A Dichotomy for Boolean Complex Holant Problems with Conjugate-Closed Signature Sets

Abstract

We study Boolean Holant problems with complex-valued signature sets closed under conjugation. Such sets arise naturally in tensor-network expressions for classical strong simulation of quantum circuits. We prove a complexity dichotomy for such problems with an explicit tractability criterion. This extends the dichotomy for real-valued Holant problems, with the same four tractability conditions. Our proofs use Xia's projective binary group framework and quantum entanglement theory. The conjugate closure assumption precisely makes $k$-uniformity, directly applicable to the classification of Holant problems, by realizing reduced density matrices via Holant gadgets. We also use the classification of absolutely maximally entangled states to resolve a particular $6$-ary obstruction in our inductive proof of the \#P-hardness.

96 pages, 3 figures