Direct Sum Theorem for Bounded Round Quantum Communication Complexity

We prove a direct sum theorem for bounded round entanglement-assisted quantum communication complexity. To do so, we use the fully quantum definition for information cost and complexity that we recently introduced, and use both the fact that information is a lower bound on communication, and the fact that a direct sum property holds for quantum information complexity. We then give a protocol for compressing a single copy of a protocol down to its quantum information cost, up to terms depending on the number of rounds and the allowed increase in error. Two important tools to derive this protocol are a smooth conditional min-entropy bound for a oneshot quantum state redistribution protocol, and the quantum substate theorem of Jain, Radhakrishnan and Sen (FOCS’02) to transform this bound into a von Neumann conditional entropy bound. This result further establishes the newly introduced notions of quantum information cost and complexity as the correct quantum generalisations of the classical ones in the standard communication complexity setting. Finding such a quantum generalisation of information complexity was one of the open problem recently raised by Braverman (STOC’12).