A classical oracle separation between QMA and QMA(2)
quant-ph
Submitted: 2026-10-05
Updated: 2026-10-05
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
The gist: We exhibit a classical oracle relative to which QMA not equal to QMA(2).
Abstract
We exhibit a classical oracle relative to which QMA not equal to QMA(2). The separation is based on a separable Hamiltonian problem defined by signed edge constraints on a graph. The YES instances have zero-energy product states, while the NO instances, constructed using the antisymmetric subspace, have entangled zero-energy states but no low-energy product states. For the QMA lower bound, we use compressed-oracle techniques to track the information learned by a quantum computation making few queries to a YES instance. The key step is to map the resulting superpositions of partial oracle records to the NO family without significantly changing the verifier's behavior.
Sources
- No low-degree tests for quantum states
- Non-Standard Oracles for Bounded-Error Complexity Classes
- Quantum Merlin-Arthur with an internally separable proof
- Compressed Permutation Oracles
- Unentanglement and Post-Measurement Branching in Quantum Interactive Proofs
- MIP*=RE
- QMA vs. QCMA and Pseudorandomness
- Achieving perfect completeness for one- and two-message quantum proof systems
- A distribution testing oracle separation between QMA and QCMA
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