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Quantum Query Lower Bounds from Classical Moment Matching

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Abstract

We prove a quantum analogue of the classical moment matching method, a popular framework used to prove lower bounds in property testing. For two random variables X0X_0 and X1X_1 whose moments match up to the first r−1r-1 moments, the classical moment matching method says that no classical algorithm can reliably distinguish between input instances of length NN constructed from X0X_0 and X1X_1, respectively, unless it performs at least Ω(N1−1/r)Ω(N^{1-1/r}) queries. While this method has been widely explored since its inception in the seminal work of Raskhodnikova, Ron, Shpilka, and Smith (STOC 2007) to prove lower bounds for symmetric properties, it has remained an open question whether a quantum analogue of it could be proved. We prove two variants of this quantum moment matching method, which are incomparable. Our first quantum query lower bound scales as Ω(N1/2−1/(2r))Ω(N^{1/2-1/(2r)}), while our second moment matching theorem yields a sharper lower bound of Ω(N1/2−1/(2(2r−1)))Ω(N^{1/2-1/(2(2^r-1))}), albeit for smaller parameter ranges. Our results combine a new continuous hybrid argument with the polynomial method. The continuous hybrid argument compares two hard input distributions generated from i.i.d. samples by continuously varying both distributions, keeping them identically distributed at every intermediate stage. It reduces the comparison to the effect of changing the distribution of a single sample. The polynomial method then cancels the terms determined by the matched moments. We apply these moment matching theorems to prove new optimal lower bounds on kk-distinctness, kk-star-freeness, planarity and outerplanarity testing, as well as to improve prior lower bounds on image size testing and KK-junta testing by logarithmic factors. A key advantage of our framework is its simplicity: it reduces quantum lower bound proofs to the construction of suitable moment-matching distributions.

Introduction

Context and motivations

Property testing In this era of big data, even just reading the input in its entirety can be prohibitively costly. However, from a practical perspective, we can often tolerate some sort of approximation. The field of property testing focuses on such a setting: here the goal is to distinguish whether the input object (in this work a function or a graph) satisfies some property of interest, or is far from all such objects under some suitable distance measure, by accessing the input as few times as possible. The tester can either accept or reject when the distance of the input from the property does not satisfy the condition. Perhaps surprisingly, it is often possible to design testers whose complexity scales sublinearly with the size of the input. Over the last two and a half decades, property testing has become a vast and active area of research, see [25, 13 Ron09, 19 RS11, 15, 16] for more details.

Property testing has naturally also been explored in the quantum setting [24, 10]. For several important problems such as junta testing, graph isomorphism, bipartiteness and expansion testing, polynomial quantum speedups are known [2, 1, 3, 14], see the survey [31] for a detailed discussion. Naturally, understanding the limit of quantum advantage has been a prime focus in the community.

Our starting point is a function f:[N]→[N]f : [N] \to[N], where [N]={1,…,N}[N] = \{1,\ldots,N\}. For a property (aka. collection) P\mathcal{P} of such functions, the input is ε\varepsilon-far from P\mathcal{P} if at least εN\varepsilon N values must be changed to obtain a function in P\mathcal{P}. Given oracle access to an unknown function ff, an ε\varepsilon-tester must distinguish whether f∈Pf \in\mathcal{P}, or ε\varepsilon-far from P\mathcal{P} with success probability at least 2/32/3, by performing as few queries as possible to the oracle of ff. A classical query reveals f(i)f(i) at a chosen index i∈[N]i \in[N], while a quantum algorithm has coherent access to ff, and can query several indices in quantum superposition.

Many natural properties of interest, such as injectivity, the absence of kk-collisions, or having an image of at least a given size, depend only on how many times each output value occurs, i.e., on their frequencies (aka. multiplicities). Writing

cy=∣{i∈[N]:f(i)=y}∣,c_y = |\{i \in[N] : f(i) = y\}|,

the image size of ff is the number of yy with cy>0c_y > 0, and ff has a kk-collision precisely when some cy≥kc_y \ge k. The vector c=(c1,c2,…)\mathbf{c} = (c_1,c_2,\ldots) is called the frequency vector of ff. Indeed, these properties remain invariant under permutations of the input indices and the output labels. Such properties are called symmetric or label-invariant properties and play an important role in both classical and quantum property testing, and have been extensively studied in the literature, see [Val11, VV11, VV17, WY19, CFG+25] and the references therein.

