From Simple Sources to Quantum Advantage: Homomorphic Polynomial Transduction via Relative Decoding

Abstract

Decoded quantum interferometry (DQI) and its Hamiltonian extension (HDQI) prepare states whose amplitudes are low-degree polynomials of an objective, using Fourier transforms and coherent decoding. We recast this approach as quantum state transduction through algebra homomorphisms. We transfer an efficiently preparable operator state of a degree-$D$ polynomial in a source Hamiltonian $H_A$ to the corresponding polynomial state of a target Hamiltonian $H_B=π(H_A)$, where $π$ is a unital $*$-homomorphism between the finite-dimensional source and target $C^*$-algebras. The transduction uses operator Fourier transforms and relative decoding to recover source operators rather than individual term-selection labels. The relative distance $d_{\mathrm{rel}}$ is the first degree at which source and target traces disagree. We prove that $2D<d_{\mathrm{rel}}$ is equivalent to preserving all inner products between degree-$D$ polynomials. Moreover, $d_{\mathrm{rel}}\ge d_{\mathrm{ord}}$, where $d_{\mathrm{ord}}$ is the ordinary distance used in (H)DQI, and we give families with $d_{\mathrm{ord}}=O(1)$ but $d_{\mathrm{rel}}=Θ(n)$ and efficient decoders. Our framework replaces the complicated pilot state preparation by the more modular task of preparing a source polynomial state. DQI and HDQI arise as relation-free special cases. The framework accommodates nonuniform coefficients and noncommuting interactions and extends to fermionic, qudit, and bosonic systems, with applications to approximate optimization and Gibbs sampling. As evidence of advantages, for a nonlinear pairwise variant of optimal polynomial intersection where constant $d_{\mathrm{ord}}$ limits DQI-style preparations, relative decoding yields an ideal quantum score of 0.643 versus 0.606 for the best tested classical heuristic, a gap exceeding 3 percentage points.