Write and for the classical quantum registers and . By the quantum mutual information formula , expanding the right-hand side of the quantum mutual information balance identity gives
All Von Neumann entropies here are evaluated in .
We use three facts: quantum mutual information is nonnegative by nonnegativity of quantum relative entropy; a local quantum channel cannot increase it by data processing for quantum mutual information; and the quantum mutual information of a classical-quantum state is its ensemble's Holevo quantity. Write for the Holevo capacity, the supremum of the output Holevo quantity over finite input ensembles.
The marginal is an output ensemble for , with inputs . Consequently . Also is obtained from by a quantum channel on which retains and prepares from . Hence
To bound the latter even for entangled states , exhibit the conditional input ensemble after a local measurement. Set
when ; zero-weight outcomes can be omitted. The numerator is a positive operator, its trace is , and the sum to one. Thus
This is a classical-quantum state with an output ensemble for , so . Combining these bounds with yields
The last step takes the supremum over all input ensembles on . The left-hand channel direction is , as established in part (i); the printed in the last inequality is a typographical reversal. Independent product ensembles also give the reverse inequality, so this proves Holevo-capacity additivity for entanglement-breaking channels.
Use the positive-exponent quantum Fourier transform convention . The period of a function here is the least positive translation leaving the function unchanged on the cyclic group . The injective promise means exactly when . In particular : the subgroup of period translations is generated by , and wrapping the argument by preserves its value. This is exact quantum period finding on a finite cyclic group, rather than the truncated, nondividing-period version requiring continued fractions.
Prepare a uniform superposition state in the first quantum register using , and perform a reversible computation of the function into a second quantum register, cleaning its workspace by uncomputation:
A quantum measurement in the computational basis of the second quantum register leaves a periodic coset state in the first:
For the quantum Fourier transform of this periodic coset state, the finite geometric series vanishes unless the measured label is . On those labels its normalized amplitude is . Thus has the uniform distribution on a finite set on , irrespective of .
Compute the greatest common divisor by the Euclidean algorithm, and set , with . Since ,
The exact period recovery from a Fourier sample is therefore certified by testing . Every candidate divides and lies between and , so the injective promise makes that equality equivalent to . This includes , where the test uses input , and , which always succeeds. The test does not assert that an arbitrary equality of function values certifies an arbitrary period; the Fourier-derived divisor restriction is essential.
The concise result is
Here is the Euler totient function, with . The totient lower bound from the Mertens product gives for . Each trial uses polynomial time quantum Fourier transforms, function evaluations and Euclidean algorithm arithmetic in . Repeating independent trials gives constant success probability; the herald accepts only correct answers.
The printed asymptotic bound has the wrong direction for this argument. In Big O notation, the stated upper bound on the number of coprime integers supplies no success lower bound and is itself false uniformly: for prime , , not . Likewise the single-trial success need not be , since it tends to one for prime. The meaningful corrected guarantee is the lower bound above. If an upper-bounded success rate is literally required, one may deliberately retain an accepted result with an independent probability proportional to ; this discards useful successes and is unnecessary for efficient recovery.
Apply the same positive-exponent quantum Fourier transform to each of the two quantum registers. The amplitude at of the coset state is
The finite geometric series is when and zero otherwise. Therefore
There are allowed pairs, with following the uniform distribution on a finite set. The factor changes the probability amplitudes by phases depending on the output label , but has no effect on their probabilities. Using an inverse rather than forward quantum Fourier transform on both quantum registers gives the same support relation.
A modular inverse of exists precisely when . In that case the discrete logarithm is
It cannot generally be determined from every allowed pair. Put . The supported linear congruence has solutions modulo , and determines only modulo ; gives no information when . For instance and are compatible with both and . One may verify a candidate by modular exponentiation, checking . Repeated discrete-logarithm Fourier sampling finds an invertible with per-trial probability , which has the same totient lower bound from the Mertens product as before. When , the group is trivial and are determined without Fourier samples.
Let be the unique discrete logarithm of the measured value , so that . The fiber calculation gives exactly the pairs with , where . The initial amplitude of each pair is , so the Born rule assigns probability to this outcome.
After projective measurement and normalization, the first two quantum registers are in the coset state
The measured third quantum register factors as and may be omitted. There is no loss of coherence between the terms in this post-measurement state: the quantum measurement reveals the common function value, not an individual input pair.
Interpret a function collision as two distinct inputs with equal outputs. Without distinctness the request is vacuous, since an input paired with itself always qualifies. Set (handling small by direct queries), choose a known set of size , and query all its inputs. Store a classical table of their outputs and corresponding inputs. If this table contains a function collision, return it immediately.
Otherwise the table contains distinct outputs. Because is exactly two-to-one, each has exactly one partner in , the known complement of . None lies in , and different table outputs have different partners. Thus exactly inputs in , of size , satisfy the known-table membership predicate
Build a marked-state phase oracle for this predicate by a compute-phase-uncompute construction: use on a clean answer quantum register, reversibly compare its output against the classical table, apply the conditional minus sign, undo the comparison, and apply again. Since the answer operation is bitwise exclusive or, . All workspace returns to zero, and each phase query costs two calls to .
