English

Towards a universal gateset for $\mathsf{QMA}_1$

Quantum Physics 2025-04-14 v2 Computational Complexity

Abstract

QMA1\mathsf{QMA}_1 is QMA\mathsf{QMA} with perfect completeness, i.e., the prover must accept with a probability of exactly 11 in the YES-case. Whether QMA1\mathsf{QMA}_1 and QMA\mathsf{QMA} are equal is still a major open problem. It is not even known whether QMA1\mathsf{QMA}_1 has a universal gateset; Solovay-Kitaev does not apply due to perfect completeness. Hence, we do not generally know whether QMA1G=QMA1G\mathsf{QMA}_1^G=\mathsf{QMA}_1^{G'} (superscript denoting gateset), given two universal gatesets G,GG,G'. In this paper, we make progress towards the gateset question by proving that for all kNk\in\mathbb N, the gateset G2kG_{2^k} (Amy et al., RC 2024) is universal for all gatesets in the cyclotomic field Q(ζ2k),ζ2k=e2πi/2k\mathbb{Q}(\zeta_{2^k}),\zeta_{2^k}=e^{2\pi i/2^k}, i.e. QMA1GQMA1G2k\mathsf{QMA}_1^G\subseteq\mathsf{QMA}_1^{G_{2^k}} for all gatesets GG in Q(ζ2k)\mathbb{Q}(\zeta_{2^k}). For BQP1\mathsf{BQP}_1, we can even show that G2G_2 suffices for all 2k2^k-th cyclotomic fields. We exhibit complete problems for all QMA1G2k\mathsf{QMA}_1^{G_{2^k}}: Quantum ll-SAT in Q(ζ2k)\mathbb{Q}(\zeta_{2^k}) is complete for QMA1G2k\mathsf{QMA}_1^{G_{2^k}} for all l4l\ge4, and l=3l=3 if k3k\ge3, where quantum ll-SAT is the problem of deciding whether a set of ll-local Hamiltonians has a common ground state. Additionally, we give the first QMA1\mathsf{QMA}_1-complete 22-local Hamiltonian problem: It is QMA1G2k\mathsf{QMA}_1^{G_{2^k}}-complete (for k3k\ge3) to decide whether a given 22-local Hamiltonian HH in Q(ζ2k)\mathbb{Q}(\zeta_{2^k}) has a nonempty nullspace. Our techniques also extend to sparse Hamiltonians, and so we can prove the first QMA1(2)\mathsf{QMA}_1(2)-complete (i.e. QMA1\mathsf{QMA}_1 with two unentangled provers) Hamiltonian problem. Finally, we prove that the Gapped Clique Homology problem defined by King and Kohler (FOCS 2024) is QMA1G2\mathsf{QMA}_1^{G_2}-complete, and the Clique Homology problem without promise gap is PSPACE-complete.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2411.02681,
  title  = {Towards a universal gateset for $\mathsf{QMA}_1$},
  author = {Dorian Rudolph},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.02681},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

37 pages, 3 figures; add references, minor fixes, rename LHSV to ELH

R2 v1 2026-06-28T19:48:17.519Z