67 Search Results for "Lipton, Richard J."


Document
On the p-adic Skolem Problem

Authors: Piotr Bacik, Joël Ouaknine, David Purser, and James Worrell

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 364, 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)


Abstract
The Skolem Problem asks to determine whether a given linear recurrence sequence (LRS) has a zero term. Showing decidability of this problem is equivalent to giving an effective proof of the Skolem-Mahler-Lech Theorem, which asserts that a non-degenerate LRS has finitely many zeros. The latter result was proven over 90 years ago via an ineffective method showing that such an LRS has only finitely many p-adic zeros. In this paper we consider the problem of determining whether a given LRS has a p-adic zero, as well as the corresponding function problem of computing exact representations of all p-adic zeros. We present algorithms for both problems and report on their implementation. The output of the algorithms is unconditionally correct, and termination is guaranteed subject to the p-adic Schanuel Conjecture (a standard number-theoretic hypothesis concerning the p-adic exponential function). While these algorithms do not solve the Skolem Problem, they can be exploited to find natural-number and rational zeros under additional hypotheses. To illustrate this, we apply our results to show decidability of the Simultaneous Skolem Problem (determine whether two coprime linear recurrences have a common natural-number zero), again subject to the p-adic Schanuel Conjecture.

Cite as

Piotr Bacik, Joël Ouaknine, David Purser, and James Worrell. On the p-adic Skolem Problem. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 8:1-8:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{bacik_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.8,
  author =	{Bacik, Piotr and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Purser, David and Worrell, James},
  title =	{{On the p-adic Skolem Problem}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-412-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{364},
  editor =	{Mahajan, Meena and Manea, Florin and McIver, Annabelle and Thắng, Nguy\~{ê}n Kim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-254979},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: Skolem Problem, p-adic Schanuel Conjecture, Skolem Conjecture, Exponential Local-Global Principle, exponential polynomial}
}
Document
Conditional Complexity Hardness: Monotone Circuit Size, Matrix Rigidity, and Tensor Rank

Authors: Nikolai Chukhin, Alexander S. Kulikov, Ivan Mihajlin, and Arina Smirnova

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 364, 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)


Abstract
Proving complexity lower bounds remains a challenging task: currently, we only know how to prove conditional uniform (algorithm) lower bounds and nonuniform (circuit) lower bounds in restricted circuit models. About a decade ago, Williams (STOC 2010) showed how to derive nonuniform lower bounds from uniform upper bounds: roughly, by designing a fast algorithm for checking satisfiability of circuits, one gets a lower bound for this circuit class. Since then, a number of results of this kind have been proved. For example, Jahanjou et al. (ICALP 2015) and Carmosino et al. (ITCS 2016) proved that if NSETH fails, then E^{NP} has series-parallel circuit size ω(n). One can also derive nonuniform lower bounds from nondeterministic uniform lower bounds. Perhaps the most well-known example is the Karp-Lipton theorem (STOC 1980): if Σ₂ ≠ Π₂, then NP ⊄ P/poly. Some recent examples include the following. Nederlof (STOC 2020) proved a lower bound on the matrix multiplication tensor rank under an assumption that TSP cannot be solved faster than in 2ⁿ time. Belova et al. (SODA 2024) proved that there exists an explicit polynomial family of arithmetic circuit size Ω(n^{δ}), for any δ > 0, assuming that MAX-3-SAT cannot be solved faster than in 2ⁿ nondeterministic time. Williams (FOCS 2024) proved an exponential lower bound for ETHR ∘ ETHR circuits under the Orthogonal Vectors conjecture. Whereas all the lower bounds above are proved under strong assumptions that might eventually be refuted, the revealed connections are of great interest and may still give further insights: one may be able to weaken the used assumptions or to construct generators from other fine-grained reductions. In this paper, we continue developing this line of research and show how uniform nondeterministic lower bounds can be used to construct generators of various types of combinatorial objects that are notoriously hard to analyze: Boolean functions of high circuit size, matrices of high rigidity, and tensors of high rank. Specifically, we prove the following. - If, for some ε and k, k-SAT cannot be solved in input-oblivious co-nondeterministic time O(2^{(1/2+ε)n}), then there exists a monotone Boolean function family in coNP of monotone circuit size 2^{Ω(n / log n)}. Combining this with the result above, we get win-win circuit lower bounds: either E^{NP{}} requires series-parallel circuits of size ω(n) or coNP requires monotone circuits of size 2^{Ω(n / log n)}. - If, for all ε > 0, MAX-3-SAT cannot be solved in co-nondeterministic time O(2^{(1 - ε)n}), then there exist small families of matrices with rigidity exceeding the best known constructions as well as small families of three-dimensional tensors of rank n^{1+Δ}, for some Δ > 0.