Since these symmetric properties only depend on the multiplicities of the output labels, a natural approach to prove lower bounds for such properties is to consider hard instances based on frequencies and then randomize the positions and labels. Thus the task is to construct two hard input instances (or distributions of instances), one in the property P\mathcal{P}, and another far from P\mathcal{P}, and prove that any algorithm performing only a few queries cannot reliably distinguish them.

Moment-matching method Moment-matching method is a powerful classical framework that is used to achieve this dichotomy. In general, for some symmetric property P\mathcal{P}, a pair of input instances with one instance in the property P\mathcal{P} and the other being far from P\mathcal{P}, and whose moments match up to (r−1)(r-1) moments for some integer rr, would require Ω(N1−1/r)\Omega(N^{1-1/r}) queries to distinguish them with probability at least 2/3. To build its intuition, let us consider the example of distinguishing a uniformly random 1-to-1 function f0:[N]→[N]f_0 : [N] \to[N] from a uniformly random 2-to-1 function f1:[N]→[N]f_1 : [N] \to[N]. Let us choose a label YY uniformly from [N][N], and let Zb=∣fb−1(Y)∣Z_b = |f_b^{-1}(Y)| for b∈{0,1}b \in\{0,1\}. Note that Z0=1Z_0 = 1 with probability 1 and Z1Z_1 is either 0 or 2, each with probability 1/2. Then the moment-matching method proves that distinguishing between these two cases with probability at least 2/3 requires Ω(N1−1/2)\Omega(N^{1-1/2}) queries.

The intuition for this framework stems from the fact that since P\mathcal{P} is symmetric, moments are all that matter. One can alternatively define X0X_0 and X1X_1 for the non-zero frequencies. In that case, YY is uniformly sampled from f([N])f([N]). Then Y0=1Y_0 = 1 and Y1=2Y_1 = 2 with probability 1 for our example. One can show that exact moment matching for Z0,Z1Z_0, Z_1 can be translated to proportional moment matching for X0,X1X_0, X_1, and this is usually the expression that is used in the literature.

The classical moment matching framework was introduced in the seminal work of [RRSS09], where the authors used this framework to prove lower bounds on estimating the support size and the entropy of a distribution, and the number of distinct elements in a sequence. Then [VV11] extended this framework to approximately matching moments and proved lower bounds on various distribution testing problems such as distance estimation. Later, Wu and Yang [WY19] connected the matching moments framework to polynomial approximation and obtained sharp bounds for entropy and support-size estimation. Since then, there have been a flurry of results in the context of proving distribution testing lower bounds that employ this framework [4, 18, 21, 26, 20]. The same framework was used to prove a kk-collision-freeness lower bound by Hellweg and Sohler [28] for k=3k = 3, which was later extended to arbitrary kk by Peng and Wang [33], which they transfer to directed subgraph-freeness via a reduction.

Notably, there are two important ingredients of this framework: (i) when using it, one has to construct suitable random variables so that the framework can be applied; and (ii) the proof of the framework provides that no algorithm can reliably distinguish them by performing only a few queries. While these series of works use different input instance constructions and moment conditions, all of these proofs use the Poissonization trick: instead of considering a fixed number of samples, taking a set of samples distributed according to the Poisson distribution makes the frequencies of different symbols independent, thereby greatly simplifying the proofs.

Toward a quantum analogue Due to the wide success of this framework and its simplicity to use in practice for proving new lower bounds, it was naturally considered whether a similar lower bound framework exists for the quantum query model. Ambainis, Belovs, Regev, and de Wolf [1] were the first to propose whether combining the construction of [RRSS09] with quantum lower-bound techniques could be used to obtain stronger bounds for junta testing [1]. Without answering directly to this question, several problems, for which the moment matching frameworks can be applied classically, were studied in the quantum setting using mostly the dual polynomial method and quite involved mathematical constructions. First, improved lower bounds for junta testing and several other important problems, like image size testing, were achieved in a subsequent work [11]. Later on, [AMS25] establishes lower bounds for collision-freeness and directed subgraph-freeness testing, which was later extended by [PW27]. Thus, quantum lower bounds of some specific problems were tackled, but not directly the general matching moments method. We now briefly discuss the bottleneck.

