Hardness of correcting errors on a Stabilizer code

Pavithran Iyer, Ma trise En Physique, Superviseur: David Poulin, Universit e de Sherbrooke Seminaire de Ma trise, November 25th , 2013

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Easy and hard problems in computer science

Some problems are easy we can solve them eciently: Ex. Arithmetic operations, . . . P: All problems that can be solved in polynomial-time (polynomial in input size)

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Easy and hard problems in computer science

Some problems are easy we can solve them eciently: Ex. Arithmetic operations, . . . P: All problems that can be solved in polynomial-time (polynomial in input size)

Often, we do not have an ecient solution. But we can verify any proposal in poly-time.

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Easy and hard problems in computer science

Some problems are easy we can solve them eciently: Ex. Arithmetic operations, . . . P: All problems that can be solved in polynomial-time (polynomial in input size)

Often, we do not have an ecient solution. But we can verify any proposal in poly-time. NP: All problems such that any certicate (proposal) can be veried in polynomial-time.

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Easy and hard problems in computer science

Some problems are easy we can solve them eciently: Ex. Arithmetic operations, . . . P: All problems that can be solved in polynomial-time (polynomial in input size)

Often, we do not have an ecient solution. But we can verify any proposal in poly-time. NP: All problems such that any certicate (proposal) can be veried in polynomial-time. Some problems need a lot of eort if we can solve them, we can solve any NP problem.

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Easy and hard problems in computer science

Some problems are easy we can solve them eciently: Ex. Arithmetic operations, . . . P: All problems that can be solved in polynomial-time (polynomial in input size)

Often, we do not have an ecient solution. But we can verify any proposal in poly-time. NP: All problems such that any certicate (proposal) can be veried in polynomial-time. Some problems need a lot of eort if we can solve them, we can solve any NP problem. NP-Complete: Problems whose solution can be used to solve any NP problem in poly-time.

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Easy and hard problems in computer science

Some problems are easy we can solve them eciently: Ex. Arithmetic operations, . . . P: All problems that can be solved in polynomial-time (polynomial in input size)

Often, we do not have an ecient solution. But we can verify any proposal in poly-time. NP: All problems such that any certicate (proposal) can be veried in polynomial-time. Some problems need a lot of eort if we can solve them, we can solve any NP problem. NP-Complete: Problems whose solution can be used to solve any NP problem in poly-time. Sometimes we are not happy with just one solution . . . want to know how many are there ?

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Easy and hard problems in computer science

Some problems are easy we can solve them eciently: Ex. Arithmetic operations, . . . P: All problems that can be solved in polynomial-time (polynomial in input size)

Often, we do not have an ecient solution. But we can verify any proposal in poly-time. NP: All problems such that any certicate (proposal) can be veried in polynomial-time. Some problems need a lot of eort if we can solve them, we can solve any NP problem. NP-Complete: Problems whose solution can be used to solve any NP problem in poly-time. Sometimes we are not happy with just one solution . . . want to know how many are there ? #P (sharp-p): All problems that involve counting solutions to a NP problem.
#P-Complete: Problems whose solution can be used to solve any #P problem in polynomial-time.
Pavithran Iyer Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Hard problems in physics

Given the hamiltonian H = J
<i,j> Si

Sj , what is the ground state of the system ?

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Hard problems in physics

Given the hamiltonian H = J
<i,j> Si

Sj , what is the ground state of the system ?

All spins aligned up or down.

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Hard problems in physics

Given the hamiltonian H = J
<i,j> Si

Sj , what is the ground state of the system ?

All spins aligned up or down.

Problems in P can be solved exactly on a computer, in polynomial time.

Pavithran Iyer Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Hard problems in physics

Given H = J
<i,j> Si

Sj

i hi Si ,

is there a state of the system with energy E ?

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Hard problems in physics

Given H = J
<i,j> Si

Sj

i hi Si ,

is there a state of the system with energy E ? Too many states for brute force search !

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Hard problems in physics

Given H = J
<i,j> Si

Sj

i hi Si ,

is there a state of the system with energy E ? Too many states for brute force search ! Given a claim for a state, we can verify if its energy E ! Problem NP

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Hard problems in physics

Given H = J
<i,j> Si

Sj

i hi Si ,

is there a state of the system with energy E ? Too many states for brute force search ! Given a claim for a state, we can verify if its energy E ! Problem NP In fact, if we can solve this, we can use the solver as a subroutine to solve any NP problem ! NP-Complete
[F Barahona, 1982, J. Phys. A: 15, 3241]

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Hard problems in physics

Given H = J
<i,j> Si

Sj

i hi Si ,

is there a state of the system with energy E ? Too many states for brute force search ! Given a claim for a state, we can verify if its energy E ! Problem NP In fact, if we can solve this, we can use the solver as a subroutine to solve any NP problem ! NP-Complete
[F Barahona, 1982, J. Phys. A: 15, 3241]

It is believed that NP-Complete problems cannot be solved in polynomial time.

Pavithran Iyer Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Really hard problems in physics

Given H = J
<i,j> Si

Sj

i hi Si ,

compute the partition function: Z ( ) = ?

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Really hard problems in physics

Given H = J
<i,j> Si

Sj

i hi Si ,

compute the partition function: Z ( ) = ? Z = A 1 e 1 + A 2 e 2 + A 3 e 3 + . . . A how many states have energy

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Really hard problems in physics

Given H = J
<i,j> Si

Sj

i hi Si ,

compute the partition function: Z ( ) = ? Z = A 1 e 1 + A 2 e 2 + A 3 e 3 + . . . A how many states have energy We are now counting solutions to the previous NP problem problem #P

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Really hard problems in physics

Given H = J
<i,j> Si

Sj

i hi Si ,

compute the partition function: Z ( ) = ? Z = A 1 e 1 + A 2 e 2 + A 3 e 3 + . . . A how many states have energy We are now counting solutions to the previous NP problem problem #P If we can solve this, we can solve many more hopelessly hard counting problems in computer science ! #P-Complete
[Goldberg: SIAM J. Com, 39(7), 33363402]

Pavithran Iyer

Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes

Really hard problems in physics

Given H = J
<i,j> Si

Sj

i hi Si ,

compute the partition function: Z ( ) = ? Z = A 1 e 1 + A 2 e 2 + A 3 e 3 + . . . A how many states have energy We are now counting solutions to the previous NP problem problem #P If we can solve this, we can solve many more hopelessly hard counting problems in computer science ! #P-Complete
[Goldberg: SIAM J. Com, 39(7), 33363402]

It is strongly believed that #P-Complete problems cannot be solved in polynomial time.

Pavithran Iyer Hardness of decoding stabilizer codes