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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.101

Two Bases Suffice for QMA ₁-Completeness

Authors: Henry Ma and Anand Natarajan

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

Abstract

We introduce a basis-restricted variant of the Quantum-k-Sat problem, in which each term in the input Hamiltonian is required to be diagonal in either the standard or Hadamard basis. Our main result is that the Quantum-6-Sat problem with this basis restriction is already QMA₁-complete, defined with respect to a natural gateset. Our construction is based on the Feynman-Kitaev circuit-to-Hamiltonian construction, with a modified clock encoding that interleaves two clocks in the standard and Hadamard bases. In light of the central role played by CSS codes and the uncertainty principle in the proof of the NLTS theorem of Anshu, Breuckmann, and Nirkhe (STOC '23), we hope that the CSS-like structure of our Hamiltonians will make them useful for progress towards a quantum PCP theorem.

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Henry Ma and Anand Natarajan. Two Bases Suffice for QMA ₁-Completeness. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 101:1-101:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{ma_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.101,
  author =	{Ma, Henry and Natarajan, Anand},
  title =	{{Two Bases Suffice for QMA ₁-Completeness}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{101:1--101:22},
  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.2026.101},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253880},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.101},
  annote =	{Keywords: quantum complexity theory, Hamiltonian complexity, Quantum Merlin Arthur (QMA), QMA₁, quantum satisfiability problem}
}

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Two Bases Suffice for QMA ₁-Completeness

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