Many properties of Boolean functions can be tested far more efficiently than the function itself can be learned. However, this dramatic advantage often disappears when testers are limited to random samples of f instead of adaptively chosen queries to f. In this work we investigate the quantum version of this restriction: quantum algorithms that test properties of a Boolean function f solely from copies of either the function state |f⟩∝ ∑_x|x,f(x)⟩ or the phase state |(-1)^f⟩∝ ∑_x (-1)^{f(x)}|x⟩. Quantum advantage in testing from data. For monotonicity, symmetry, and triangle-freeness, we show passive quantum testers are unboundedly or super-polynomially better than their classical passive testing counterparts. They are competitive with classic query-based testers in each case. Inadequacy of Fourier sampling. Our new testers use techniques beyond quantum Fourier sampling, and it turns out this is necessary: we show a certain class of bent functions can be tested from 𝒪(1) function states but has a sample complexity lower bound of 2^{Ω(n)} for any tester relying exclusively on Fourier and classical samples. Classical queries vs. quantum data. Our passive quantum testers are competitive with classical query-based testers, but this isn't universal: we exhibit a testing problem that can be solved from 𝒪(1) classical queries but requires Ω(2^{n/2}) function state copies. The Forrelation problem provides a separation of the same magnitude in the opposite direction, so we conclude that quantum data and classical queries are "maximally incomparable" resources for testing. Towards lower bounds. We also begin the study of lower bounds for testing from quantum data. For quantum monotonicity testing, we prove that the ensembles of [Goldreich et al., 2000; Black, 2024], which give exponential lower bounds for classical sample-based testing, do not yield any nontrivial lower bounds for testing from quantum data. New insights specific to quantum data will be required for proving copy complexity lower bounds for testing in this model.

A central task in quantum information science is state certification: testing whether an unknown state is є1-close to a fixed target state, or є2-far. Recent work has shown that surprisingly simple measurement protocols – comprising only single-qubit measurements – suffice to certify arbitrary n-qubit states. However, these certification protocols are not robust: rather than allowing constant є1, they can only positively certify states within є1=O(1/n) trace distance of the target. In many experimental settings, the appropriate error tolerance is constant as the system size grows, so this lack of robustness renders existing tests inapplicable at scale, no matter how many times the test is repeated.

Parallelization is a major challenge in quantum algorithms due to physical constraints like no-cloning. This is vividly illustrated by the conjecture of Moore and Nilsson from their seminal work on quantum circuit complexity: unitaries of a deceptively simple form—controlled-unitary “staircases”—require circuits of minimum depth Ω(n). If true, this lower bound would represent a significant break from classical parallelism and prove a quantum-native analogue of the famous NC≠ P conjecture.

Recent efforts in Analysis of Boolean Functions aim to extend core results to new spaces, including to the slice $\binom{[n]}{k}$, the hypergrid $[K]^n$, and noncommutative spaces (matrix algebras). We present here a new way to relate functions on the hypergrid (or products of cyclic groups) to their harmonic extensions over the polytorus. We show the supremum of a function $f$ over products of the cyclic group $\{\exp(2πi k/K)\}_{k=1}^K$ controls the supremum of $f$ over the entire polytorus $(\{z\in\mathbf{C}:|z|=1\}^n)$, with multiplicative constant $C$ depending on $K$ and $\text{deg}(f)$ only. This Remez-type inequality appears to be the first such estimate that is dimension-free (i.e., $C$ does not depend on $n$). This dimension-free Remez-type inequality removes the main technical barrier to giving $\mathcal{O}(\log n)$ sample complexity, polytime algorithms for learning low-degree polynomials on the hypergrid and low-degree observables on level-$K$ qudit systems. In particular, our dimension-free Remez inequality implies new Bohnenblust--Hille-type estimates which are central to the learning algorithms and appear unobtainable via standard techniques. Thus we extend to new spaces a recent line of work \cite{EI22, CHP, VZ22} that gave similarly efficient methods for learning low-degree polynomials on the hypercube and observables on qubits. An additional product of these efforts is a new class of distributions over which arbitrary quantum observables are well-approximated by their low-degree truncations -- a phenomenon that greatly extends the reach of low-degree learning in quantum science \cite{CHP}.

A recent line of work has shown the unconditional advantage of constant-depth quantum computation, or $\mathsf{QNC^0}$, over $\mathsf{NC^0}$, $\mathsf{AC^0}$, and related models of classical computation. Problems exhibiting this advantage include search and sampling tasks related to the parity function, and it is natural to ask whether $\mathsf{QNC^0}$ can be used to help compute parity itself. We study $\mathsf{AC^0\circ QNC^0}$ -- a hybrid circuit model where $\mathsf{AC^0}$ operates on measurement outcomes of a $\mathsf{QNC^0}$ circuit, and conjecture $\mathsf{AC^0\circ QNC^0}$ cannot achieve $Ω(1)$ correlation with parity. As evidence for this conjecture, we prove: $\bullet$ When the $\mathsf{QNC^0}$ circuit is ancilla-free, this model achieves only negligible correlation with parity. $\bullet$ For the general (non-ancilla-free) case, we show via a connection to nonlocal games that the conjecture holds for any class of postprocessing functions that has approximate degree $o(n)$ and is closed under restrictions, even when the $\mathsf{QNC^0}$ circuit is given arbitrary quantum advice. By known results this confirms the conjecture for linear-size $\mathsf{AC^0}$ circuits. $\bullet$ Towards a switching lemma for $\mathsf{AC^0\circ QNC^0}$, we study the effect of quantum preprocessing on the decision tree complexity of Boolean functions. We find that from this perspective, nonlocal channels are no better than randomness: a Boolean function $f$ precomposed with an $n$-party nonlocal channel is together equal to a randomized decision tree with worst-case depth at most $\mathrm{DT}_\mathrm{depth}[f]$. Our results suggest that while $\mathsf{QNC^0}$ is surprisingly powerful for search and sampling tasks, that power is "locked away" in the global correlations of its output, inaccessible to simple classical computation for solving decision problems.