arXiv subjects

Andrea Coladangelo

Publications and source records attributed to Andrea Coladangelo.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The $I_{3322}$ Bell inequality requires infinite dimensions

The $I_{3322}$ inequality is one of the simplest bipartite Bell inequalities, with three possible questions and two possible answers per party. Yet, despite its simplicity, it has long been conjectured by P\'al and V\'ertesi (Physical Review A, 2010) to possess the following quirk: no finite-dimensional quantum strategy can attain its maximal violation, but an infinite-dimensional strategy can. A Bell correlation, with five questions and three answers per party, that provably possesses the same property has since been discovered by Coladangelo and Stark (Nature Communications, 2020). However, proving that the same property holds for $I_{3322}$, which lives in the simplest Bell scenario in which such a phenomenon could occur, has remained elusive. Here, we provide a proof of this conjecture. An approximate proof, containing all the main ideas, was produced by GPT 5.5 Pro after various rounds of interaction. The presentation of this proof was revised substantially by the author for completeness, correctness, and clarity.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Unconditional Certified Randomness without Structure

We obtain a certified randomness protocol in the quantum random oracle model. The protocol is non-interactive and publicly verifiable with a classical verifier, and is based on Yamakawa and Zhandry's proof of quantumness [JACM'24]. We prove unconditional security of this protocol against adversaries making subexponentially-many adaptive quantum queries to the random oracle. Prior work on certified randomness relative to a random oracle additionally assumed the Aaronson--Ambainis conjecture or proved security only against low query-depth adversaries.

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arXiv2026

Unclonable encryption from BB84 states: a simultaneous Goldreich-Levin reduction

Goldreich-Levin reductions are ubiquitous in cryptography: they convert an algorithm capable of guessing $\langle r, m \rangle$ (mod $2$) for a hidden string $m$ and a random challenge $r$, to one that is capable of extracting the entirety of $m$. Here, we describe a "simultaneous" Goldreich-Levin reduction for two entangled parties who are capable of guessing $\langle r, m \rangle$ given uniformly random identical challenges $r$. This allows to upgrade any unclonable encryption scheme satisfying "search" security to one satisfying the gold standard of unclonable "indistinguishability". As a corollary, we show that the simplest candidate unclonable encryption scheme from BB84 states satisfies unclonable indistinguishability. This result was discovered by GPT-5.6 Ultra after a few interactions. Our prompts included recent results on unclonable encryption by Ananth and Sahai, and Ragavan.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Robust quantum state certification and uncertainty principles for total influence

We show that nonadaptive single-qubit Pauli measurements suffice to test whether an unknown $n$-qubit state $\rho$ is $\varepsilon$-close to or $O(\varepsilon)$-far from an ideal target state $|\psi\rangle$, for all but a $2^{-\Omega(n)}$ fraction of target states. The test uses $O(\varepsilon^{-2}\log(1/\delta))$ copies of $\rho$ to achieve confidence $1-\delta$, which is information-theoretically optimal even among protocols with arbitrary joint measurements. The main technical innovation is an uncertainty principle for weighted generalizations of the total influence of Boolean functions. As a simple example, the unweighted variant states that $\mathbf{Inf}[f]+\mathbf{Inf}[\widehat{f}] = \Omega(n)$, which is a natural hypercube analogue of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle (here $\widehat{\,\cdot\,}$ denotes the $2^{-n/2}$-normalized Fourier transform). The weighted case generalizes $\mathbf{Inf}[\,\cdot\,]$ and $\mathbf{Inf}[\,\widehat{\,\cdot\,}\,]$ to Dirichlet energies associated with Glauber dynamics for certain dual measures on the cube.

