publications

2026

1. STOC2026

   On the Need for (Quantum) Memory with Short Outputs

   Zihan Hao, Zikuan Huang, and Qipeng Liu

   Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, 2026

   Abs

   In this work, we establish the first separation between computation with bounded and unbounded space, for problems with short outputs (i.e., working memory can be exponentially larger than output size), both in the classical and the quantum setting. Towards that, we introduce a problem called nested collision finding, and show that optimal query complexity can not be achieved, if one has much smaller memory comparing to the optimal algorithm.

2. Eurocrypt2026

   Copy-Protection from UPO, Revisited

   Prabhanjan Ananth, Amit Berhera, Zikuan Huang, Fuyuki Kitagawa, and Takashi Yamakawa

   Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, 2026

   Abs Eprint

   Quantum copy-protection is a functionality-preserving compiler that transforms a classical program into an unclonable quantum program. This primitive has emerged as a foundational topic in quantum cryptography, with significant recent developments. However, characterizing the functionalities that can be copy-protected is still an active and ongoing research direction. Assuming the existence of indistinguishability obfuscation and learning with errors, we show the existence of copy-protection for a variety of classes of functionalities, including puncturable cryptographic functionalities and subclasses of evasive functionalities. This strictly improves upon prior works, which were either based on the existence of heuristic assumptions [Ananth and Behera CRYPTO’24] or were based on the classical oracle model [Coladangelo and Gunn STOC’24]. Moreover, our constructions satisfy a new and much stronger security definition compared to the ones studied in the prior works. To design copy-protection, we follow the blueprint of constructing copy-protection from unclonable puncturable obfuscation (UPO) [Ananth and Behera CRYPTO’24] and present a new construction of UPO by leveraging the recently introduced techniques from [Kitagawa and Yamakawa TCC’25].

2024

1. TCC2024

   Quantum Key-Revocable Dual-Regev Encryption, Revisited

   Prabhanjan Ananth, Zihan Hu, and Zikuan Huang

   Theory of Cryptography Conference, 2024

   Abs DOI Eprint

   

   Quantum information can be used to achieve novel cryptographic primitives that are impossible to achieve classically. A recent work by Ananth, Poremba, Vaikuntanathan (TCC 2023) focuses on equipping the dual-Regev encryption scheme, introduced by Gentry, Peikert, Vaikuntanathan (STOC 2008), with key revocation capabilities using quantum information. They further showed that the key-revocable dual-Regev scheme implies the existence of fully homomorphic encryption and pseudorandom functions, with both of them also equipped with key revocation capabilities. Unfortunately, they were only able to prove the security of their schemes based on new conjectures and left open the problem of basing the security of key revocable dual-Regev encryption on well-studied assumptions. In this work, we resolve this open problem. Assuming polynomial hardness of learning with errors (over sub-exponential modulus), we show that key-revocable dual-Regev encryption is secure. As a consequence, for the first time, we achieve the following results: (1) Key-revocable public-key encryption and key-revocable fully-homomorphic encryption satisfying classical revocation security and based on polynomial hardness of learning with errors. Prior works either did not achieve classical revocation or were based on sub-exponential hardness of learning with errors. (2) Key-revocable pseudorandom functions satisfying classical revocation from the polynomial hardness of learning with errors. Prior works relied upon unproven conjectures.