arXiv subjects

Barak Nehoran

Publications and source records attributed to Barak Nehoran.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Quantum Lazy Sampling and Path Recording for Any Group

A central challenge in quantum algorithms and cryptography is reasoning about algorithms with oracle access to a random group element (e.g. a random function, permutation, or unitary). Can we efficiently simulate such algorithms? Can we determine what they know after t queries? A classical tool for this is lazy sampling: the oracle does not commit to the full group element upfront, but rather samples partial information about it on the fly. We study a quantum analog of lazy sampling: compressed oracles (or recording oracles). These are quantum data structures that allow on-the-fly simulation for quantum queries, originally introduced by Zhandry (CRYPTO '19) for random functions, and generalized to unitaries by Ma-Huang (STOC '25) and permutations by Carolan (STOC '26), and used to great effect in security proofs and lower bounds due to their interpretability. We define and analyze a general-purpose and interpretable path-recording oracle, derived from first principles, that perfectly simulates random elements of any closed subgroup of $U(N)$. Our oracle stores, in superposition, t input-output pairs, with updates described in terms of the commutant of the group's tensor power representation. This transparently records the information the algorithm has learned. Our oracle builds on recent work of Grinko-Yoshida (QIP '26), who gave a different general-purpose compressed oracle without clear interpretability. One interesting application of our path-recording is allowing direct comparisons between compressed oracles of different groups, giving a new technique for proving pseudorandomness results. For example, comparing $S_N$ and $U(N)$ yields what is arguably the simplest construction to date of pseudorandom unitaries: the product PC of a pseudorandom permutation and a random Clifford, improving on the prior PFC construction (Metger-Poremba-Sinha-Yuen, FOCS '24; Ma-Huang, STOC '25).

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arXiv2026

Efficient Quantum Fourier Transforms For Semisimple Algebras

The quantum Fourier transform (QFT) is a fundamental primitive in quantum computation and quantum information. In this work, we generalize the QFT for finite groups to a QFT for finite-dimensional semisimple algebras, and give efficient quantum Fourier transforms for the partition algebra $P_n(d)$, Brauer algebra $B_n(d)$, and walled Brauer algebra $B_{r,s}(d)$. These algebras play important roles in generalized Schur-Weyl duality, statistical physics and many-body systems, and have recently found several applications in quantum algorithms. Unlike the group case, the Fourier transform over a semisimple algebra can be non-unitary. Nevertheless, we show that when the parameter $d$ is sufficiently large, the Fourier transform is well approximated by a unitary operator. Furthermore, we show that for each of the algebras $A$ from above, such an approximate Fourier transform can be implemented efficiently: we give a quantum algorithm with gate complexity $\mathrm{poly}(n,\log d,\log(1/\varepsilon))$ for approximating the Fourier transform to error $(d^{-1/2} + \varepsilon) \cdot \mathrm{poly}(|A|)$. Along the way, we establish several properties of the Fourier basis of semisimple algebras that may be of independent interest.

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arXiv2024

A General Quantum Duality for Representations of Groups with Applications to Quantum Money, Lightning, and Fire

Aaronson, Atia, and Susskind (2020) established that efficiently mapping between quantum states $|\psi\rangle$ and $|\phi\rangle$ is computationally equivalent to distinguishing their superpositions $|\psi\rangle \pm |\phi\rangle$. We generalize this insight into a broader duality principle, wherein manipulating quantum states in one basis is equivalent to extracting their value in a complementary basis. This general duality principle states that the ability to implement a unitary representation of a group is computationally equivalent to the ability to perform a Fourier subspace extraction from its irreducible representations. Building on our duality principle, we present the following applications: * We extend the construction of publicly-key quantum money of Zhandry (2024) from Abelian group actions to a construction of quantum lightning from non-Abelian group actions, and eliminate Zhandry's reliance on a black-box model for justifying security. Instead, we prove a direct reduction to a computational assumption -- the pre-action security of cryptographic group actions. Our construction is realizable with symmetric group actions, including those implicit in the McEliece cryptosystem. * We provide an alternative quantum lightning construction from one-way homomorphisms, with security holding under certain conditions. This scheme shows equivalence among four security notions: quantum lightning security, worst-case and average-case cloning security, and security against preparing a canonical state. * We formalize the notion of quantum fire, states that are efficiently clonable, but not efficiently telegraphable. These states can be spread like fire, provided they are kept alive quantumly and do not decohere. The only previously known construction relied on a unitary quantum oracle, whereas we present the first candidate construction of quantum fire using a classical oracle.