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arXiv2026

On the Limits of Stretching Quantum Pseudorandomness

Pseudorandom states, introduced by Ji, Liu, and Song (CRYPTO '18), are quantum analogues of classical pseudorandom generators. A fundamental property of classical pseudorandom generators is that their output can be stretched to arbitrary polynomial length. Whether an analogous stretching property holds for quantum pseudorandom states remains unclear. In this work, we prove the first black-box separation between single-copy secure pseudorandom states ($\mathsf{1PRS}$) with different output lengths. Specifically, we construct a quantum oracle relative to which $\mathsf{1PRS}$ with output length $m(n)=1.1n$ exist, but $\mathsf{1PRS}$ with output length $m(n)=\Omega(n^{2+\epsilon})$ do not, for any $\epsilon>0$. Our proof leverages the Common Haar Random State (CHRS) model introduced by Chen, Coladangelo, and Sattath (EUROCRYPT '25), and introduces a technique to bound the effective number of resource CHRS states utilized by any $\mathsf{1PRS}$ generator in this model.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

The Power of Two Bases: Robust and copy-optimal certification of nearly all quantum states with few-qubit measurements

A central task in quantum information science is state certification: testing whether an unknown state is $\epsilon_1$-close to a fixed target state, or $\epsilon_2$-far. Recent work has shown that surprisingly simple measurement protocols--comprising only single-qubit measurements--suffice to certify arbitrary $n$-qubit states [Huang, Preskill, Soleimanifar '25; Gupta, He, O'Donnell '25]. However, these certification protocols are not robust: rather than allowing constant $\epsilon_1$, they can only positively certify states within $\epsilon_1=O(1/n)$ trace distance of the target. In many experimental settings, the appropriate error tolerance is constant as the system size grows, so this lack of robustness renders existing tests inapplicable at scale, no matter how many times the test is repeated. Here we present robust certification protocols based on few-qubit measurements that apply to all but a $O(2^{-n})$-fraction of pure target states. Our first protocol achieves constant robustness, i.e. $\epsilon_1=\Theta(1)$, using a single $O(\log n)$-qubit measurement along with single-qubit measurements in the $Z$ or $X$ basis on the other qubits. As a corollary of its robustness, this protocol also achieves constant (in $n$) copy complexity, which is optimal. Our second protocol uses exclusively single-qubit measurements and is nearly robust: $\epsilon_1=\Omega(1/\log n)$. Our tests are based on a new uncertainty principle for conditional fidelities, which may be of independent interest.

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arXiv2025

A Meta-Complexity Characterization of Minimal Quantum Cryptography

We give a meta-complexity characterization of EFI pairs, which are considered the "minimal" primitive in quantum cryptography (and are equivalent to quantum commitments). More precisely, we show that the existence of EFI pairs is equivalent to the following: there exists a non-uniformly samplable distribution over pure states such that the problem of estimating a certain Kolmogorov-like complexity measure is hard given a single copy. A key technical step in our proof, which may be of independent interest, is to show that the existence of EFI pairs is equivalent to the existence of non-uniform single-copy secure pseudorandom state generators (nu 1-PRS). As a corollary, we get an alternative, arguably simpler, construction of a universal EFI pair.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

