English

Robust quantum state certification and uncertainty principles for total influence

Quantum Physics 2026-07-29 v1

Abstract

We show that nonadaptive single-qubit Pauli measurements suffice to test whether an unknown nn-qubit state ρ\rho is ε\varepsilon-close to or O(ε)O(\varepsilon)-far from an ideal target state ψ|\psi\rangle, for all but a 2Ω(n)2^{-\Omega(n)} fraction of target states. The test uses O(ε2log(1/δ))O(\varepsilon^{-2}\log(1/\delta)) copies of ρ\rho to achieve confidence 1δ1-\delta, which is information-theoretically optimal even among protocols with arbitrary joint measurements. The main technical innovation is an uncertainty principle for weighted generalizations of the total influence of Boolean functions. As a simple example, the unweighted variant states that Inf[f]+Inf[f^]=Ω(n)\mathbf{Inf}[f]+\mathbf{Inf}[\widehat{f}] = \Omega(n), which is a natural hypercube analogue of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle (here ^\widehat{\,\cdot\,} denotes the 2n/22^{-n/2}-normalized Fourier transform). The weighted case generalizes Inf[]\mathbf{Inf}[\,\cdot\,] and Inf[^]\mathbf{Inf}[\,\widehat{\,\cdot\,}\,] to Dirichlet energies associated with Glauber dynamics for certain dual measures on the cube.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.27184,
  title  = {Robust quantum state certification and uncertainty principles for total influence},
  author = {Andrea Coladangelo and Jerry Li and Joseph Slote},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.27184},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

73 + 3 pages, 1 figure