In this work, we study quantum algorithms for Hopcroft’s problem which is a fundamental problem in computational geometry. Given n points and n lines in the plane, the task is to determine whether there is a point-line incidence. The classical complexity of this problem is well-studied, with the best known algorithm running in \(O(n^{4/3})\) time, with matching lower bounds in some restricted settings. Our results are two different quantum algorithms with time complexity \(\widetilde{O}(n^{5/6})\) . The first algorithm is based on partition trees and the quantum backtracking algorithm. The second algorithm uses a quantum walk together with a history-independent dynamic data structure for storing line arrangement which supports efficient point location queries. In the setting where the number of points and lines differ, the quantum walk-based algorithm is asymptotically faster. The quantum speedups for the aforementioned data structures may be useful for other geometric problems. Finally, we examine the connections between Hopcroft’s problem and other computational problems via fine-grained complexity. For example, we show a conditional \(\Omega (n^{3/4})\) time lower bound on Hopcroft’s problem in 5 dimensions based on the quantum analogue of a classical hardness conjecture, which is stronger than the (optimal) \(\Theta (n^{2/3})\) query complexity bounds.

In this work, we initiate a systematic study of the time complexity of quantum divide and conquer (QD&C) algorithms for classical problems, and propose a general framework for their analysis. We establish generic conditions under which search and minimization problems with classical divide and conquer algorithms are amenable to quantum speedup, and apply these theorems to various problems involving strings, integers, and geometric objects. These include Longest Distinct Substring, Klee's Coverage, several optimization problems on stock transactions, and k-Increasing Subsequence. For most of these problems our quantum time upper bounds match the quantum query lower bounds, up to polylogarithmic factors. We give a structured framework for describing and classifying a wide variety of QD&C algorithms so that quantum speedups can be more easily identified and applied, and prove general statements on QD&C time complexity covering a range of cases, accounting for the time required for all operations. In particular, we explicitly account for memory access operations in the commonly used QRAM (read-only) and QRAG (read-write) models, which are assumed to take unit time in the query model, and which require careful analysis when involved in recursion. Our generic QD&C theorems have several nice features. 1) To apply them, it suffices to come up with a classical divide and conquer algorithm satisfying the conditions of the theorem. The quantization of the algorithm is then completely handled by the theorem. This can make it easier to find applications which admit a quantum speedup, and contrast with dynamic programming algorithms which can be difficult to quantize due to their highly sequential nature. 2) As these theorems give bounds on time complexity, they can be applied to a greater range of problems than those based on query complexity, e.g., where the best-known quantum algorithms require super-linear time. 3) It can handle minimization problems as well as boolean functions, which allows us to improve on the query complexity result of Childs et al. [Childs et al., 2025] for k-Increasing Subsequence by a logarithmic factor.

In this work we study quantum algorithms for Hopcroft’s problem which is a fundamental problem in computational geometry. Given n points and n lines in the plane, the task is to determine whether there is a point-line incidence. The classical complexity of this problem is well-studied, with the best known algorithm running in O(n^{4/3}) time, with matching lower bounds in some restricted settings. Our results are two different quantum algorithms with time complexity Õ(n^{5/6}). The first algorithm is based on partition trees and the quantum backtracking algorithm. The second algorithm uses a quantum walk together with a history-independent dynamic data structure for storing line arrangement which supports efficient point location queries. In the setting where the number of points and lines differ, the quantum walk-based algorithm is asymptotically faster. The quantum speedups for the aforementioned data structures may be useful for other geometric problems.

We show that every algorithm for testing $n$-variate Boolean functions for monotonicity must have query complexity $\tilde{\Omega}(n^{1/4})$. All previous lower bounds for this problem were designed for nonadaptive algorithms and, as a result, the best previous lower bound for general (possibly adaptive) monotonicity testers was only $\Omega(\log n)$. Combined with the query complexity of the nonadaptive monotonicity tester of Khot, Minzer, and Safra (FOCS 2015), our lower bound shows that adaptivity can result in at most a quadratic reduction in the query complexity for testing monotonicity. By contrast, we show that there is an exponential gap between the query complexity of adaptive and nonadaptive algorithms for testing regular linear threshold functions (LTFs) for monotonicity. Chen, De, Servedio, and Tan (STOC 2015) recently showed that nonadaptive algorithms require almost $\Omega(n^{1/2})$ queries for this task. We introduce a new adaptive monotonicity testing algorithm which has query complexity $O(\log n)$ when the input is a regular LTF.