Recall that the second ingredient of matching-moments-based lower bound proofs is to prove indistinguishability: a classical algorithm that performs too few queries cannot reliably distinguish between the two hard distributions. Since the use of Poissonization makes the number of occurrences of every label independent, it allows to compare the histogram distributions based on the input distributions. Since the property is symmetric, the algorithm’s decision depends only on this histogram. Consequently, if two histogram distributions are close in total variation distance, no algorithm making only a few queries can distinguish them with high probability.

However, a quantum algorithm can query several indices of the input in superposition, without measuring the answer register after each query. In fact, measuring the outcome of each query can remove coherence used by subsequent queries and thereby change the algorithm’s acceptance probability. Thus, even for symmetric properties, a quantum query algorithm cannot be analyzed by merely processing a classical histogram constructed from its samples. A quantum moment-matching argument must therefore control what coherent queries can distinguish, which has not been studied in the literature. Thus, despite a long series of works, the following question remained wide open:

Does there exist a quantum moment matching framework for proving quantum query lower bounds?

Our results

In this work, we answer the above question in the affirmative:

There exists a quantum moment matching framework for proving quantum query lower bounds.

We prove that indeed such a general lower bound framework exists in the quantum query realm, transferring each corresponding classical bound Ω(N1−1/r)\Omega(N^{1-1/r}) to the quantum bound O(N1/2−1/(2r))O(N^{1/2-1/(2r))}, and even sometimes to the higher bound Ω(N1/2−1/(2(2r−1)))\Omega(N^{1/2-1/(2(2^{r-1}))}).

Quantum analogue of classical moment matching framework We provide two variants of the moment matching theorem: the first one works for a large range of parameters, useful for broader applicability, whereas the second one, while restricted to smaller parameter ranges, yields better bounds on several problems of interest. Let us start with the first variant of our quantum moment matching framework.

In both theorems, we start as in the classical setting. Fix an integer A≥1A \ge1. Suppose X0,X1X_0, X_1 are two random variables supported on [A][A] such that for an integer r≥2r \ge2,

E[X1]E[X0]=E[X12]E[X02]=⋯=E[X1r−1]E[X0r−1].(1)\frac{\mathbb{E}[X_1]}{\mathbb{E}[X_0]} = \frac{\mathbb{E}[X_1^2]}{\mathbb{E}[X_0^2]} = \cdots= \frac{\mathbb{E}[X_1^{r-1}]}{\mathbb{E}[X_0^{r-1}]}. \tag*{(1)}

These random variables refer to the statistics of the frequency vector of any candidate function in the hard distributions. Indeed from them, and any given integer N≥1N \ge1, one can construct a pair of hard distributions Π0,N\Pi_{0,N} and Π1,N\Pi_{1,N} (constructed from X0X_0 and X1X_1, respectively) of functions f:[N]→[N]f : [N] \to[N].

Theorem 1.1 (Informal statement of Theorem 2.5). *Assume that X0,X1X_0, X_1 satisfy Equation (1). When A=O(r2)A = O(r^2) and A=o(N/log⁡N)A = o(\sqrt{N/\log N}), any TT-query quantum algorithm can only distinguish between Π0,N\Pi_{0,N} and Π1,N\Pi_{1,N} with probability at least 2/32/3 whenever T=Ω(N1/2−1/(2r))T = \Omega(N^{1/2-1/(2r)}).

Note that the above result gives a quadratic decrease in the lower bound compared to the classical setting, reflecting the possibility of quantum speedups. The above theorem is similar to the matching moment theorem of [RRS509], and it holds for a large range of parameters AA and rr (see Theorem 2.5 for the exact ranges of the parameters). We employ this theorem to prove optimal quantum query lower bounds on image size testing and junta testing.

However, for several properties like kk-distinctness and subgraph-freeness testing, the bound obtained from the above theorem remains sub-optimal. To achieve the optimal lower bounds for these properties, we further improve the above theorem to give tighter bounds, albeit for more restricted parameter ranges.

