Dissipative Quantum Multiplicative Weights with Sampling Feedback: A Classically Hard Primitive Realized via Engineered Open-System Dynamics

Abstract

We introduce \emph{Dissipative Quantum Multiplicative Weights with Sampling Feedback} (DQMW-Sample), an online-learning primitive in which engineered open quantum-system dynamics prepare a Gibbs state whose computational-basis measurement supplies the loss feedback. The central conceptual contribution is to lift the computational hardness of constant-temperature Gibbs sampling into a physically realizable online-learning primitive. By engineering a Davies-type dissipator whose per-round feedback cannot be efficiently simulated classically, we obtain a learning-theoretic separation in which DQMW-Sample achieves asymptotically sublinear regret while every efficient classical learner suffers constant average regret on a suitably constructed instance. We further prove that the spectral gap of the engineered dissipator contracts hardware noise, yielding sublinear noise-induced regret under a balanced dissipation schedule, and we strengthen the single-round hardness to the full adaptive interaction: an efficient classical simulator of the entire $T$-round feedback process would collapse the polynomial hierarchy. We state the required realizability assumption in explicit form and report an initial hardware characterization on the IBM Heron~r2 processor. These results position DQMW-Sample as a concrete route toward computational advantage in online learning that is grounded in complexity theory and compatible with near-term superconducting hardware.