arXiv subjects

Yaoyun Shi

Publications and source records attributed to Yaoyun Shi.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Limitations on Transversal Computation through Quantum Homomorphic Encryption

Transversality is a simple and effective method for implementing quantum computation fault-tolerantly. However, no quantum error-correcting code (QECC) can transversally implement a quantum universal gate set (Eastin and Knill, Phys. Rev. Lett., 102, 110502). Since reversible classical computation is often a dominating part of useful quantum computation, whether or not it can be implemented transversally is an important open problem. We show that, other than a small set of non-additive codes that we cannot rule out, no binary QECC can transversally implement a classical reversible universal gate set. In particular, no such QECC can implement the Toffoli gate transversally. We prove our result by constructing an information theoretically secure (but inefficient) quantum homomorphic encryption (ITS-QHE) scheme inspired by Ouyang et al. (arXiv:1508.00938). Homomorphic encryption allows the implementation of certain functions directly on encrypted data, i.e. homomorphically. Our scheme builds on almost any QECC, and implements that code's transversal gate set homomorphically. We observe a restriction imposed by Nayak's bound (FOCS 1999) on ITS-QHE, implying that any ITS quantum fully homomorphic scheme (ITS-QFHE) implementing the full set of classical reversible functions must be highly inefficient. While our scheme incurs exponential overhead, any such QECC implementing Toffoli transversally would still violate this lower bound through our scheme.

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arXiv2017

Randomness in nonlocal games between mistrustful players

If two quantum players at a nonlocal game G achieve a superclassical score, then their measurement outcomes must be at least partially random from the perspective of any third player. This is the basis for device-independent quantum cryptography. In this paper we address a related question: does a superclassical score at G guarantee that one player has created randomness from the perspective of the other player? We show that for complete-support games, the answer is yes: even if the second player is given the first player's input at the conclusion of the game, he cannot perfectly recover her output. Thus some amount of local randomness (i.e., randomness possessed by only one player) is always obtained when randomness is certified from nonlocal games with quantum strategies. This is in contrast to non-signaling game strategies, which may produce global randomness without any local randomness. We discuss potential implications for cryptographic protocols between mistrustful parties.

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arXiv2017

Quantum hashing is maximally secure against classical leakage

Cryptographic hash functions are fundamental primitives widely used in practice. For such a function $f:\{0, 1\}^n\to\{0, 1\}^m$, it is nearly impossible for an adversary to produce the hash $f(x)$ without knowing the secret message $x\in\{0, 1\}^n$. Unfortunately, all hash functions are vulnerable under the side-channel attack, which is a grave concern for information security in practice. This is because typically $m\ll n$ and an adversary needs only $m$ bits of information to pass the verification test. In sharp contrast, we show that when quantum states are used, the leakage allowed can be almost the entire secret. More precisely, we call a function that maps $n$ bits to $m$ qubits a quantum cryptographic function if the maximum fidelity between two distinct hashes is negligible in $n$. We show that for any $k=n-ω(\log n)$, all quantum cryptographic hash functions remain cryptographically secure when leaking $k$ bits of information. By the quantum fingerprinting constructions of Buhrman et al.~({\em Phys. Rev. Lett.} 87, 167902), for all $m=ω(\log n)$, there exist such quantum cryptographic hash functions. We also show that one only needs $ω(\log^2 n)$ qubits to verify a quantum cryptographic hash, rather than the whole classical information needed to generate one. Our result also shows that to approximately produce a small amount of quantum side information on a classical secret, it may require almost the full information of the secret. This large gap represents a significant barrier for proving quantum security of classical-proof extractors.

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arXiv2016

Certified randomness between mistrustful players

It is known that if two players achieve a superclassical score at a nonlocal game $G$, then their outputs are certifiably random - that is, regardless of the strategy used by the players, a third party will not be able to perfectly predict their outputs (even if he were given their inputs). We prove that for any complete-support game $G$, there is an explicit nonzero function $F_G$ such that if Alice and Bob achieve a superclassical score of $s$ at $G$, then Bob has a probability of at most $1 - F_G ( s )$ of correctly guessing Alice's output after the game is played. Our result implies that certifying global randomness through such games must necessarily introduce local randomness.

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arXiv2016

Certifying the absence of quantum nonlocality

Quantum nonlocality is an inherently non-classical feature of quantum mechanics and manifests itself through violation of Bell inequalities for nonlocal games. We show that in a fairly general setting, a simple extension of a nonlocal game can certify instead the absence of quantum nonlocality. Through contraposition, our result implies that a super-classical performance for such a game ensures that a player's output is unpredictable to the other player. Previously such output unpredictability was known with respect to a third party.

