Random classical codes have good error correcting properties, and yet they are notoriously hard to decode in practice. Despite many decades of extensive study, the fastest known algorithms still run in exponential time. The Learning Parity with Noise (LPN) problem, which can be seen as the task of decoding a random linear code in the presence of noise, has thus emerged as a prominent hardness assumption with numerous applications in both cryptography and learning theory. Is there a natural quantum analog of the LPN problem? In this work, we introduce the Learning Stabilizers with Noise (LSN) problem, the task of decoding a random stabilizer code in the presence of local depolarizing noise. We give both polynomial-time and exponential-time quantum algorithms for solving LSN in various depolarizing noise regimes, ranging from extremely low noise, to low constant noise rates, and even higher noise rates up to a threshold. Next, we provide concrete evidence that LSN is hard. First, we show that LSN includes LPN as a special case, which suggests that it is at least as hard as its classical counterpart. Second, we prove worst-case to average-case reductions for variants of LSN. We then ask: what is the computational complexity of solving LSN? Because the task features quantum inputs, its complexity cannot be characterized by traditional complexity classes. Instead, we show that the LSN problem lies in a recently introduced (distributional and oracle) unitary synthesis class. Finally, we identify several applications of our LSN assumption, ranging from the construction of quantum bit commitment schemes to the computational limitations of learning from quantum data.

In this work, we introduce a new toolkit for analyzing cloning games, a notion that captures stronger and more quantitative versions of the celebrated quantum no-cloning theorem. This framework allows us to analyze a new cloning game based on binary phase states. Our results provide evidence that these games may be able to overcome important limitations of previous candidates based on BB84 states and subspace coset states: in a model where the adversaries are restricted to making a single oracle query, we show that the binary phase variant is t-copy secure when t = o(n/log n). Moreover, for constant t, we obtain the first optimal bounds of O(2^{-n}), asymptotically matching the value attained by a trivial adversarial strategy. We also show a worst-case to average-case reduction which allows us to show the same quantitative results for the new and natural notion of Haar cloning games. Our analytic toolkit, which we believe will find further applications, is based on binary subtypes and uses novel bounds on the operator norms of block-wise tensor products of matrices. To illustrate the effectiveness of these new techniques, we present two applications: first, in black-hole physics, where our asymptotically optimal bound offers quantitative insights into information scrambling in idealized models of black holes; and second, in unclonable cryptography, where we (a) construct succinct unclonable encryption schemes from the existence of pseudorandom unitaries, and (b) propose and provide evidence for the security of multi-copy unclonable encryption schemes.

Random classical linear codes are widely believed to be hard to decode. While slightly sub-exponential time algorithms exist when the coding rate vanishes sufficiently rapidly, all known algorithms at constant rate require exponential time. By contrast, the complexity of decoding a random quantum stabilizer code has remained an open question for quite some time. This work closes the gap in our understanding of the algorithmic hardness of decoding random quantum versus random classical codes. We prove that decoding a random stabilizer code with even a single logical qubit is at least as hard as decoding a random classical code at constant rate--the maximally hard regime. This result suggests that the easiest random quantum decoding problem is at least as hard as the hardest random classical decoding problem, and shows that any sub-exponential algorithm decoding a typical stabilizer code, at any rate, would immediately imply a breakthrough in cryptography.