Cite as

Nikolai Chukhin, Alexander S. Kulikov, Ivan Mihajlin, and Arina Smirnova. Conditional Complexity Hardness: Monotone Circuit Size, Matrix Rigidity, and Tensor Rank. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 28:1-28:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{chukhin_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.28,
  author =	{Chukhin, Nikolai and Kulikov, Alexander S. and Mihajlin, Ivan and Smirnova, Arina},
  title =	{{Conditional Complexity Hardness: Monotone Circuit Size, Matrix Rigidity, and Tensor Rank}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{28:1--28:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-412-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{364},
  editor =	{Mahajan, Meena and Manea, Florin and McIver, Annabelle and Thắng, Nguy\~{ê}n Kim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.28},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255177},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.28},
  annote =	{Keywords: computational complexity, circuit complexity, lower bounds, conditional lower bounds, monotone circuits, matrix rigidity, tensor rank, arithmetic circuits, fine-grained complexity}
}
Document
Dimension-Free Correlated Sampling for the Hypersimplex

Authors: Joseph (Seffi) Naor, Nitya Raju, Abhishek Shetty, Aravind Srinivasan, Renata Valieva, and David Wajc

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
Sampling from multiple distributions so as to maximize overlap has been studied by statisticians since the 1950s. Since the 2000s, such correlated sampling from the probability simplex has been a powerful building block in disparate areas of theoretical computer science. We study a generalization of this problem to sampling sets from given vectors in the hypersimplex, i.e., outputting sets of size (at most) k ∈ [n], while maximizing the overlap of the sampled sets. Specifically, the expected difference between two output sets should be at most α times their input vectors' 𝓁₁ distance. A value of α = O(log n) is known to be achievable, due to Chen et al. (ICALP'17). We improve this factor to O(log k), independent of the ambient dimension n. Our algorithm satisfies other desirable properties, including (up to a log^* n factor) input-sparsity sampling time, logarithmic parallel depth and dynamic update time, as well as preservation of submodular objectives. Anticipating broader use of correlated sampling algorithms for the hypersimplex, we present applications of our algorithm to online paging, offline approximation of metric multi-labeling, and swift multi-scenario submodular welfare approximating reallocation.

Cite as

Joseph (Seffi) Naor, Nitya Raju, Abhishek Shetty, Aravind Srinivasan, Renata Valieva, and David Wajc. Dimension-Free Correlated Sampling for the Hypersimplex. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 104:1-104:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{naor_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.104,
  author =	{Naor, Joseph (Seffi) and Raju, Nitya and Shetty, Abhishek and Srinivasan, Aravind and Valieva, Renata and Wajc, David},
  title =	{{Dimension-Free Correlated Sampling for the Hypersimplex}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{104:1--104:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.104},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253918},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.104},
  annote =	{Keywords: Correlated Rounding, Dependent Rounding}
}
Document
On Closure Properties of Read-Once Oblivious Algebraic Branching Programs

Authors: Robert Andrews, Jules Armand, Prateek Dwivedi, Magnus Rahbek Dalgaard Hansen, Nutan Limaye, Srikanth Srinivasan, and Sébastien Tavenas

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
We investigate the closure properties of read-once oblivious Algebraic Branching Programs (roABPs) under various natural algebraic operations and prove the following. - Non-closure under factoring: There is a sequence of explicit polynomials (f_n(x₁,…, x_n))_n that have poly(n)-sized roABPs such that some irreducible factor of f_n requires roABPs of superpolynomial size in any order. - Non-closure under powering: There is a sequence of polynomials (f_n(x₁,…, x_n))_n with poly(n)-sized roABPs such that any super-constant power of f_n does not have roABPs of polynomial size in any order (and f_nⁿ requires exponential size in any order). - Non-closure under symmetric operations: There are symmetric polynomials (f_n(e₁,…, e_n))_n that have roABPs of polynomial size such that f_n(x₁,…, x_n) do not have roABPs of subexponential size. (Here, e₁,…, e_n denote the elementary symmetric polynomials in n variables.) These results should be viewed in light of known results on models such as algebraic circuits, (general) algebraic branching programs, formulas and constant-depth circuits, all of which are known to be closed under these operations. To prove non-closure under factoring, we construct hard polynomials based on expander graphs using gadgets that lift their hardness from sparse polynomials to roABPs. For symmetric compositions, we show that the circulant polynomial requires roABPs of exponential size in every variable order.

