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Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.71

The Quantum Smooth Label Cover Problem Is Undecidable

Authors: Eric Culf, Kieran Mastel, Connor Paddock, and Taro Spirig

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

Abstract

We show that the quantum smooth label cover problem is undecidable and RE-hard. This sharply contrasts the quantum unique label cover problem, which can be decided efficiently by a result of Kempe, Regev, and Toner (FOCS'08). On the other hand, our result aligns with the RE-hardness of the quantum label cover problem, which follows from the celebrated MIP^* = RE result of Ji, Natarajan, Vidick, Wright, and Yuen (ACM'21). Additionally, we show that the quantum oracularized smooth label cover problem is RE-hard. Our second result fits with the alternative quantum unique games conjecture recently proposed by Mousavi and Spirig (ITCS'25) on the RE-hardness of the quantum oracularized unique label cover problem. Our proof techniques include a quantum version of Feige’s reduction from 3SAT to 3SAT5 (STOC'96) for BCS-MIP^*-protocols, which may be of independent interest.

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Eric Culf, Kieran Mastel, Connor Paddock, and Taro Spirig. The Quantum Smooth Label Cover Problem Is Undecidable. In 53rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 374, pp. 71:1-71:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{culf_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.71,
  author =	{Culf, Eric and Mastel, Kieran and Paddock, Connor and Spirig, Taro},
  title =	{{The Quantum Smooth Label Cover Problem Is Undecidable}},
  booktitle =	{53rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2026)},
  pages =	{71:1--71:23},
  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.2026.71},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-264602},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2026.71},
  annote =	{Keywords: Complexity Theory, Constraint Satisfaction Problems, Hardness of Approximation, Quantum Computing}
}

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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.76

A Quantum Unique Games Conjecture

Authors: Hamoon Mousavi and Taro Spirig

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 325, 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)

Abstract

After the NP-hardness of computational problems such as 3SAT and MaxCut was established, a natural next step was to explore whether these problems remain hard to approximate. While the quantum nonlocal games extensions of some of these problems are known to be hard - indeed undecidable - their inapproximability remains largely unresolved. In this work, we introduce definitions for the quantum extensions of Label-Cover and Unique-Label-Cover. We show that these problems play a similarly crucial role in studying the inapproximability of quantum constraint satisfaction problems as they do in the classical setting.

Cite as

Hamoon Mousavi and Taro Spirig. A Quantum Unique Games Conjecture. In 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 325, pp. 76:1-76:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{mousavi_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.76,
  author =	{Mousavi, Hamoon and Spirig, Taro},
  title =	{{A Quantum Unique Games Conjecture}},
  booktitle =	{16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)},
  pages =	{76:1--76:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-361-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{325},
  editor =	{Meka, Raghu},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.76},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-227047},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.76},
  annote =	{Keywords: hardness of approximation, quantum computing, noncommutative constraint satisfaction problems, Fourier analysis}
}

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Documents authored by Spirig, Taro

The Quantum Smooth Label Cover Problem Is Undecidable

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A Quantum Unique Games Conjecture

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