The Hidden Subgroup Problem in Semidirect Products and Quasi-Hamiltonian Groups

Several early quantum algorithms, including Simon's algorithm and Shor's period-finding are instances of the hidden subgroup problem (HSP) over finite abelian groups. No polynomial-time quantum algorithm is known for the HSP over arbitrary non-abelian finite groups. The non-Abelian case is of particular interest because some instances, such as the dihedral and symmetric group HSPs, are connected to lattice problems and graph isomorphism, respectively. In this work, we give polynomial-time quantum algorithms for two further families containing non-Abelian groups. First, we consider groups of the form $G=A\rtimes_{\varphi} \mathbb{Z}_{p^k}$, with $A$ finite Abelian, $p$ prime, $k\in \mathbb{N}$ and the action of $\mathbb Z_{p^k}$ is generated by the scalar automorphism $a\mapsto\mu a$, for some $\mu\in\mathbb Z_{\operatorname{Exp}(A)}^\times$, where $\mathrm{Exp}(A)$ is the exponent of $A$. Our algorithm is efficient when $A$ has bounded generator rank and $\mathrm{Exp}(A)/p=\mathrm{polylog}(|G|)$. This includes the case $A=\mathbb{Z}_N$ for $N\in\mathbb{N}$ and $k=1$, studied by Bacon, Childs and van Dam (FOCS 2005), and $A=\mathbb{Z}_{q^r}$ with $q$ prime and $r\in \mathbb{N}$ studied by van Dam and Dey (TQC 2014). Second, we give a polynomial-time quantum algorithm for finite quasi-Hamiltonian groups under a mild assumption on the input structure. Quasi-Hamiltonian groups are finite nilpotent groups with modular subgroup lattice, or equivalently the finite groups in which every subgroup is permutable. As far as we know, this is the first quantum algorithm to exploit the modularity of the subgroup lattice for solving the HSP. This extends, under the aforementioned structured input assumption, the quantum algorithm for Dedekind groups given by Hallgren, Russell, and Ta-Shma (SIAM J. Comput. 32, 2003).