  Instantaneous quantum polynomial-time (IQP) computation is a class of quantum
computation consisting only of commuting two-qubit gates and is not universal
in the sense of standard quantum computation. Nevertheless, it has been shown
that if there is a classical algorithm that can simulate IQP efficiently, the
polynomial hierarchy (PH) collapses at the third level, which is highly
implausible. However, the origin of the classical intractability is still less
understood. Here we establish a relationship between IQP and computational
complexity of the partition functions of Ising models. We apply the established
relationship in two opposite directions. One direction is to find subclasses of
IQP that are classically efficiently simulatable in the strong sense, by using
exact solvability of certain types of Ising models. Another direction is
applying quantum computational complexity of IQP to investigate (im)possibility
of efficient classical approximations of Ising models with imaginary coupling
constants. Specifically, we show that there is no fully polynomial randomized
approximation scheme (FPRAS) for Ising models with almost all imaginary
coupling constants even on a planar graph of a bounded degree, unless the PH
collapses at the third level. Furthermore, we also show a multiplicative
approximation of such a class of Ising partition functions is at least as hard
as a multiplicative approximation for the output distribution of an arbitrary
quantum circuit.
