Paper 2026/1287

Towards a Doubly Efficient IP=PSPACE

Liyan Chen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Matthew M. Hong, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Yael Tauman Kalai, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Zoe Xi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract

We show that every language in PSPACE decidable by a Turing machine in time $T(n)=n^{O(\log n)}$ admits a doubly efficient interactive proof system: the prover runs in time polynomial in T(n), and the verifier runs in time polynomial in n. This extends the best previously known regime for such proof systems from $T(n)=n^{O(\sqrt{\log n / \log\log n})}$, established by Berger, Goyal, Hong, and Kalai (FOCS 2025), to $T(n)=n^{O(\log n)}$. Beyond improving the range of T, our protocol is substantially simpler than previous doubly efficient proofs for time-bounded PSPACE. Earlier constructions proceed indirectly: they first build batch interactive proofs and then invoke them as a black box to obtain doubly efficient protocols. In contrast, we give a direct construction. This not only simplifies the proof but also points to a more promising route for future improvements.

Metadata
Available format(s)
PDF
Category
Foundations
Publication info
Preprint.
Keywords
Doubly Efficient IP
Contact author(s)
cliyan @ mit edu
matthong @ mit edu
yaelism @ gmail com
zoexi @ mit edu
History
2026-06-22: approved
2026-06-19: received
See all versions
Short URL
https://ia.cr/2026/1287
License
Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2026/1287,
      author = {Liyan Chen and Matthew M. Hong and Yael Tauman Kalai and Zoe Xi},
      title = {Towards a Doubly Efficient {IP}={PSPACE}},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2026/1287},
      year = {2026},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2026/1287}
}
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