Derandomised tensor product gap amplification for quantum Hamiltonians

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bergamaschi, Thiago, Metger, Tony, Vidick, Thomas, Zhang, Tina
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Bergamaschi, Thiago
Metger, Tony
Vidick, Thomas
Zhang, Tina
author_facet Bergamaschi, Thiago
Metger, Tony
Vidick, Thomas
Zhang, Tina
contents The quantum PCP conjecture asks whether it is QMA-hard to distinguish between high- and low-energy Hamiltonians even when the gap between "high" and "low" energy is large (constant). A natural proof strategy is gap amplification: start from the fact that high- and low-energy Hamiltonians are hard to distinguish if the gap is small (inverse polynomial) and amplify the Hamiltonians to increase the energy gap while preserving hardness. Such a gap amplification procedure is at the heart of Dinur's proof of the classical PCP theorem. In this work, following Dinur's model, we introduce a new quantum gap amplification procedure for Hamiltonians which uses random walks on expander graphs to derandomise (subsample the terms of) the tensor product amplification of a Hamiltonian. Curiously, our analysis relies on a new technique inspired by quantum de Finetti theorems, which have previously been used to rule out certain approaches to the quantum PCP conjecture.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_01333
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Derandomised tensor product gap amplification for quantum Hamiltonians
Bergamaschi, Thiago
Metger, Tony
Vidick, Thomas
Zhang, Tina
Quantum Physics
Computational Complexity
The quantum PCP conjecture asks whether it is QMA-hard to distinguish between high- and low-energy Hamiltonians even when the gap between "high" and "low" energy is large (constant). A natural proof strategy is gap amplification: start from the fact that high- and low-energy Hamiltonians are hard to distinguish if the gap is small (inverse polynomial) and amplify the Hamiltonians to increase the energy gap while preserving hardness. Such a gap amplification procedure is at the heart of Dinur's proof of the classical PCP theorem. In this work, following Dinur's model, we introduce a new quantum gap amplification procedure for Hamiltonians which uses random walks on expander graphs to derandomise (subsample the terms of) the tensor product amplification of a Hamiltonian. Curiously, our analysis relies on a new technique inspired by quantum de Finetti theorems, which have previously been used to rule out certain approaches to the quantum PCP conjecture.
title Derandomised tensor product gap amplification for quantum Hamiltonians
topic Quantum Physics
Computational Complexity
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01333