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Documents authored by Bostanci, John

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.24
Unitary Complexity and the Uhlmann Transformation Problem

Authors: John Bostanci, Yuval Efron, Tony Metger, Alexander Poremba, Luowen Qian, and Henry Yuen

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract
State transformation problems such as compressing quantum information or breaking quantum commitments are fundamental quantum tasks. However, their computational difficulty cannot easily be characterized using traditional complexity theory, which focuses on tasks with classical inputs and outputs. To study the complexity of such state transformation tasks, we introduce a framework for unitary synthesis problems, including notions of reductions and unitary complexity classes. We use this framework to study the complexity of transforming one entangled state into another via local operations. We formalize this as the Uhlmann Transformation Problem, an algorithmic version of Uhlmann’s theorem. Then, we prove structural results relating the complexity of the Uhlmann Transformation Problem, polynomial space quantum computation, and zero knowledge protocols. The Uhlmann Transformation Problem allows us to characterize the complexity of a variety of tasks in quantum information processing, including decoding noisy quantum channels, breaking falsifiable quantum cryptographic assumptions, implementing optimal prover strategies in quantum interactive proofs, and decoding the Hawking radiation of black holes. Our framework for unitary complexity thus provides new avenues for studying the computational complexity of many natural quantum information processing tasks.
Cite as

John Bostanci, Yuval Efron, Tony Metger, Alexander Poremba, Luowen Qian, and Henry Yuen. Unitary Complexity and the Uhlmann Transformation Problem. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 24:1-24:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{bostanci_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.24,
  author =	{Bostanci, John and Efron, Yuval and Metger, Tony and Poremba, Alexander and Qian, Luowen and Yuen, Henry},
  title =	{{Unitary Complexity and the Uhlmann Transformation Problem}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{24:1--24:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.24},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253111},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.24},
  annote =	{Keywords: Uhlmann’s theorem, unitary complexity theory}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.25
Commuting Local Hamiltonians Beyond 2D

Authors: John Bostanci and Yeongwoo Hwang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract
Commuting local Hamiltonians provide a testing ground for studying many of the most interesting open questions in quantum information theory, including the quantum PCP conjecture and the nature of entanglement. However, unlike the general local Hamiltonian problem, the exact complexity of the commuting local Hamiltonian problem (CLH) remains unknown. A number of works have shown that increasingly expressive families of commuting local Hamiltonians admit classical verifiers. Despite intense work, proofs placing CLH in NP rely heavily on an underlying 2D lattice structure, or a very constrained local dimension and locality. In this work, we present a new technique to analyze the complexity of various families of commuting local Hamiltonians: guided reductions. Intuitively, these are a generalization of typical reduction where the prover provides a guide so that the verifier can construct a simpler Hamiltonian. The core of our reduction is a new rounding technique based on a combination of Jordan’s Lemma for pairs of projectors and the Structure Lemma for C^* algebras. Our rounding technique is much more flexible than previous work and allows us to remove constraints on local dimension in exchange for a rank-1 assumption. Using our rounding technique, we prove the following two results: 1) 2D-CLH for rank-1 instances are contained in NP, independent of the qudit dimension. It is notable that this family of commuting local Hamiltonians has no restriction on the local dimension or the locality of the Hamiltonian terms. 2) 3D-CLH for rank-1 instances are in NP. To our knowledge this is the first time a family of {3D} commuting local Hamiltonians has been contained in NP. Our results apply to Hamiltonians with large qudit degree and remain non-trivial despite the quantum Lovász Local Lemma. [Andris Ambainis et al., 2012]
Cite as

John Bostanci and Yeongwoo Hwang. Commuting Local Hamiltonians Beyond 2D. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 25:1-25:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{bostanci_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.25,
  author =	{Bostanci, John and Hwang, Yeongwoo},
  title =	{{Commuting Local Hamiltonians Beyond 2D}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{25:1--25:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.25},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253129},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.25},
  annote =	{Keywords: Quantum complexity, commuting Hamiltonians, complexity theory, C* algebras}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.26
Local Transformations of Bipartite Entanglement Are Rigid

Authors: John Bostanci, Tony Metger, and Henry Yuen

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract
Uhlmann’s theorem is a fundamental result in quantum information theory that quantifies the optimal overlap between two bipartite pure states after applying local unitary operations (called Uhlmann transformations). We show that optimal Uhlmann transformations are rigid - in other words, they must be unique up to some well-characterized degrees of freedom. This rigidity is also robust: Uhlmann transformations achieving near-optimal overlaps must be close to the unique optimal transformation (again, up to well-characterized degrees of freedom). We describe two applications of our robust rigidity theorem: (a) we obtain better interactive proofs for synthesizing Uhlmann transformations and (b) we obtain a simple, alternative proof of the Gowers-Hatami theorem on the stability of approximate representations of finite groups.
Cite as

John Bostanci, Tony Metger, and Henry Yuen. Local Transformations of Bipartite Entanglement Are Rigid. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 26:1-26:8, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{bostanci_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.26,
  author =	{Bostanci, John and Metger, Tony and Yuen, Henry},
  title =	{{Local Transformations of Bipartite Entanglement Are Rigid}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{26:1--26:8},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.26},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253138},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.26},
  annote =	{Keywords: Uhlmann’s theorem, quantum entanglement, stability theorems}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.TQC.2025.9
Efficient Quantum Pseudorandomness from Hamiltonian Phase States

