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Learning at the Edge of Causality: Optimal Learning-Sample Complexity from No-Signaling Constraints

Quantum Physics 2026-01-21 v1

Abstract

What ultimately fixes the sample cost of quantum learning -- algorithmic ingenuity or physical law? We study this question in an arena where computation, learning, and causality collide. A twist on Grover's search that reflects about an a priori unknown state can collapse the query complexity from O(N)O(\sqrt{N}) to O(logN)O(\log N) over a search space NN, i.e., an exponential speedup. Yet, standard quantum theory forbids such a unknown-state reflection (no-reflection theorem). We therefore build a state-learning-assisted architecture, called ``amplify-learn,'' which alternates the coherent amplitude amplification with state learning. Embedding this amplify-learn into the Bao-Bouland-Jordan no-signaling framework, we show that the logarithmic-round dream would open a super-luminal communication channel unless each round expends the learning-sample and reflection-circuit budgets scaling at least as Ω(N/logN)\Omega(\sqrt{N}/\log N). In parallel, we derive tight computational learning-theoretic sample bounds for learning circuit-generated pure states, revealing a state-universal ansatz ``lock'' at order NN in the worst case. The dramatic closure is that no-signaling does not merely veto the unphysical primitive, but it fixes the only consistent reflection-circuit complexity, and feeding this causality-enforced complexity into the computational learning bound makes it collapse onto the very same N/logN\sqrt{N}/\log N scaling demanded by no-signaling alone. No-signaling thus acts as a regulator of learnability: a constraint that mediates between physics and computation, welding query, gate, and sample complexities into a single causality-compatible triangle.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.12651,
  title  = {Learning at the Edge of Causality: Optimal Learning-Sample Complexity from No-Signaling Constraints},
  author = {Jeongho Bang and Kyoungho Cho and Jeongwoo Jae},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.12651},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Main text (10 page, 2 figures) / Supplementary Information (36 pages, 1 figure)

R2 v1 2026-07-01T09:09:53.231Z