We establish new upper and lower bounds on the number of queries required to test convexity of functions over various discrete domains. 1.We provide a simplified version of the non-adaptive convexity tester on the line. We re-prove the upper bound in the usual uniform model, and prove an upper bound in the distribution-free setting.2.We show a tight lower bound of queries for testing convexity of functions f: [n] → ℝ on the line. This lower bound applies to both adaptive and non-adaptive algorithms, and matches the upper bound from item 1, showing that adaptivity does not help in this setting.3.Moving to higher dimensions, we consider the case of a stripe [3] × [n]. We construct an adaptive tester for convexity of functions f: [3] × [n] → ℝ with query complexity O(log2 n). We also show that any non-adaptive tester must use queries in this setting. Thus, adaptivity yields an exponential improvement for this problem.4.For functions f: [n]d → ℝ over domains of dimension d ≥ 2, we show a non-adaptive query lower bound .

We study quantum algorithms working on classical probability distributions. We formulate four different models for accessing a classical probability distribution on a quantum computer, which are derived from previous work on the topic, and study their mutual relationships. Additionally, we prove that quantum query complexity of distinguishing two probability distributions is given by their inverse Hellinger distance, which gives a quadratic improvement over classical query complexity for any pair of distributions. The results are obtained by using the adversary method for state-generating input oracles and for distinguishing probability distributions on input strings.

In the property testing model, the task is to distinguish objects possessing some property from the objects that are far from it. One of such properties is monotonicity, when the objects are functions from one poset to another. This is an active area of research. In this paper we study query complexity of epsilon-testing monotonicity of a function f : [n]->[r]. All our lower bounds are for adaptive two-sided testers. - We prove a nearly tight lower bound for this problem in terms of r. The bound is Omega((log r)/(log log r)) when epsilon = 1/2. No previous satisfactory lower bound in terms of r was known. - We completely characterise query complexity of this problem in terms of n for smaller values of epsilon. The complexity is Theta(epsilon^{-1} log (epsilon n)). Apart from giving the lower bound, this improves on the best known upper bound. Finally, we give an alternative proof of the Omega(epsilon^{-1}d log n - epsilon^{-1}log epsilon^{-1}) lower bound for testing monotonicity on the hypergrid [n]^d due to Chakrabarty and Seshadhri (RANDOM'13).

The complexity class PPA consists of NP-search problems which are reducible to the parity principle in undirected graphs. It contains a wide variety of interesting problems from graph theory, combinatorics, algebra and number theory, but only a few of these are known to be complete in the class. Before this work, the known complete problems were all discretizations or combinatorial analogues of topological fixed point theorems. Here we prove the PPA-completeness of two problems of radically different style. They are PPA-Circuit CNSS and PPA-Circuit Chevalley, related respectively to the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz and to the Chevalley-Warning Theorem over the two elements field GF(2). The input of these problems contain PPA-circuits which are arithmetic circuits with special symmetric properties that assure that the polynomials computed by them have always an even number of zeros. In the proof of the result we relate the multilinear degree of the polynomials to the parity of the maximal parse subcircuits that compute monomials with maximal multilinear degree, and we show that the maximal parse subcircuits of a PPA-circuit can be paired in polynomial time.

In 1986, Saks and Wigderson conjectured that the largest separation between deterministic and zero-error randomized query complexity for a total Boolean function is given by the function f on n = 2 k bits defined by a complete binary tree of NAND gates of depth k , which achieves R 0 ( f ) = O ( D ( f ) 0.7537… ). We show that this is false by giving an example of a total Boolean function f on n bits whose deterministic query complexity is Ω( n ) while its zero-error randomized query complexity is Õ(√ n ). We further show that the quantum query complexity of the same function is Õ( n 1/4 ), giving the first example of a total function with a super-quadratic gap between its quantum and deterministic query complexities. We also construct a total Boolean function g on n variables that has zero-error randomized query complexity Ω( n / log ( n )) and bounded-error randomized query complexity R ( g ) = Õ(√ n ). This is the first super-linear separation between these two complexity measures. The exact quantum query complexity of the same function is Q E ( g ) = Õ(√ n ). These functions show that the relations D ( f ) = O ( R 1 ( f ) 2 ) and R 0 ( f ) = Õ( R ( f ) 2 ) are optimal, up to polylogarithmic factors. Further variations of these functions give additional separations between other query complexity measures: a cubic separation between Q and R 0 , a 3/2-power separation between Q E and R , and a 4th-power separation between approximate degree and bounded-error randomized query complexity. All of these examples are variants of a function recently introduced by Göös, Pitassi, and Watson, which they used to separate the unambiguous 1-certificate complexity from deterministic query complexity and to resolve the famous Clique versus Independent Set problem in communication complexity.

While exponential separations are known between quantum and randomized communication complexity for partial functions (Raz, STOC 1999), the best known separation between these measures for a total function is quadratic, witnessed by the disjointness function. We give the first super-quadratic separation between quantum and randomized communication complexity for a total function, giving an example exhibiting a power 2.5 gap. We further present a 1.5 power separation between exact quantum and randomized communication complexity, improving on the previous ≅ 1.15 separation by Ambainis (STOC 2013). Finally, we present a nearly optimal quadratic separation between randomized communication complexity and the logarithm of the partition number, improving upon the previous best power 1.5 separation due to Goos, Jayram, Pitassi, and Watson. Our results are the communication analogues of separations in query complexity proved using the recent cheat sheet framework of Aaronson, Ben-David, and Kothari (STOC 2016). Our main technical results are randomized communication and information complexity lower bounds for a family of functions, called lookup functions, that generalize and port the cheat sheet framework to communication complexity.

