On the Pure Quantum Polynomial Hierarchy and Quantified Hamiltonian Complexity

Abstract: We prove several new results concerning the pure quantum polynomial hierarchy (pureQPH). First, we show that QMA(2) is contained in pureQSigma2, that is, two unentangled existential provers can be simulated by competing existential and universal provers. We further prove that pureQSigma2 is contained in QSigma3, which in turn is contained in NEXP. Second, we give an error reduction result for pureQPH, and, as a consequence, prove that pureQPH = QPH. A key ingredient in this result is an improved dimension-independent disentangler. Finally, we initiate the study of quantified Hamiltonian complexity, the quantum analogue of quantified Boolean formulae. We prove that the quantified pure sparse Hamiltonian problem is pureQSigma-complete. By contrast, other natural variants (pure/local, mixed/local, and mixed/sparse) admit nontrivial containments but fail to be complete under known techniques. For example, we show that the exists-forall mixed local Hamiltonian problem lies in NP^QMA \cap coNP^QMA.