Perform known-subset Grover search in the span of the computational basis states labelled by , starting in their uniform superposition state. Reflection about this known state uses no queries; choosing as an initial interval makes a known interval that can also be encoded by its own labels. Its marked fraction is , so the previous Grover rotation angle analysis uses phase queries. On measuring , one further query checks the output and retrieves its partner from the table. The inputs are distinct because the two sets are disjoint.
Consequently the quantum query complexity is
For large , rounding the optimal Grover search algorithm iteration count gives success at least . An internal table function collision already gives certain success. The balance explains the cube-root choice. This is the Brassard–Høyer–Tapp collision algorithm: its table uses classical bits. The bound counts calls to , as requested; it does not charge table lookup and its reversible implementation as constant-time gates, or claim an overall polynomial time in .
Use exact quantum phase estimation with control qubits initially and one target quantum register prepared in the given eigenvector . Apply Hadamard gates to the control qubits. If control bit has significance , apply a controlled unitary gate from that qubit to the target. The target stays in , while quantum phase kickback produces
Since , this is . The inverse quantum Fourier transform on the control quantum register therefore gives . The quantum measurement in the computational basis returns with certainty, so
The quantum circuit below reads left to right. The upper wires are control qubits, with least significant; the vertical ellipsis represents the intervening control wires and powers. The inverse quantum Fourier transform acts on the entire control quantum register, including any bit-order permutations.
Figure 1.
Quantum phase estimation and spectral filtering
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A supplied controlled- can implement controlled- by repetitions with the same control. Hence this exact quantum circuit uses calls to the supplied controlled-, unless controlled powers are additionally available cheaply. The cost of exact phase estimation on a dyadic spectrum is not automatically polynomial in ; the question asks for an exact algorithm, not that stronger complexity guarantee. Exactness also uses the promised dyadic eigenphase, ideal gates, and the supplied inverse quantum Fourier transform.
Apply to the data and phase quantum registers, leaving the flag quantum ancilla untouched. This inverse needs no extra oracle assumption: the promised dyadic eigenvalues give , hence . The inverse of each controlled unitary gate used in can therefore be built from repeated uses of the supplied controlled-, and the known Hadamard gates and quantum Fourier transform gates can be reversed. Uncomputation is necessary to erase the eigenvalue label coherently. The resulting quantum state is
A quantum measurement in the computational basis of the flag followed by postselection on one yields
This requires . For a normalized input and nonnegative eigenvalues, the success probability of positive quantum spectral filtering satisfies . In the general inequality, equality holds precisely when the input is supported on the minimum-eigenvalue eigenspace. Omitting uncomputation and discarding the phase quantum register would instead leave a mixed state with diagonal weights proportional to , rather than the desired coherent pure state.
The printed universal nonzero-success request needs a nonkernel-input hypothesis. An -qubit Hermitian operator has eigenvalues, counted with multiplicity. All are distinct, and the printed dyadic grid contains exactly possible values. They therefore occupy the entire grid, including zero: this is a multiplicity-free complete dyadic spectrum, and . Taking , , and satisfies every printed spectral promise but gives . No normalized output vector exists, so no algorithm can deliver it with nonzero probability.
For every input outside the kernel, the procedure above has , giving the requested strict bound on the meaningful domain. The corrected result is therefore exact quantum spectral filtering conditional on , with the boxed probability. This does not require knowing the input probability amplitudes or making extra copies of an unknown quantum state. Arbitrarily small nonzero support outside the kernel gives arbitrarily small success probability, and a failed flag measurement disturbs the input; fresh independent trials cannot be assumed when only one unknown physical input is supplied.
Let denote the coherent exact quantum phase estimation unitary operator from the preceding part, with the data quantum register written first. For every eigenvector of ,
because and lies in , with no phase-aliasing ambiguity. Apply coherently to the input quantum state and a clean quantum register; do not measure the eigenvalue label. By linearity it produces .
Append a quantum ancilla in , and use the provided quantum variable rotation with , choosing the nonnegative cosine. The resulting normalized quantum state is
The sum covers both terms; this fixes the potentially ambiguous sum placement in the abbreviated display. The orthonormal basis of eigenvectors and the unit length of each rotated quantum ancilla show that its norm is one. This is quantum spectral filtering by multiplication, not the reciprocal rotation used in the HHL algorithm.
Quantum collision finding 2026-10-06
Given a function with an -bit output, accessed through the unitary operator , quantum collision finding asks for distinct inputs with equal outputs. Here is bitwise exclusive or on the -bit answer quantum register. The distinctness requirement excludes the uninformative pair . For a two-to-one function on inputs, Grover search algorithm methods yield a cube-root quantum query complexity, despite a square-root cost for finding a partner of just one preselected input.