MIP∗= RE

Zhengfeng Ji, Anand Natarajan, Thomas Vidick, John Wright, Henry Yuen

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

The complexity class NP characterizes the collection of computational problems that have efficiently verifiable solutions. With the goal of classifying computational problems that seem to lie beyond NP, starting in the 1980s complexity theorists have considered extensions of the notion of efficient verification that allow for the use of randomness (the class MA), interaction (the class IP), and the possibility to interact with multiple proofs, or provers (the class MIP). The study of these extensions led to the celebrated PCP theorem and its applications to hardness of approximation and the design of cryptographic protocols.In this work, we study a fourth modification to the notion of efficient verification that originates in the study of quantum entanglement. We prove the surprising result that every problem that is recursively enumerable, including the Halting problem, can be efficiently verified by a classical probabilistic polynomial-time verifier interacting with two all-powerful but noncommunicating provers sharing entanglement. The result resolves long-standing open problems in the foundations of quantum mechanics (Tsirelson's problem) and operator algebras (Cowles' embedding problem).
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)131-138
Number of pages8
JournalCommunications of the ACM
Volume64
Issue number11
Early online date25 Oct 2021
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2021
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Computer Science

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