Cite as

Robert Andrews, Jules Armand, Prateek Dwivedi, Magnus Rahbek Dalgaard Hansen, Nutan Limaye, Srikanth Srinivasan, and Sébastien Tavenas. On Closure Properties of Read-Once Oblivious Algebraic Branching Programs. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 9:1-9:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{andrews_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.9,
  author =	{Andrews, Robert and Armand, Jules and Dwivedi, Prateek and Hansen, Magnus Rahbek Dalgaard and Limaye, Nutan and Srinivasan, Srikanth and Tavenas, S\'{e}bastien},
  title =	{{On Closure Properties of Read-Once Oblivious Algebraic Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-252964},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: Factoring, Closure Properties, Sparsity Bounds, Symmetric Polynomials, roABP, Expander Graphs}
}
Document
How to Use Nondeterminism in Cryptography

Authors: Marshall Ball and Peter Crawford-Kahrl

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
Nondeterministic reductions have yielded powerful results in the theory of computational complexity, yet are effectively useless in a cryptographic context. The reason for this is simple, a nondeterministic polynomial time adversary can trivially break almost any cryptographic primitive by simply guessing the "key." In order to use this powerful nondeterministic tool kit in the cryptographic context, we initiate the study of cryptography against adversaries with limited nondeterminism: polynomial time nondeterministic algorithms that are restricted to just a few bits of nondeterminism. We demonstrate that limited nondeterministic security is sufficient to prove two foundational results that have eluded our grasp for decades: dream hardness amplification, and extracting ω(log n) hardcore bits.

Cite as

Marshall Ball and Peter Crawford-Kahrl. How to Use Nondeterminism in Cryptography. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 15:1-15:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{ball_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.15,
  author =	{Ball, Marshall and Crawford-Kahrl, Peter},
  title =	{{How to Use Nondeterminism in Cryptography}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{15:1--15:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.15},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253024},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.15},
  annote =	{Keywords: limited nondeterminism, cryptography, computational complexity, hardness amplification, pseudorandom generators, hardcore bits}
}
Document
The Hardness of Learning Quantum Circuits and Its Cryptographic Applications

Authors: Bill Fefferman, Soumik Ghosh, Makrand Sinha, and Henry Yuen

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
We show that concrete hardness assumptions about learning or cloning the output state of a random quantum circuit can be used as the foundation for secure quantum cryptography. In particular, under these assumptions we construct secure one-way state generators (OWSGs), digital signature schemes, quantum bit commitments, and private key encryption schemes. We also discuss evidence for these hardness assumptions by analyzing the best-known quantum learning algorithms, as well as proving black-box lower bounds for cloning and learning given state preparation oracles. Our random circuit-based constructions provide concrete instantiations of quantum cryptographic primitives whose security do not depend on the existence of one-way functions. The use of random circuits in our constructions also opens the door to {NISQ-friendly quantum cryptography}. We discuss noise tolerant versions of our OWSG and digital signature constructions which can potentially be implementable on noisy quantum computers connected by a quantum network. On the other hand, they are still secure against {noiseless} quantum adversaries, raising the intriguing possibility of a useful implementation of an end-to-end cryptographic protocol on near-term quantum computers. Finally, our explorations suggest that the rich interconnections between learning theory and cryptography in classical theoretical computer science also extend to the quantum setting.

Cite as

Bill Fefferman, Soumik Ghosh, Makrand Sinha, and Henry Yuen. The Hardness of Learning Quantum Circuits and Its Cryptographic Applications. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 56:1-56:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{fefferman_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.56,
  author =	{Fefferman, Bill and Ghosh, Soumik and Sinha, Makrand and Yuen, Henry},
  title =	{{The Hardness of Learning Quantum Circuits and Its Cryptographic Applications}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{56:1--56:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.56},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253431},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.56},
  annote =	{Keywords: quantum learning, quantum circuits, cryptographic hardness, one-way state generators}
}
Document
Random Unitaries in Constant (Quantum) Time