The curious case of "XOR repetition" of monogamy-of-entanglement games

In this work, we consider "decision" variants of a monogamy-of-entanglement game by Tomamichel, Fehr, Kaniewski, and Wehner [New Journal of Physics '13]. In its original "search" variant, Alice prepares a (possibly entangled) state on registers $\mathsf{ABC}$; register $\mathsf{A}$, consisting of $n$ qubits, is sent to a Referee, while $\mathsf{B}$ and $\mathsf{C}$ are sent to Bob and Charlie; the Referee then measures each qubit in the standard or Hadamard basis (chosen uniformly at random). The basis choices are sent to Bob and Charlie, whose goal is to simultaneously guess the Referee's $n$-bit outcome string $x$. Tomamichel et al. show that the optimal winning probability is $\cos^{2n} {(\frac{\pi}{8})}$, following a perfect parallel repetition theorem. We consider the following "decision" variants of this game: - Variant 1, "XOR repetition": Bob and Charlie's goal is to guess the XOR of all the bits of $x$. Ananth et al. [Asiacrypt '24] conjectured that the optimal advantage over random guessing decays exponentially in $n$. Surprisingly, we show that this conjecture is false, and, in fact, there is no decay at all: there exists a strategy that wins with probability $\cos^2{(\frac{\pi}{8})} \approx 0.85$ for any $n$. - Variant 2, "Goldreich-Levin": The Referee additionally samples a uniformly random $n$-bit string $r$ that is sent to Bob and Charlie along with the basis choices. Their goal is to guess the parity of $r\cdot x$. We show that the optimal advantage over random guessing decays exponentially in $n$ for the restricted class of adversaries that do not share entanglement. A similar result was already shown by Champion et al. and \c{C}akan et al.; we give a more direct proof. Additionally, we put forward a reasonably concrete conjecture that is equivalent to exponential decay for general adversaries.

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arXiv2025

MPC in the Quantum Head (or: Superposition-Secure (Quantum) Zero-Knowledge)

The MPC-in-the-head technique (Ishai et al., STOC 2007) is a celebrated method to build zero-knowledge protocols with desirable theoretical properties and high practical efficiency. This technique has generated a large body of research and has influenced the design of real-world post-quantum cryptographic signatures. In this work, we present a generalization of the MPC-in-the-head paradigm to the quantum setting, where the MPC is running a quantum computation. As an application of our framework, we propose a new approach to build zero-knowledge protocols where security holds even against a verifier that can obtain a superposition of transcripts. This notion was pioneered by Damgard et al., who built a zero-knowledge protocol for NP (in the common reference string model) secure against superposition attacks, by relying on perfectly hiding and unconditionally binding dual-mode commitments. Unfortunately, no such commitments are known from standard cryptographic assumptions. In this work we revisit this problem, and present two new three-round protocols in the common reference string model: (i) A zero-knowledge argument for NP, whose security reduces to the standard learning with errors (LWE) problem. (ii) A zero-knowledge argument for QMA from the same assumption.

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arXiv2024

All pure multipartite entangled states of qubits can be self-tested up to complex conjugation

Self-testing refers to the certification of quantum states and measurements based entirely on the correlations exhibited by measurements on separate subsystems. In the bipartite case, self-testing of states has been completely characterized, up to local isometries, as there exist protocols that self-test arbitrary pure states of any local dimension. Much less is known in the multipartite case, where an important difference with respect to the bipartite case appears: there exist multipartite states that are not equivalent, up to local isometries, to their complex conjugate. Thus, any self-testing characterization must in general be complete up to not only local unitaries, but also complex conjugation. Under these premises, in this work, we give a complete characterization of self-testing in the multipartite qubit case.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

A computational test of quantum contextuality, and even simpler proofs of quantumness

Bell non-locality is a fundamental feature of quantum mechanics whereby measurements performed on "spatially separated" quantum systems can exhibit correlations that cannot be understood as revealing predetermined values. This is a special case of the more general phenomenon of "quantum contextuality", which says that such correlations can occur even when the measurements are not necessarily on separate quantum systems, but are merely "compatible" (i.e. commuting). Crucially, while any non-local game yields an experiment that demonstrates quantum advantage by leveraging the "spatial separation" of two or more devices (and in fact several such demonstrations have been conducted successfully in recent years), the same is not true for quantum contextuality: finding the contextuality analogue of such an experiment is arguably one of the central open questions in the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this work, we show that an arbitrary contextuality game can be compiled into an operational "test of contextuality" involving a single quantum device, by only making the assumption that the device is computationally bounded. Our work is inspired by the recent work of Kalai et al. (STOC '23) that converts any non-local game into a classical test of quantum advantage with a single device. The central idea in their work is to use cryptography to enforce spatial separation within subsystems of a single quantum device. Our work can be seen as using cryptography to enforce "temporal separation", i.e. to restrict communication between sequential measurements. Beyond contextuality, we employ our ideas to design a "proof of quantumness" that, to the best of our knowledge, is arguably even simpler than the ones proposed in the literature so far.

