# Superposition as memory: unlocking quantum automatic complexity

## TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum superpositions can encode memory in automata, demonstrating that certain quantum states can recognize specific sequences with minimal resources, unlike classical automata.

## Contribution

It introduces the semi-classical quantum automatic complexity $Q_s(x)$, showing its unboundedness and differences from classical automata, and applies the Jordan--Schur lemma to quantum lock limitations.

## Key findings

- Quantum superpositions encode memory without additional states.
- Quantum automata can recognize specific sequences with bounded complexity.
- Classical automata cannot replicate the quantum lock for large sequences.

## Abstract

Imagine a lock with two states, "locked" and "unlocked", which may be manipulated using two operations, called 0 and 1. Moreover, the only way to (with certainty) unlock using four operations is to do them in the sequence 0011, i.e., $0^n1^n$ where $n=2$. In this scenario one might think that the lock needs to be in certain further states after each operation, so that there is some memory of what has been done so far. Here we show that this memory can be entirely encoded in superpositions of the two basic states "locked" and "unlocked", where, as dictated by quantum mechanics, the operations are given by unitary matrices. Moreover, we show using the Jordan--Schur lemma that a similar lock is not possible for $n=60$. We define the semi-classical quantum automatic complexity $Q_{s}(x)$ of a word $x$ as the infimum in lexicographic order of those pairs of nonnegative integers $(n,q)$ such that there is a subgroup $G$ of the projective unitary group PU$(n)$ with $|G|\le q$ and with $U_0,U_1\in G$ such that, in terms of a standard basis $\{e_k\}$ and with $U_z=\prod_k U_{z(k)}$, we have $U_x e_1=e_2$ and $U_y e_1 \ne e_2$ for all $y\ne x$ with $|y|=|x|$. We show that $Q_s$ is unbounded and not constant for strings of a given length. In particular, \[ Q_{s}(0^21^2)\le (2,12) < (3,1) \le Q_{s}(0^{60}1^{60}) \] and $Q_s(0^{120})\le (2,121)$.