Authors: Ben Foxman, Natalie Parham, Francisca Vasconcelos, and Henry Yuen

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
Random unitaries are a central object of study in quantum information, with applications to quantum computation, quantum many-body physics, and quantum cryptography. Recent work has constructed unitary designs and pseudorandom unitaries (PRUs) using Θ(log log n)-depth unitary circuits with two-qubit gates. In this work, we show that unitary designs and PRUs can be efficiently constructed in several well-studied models of constant-time quantum computation (i.e., the time complexity on the quantum computer is independent of the system size). These models are constant-depth circuits augmented with certain nonlocal operations, such as (a) many-qubit TOFFOLI gates, (b) many-qubit FANOUT gates, or (c) mid-circuit measurements with classical feedforward control. Recent advances in quantum computing hardware suggest experimental feasibility of these models in the near future. Our results demonstrate that unitary designs and PRUs can be constructed in much weaker circuit models than previously thought. Furthermore, our construction of PRUs in constant-depth with many-qubit TOFFOLI gates shows that, under cryptographic assumptions, there is no polynomial-time learning algorithm for the circuit class QAC⁰. Finally, our results suggest a new approach towards proving that PARITY is not computable in QAC⁰, a long-standing question in quantum complexity theory.

Cite as

Ben Foxman, Natalie Parham, Francisca Vasconcelos, and Henry Yuen. Random Unitaries in Constant (Quantum) Time. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 61:1-61:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{foxman_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.61,
  author =	{Foxman, Ben and Parham, Natalie and Vasconcelos, Francisca and Yuen, Henry},
  title =	{{Random Unitaries in Constant (Quantum) Time}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{61:1--61:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.61},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253481},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.61},
  annote =	{Keywords: Quantum Information, Pseudorandomness, Circuit Complexity}
}
Document
Oracle Separations for the Quantum-Classical Polynomial Hierarchy

Authors: Avantika Agarwal and Shalev Ben{-}David

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
We study the quantum-classical polynomial hierarchy, QCPH, which is the class of languages solvable by a constant number of alternating classical quantifiers followed by a quantum verifier. Our main result is that QCPH is infinite relative to a random oracle (previously, this was not even known relative to any oracle). We further prove that higher levels of PH are not contained in lower levels of QCPH relative to a random oracle; this is a strengthening of the somewhat recent result that PH is infinite relative to a random oracle (Rossman, Servedio, and Tan 2016). The oracle separation requires lower bounding a certain type of low-depth alternating circuit with some quantum gates. To establish this, we give a new switching lemma for quantum algorithms which may be of independent interest. Our lemma says that for any d, if we apply a random restriction to a function f with quantum query complexity Q(f) ≤ n^{1/3}, the restricted function becomes exponentially close (in terms of d) to a depth-d decision tree. Our switching lemma works even in a "worst-case" sense, in that only the indices to be restricted are random; the values they are restricted to are chosen adversarially. Moreover, the switching lemma also works for polynomial degree in place of quantum query complexity.

Cite as

Avantika Agarwal and Shalev Ben-David. Oracle Separations for the Quantum-Classical Polynomial Hierarchy. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 2:1-2:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{agarwal_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.2,
  author =	{Agarwal, Avantika and Ben\{-\}David, Shalev},
  title =	{{Oracle Separations for the Quantum-Classical Polynomial Hierarchy}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-252893},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Switching Lemma, Polynomial Hierarchy, Approximate Degree, Random Oracles, Query Complexity, Quantum Computing}
}
Document
Decoding Balanced Linear Codes with Preprocessing

Authors: Andrej Bogdanov, Rohit Chatterjee, Yunqi Li, and Prashant Nalini Vasudevan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
Prange’s information set algorithm is a well-known decoding algorithm for linear codes. It decodes corrupted codewords of most 𝔽₂-linear codes C of message length n up to relative error rate O(log n / n) in poly(n) time. We show that the error rate can be improved to O((log n)² / n), provided: (1) the decoder has access to a polynomial-length advice string that depends on C only, and (2) C is n^{-Ω(1)}-balanced. As a consequence we improve the error tolerance in decoding random linear codes if inefficient preprocessing of the code is allowed. This reveals potential vulnerabilities in cryptographic applications of Learning Noisy Parities with low noise rate. Our main technical result is that the Hamming weight of Hw, where the rows of H are a random sample of short dual codewords, measures the proximity of a received word w to the code in the regime of interest. Given such H as advice, our algorithm corrects errors by locally minimizing this measure. We show that for most codes, the error rate tolerated by our decoder is asymptotically optimal among all algorithms whose decision is based on thresholding Hw for an arbitrary polynomial-size advice matrix H.

