Quantum Communication Complexity of Distributed Set Joins

TL;DR

This paper explores the quantum communication complexity of distributed set joins, presenting a quantum protocol that outperforms classical methods for sparse matrix products and establishing bounds for matrix multiplication over finite fields.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum protocol for distributed Boolean matrix multiplication with improved communication bounds and relates set join complexity to direct product theorems in communication complexity.

Findings

Quantum protocol reduces communication for sparse matrix multiplication.

Quantum lower bounds match classical upper bounds over finite fields.

Connections established between set join complexity and direct product theorems.

Abstract

Computing set joins of two inputs is a common task in database theory. Recently, Van Gucht, Williams, Woodruff and Zhang [PODS 2015] considered the complexity of such problems in the natural model of (classical) two-party communication complexity and obtained tight bounds for the complexity of several important distributed set joins. In this paper we initiate the study of the *quantum* communication complexity of distributed set joins. We design a quantum protocol for distributed Boolean matrix multiplication, which corresponds to computing the composition join of two databases, showing that the product of two $n\times n$ Boolean matrices, each owned by one of two respective parties, can be computed with $\widetilde{O}(\sqrt{n}\ell^{3/4})$ qubits of communication, where $\ell$ denotes the number of non-zero entries of the product. Since Van Gucht et al. showed that the classical communication complexity of this problem is $\widetilde{\Theta}(n\sqrt{\ell})$, our quantum algorithm outperforms classical protocols whenever the output matrix is sparse. We also show a quantum lower bound and a matching classical upper bound on the communication complexity of distributed matrix multiplication over $\mathbb{F}_2$. Besides their applications to database theory, the communication complexity of set joins is interesting due to its connections to direct product theorems in communication complexity. In this work we also introduce a notion of *all-pairs* product theorem, and relate this notion to standard direct product theorems in communication complexity.