Quantum partially observable Markov decision processes

We present quantum observable Markov decision processes (QOMDPs), the quantum analogs of partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs). In a QOMDP, an agent is acting in a world where the state is represented as a quantum state and the agent can choose a superoperator to apply. This is sim...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Barry, Jennifer, Barry, Daniel T., Aaronson, Scott
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/89468
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1333-4045
Description
Summary:We present quantum observable Markov decision processes (QOMDPs), the quantum analogs of partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs). In a QOMDP, an agent is acting in a world where the state is represented as a quantum state and the agent can choose a superoperator to apply. This is similar to the POMDP belief state, which is a probability distribution over world states and evolves via a stochastic matrix. We show that the existence of a policy of at least a certain value has the same complexity for QOMDPs and POMDPs in the polynomial and infinite horizon cases. However, we also prove that the existence of a policy that can reach a goal state is decidable for goal POMDPs and undecidable for goal QOMDPs.