Quantum boolean functions

Abstract: In this paper we introduce the study of quantum boolean functions, which are unitary operators f whose square is the identity: f^2 = I. We describe several generalisations of well-known results in the theory of boolean functions, including quantum property testing; a quantum version of the Goldreich-Levin algorithm for finding the large Fourier coefficients of boolean functions; and two quantum versions of a theorem of Friedgut, Kalai and Naor on the Fourier spectra of boolean functions. In order to obtain one of these generalisations, we prove a quantum extension of the hypercontractive inequality of Bonami, Gross and Beckner.