A quantum lower bound for the collision problem

Abstract

We extend Shi's 2002 quantum lower bound for collision in $r$-to-one functions with $n$ inputs. Shi's bound of $\Omega((n/r)^{1/3})$ is tight, but his proof applies only in the case where the range has size at least $3n/2$. We give a modified version of Shi's argument which removes this restriction.