Quantum algorithms for solvable groups

  • Authors:
  • John Watrous

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

  • Venue:
  • STOC '01 Proceedings of the thirty-third annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing
  • Year:
  • 2001

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Abstract

In this paper we give a polynomial-time quantum algorithm for computing orders of solvable groups. Several other problems, such as testing membership in solvable groups, testing equality of subgroups in a given solvable group, and testing normality of a subgroup in a given solvable group, reduce to computing orders of solvable groups and therefore admit polynomial-time quantum algorithms as well. Our algorithm works in the setting of black-box groups, wherein none of these problems have polynomial-time classical algorithms. As an important byproduct, our algorithm is able to produce a pure quantum state that is uniform over the elements in any chosen subgroup of a solvable group, which yields a natural way to apply existing quantum algorithms to factor groups of solvable groups.