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arXiv2024

Oracle Separation Between Quantum Commitments and Quantum One-wayness

We show that there exists an oracle relative to which quantum commitments exist but no (efficiently verifiable) one-way state generators exist. Both have been widely considered candidates for replacing one-way functions as the minimal assumption for cryptography: the weakest cryptographic assumption implied by all of computational cryptography. Recent work has shown that commitments can be constructed from one-way state generators, but the other direction has remained open. Our results rule out any black-box construction, and thus settles this crucial open problem, suggesting that quantum commitments (as well as its equivalency class of EFI pairs, quantum oblivious transfer, and secure quantum multiparty computation) appear to be strictly weakest among all known cryptographic primitives.

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arXiv2024

Unconditionally Secure Commitments with Quantum Auxiliary Inputs

We show the following unconditional results on quantum commitments in two related yet different models: 1. We revisit the notion of quantum auxiliary-input commitments introduced by Chailloux, Kerenidis, and Rosgen (Comput. Complex. 2016) where both the committer and receiver take the same quantum state, which is determined by the security parameter, as quantum auxiliary inputs. We show that computationally-hiding and statistically-binding quantum auxiliary-input commitments exist unconditionally, i.e., without relying on any unproven assumption, while Chailloux et al. assumed a complexity-theoretic assumption, ${\bf QIP}\not\subseteq{\bf QMA}$. On the other hand, we observe that achieving both statistical hiding and statistical binding at the same time is impossible even in the quantum auxiliary-input setting. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of unconditionally proving computational security of any form of (classical or quantum) commitments for which statistical security is impossible. As intermediate steps toward our construction, we introduce and unconditionally construct post-quantum sparse pseudorandom distributions and quantum auxiliary-input EFI pairs which may be of independent interest. 2. We introduce a new model which we call the common reference quantum state (CRQS) model where both the committer and receiver take the same quantum state that is randomly sampled by an efficient setup algorithm. We unconditionally prove that there exist statistically hiding and statistically binding commitments in the CRQS model, circumventing the impossibility in the plain model. We also discuss their applications to zero-knowledge proofs, oblivious transfers, and multi-party computations.

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arXiv2023

A Computational Separation Between Quantum No-cloning and No-telegraphing

Two of the fundamental no-go theorems of quantum information are the no-cloning theorem (that it is impossible to make copies of general quantum states) and the no-teleportation theorem (the prohibition on telegraphing, or sending quantum states over classical channels without pre-shared entanglement). They are known to be equivalent, in the sense that a collection of quantum states is telegraphable if and only if it is clonable. Our main result suggests that this is not the case when computational efficiency is considered. We give a collection of quantum states and quantum oracles relative to which these states are efficiently clonable but not efficiently telegraphable. Given that the opposite scenario is impossible (states that can be telegraphed can always trivially be cloned), this gives the most complete quantum oracle separation possible between these two important no-go properties. We additionally study the complexity class clonableQMA, a subset of QMA whose witnesses are efficiently clonable. As a consequence of our main result, we give a quantum oracle separation between clonableQMA and the class QCMA, whose witnesses are restricted to classical strings. We also propose a candidate oracle-free promise problem separating these classes. We finally demonstrate an application of clonable-but-not-telegraphable states to cryptography, by showing how such states can be used to protect against key exfiltration.

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