Bounds on Dimension Reduction in the Nuclear Norm

Abstract

For all n ≥ 1, we give an explicit construction of m × m matrices A_1,…,A_n with m = 2^([n/2]) such that for any d and d × d matrices A′_1,…,A′_n that satisfy ∥A_′i−A′_j∥S_1 ≤ ∥A_i−A_j∥S_1 ≤ (1+δ)∥A′_i−A′_j∥S_1 for all i,j∈{1,…,n} and small enough δ = O(n^(−c)), where c > 0 is a universal constant, it must be the case that d ≥ 2^([n/2]−1). This stands in contrast to the metric theory of commutative ℓ_p spaces, as it is known that for any p ≥ 1, any n points in ℓ_p embed exactly in ℓ^d_p for d = n(n−1)/2. Our proof is based on matrices derived from a representation of the Clifford algebra generated by n anti-commuting Hermitian matrices that square to identity, and borrows ideas from the analysis of nonlocal games in quantum information theory.

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