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arXiv2024

The power of a single Haar random state: constructing and separating quantum pseudorandomness

In this work, we focus on the following question: what are the cryptographic implications of having access to an oracle that provides a single Haar random quantum state? We find that the study of such a model sheds light on several aspects of the notion of quantum pseudorandomness. Pseudorandom states (PRS) are a family of states for which it is hard to distinguish between polynomially many copies of either a state sampled uniformly from the family or a Haar random state. A weaker notion, called single-copy pseudorandom states (1PRS), satisfies this property with respect to a single copy. We obtain the following results: 1. First, we show, perhaps surprisingly, that 1PRS (as well as bit-commitments) exist relative to an oracle that provides a single Haar random state. 2. Second, we build on this result to show the existence of an isometry oracle relative to which 1PRS exist, but PRS do not. Taken together, our contributions yield one of the first black-box separations between central notions of quantum pseudorandomness, and introduce a new framework to study black-box separations between various inherently quantum primitives.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

On black-box separations of quantum digital signatures from pseudorandom states

It is well-known that digital signatures can be constructed from one-way functions in a black-box way. While one-way functions are essentially the minimal assumption in classical cryptography, this is not the case in the quantum setting. A variety of qualitatively weaker and inherently quantum assumptions (e.g. EFI pairs, one-way state generators, and pseudorandom states) are known to be sufficient for non-trivial quantum cryptography. While it is known that commitments, zero-knowledge proofs, and even multiparty computation can be constructed from these assumptions, it has remained an open question whether the same is true for quantum digital signatures schemes (QDS). In this work, we show that there $\textit{does not}$ exist a black-box construction of a QDS scheme with classical signatures from pseudorandom states with linear, or greater, output length. Our result complements that of Morimae and Yamakawa (2022), who described a $\textit{one-time}$ secure QDS scheme with classical signatures, but left open the question of constructing a standard $\textit{multi-time}$ secure one.

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arXiv2023

How to Use Quantum Indistinguishability Obfuscation

Quantum copy protection, introduced by Aaronson, enables giving out a quantum program-description that cannot be meaningfully duplicated. Despite over a decade of study, copy protection is only known to be possible for a very limited class of programs. As our first contribution, we show how to achieve "best-possible" copy protection for all programs. We do this by introducing quantum state indistinguishability obfuscation (qsiO), a notion of obfuscation for quantum descriptions of classical programs. We show that applying qsiO to a program immediately achieves best-possible copy protection. Our second contribution is to show that, assuming injective one-way functions exist, qsiO is concrete copy protection for a large family of puncturable programs -- significantly expanding the class of copy-protectable programs. A key tool in our proof is a new variant of unclonable encryption (UE) that we call coupled unclonable encryption (cUE). While constructing UE in the standard model remains an important open problem, we are able to build cUE from one-way functions. If we additionally assume the existence of UE, then we can further expand the class of puncturable programs for which qsiO is copy protection. Finally, we construct qsiO relative to an efficient quantum oracle.

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arXiv2023

Quantum trapdoor functions from classical one-way functions

We formalize and study the notion of a quantum trapdoor function. This is an efficiently computable unitary that takes as input a "public" quantum state and a classical string $x$, and outputs a quantum state. This map is such that (i) it is hard to invert, in the sense that it is hard to recover $x$ given the output state (and many copies of the public state), and (ii) there is a classical trapdoor that allows efficient inversion. We show that a quantum trapdoor function can be constructed from any quantum-secure one-way function. A direct consequence of this result is that, assuming just the existence of quantum-secure one-way functions, there exists a public-key encryption scheme with a (pure) quantum public key.