Authors: John Bostanci, Jonas Haferkamp, Dominik Hangleiter, and Alexander Poremba

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 350, 20th Conference on the Theory of Quantum Computation, Communication and Cryptography (TQC 2025)

Abstract
Quantum pseudorandomness has found applications in many areas of quantum information, ranging from entanglement theory, to models of scrambling phenomena in chaotic quantum systems, and, more recently, in the foundations of quantum cryptography. Kretschmer (TQC '21) showed that both pseudorandom states and pseudorandom unitaries exist even in a world without classical one-way functions. To this day, however, all known constructions require classical cryptographic building blocks which are themselves synonymous with the existence of one-way functions, and which are also challenging to implement on realistic quantum hardware. In this work, we seek to make progress on both of these fronts simultaneously - by decoupling quantum pseudorandomness from classical cryptography altogether. We introduce a quantum hardness assumption called the Hamiltonian Phase State (HPS) problem, which is the task of decoding output states of a random instantaneous quantum polynomial-time (IQP) circuit. Hamiltonian phase states can be generated very efficiently using only Hadamard gates, single-qubit Z rotations and CNOT circuits. We show that the hardness of our problem reduces to a worst-case version of the problem, and we provide evidence that our assumption is plausibly fully quantum; meaning, it cannot be used to construct one-way functions. We also show information-theoretic hardness when only few copies of HPS are available by proving an approximate t-design property of our ensemble. Finally, we show that our HPS assumption and its variants allow us to efficiently construct many pseudorandom quantum primitives, ranging from pseudorandom states, to quantum pseudoentanglement, to pseudorandom unitaries, and even primitives such as public-key encryption with quantum keys.
Cite as

John Bostanci, Jonas Haferkamp, Dominik Hangleiter, and Alexander Poremba. Efficient Quantum Pseudorandomness from Hamiltonian Phase States. In 20th Conference on the Theory of Quantum Computation, Communication and Cryptography (TQC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 350, pp. 9:1-9:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bostanci_et_al:LIPIcs.TQC.2025.9,
  author =	{Bostanci, John and Haferkamp, Jonas and Hangleiter, Dominik and Poremba, Alexander},
  title =	{{Efficient Quantum Pseudorandomness from Hamiltonian Phase States}},
  booktitle =	{20th Conference on the Theory of Quantum Computation, Communication and Cryptography (TQC 2025)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-392-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{350},
  editor =	{Fefferman, Bill},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.TQC.2025.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-240586},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.TQC.2025.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: Quantum pseudorandomness, quantum phase states, quantum cryptography}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.97
Quantum Event Learning and Gentle Random Measurements

Authors: Adam Bene Watts and John Bostanci

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 287, 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)

Abstract
We prove the expected disturbance caused to a quantum system by a sequence of randomly ordered two-outcome projective measurements is upper bounded by the square root of the probability that at least one measurement in the sequence accepts. We call this bound the Gentle Random Measurement Lemma. We then extend the techniques used to prove this lemma to develop protocols for problems in which we are given sample access to an unknown state ρ and asked to estimate properties of the accepting probabilities Tr[M_i ρ] of a set of measurements {M₁, M₂, … , M_m}. We call these types of problems Quantum Event Learning Problems. In particular, we show randomly ordering projective measurements solves the Quantum OR problem, answering an open question of Aaronson. We also give a Quantum OR protocol which works on non-projective measurements and which outperforms both the random measurement protocol analyzed in this paper and the protocol of Harrow, Lin, and Montanaro. However, this protocol requires a more complicated type of measurement, which we call a Blended Measurement. Given additional guarantees on the set of measurements {M₁, …, M_m}, we show the random and blended measurement Quantum OR protocols developed in this paper can also be used to find a measurement M_i such that Tr[M_i ρ] is large. We call the problem of finding such a measurement Quantum Event Finding. We also show Blended Measurements give a sample-efficient protocol for Quantum Mean Estimation: a problem in which the goal is to estimate the average accepting probability of a set of measurements on an unknown state. Finally we consider the Threshold Search Problem described by O'Donnell and Bădescu where, given given a set of measurements {M₁, …, M_m} along with sample access to an unknown state ρ satisfying Tr[M_i ρ] ≥ 1/2 for some M_i, the goal is to find a measurement M_j such that Tr[M_j ρ] ≥ 1/2 - ε. By building on our Quantum Event Finding result we show that randomly ordered (or blended) measurements can be used to solve this problem using O(log²(m) / ε²) copies of ρ. This matches the performance of the algorithm given by O'Donnell and Bădescu, but does not require injected noise in the measurements. Consequently, we obtain an algorithm for Shadow Tomography which matches the current best known sample complexity (i.e. requires Õ(log²(m)log(d)/ε⁴) samples). This algorithm does not require injected noise in the quantum measurements, but does require measurements to be made in a random order, and so is no longer online.
Cite as

Adam Bene Watts and John Bostanci. Quantum Event Learning and Gentle Random Measurements. In 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 287, pp. 97:1-97:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{watts_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.97,
  author =	{Watts, Adam Bene and Bostanci, John},
  title =	{{Quantum Event Learning and Gentle Random Measurements}},
  booktitle =	{15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)},
  pages =	{97:1--97:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-309-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{287},
  editor =	{Guruswami, Venkatesan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.97},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-196254},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.97},
  annote =	{Keywords: Event learning, gentle measurments, random measurements, quantum or, threshold search, shadow tomography}
}
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