English

A distribution testing oracle separation between QMA and QCMA

Quantum Physics 2024-06-19 v5

Abstract

It is a long-standing open question in quantum complexity theory whether the definition of non-deterministic\textit{non-deterministic} quantum computation requires quantum witnesses (QMA)(\textsf{QMA}) or if classical witnesses suffice (QCMA)(\textsf{QCMA}). We make progress on this question by constructing a randomized classical oracle separating the respective computational complexity classes. Previous separations [Aaronson-Kuperberg (CCC'07), Fefferman-Kimmel (MFCS'18)] required a quantum unitary oracle. The separating problem is deciding whether a distribution supported on regular un-directed graphs either consists of multiple connected components (yes instances) or consists of one expanding connected component (no instances) where the graph is given in an adjacency-list format by the oracle. Therefore, the oracle is a distribution over nn-bit boolean functions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2210.15380,
  title  = {A distribution testing oracle separation between QMA and QCMA},
  author = {Anand Natarajan and Chinmay Nirkhe},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.15380},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

45 pages; corrected acceptance date

R2 v1 2026-06-28T04:38:20.126Z