power of any known constant-bit answer multi-prover interactive proof system that achieves a constant gap. Our result is based on an oracularizing property of certain private information retrieval systems, which may be of independent interest.
