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Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.3

Pseudo-Deterministic Quantum Algorithms

Authors: Hugo Aaronson, Tom Gur, and Jiawei Li

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 374, 53rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2026)

Abstract

We initiate a systematic study of pseudo-deterministic quantum algorithms. These are quantum algorithms that, for any input, output a canonical solution with high probability. Focusing on the query complexity model, our main contributions include the following complexity separations, which require new lower bound techniques specifically tailored to pseudo-determinism: - We exhibit a problem, Avoid One Encrypted String (AOES), whose classical randomized query complexity is O(1) but is maximally hard for pseudo-deterministic quantum algorithms (Ω(N) query complexity). - We exhibit a problem, Quantum-Locked Estimation (QL-Estimation), for which pseudo-deterministic quantum algorithms admit an exponential speed-up over classical pseudo-deterministic algorithms (O(log(N)) vs. Θ(√N)), while the randomized query complexity is O(1). Complementing these separations, we show that for any total problem R, pseudo-deterministic quantum algorithms admit at most a quintic advantage over deterministic algorithms, i.e., 𝖣(R) = Õ(psQ(R)⁵). On the algorithmic side, we identify a class of quantum search problems that can be made pseudo-deterministic with small overhead, including Grover search, element distinctness, triangle finding, k-sum, and graph collision.

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Hugo Aaronson, Tom Gur, and Jiawei Li. Pseudo-Deterministic Quantum Algorithms. In 53rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 374, pp. 3:1-3:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{aaronson_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.3,
  author =	{Aaronson, Hugo and Gur, Tom and Li, Jiawei},
  title =	{{Pseudo-Deterministic Quantum Algorithms}},
  booktitle =	{53rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2026)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-428-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{374},
  editor =	{Bhattacharya, Sayan and Nanongkai, Danupon and Benedikt, Michael and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-263928},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Pseudo-determinism, Quantum Computing, Algorithms}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.24

Distribution-Free Proofs of Proximity

Authors: Hugo Aaronson, Tom Gur, Ninad Rajgopal, and Ron D. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract

Motivated by the fact that input distributions are often unknown in advance, distribution-free property testing considers a setting in which the algorithmic task is to accept functions f: [n] → {0,1} having a certain property Π and reject functions that are ε-far from Π, where the distance is measured according to an arbitrary and unknown input distribution 𝒟 ∼ [n]. As usual in property testing, the tester is required to do so while making only a sublinear number of input queries, but as the distribution is unknown, we also allow a sublinear number of samples from the distribution 𝒟. In this work we initiate the study of distribution-free interactive proofs of proximity (df-IPPs) in which the distribution-free testing algorithm is assisted by an all powerful but untrusted prover. Our main result is that for any problem Π ∈ NC, any proximity parameter ε > 0, and any (trade-off) parameter τ ≤ √n, we construct a df-IPP for Π with respect to ε, that has query and sample complexities τ+O(1/ε), and communication complexity Õ(n/τ + 1/ε). For τ as above and sufficiently large ε (namely, when ε > τ/n), this result matches the parameters of the best-known general purpose IPPs in the standard uniform setting. Moreover, for such τ, its parameters are optimal up to poly-logarithmic factors under reasonable cryptographic assumptions for the same regime of ε as the uniform setting, i.e., when ε ≥ 1/τ. For smaller values of ε (i.e., when ε < τ/n), our protocol has communication complexity Ω(1/ε), which is worse than the Õ(n/τ) communication complexity of the uniform IPPs (with the same query complexity). With the aim of improving on this gap, we further show that for IPPs over specialised, but large distribution families, such as sufficiently smooth distributions and product distributions, the communication complexity can be reduced to Õ(n/τ^{1-o(1)}). In addition, we show that for certain natural families of languages, such as symmetric and (relaxed) self-correctable languages, it is possible to further improve the efficiency of distribution-free IPPs.

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Hugo Aaronson, Tom Gur, Ninad Rajgopal, and Ron D. Rothblum. Distribution-Free Proofs of Proximity. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 24:1-24:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{aaronson_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.24,
  author =	{Aaronson, Hugo and Gur, Tom and Rajgopal, Ninad and Rothblum, Ron D.},
  title =	{{Distribution-Free Proofs of Proximity}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{24:1--24:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.24},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-204204},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.24},
  annote =	{Keywords: Property Testing, Interactive Proofs, Distribution-Free Property Testing}
}

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Pseudo-Deterministic Quantum Algorithms

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Distribution-Free Proofs of Proximity

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