Plethysm is in #BQP

2026-02-09

AI Summary

This work investigates the computational complexity of representation-theoretic multiplicities—specifically, plethysm coefficients—and aims to determine whether they belong to the quantum complexity class #BQP. By introducing an improved Schur transform with optimized dependence on local dimension and combining it with tailored quantum circuit constructions and classical complexity analysis, we develop a unified framework that, for the first time, places general plethysm coefficients within #BQP. This framework not only subsumes and simplifies prior quantum complexity results for both Kronecker and plethysm coefficients but also establishes that all known special cases lie in #BQP and, moreover, in GapP. Additionally, when relevant parameters are fixed, we provide corresponding polynomial-time classical algorithms.

Technology Category

• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Computational Complexity of Reasoning
• Machine Learning: Quantum Machine Learning
• Constraint Satisfaction and Optimization: Satisfiability Modulo Theories

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Applications of cryptography
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Representation, reconstruction, and subgraph or motif discovery in Web-related graphs
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web query analysis, representation and understanding

Abstract

Some representation-theoretic multiplicities, such as the Kostka and the Littlewood-Richardson coefficients, admit a combinatorial interpretation that places their computation in the complexity class #P. Whether this holds more generally is considered an important open problem in mathematics and computer science, with relevance for geometric complexity theory and quantum information. Recent work has investigated the quantum complexity of particular multiplicities, such as the Kronecker coefficients and certain special cases of the plethysm coefficients. Here, we show that a broad class of representation-theoretic multiplicities is in #BQP. In particular, our result implies that the plethysm coefficients are in #BQP, which was only known in special cases. It also implies all known results on the quantum complexity of previously studied coefficients as special cases, unifying, simplifying, and extending prior work. We obtain our result by multiple applications of the Schur transform. Recent work has improved its dependence on the local dimension, which is crucial for our work. We further describe a general approach for showing that representation-theoretic multiplicities are in #BQP that captures our approach as well as the approaches of prior work. We complement the above by showing that the same multiplicities are also naturally in GapP and obtain polynomial-time classical algorithms when certain parameters are fixed.

Problem

• plethysm
• representation theory
• computational complexity
• quantum complexity
• multiplicities

Innovation

• #BQP
• plethysm coefficients
• Schur transform
• representation-theoretic multiplicities
• quantum complexity