Quantum Query Complexity of Subgraph Isomorphism and Homomorphism

TL;DR

This paper establishes new lower bounds on the quantum query complexity for detecting subgraphs and homomorphisms in graphs, revealing that quantum algorithms require significantly more queries than previously known, especially for large graphs.

Contribution

It introduces novel quantum query complexity lower bounds for subgraph isomorphism and homomorphism problems, extending results to hypergraphs and improving existing bounds.

Findings

Quantum query complexity of subgraph isomorphism is at least ((\u03b1_H \u00d7 n))

Quantum query complexity for subgraph isomorphism is (n^{3/4}) for any fixed graph H

Extended bounds to 3-uniform hypergraphs, achieving (n^{4/5}) for isomorphism and (n^{3/2}) for homomorphism

Abstract

Let $H$ be a fixed graph on $n$ vertices. Let $f_H(G) = 1$ iff the input graph $G$ on $n$ vertices contains $H$ as a (not necessarily induced) subgraph. Let $\alpha_H$ denote the cardinality of a maximum independent set of $H$. In this paper we show: \[Q(f_H) = \Omega\left(\sqrt{\alpha_H \cdot n}\right),\] where $Q(f_H)$ denotes the quantum query complexity of $f_H$. As a consequence we obtain a lower bounds for $Q(f_H)$ in terms of several other parameters of $H$ such as the average degree, minimum vertex cover, chromatic number, and the critical probability. We also use the above bound to show that $Q(f_H) = \Omega(n^{3/4})$ for any $H$, improving on the previously best known bound of $\Omega(n^{2/3})$. Until very recently, it was believed that the quantum query complexity is at least square root of the randomized one. Our $\Omega(n^{3/4})$ bound for $Q(f_H)$ matches the square root of the current best known bound for the randomized query complexity of $f_H$, which is $\Omega(n^{3/2})$ due to Gr\"oger. Interestingly, the randomized bound of $\Omega(\alpha_H \cdot n)$ for $f_H$ still remains open. We also study the Subgraph Homomorphism Problem, denoted by $f_{[H]}$, and show that $Q(f_{[H]}) = \Omega(n)$. Finally we extend our results to the $3$-uniform hypergraphs. In particular, we show an $\Omega(n^{4/5})$ bound for quantum query complexity of the Subgraph Isomorphism, improving on the previously known $\Omega(n^{3/4})$ bound. For the Subgraph Homomorphism, we obtain an $\Omega(n^{3/2})$ bound for the same.