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arXiv2016

Robust protocols for securely expanding randomness and distributing keys using untrusted quantum devices

Randomness is a vital resource for modern day information processing, especially for cryptography. A wide range of applications critically rely on abundant, high quality random numbers generated securely. Here we show how to expand a random seed at an exponential rate without trusting the underlying quantum devices. Our approach is secure against the most general adversaries, and has the following new features: cryptographic level of security, tolerating a constant level of imprecision in the devices, requiring only a unit size quantum memory per device component for the honest implementation, and allowing a large natural class of constructions for the protocol. In conjunct with a recent work by Chung, Shi and Wu, it also leads to robust unbounded expansion using just 2 multi-part devices. When adapted for distributing cryptographic keys, our method achieves, for the first time, exponential expansion combined with cryptographic security and noise tolerance. The proof proceeds by showing that the Renyi divergence of the outputs of the protocol (for a specific bounding operator) decreases linearly as the protocol iterates. At the heart of the proof are a new uncertainty principle on quantum measurements, and a method for simulating trusted measurements with untrusted devices.

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arXiv2015

Universal security for randomness expansion from the spot-checking protocol

Colbeck (Thesis, 2006) proposed using Bell inequality violations to generate certified random numbers. While full quantum-security proofs have been given, it remains a major open problem to identify the broadest class of Bell inequalities and lowest performance requirements to achieve such security. In this paper, working within the broad class of spot-checking protocols, we prove exactly which Bell inequality violations can be used to achieve full security. Our result greatly improves the known noise tolerance for secure randomness expansion: for the commonly used CHSH game, full security was only known with a noise tolerance of 1.5%, and we improve this to 10.3%. We also generalize our results beyond Bell inequalities and give the first security proof for randomness expansion based on Kochen-Specker inequalities. The central technical contribution of the paper is a new uncertainty principle for the Schatten norm, which is based on the uniform convexity inequality of Ball, Carlen, and Lieb (Inventiones mathematicae, 115:463-482, 1994).

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arXiv2015

Physical Randomness Extractors: Generating Random Numbers with Minimal Assumptions

How to generate provably true randomness with minimal assumptions? This question is important not only for the efficiency and the security of information processing, but also for understanding how extremely unpredictable events are possible in Nature. All current solutions require special structures in the initial source of randomness, or a certain independence relation among two or more sources. Both types of assumptions are impossible to test and difficult to guarantee in practice. Here we show how this fundamental limit can be circumvented by extractors that base security on the validity of physical laws and extract randomness from untrusted quantum devices. In conjunction with the recent work of Miller and Shi (arXiv:1402:0489), our physical randomness extractor uses just a single and general weak source, produces an arbitrarily long and near-uniform output, with a close-to-optimal error, secure against all-powerful quantum adversaries, and tolerating a constant level of implementation imprecision. The source necessarily needs to be unpredictable to the devices, but otherwise can even be known to the adversary. Our central technical contribution, the Equivalence Lemma, provides a general principle for proving composition security of untrusted-device protocols. It implies that unbounded randomness expansion can be achieved simply by cross-feeding any two expansion protocols. In particular, such an unbounded expansion can be made robust, which is known for the first time. Another significant implication is, it enables the secure randomness generation and key distribution using public randomness, such as that broadcast by NIST's Randomness Beacon. Our protocol also provides a method for refuting local hidden variable theories under a weak assumption on the available randomness for choosing the measurement settings.

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arXiv2013

Optimal robust quantum self-testing by binary nonlocal XOR games

Self-testing a quantum device means verifying the existence of a certain quantum state as well as the effect of the associated measurements based only on the statistics of the measurement outcomes. Robust, i.e., error-tolerant, self-testing quantum devices are critical building blocks for quantum cryptographic protocols that rely on imperfect or untrusted quantum devices. We give a criterion which determines whether a given binary XOR game is robust self-testing with the asymptotically optimal error parameter. As an application, we prove that the celebrated CHSH game is an optimally robust self-test. We also prove the same for a family of tests recently proposed by Acin et al. (PRL 108:100402, 2012) for random number generation, thus extending the benefit of the latter tests to allow imperfect or untrusted quantum devices.

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arXiv2012

On optimal entanglement assisted one-shot classical communication

The one-shot success probability of a noisy classical channel for transmitting one classical bit is the optimal probability with which the bit can be sent via a single use of the channel. Prevedel et al. (PRL 106, 110505 (2011)) recently showed that for a specific channel, this quantity can be increased if the parties using the channel share an entangled quantum state. We completely characterize the optimal entanglement-assisted protocols in terms of the radius of a set of operators associated with the channel. This characterization can be used to construct optimal entanglement-assisted protocols from the given classical channel and to prove the limit of such protocols. As an example, we show that the Prevedel et al. protocol is optimal for two-qubit entanglement. We also prove some simple upper bounds on the improvement that can be obtained from quantum and no-signaling correlations.

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arXiv2012

Quantum Simpsons Paradox and High Order Bell-Tsirelson Inequalities

The well-known Simpson's Paradox, or Yule-Simpson Effect, in statistics is often illustrated by the following thought experiment: A drug may be found in a trial to increase the survival rate for both men and women, but decrease the rate for all the subjects as a whole. This paradoxical reversal effect has been found in numerous datasets across many disciplines, and is now included in most introductory statistics textbooks. In the language of the drug trial, the effect is impossible, however, if both treatment groups' survival rates are higher than both control groups'. Here we show that for quantum probabilities, such a reversal remains possible. In particular, a "quantum drug", so to speak, could be life-saving for both men and women yet deadly for the whole population. We further identify a simple inequality on conditional probabilities that must hold classically but is violated by our quantum scenarios, and completely characterize the maximum quantum violation. As polynomial inequalities on entries of the density operator, our inequalities are of degree 6.

