Quantum Formulas: a Lower Bound and Simulation

Abstract

We show that Nechiporuk's method for proving lower bounds for Boolean formulas can be extended to the quantum case. This leads to an $\Omega(n^2 / \log^2 n)$ lower bound for quantum formulas computing an explicit function. The only known previous explicit lower bound for quantum formulas states that the majority function does not have a linear-size quantum formula. We also show that quantum formulas can be simulated by Boolean circuits of almost the same size.