A Polynomial Time Bounded-error Quantum Algorithm for Boolean Satisfiability

Abstract: The aim of the paper is to answer a long-standing open problem on the relationship between NP and BQP. The paper shows that BQP contains NP by proposing a BQP quantum algorithm for the MAX-E3-SAT problem which is a fundamental NP-hard problem. Given an E3-CNF Boolean formula, the aim of the MAX-E3-SAT problem is to find the variable assignment that maximizes the number of satisfied clauses. The proposed algorithm runs in $O(m^2)$ for an E3-CNF Boolean formula with $m$ clauses and in the worst case runs in $O(n^6)$ for an E3-CNF Boolean formula with $n$ inputs. The proposed algorithm maximizes the set of satisfied clauses using a novel iterative partial negation and partial measurement technique. The algorithm is shown to achieve an arbitrary high probability of success of $1-\epsilon$ for small $\epsilon>0$ using a polynomial resources. In addition to solving the MAX-E3-SAT problem, the proposed algorithm can also be used to decide if an E3-CNF Boolean formula is satisfiable or not, which is an NP-complete problem, based on the maximum number of satisfied clauses.