English

Quantum Automating $\mathbf{TC}^0$-Frege Is LWE-Hard

Computational Complexity 2026-03-10 v3 Cryptography and Security Quantum Physics

Abstract

We prove the first hardness results against efficient proof search by quantum algorithms. We show that under Learning with Errors (LWE), the standard lattice-based cryptographic assumption, no quantum algorithm can weakly automate TC0\mathbf{TC}^0-Frege. This extends the line of results of Kraj\'i\v{c}ek and Pudl\'ak (Information and Computation, 1998), Bonet, Pitassi, and Raz (FOCS, 1997), and Bonet, Domingo, Gavald\`a, Maciel, and Pitassi (Computational Complexity, 2004), who showed that Extended Frege, TC0\mathbf{TC}^0-Frege and AC0\mathbf{AC}^0-Frege, respectively, cannot be weakly automated by classical algorithms if either the RSA cryptosystem or the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol are secure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first interaction between quantum computation and propositional proof search.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.10351,
  title  = {Quantum Automating $\mathbf{TC}^0$-Frege Is LWE-Hard},
  author = {Noel Arteche and Gaia Carenini and Matthew Gray},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.10351},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

A preliminary version appeared in the 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

R2 v1 2026-06-28T14:50:13.063Z