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arXiv2022

Quantum Depth in the Random Oracle Model

We give a comprehensive characterization of the computational power of shallow quantum circuits combined with classical computation. Specifically, for classes of search problems, we show that the following statements hold, relative to a random oracle: (a) $\mathsf{BPP}^{\mathsf{QNC}^{\mathsf{BPP}}} \neq \mathsf{BQP}$. This refutes Jozsa's conjecture [QIP 05] in the random oracle model. As a result, this gives the first instantiatable separation between the classes by replacing the oracle with a cryptographic hash function, yielding a resolution to one of Aaronson's ten semi-grand challenges in quantum computing. (b) $\mathsf{BPP}^{\mathsf{QNC}} \nsubseteq \mathsf{QNC}^{\mathsf{BPP}}$ and $\mathsf{QNC}^{\mathsf{BPP}} \nsubseteq \mathsf{BPP}^{\mathsf{QNC}}$. This shows that there is a subtle interplay between classical computation and shallow quantum computation. In fact, for the second separation, we establish that, for some problems, the ability to perform adaptive measurements in a single shallow quantum circuit, is more useful than the ability to perform polynomially many shallow quantum circuits without adaptive measurements. (c) There exists a 2-message proof of quantum depth protocol. Such a protocol allows a classical verifier to efficiently certify that a prover must be performing a computation of some minimum quantum depth. Our proof of quantum depth can be instantiated using the recent proof of quantumness construction by Yamakawa and Zhandry [STOC 22].

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arXiv2022

Device-independent quantum key distribution from computational assumptions

In device-independent quantum key distribution (DIQKD), an adversary prepares a device consisting of two components, distributed to Alice and Bob, who use the device to generate a secure key. The security of existing DIQKD schemes holds under the assumption that the two components of the device cannot communicate with one another during the protocol execution. This is called the no-communication assumption in DIQKD. Here, we show how to replace this assumption, which can be hard to enforce in practice, by a standard computational assumption from post-quantum cryptography: we give a protocol that produces secure keys even when the components of an adversarial device can exchange arbitrary quantum communication, assuming the device is computationally bounded. Importantly, the computational assumption only needs to hold during the protocol execution -- the keys generated at the end of the protocol are information-theoretically secure as in standard DIQKD protocols.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Hidden Cosets and Applications to Unclonable Cryptography

In this work, we study a generalization of hidden subspace states to hidden coset states (first introduced by Aaronson and Christiano [STOC '12]). This notion was considered independently by Vidick and Zhang [Eurocrypt '21], in the context of proofs of quantum knowledge from quantum money schemes. We explore unclonable properties of coset states and several applications: - We show that assuming indistinguishability obfuscation (iO), hidden coset states possess a certain direct product hardness property, which immediately implies a tokenized signature scheme in the plain model. Previously, it was known only relative to an oracle, from a work of Ben-David and Sattath [QCrypt '17]. - Combining a tokenized signature scheme with extractable witness encryption, we give a construction of an unclonable decryption scheme in the plain model. The latter primitive was recently proposed by Georgiou and Zhandry [ePrint '20], who gave a construction relative to a classical oracle. - We conjecture that coset states satisfy a certain natural (information-theoretic) monogamy-of-entanglement property. Assuming this conjecture is true, we remove the requirement for extractable witness encryption in our unclonable decryption construction, by relying instead on compute-and-compare obfuscation for the class of unpredictable distributions. This conjecture was later proved by Culf and Vidick in a follow-up work. - Finally, we give a construction of a copy-protection scheme for pseudorandom functions (PRFs) in the plain model. Our scheme is secure either assuming iO, OWF, and extractable witness encryption, or assuming iO, OWF, compute-and-compare obfuscation for the class of unpredictable distributions, and the conjectured monogamy property mentioned above. This is the first example of a copy-protection scheme with provable security in the plain model for a class of functions that is not evasive.

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