English

${\sf QMA}={\sf QMA}_1$ with an infinite counter

Quantum Physics 2025-06-19 v1

Abstract

A long-standing open problem in quantum complexity theory is whether QMA{\sf QMA}, the quantum analogue of NP{\sf NP}, is equal to QMA1{\sf QMA}_1, its one-sided error variant. We show that QMA=QMA=QMA1{\sf QMA}={\sf QMA}^{\infty}= {\sf QMA}_1^{\infty}, where QMA1{\sf QMA}_1^\infty is like QMA1{\sf QMA}_1, but the verifier has an infinite register, as part of their witness system, in which they can efficiently perform a shift (increment) operation. We call this register an ``infinite counter'', and compare it to a program counter in a Las Vegas algorithm. The result QMA=QMA{\sf QMA}={\sf QMA}^\infty means such an infinite register does not increase the power of QMA{\sf QMA}, but does imply perfect completeness. By truncating our construction to finite dimensions, we get a QMA{\sf QMA}-amplifier that only amplifies completeness, not soundness, but does so in significantly less time than previous QMA{\sf QMA} amplifiers. Our new construction achieves completeness 12q1-2^{-q} using O(1)O(1) calls to each of the original verifier and its inverse, and O(logq)O(\log q) other gates, proving that QMA{\sf QMA} has completeness doubly exponentially close to 1, i.e. QMA=QMA(122r,2r){\sf QMA}={\sf QMA}(1-2^{-2^r},2^{-r}) for any polynomial rr.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.15551,
  title  = {${\sf QMA}={\sf QMA}_1$ with an infinite counter},
  author = {Stacey Jeffery and Freek Witteveen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.15551},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

23 pages