In the k-junta testing problem, a tester has to efficiently decide whether a given function f: {0, 1}n → {0, 1} is a k-junta (i.e., depends on at most k of its input bits) or is ∊-far from any k-junta. Our main result is a quantum algorithm for this problem with query complexity and time complexity . This quadratically improves over the query complexity of the previous best quantum junta tester, due to Atıcı and Servedio. Our tester is based on a new quantum algorithm for a gapped version of the combinatorial group testing problem, with an up to quartic improvement over the query complexity of the best classical algorithm. For our upper bound on the time complexity we give a near-linear time implementation of a shallow variant of the quantum Fourier transform over the symmetric group, similar to the Schur-Weyl transform. We also prove a lower bound of Ω(k1/3) queries for junta-testing (for constant ∊).

In 1986, Saks and Wigderson conjectured that the largest separation between deterministic and zero-error randomized query complexity for a total boolean function is given by the function f on n=2k bits defined by a complete binary tree of NAND gates of depth k, which achieves R0(f) = O(D(f)0.7537…). We show this is false by giving an example of a total boolean function f on n bits whose deterministic query complexity is Ω(n/log(n)) while its zero-error randomized query complexity is Õ(√n). We further show that the quantum query complexity of the same function is Õ(n1/4), giving the first example of a total function with a super-quadratic gap between its quantum and deterministic query complexities.

We show that every algorithm for testing n-variate Boolean functions for monotonicityhas query complexity Ω(n1/4). All previous lower bounds for this problem were designed for non-adaptive algorithms and, as a result, the best previous lower bound for general (possibly adaptive) monotonicity testers was only Ω(logn). Combined with the query complexity of the non-adaptive monotonicity tester of Khot, Minzer, and Safra (FOCS 2015), our lower bound shows that adaptivity can result in at most a quadratic reduction in the query complexity for testing monotonicity.

In this paper, we study the following variant of the junta learning problem. We are given oracle access to a Boolean function f on n variables that only depends on k variables, and, when restricted to them, equals some predefined function h. The task is to identify the variables the function depends on. This is a generalisation of the Bernstein-Vazirani problem [1] (when h is the XOR function) and the combinatorial group testing problem [2] (when h is the OR function). We analyse the general case using the adversary bound, and give an alternative formulation for the quantum query complexity of this problem. We construct optimal quantum query algorithms for the cases when h is the OR function (complexity is square root of k) or the exact-half function (complexity is the fourth power root of k). The first algorithm resolves an open problem from. For the case when h is the majority function, we prove an upper bound of the fourth power root of k. We obtain a quartic improvement when compared to the randomised complexity (if h is the exact-half or the majority function), and a quadratic one when compared to the non-adaptive quantum complexity (for all functions considered in the paper).

We introduce a notion of the quantum query complexity of a certificate structure. This is a formalisation of a well-known observation that many quantum query algorithms only require the knowledge of the disposition of possible certificates in the input string, not the precise values therein. Next, we derive a dual formulation of the complexity of a non-adaptive learning graph, and use it to show that non-adaptive learning graphs are tight for all certificate structures. By this, we mean that there exists a function possessing the certificate structure and such that a learning graph gives an optimal quantum query algorithm for it. For a special case of certificate structures generated by certificates of bounded size, we construct a relatively general class of functions having this property. The construction is based on orthogonal arrays, and generalizes the quantum query lower bound for the k-sum problem derived recently. Finally, we use these results to show that the best known learning graph for the triangle problem is almost optimal in these settings. This also gives a quantum query lower bound for the triangle-sum problem.

We prove a tight quantum query lower bound Omega(nk/(k+1)) for the problem of deciding whether there exist k numbers among n that sum up to a prescribed number, provided that the alphabet size is sufficiently large.

We present a quantum algorithm solving the k-distinctness problem in a less number of queries than the previous algorithm by Ambainis. The construction uses a modified learning graph approach. Compared to the recent paper by Belovs and Lee, the algorithm doesn't require any prior information on the input, and the complexity analysis is much simpler.

Besides the Hidden Subgroup Problem, the second large class of quantum speed-ups is for functions with constant-sized 1-certificates. This includes the OR function, solvable by the Grover algorithm, the element distinctness, the triangle and other problems. The usual way to solve them is by quantum walk on the Johnson graph. We propose a solution for the same problems using span programs. The span program is a computational model equivalent to the quantum query algorithm in its strength, and yet very different in its outfit.