Oracle Separations in the Fourier Hierarchy

Abstract: The Fourier hierarchy $$\mathrm{FH}<em>0\subseteq\mathrm{FH}_1\subseteq\mathrm{FH}_2\subseteq\cdots$$, introduced by Shi (TCS 2005), measures a quantum computation by the number of Hadamard layers it uses. Between two layers the circuit may permute basis states and attach phases, but it may not create superposition; the layers are its only source of interference. The first level is exactly $\mathrm{BPP}$, while the second already solves Simon's problem and, through phase estimation, factors integers. Shi conjectured that every additional layer strictly increases computational power, and asked, as a first step, for oracle separations between consecutive levels. To our knowledge, the question was open at every level $k\ge2$. We prove that for every constant $k\ge2$ there is an oracle relative to which $\mathrm{FH}_k\subsetneq\mathrm{FH}</em>{k+1}$. The separating problem is built from Forrelation (Aaronson and Ambainis, STOC 2015): the level above solves it with a constant number of queries, whereas at level $k$ it stays hard even for circuits making exponentially many queries. This holds for both of the usual ways of giving a circuit access to an oracle, the phase oracle and the standard oracle, which writes its answer into a register. The two are not interchangeable: relative to an oracle, the standard oracle is strictly more powerful at the same number of layers. We also separate the union of all the levels from $\mathrm{BQP}$ relative to an oracle. The lower bounds rest on a structural property of the hierarchy: the number of Hadamard layers limits how adaptively a circuit can query its oracle. With a phase oracle, a circuit with $k$ layers is reproduced exactly by an algorithm making only $k-1$ rounds of parallel queries, which brings known lower bounds for such algorithms to bear. The standard oracle lets a circuit branch on earlier answers, and that case needs a separate argument.