Uniformly random unitaries, i.e. unitaries drawn from the Haar measure, have many useful properties, but cannot be implemented efficiently. This has motivated a long line of research into random unitaries that “look” sufficiently Haar random while also being efficient to implement. Two different notions of derandomisation have emerged:$t$-designs are random unitaries that information-theoretically reproduce the first$t$moments of the Haar measure, and pseudorandom unitaries (PRUs) are random unitaries that are computationally indistinguishable from Haar random. In this work, we take a unified approach to constructing$t$-designs and PRUs. For this, we introduce and analyse the “$PFC$ensemble”, the product of a random computational basis permutation$P$, a random binary phase operator$F$, and a random Clifford unitary$C$. We show that this ensemble reproduces exponentially high moments of the Haar measure. We can then derandomise the$PFC$ensemble to show the following: •Linear-depth$t$-designs. We give the first construction of a (diamond-error) approximate$t$-design with circuit depth linear in$t$. This follows from the$PFC$ensemble by replacing the random phase and permutation operators with their$2t$-wise independent counterparts. •Non-adaptive PRUs. We give the first construction of PRUs with non-adaptive security, i.e. we construct unitaries that are indistinguishable from Haar random to polynomial-time distinguishers that query the unitary in parallel on an arbitary state. This follows from the$PFC$ensemble by replacing the random phase and permutation operators with their pseudorandom counterparts. •Adaptive pseudorandom isometries. We show that if one considers isometries (rather than unitaries) from$n$to$n+\omega(\log n)$qubits, a small modification of our PRU construction achieves adaptive security, i.e. even a distinguisher that can query the isometry adaptively in sequence cannot distinguish it from Haar random isometries. This gives the first construction of adaptive pseudorandom isometries. Under an additional conjecture, this proof also extends to adaptive PRUs.

Quantum mechanical effects have enabled the construction of cryptographic primitives that are impossible classically. For example, quantum copy-protection allows for a program to be encoded in a quantum state in such a way that the program can be evaluated, but not copied. Many of these cryptographic primitives are two-party protocols, where one party, Bob, has full quantum computational capabilities, and the other party, Alice, is only required to send random BB84 states to Bob. In this work, we show how such protocols can generically be converted to ones where Alice is fully classical, assuming that Bob cannot efficiently solve the LWE problem. In particular, this means that all communication between (classical) Alice and (quantum) Bob is classical, yet they can still make use of cryptographic primitives that would be impossible if both parties were classical. We apply this conversion procedure to obtain quantum cryptographic protocols with classical communication for unclonable encryption, copy-protection, computing on encrypted data, and verifiable blind delegated computation. The key technical ingredient for our result is a protocol for classically-instructed parallel remote state preparation of BB84 states. This is a multi-round protocol between (classical) Alice and (quantum polynomial-time) Bob that allows Alice to certify that Bob must have prepared n uniformly random BB84 states (up to a change of basis on his space). While previous approaches could only certify one- or two-qubit states, our protocol allows for the certification of an n-fold tensor product of BB84 states. Furthermore, Alice knows which specific BB84 states Bob has prepared, while Bob himself does not. Hence, the situation at the end of this protocol is (almost) equivalent to one where Alice sent n random BB84 states to Bob. This allows us to replace the step of preparing and sending BB84 states in existing protocols by our remote-state preparation protocol in a generic and modular way.

Quantum information has the property that measurement is an inherently destructive process. This feature is most apparent in the principle of complementarity, which states that mutually incompatible observables cannot be measured at the same time. Recent work by Broadbent and Islam (TCC 2020) builds on this aspect of quantum mechanics to realize a cryptographic notion called certified deletion. While this remarkable notion enables a classical verifier to be convinced that a (private-key) quantum ciphertext has been deleted by an untrusted party, it offers no additional layer of functionality. In this work, we augment the proof-of-deletion paradigm with fully homomorphic encryption (FHE). We construct the first fully homomorphic encryption scheme with certified deletion - an interactive protocol which enables an untrusted quantum server to compute on encrypted data and, if requested, to simultaneously prove data deletion to a client. Our scheme has the desirable property that verification of a deletion certificate is public; meaning anyone can verify that deletion has taken place. Our main technical ingredient is an interactive protocol by which a quantum prover can convince a classical verifier that a sample from the Learning with Errors (LWE) distribution in the form of a quantum state was deleted. As an application of our protocol, we construct a Dual-Regev public-key encryption scheme with certified deletion, which we then extend towards a (leveled) FHE scheme of the same type. We introduce the notion of Gaussian-collapsing hash functions - a special case of collapsing hash functions defined by Unruh (Eurocrypt 2016) - and we prove the security of our schemes under the assumption that the Ajtai hash function satisfies a certain strong Gaussian-collapsing property in the presence of leakage.