Theorem 1.2 (Informal statement of Theorem 2.6). Assume that X0,X1X_0,X_1 satisfy Equation (1). For fixed A,rA,r, any TT-query quantum algorithm can only distinguish between Π0,N\Pi_{0,N} and Π1,N\Pi_{1,N} with probability at least 2/32/3 whenever T=Ω(N1/2−1/(2(2r−1)))T=\Omega(N^{1/2-1/(2(2r-1))}).

A crucial appeal of this framework lies in its simplicity for proving new quantum query lower bounds. These theorems can be used as black-box: all it needs is input instances that satisfy the conditions of the theorems, and we directly obtain a new quantum query lower bound! This is indeed the case of various applications. In fact, in many cases, it is sufficient to consider the classical moment-matching lower bound construction, and even designing new hard instances is not required.

Applications of the quantum moment matching framework As applications of our two moment matching theorems, we obtain several new quantum query lower bounds, even optimal ones, with either polynomial or logarithmic improvements. Moreover, all these lower bounds are now proven in a more direct and streamlined fashion. Our results are summarized in Table 1.

Property testing problemClassicalQuantumQuantum
kk-distinctnessΩ(N1−1/k)\Omega(N^{1-1/k}) [33]Ω(N1/2−1/(2k)log⁡2N)\Omega\left(\frac{N^{1/2-1/(2k)}}{\log^2 N}\right) [3]Ω(Nak)\Omega(N^{a_k}) Corollary 5.1
O(N1−1/k)O(N^{1-1/k}) [28]O(Nak)O(N^{a_k}) [3]
kk-star-freeness and kk-source-subgraph-freenessΩ(N1−1/k)\Omega(N^{1-1/k}) [33]Ω(N1/2−1/(2k)log⁡2N)\Omega\left(\frac{N^{1/2-1/(2k)}}{\log^2 N}\right) [3]Ω(Nak)\Omega(N^{a_k}) Corollary 5.2
O(N1−1/k)O(N^{1-1/k}) [28]O(Nak)O(N^{a_k}) [3]
Planarity and outerplanarityΩ(N2/3)\Omega(N^{2/3}) [33]Ω(N1/3)\Omega(N^{1/3}) consequence of [Zha15]Ω(N3/7)\Omega(N^{3/7}) Corollary 5.2
O(N)O(N)O(N)O(N)
Image-size testingΩ(N1−δ)\Omega(N^{1-\delta}) any fixed δ>0\delta>0 [RRSS09]Ω(Nlog⁡2N)\Omega\left(\frac{\sqrt{N}}{\log^2 N}\right) [11]Ω(N)\Omega(\sqrt{N}) Corollary 5.5
O(N/log⁡N)O(N/\log N) [WY19]O(N)O(\sqrt{N}) [32]
KK-junta testingΩ(Klog⁡K)\Omega(K\log K) [Sağ18]Ω(Klog⁡2K)\Omega\left(\frac{\sqrt{K}}{\log^2 K}\right) [11]Ω(K)\Omega(\sqrt{K}) Corollary 5.7
O(Klog⁡K)O(K\log K) [12]O(Klog⁡K)O(\sqrt{K}\log K) [1]

Table 1. Query bounds for our applications, with explicit logarithmic factors, ak=(2k−1−1)/(2k−1)a_k=(2^{k-1}-1)/(2^k-1). For each problem, the previous bounds occupy two rows: lower bounds above, upper bounds below. This work gives the lower bounds in the last column. The kk-distinctness and directed subgraph-freeness entries are for k≥3k\geq3. In the image-size testing row, δ>0\delta>0 is an arbitrary constant.

While Theorem 1.2 proves a sharper lower bound compared to Theorem 1.1, as we mentioned, Theorem 1.2 holds for smaller parameter ranges. For our applications of image size testing and junta testing, applying Theorem 1.2 would not yield optimal lower bounds and Theorem 1.1 needs to be applied. On the other hand, for kk-distinctness, directed kk-star-freeness and directed planarity and outerplanarity testing, Theorem 1.2 is required for proving the optimal bounds. Thus, Theorem 1.1 and Theorem 1.2 are incomparable from an application standpoint.

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