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arXiv2012

Correlation/Communication complexity of generating bipartite states

We study the correlation complexity (or equivalently, the communication complexity) of generating a bipartite quantum state $ρ$. When $ρ$ is a pure state, we completely characterize the complexity for approximately generating $ρ$ by a corresponding approximate rank, closing a gap left in Ambainis, Schulman, Ta-Shma, Vazirani and Wigderson (SIAM Journal on Computing, 32(6):1570-1585, 2003). When $ρ$ is a classical distribution $P(x,y)$, we tightly characterize the complexity of generating $P$ by the psd-rank, a measure recently proposed by Fiorini, Massar, Pokutta, Tiwary and de Wolf (STOC 2012). We also present a characterization of the complexity of generating a general quantum state $ρ$.

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arXiv2011

Epsilon-net method for optimizations over separable states

We give algorithms for the optimization problem: $\max_ρ\ip{Q}ρ$, where $Q$ is a Hermitian matrix, and the variable $ρ$ is a bipartite {\em separable} quantum state. This problem lies at the heart of several problems in quantum computation and information, such as the complexity of QMA(2). While the problem is NP-hard, our algorithms are better than brute force for several instances of interest. In particular, they give PSPACE upper bounds on promise problems admitting a QMA(2) protocol in which the verifier performs only logarithmic number of elementary gate on both proofs, as well as the promise problem of deciding if a bipartite local Hamiltonian has large or small ground energy. For $Q\ge0$, our algorithm runs in time exponential in $\|Q\|_F$. While the existence of such an algorithm was first proved recently by Brand{ã}o, Christandl and Yard [{\em Proceedings of the 43rd annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computation}, 343--352, 2011], our algorithm is conceptually simpler.

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arXiv2010

Deciding Unitary Equivalence Between Matrix Polynomials and Sets of Bipartite Quantum States

In this brief report, we consider the equivalence between two sets of $m+1$ bipartite quantum states under local unitary transformations. For pure states, this problem corresponds to the matrix algebra question of whether two degree $m$ matrix polynomials are unitarily equivalent; i.e. $UA_iV^\dagger=B_i$ for $0\leq i\leq m$ where $U$ and $V$ are unitary and $(A_i, B_i)$ are arbitrary pairs of rectangular matrices. We present a randomized polynomial-time algorithm that solves this problem with an arbitrarily high success probability and outputs transforming matrices $U$ and $V$.

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arXiv2010

On the parity complexity measures of Boolean functions

The parity decision tree model extends the decision tree model by allowing the computation of a parity function in one step. We prove that the deterministic parity decision tree complexity of any Boolean function is polynomially related to the non-deterministic complexity of the function or its complement. We also show that they are polynomially related to an analogue of the block sensitivity. We further study parity decision trees in their relations with an intermediate variant of the decision trees, as well as with communication complexity.

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arXiv2009

Comment on "Matrix Pencils and Entanglement Classification"

In our earlier posting "Matrix Pencils and Entanglement Classification", arXiv:0911.1803, we gave a polynomial-time algorithm for deciding if two states in a space of dimension $2\otimes m\otimes n$ are SLOCC equivalent. In this note, we point out that a straightforward modification of the algorithm gives a simple enumeration of all SLOCC equivalence classes in the same space, with the class representatives expressed in the Kronecker canonical normal form of matrix pencils. Thus, two states are equivalent if and only if they have the same canonical form. As an example, we present representatives in canonical form for each of the 26 equivalence classes in $2\otimes 3\otimes n$ systems.

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arXiv2009

Matrix Pencils and Entanglement Classification

In this paper, we study pure state entanglement in systems of dimension $2\otimes m\otimes n$. Two states are considered equivalent if they can be reversibly converted from one to the other with a nonzero probability using only local quantum resources and classical communication (SLOCC). We introduce a connection between entanglement manipulations in these systems and the well-studied theory of matrix pencils. All previous attempts to study general SLOCC equivalence in such systems have relied on somewhat contrived techniques which fail to reveal the elegant structure of the problem that can be seen from the matrix pencil approach. Based on this method, we report the first polynomial-time algorithm for deciding when two $2\otimes m\otimes n$ states are SLOCC equivalent. Besides recovering the previously known 26 distinct SLOCC equivalence classes in $2\otimes 3\otimes n$ systems, we also determine the hierarchy between these classes.

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arXiv2009

When is there a multipartite maximum entangled state?

For a multipartite quantum system of the dimension $d_1\otimes d_2\otimes... d_n$, $d_1\ge d_2\ge...\ge d_n$, is there an entangled state {\em maximum} in the sense that all other states in the system can be obtained from the state through local quantum operations and classical communications (LOCC)? When $d_1\geΠ_{i=2}^n d_i$, such state exists. We show that this condition is also necessary. Our proof, somewhat surprisingly, uses results from algebraic complexity theory.

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