Exponential quantum advantage in processing massive classical data

Fuente: arXiv
Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zhao, Haimeng, Zlokapa, Alexander, Neven, Hartmut, Babbush, Ryan, Preskill, John, McClean, Jarrod R., Huang, Hsin-Yuan
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
Materias:
Acceso en línea:
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
_version_ 1866911578027196416
author Zhao, Haimeng
Zlokapa, Alexander
Neven, Hartmut
Babbush, Ryan
Preskill, John
McClean, Jarrod R.
Huang, Hsin-Yuan
author_facet Zhao, Haimeng
Zlokapa, Alexander
Neven, Hartmut
Babbush, Ryan
Preskill, John
McClean, Jarrod R.
Huang, Hsin-Yuan
contents Broadly applicable quantum advantage, particularly in classical data processing and machine learning, has been a fundamental open problem. In this work, we prove that a small quantum computer of polylogarithmic size can perform large-scale classification and dimension reduction on massive classical data by processing samples on the fly, whereas any classical machine achieving the same prediction performance requires exponentially larger size. Furthermore, classical machines that are exponentially larger yet below the required size need superpolynomially more samples and time. We validate these quantum advantages in real-world applications, including single-cell RNA sequencing and movie review sentiment analysis, demonstrating four to six orders of magnitude reduction in size with fewer than 60 logical qubits. These quantum advantages are enabled by quantum oracle sketching, an algorithm for accessing the classical world in quantum superposition using only random classical data samples. Combined with classical shadows, our algorithm circumvents the data loading and readout bottleneck to construct succinct classical models from massive classical data, a task provably impossible for any classical machine that is not exponentially larger than the quantum machine. These quantum advantages persist even when classical machines are granted unlimited time or if BPP=BQP, and rely only on the correctness of quantum mechanics. Together, our results establish machine learning on classical data as a broad and natural domain of quantum advantage and a fundamental test of quantum mechanics at the complexity frontier.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_07639
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Exponential quantum advantage in processing massive classical data
Zhao, Haimeng
Zlokapa, Alexander
Neven, Hartmut
Babbush, Ryan
Preskill, John
McClean, Jarrod R.
Huang, Hsin-Yuan
Quantum Physics
Artificial Intelligence
Computational Complexity
Information Theory
Machine Learning
Broadly applicable quantum advantage, particularly in classical data processing and machine learning, has been a fundamental open problem. In this work, we prove that a small quantum computer of polylogarithmic size can perform large-scale classification and dimension reduction on massive classical data by processing samples on the fly, whereas any classical machine achieving the same prediction performance requires exponentially larger size. Furthermore, classical machines that are exponentially larger yet below the required size need superpolynomially more samples and time. We validate these quantum advantages in real-world applications, including single-cell RNA sequencing and movie review sentiment analysis, demonstrating four to six orders of magnitude reduction in size with fewer than 60 logical qubits. These quantum advantages are enabled by quantum oracle sketching, an algorithm for accessing the classical world in quantum superposition using only random classical data samples. Combined with classical shadows, our algorithm circumvents the data loading and readout bottleneck to construct succinct classical models from massive classical data, a task provably impossible for any classical machine that is not exponentially larger than the quantum machine. These quantum advantages persist even when classical machines are granted unlimited time or if BPP=BQP, and rely only on the correctness of quantum mechanics. Together, our results establish machine learning on classical data as a broad and natural domain of quantum advantage and a fundamental test of quantum mechanics at the complexity frontier.
title Exponential quantum advantage in processing massive classical data
topic Quantum Physics
Artificial Intelligence
Computational Complexity
Information Theory
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.07639