Cite as

Andrej Bogdanov, Rohit Chatterjee, Yunqi Li, and Prashant Nalini Vasudevan. Decoding Balanced Linear Codes with Preprocessing. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 23:1-23:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{bogdanov_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.23,
  author =	{Bogdanov, Andrej and Chatterjee, Rohit and Li, Yunqi and Vasudevan, Prashant Nalini},
  title =	{{Decoding Balanced Linear Codes with Preprocessing}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{23:1--23:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.23},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253107},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.23},
  annote =	{Keywords: Linear codes, nearest codeword problem, learning parity with noise}
}
Document
Samplability Makes Learning Easier

Authors: Guy Blanc, Caleb Koch, Jane Lange, Carmen Strassle, and Li-Yang Tan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
The standard definition of PAC learning (Valiant 1984) requires learners to succeed under all distributions - even ones that are intractable to sample from. This stands in contrast to samplable PAC learning (Blum, Furst, Kearns, and Lipton 1993), where learners only have to succeed under samplable distributions. We study this distinction and show that samplable PAC substantially expands the power of efficient learners. We first construct a concept class that requires exponential sample complexity in standard PAC but is learnable with polynomial sample complexity in samplable PAC. We then lift this statistical separation to the computational setting and obtain a separation relative to a random oracle. Our proofs center around a new complexity primitive, explicit evasive sets, that we introduce and study. These are sets for which membership is easy to determine but are extremely hard to sample from. Our results extend to the online setting to similarly show that its landscape changes when the adversary is assumed to be efficient instead of computationally unbounded.

Cite as

Guy Blanc, Caleb Koch, Jane Lange, Carmen Strassle, and Li-Yang Tan. Samplability Makes Learning Easier. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 20:1-20:12, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{blanc_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.20,
  author =	{Blanc, Guy and Koch, Caleb and Lange, Jane and Strassle, Carmen and Tan, Li-Yang},
  title =	{{Samplability Makes Learning Easier}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{20:1--20:12},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.20},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253071},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.20},
  annote =	{Keywords: PAC learning, Samplable distributions}
}
Document
The Learning Stabilizers with Noise Problem

Authors: Alexander Poremba, Yihui Quek, and Peter Shor

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
Random classical codes have good error correcting properties, and yet they are notoriously hard to decode in practice. Despite many decades of extensive study, the fastest known algorithms still run in exponential time. The Learning Parity with Noise (LPN) problem, which can be seen as the task of decoding a random linear code in the presence of noise, has thus emerged as a prominent hardness assumption with numerous applications in both cryptography and learning theory. Is there a natural quantum analog of the LPN problem? In this work, we introduce the Learning Stabilizers with Noise (LSN) problem, the task of decoding a random stabilizer code in the presence of local depolarizing noise. We give both polynomial-time and exponential-time quantum algorithms for solving LSN in various depolarizing noise regimes, ranging from extremely low noise, to low constant noise rates, and even higher noise rates up to a threshold. Next, we provide concrete evidence that LSN is hard. First, we show that LSN includes LPN as a special case, which suggests that it is at least as hard as its classical counterpart. Second, we prove worst-case to average-case reductions for variants of LSN. We then ask: what is the computational complexity of solving LSN? Because the task features quantum inputs, its complexity cannot be characterized by traditional complexity classes. Instead, we show that the LSN problem lies in a recently introduced (distributional and oracle) unitary synthesis class. Finally, we identify several applications of our LSN assumption, ranging from the construction of quantum bit commitment schemes to the computational limitations of learning from quantum data.

Cite as

Alexander Poremba, Yihui Quek, and Peter Shor. The Learning Stabilizers with Noise Problem. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 108:1-108:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{poremba_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.108,
  author =	{Poremba, Alexander and Quek, Yihui and Shor, Peter},
  title =	{{The Learning Stabilizers with Noise Problem}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{108:1--108:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.108},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253950},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.108},
  annote =	{Keywords: Random quantum stabilizer codes, average-case hardness}
}
Document
New Algebrization Barriers to Circuit Lower Bounds via Communication Complexity of Missing-String

Authors: Lijie Chen, Yang Hu, and Hanlin Ren

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
The algebrization barrier, proposed by Aaronson and Wigderson (STOC '08, ToCT '09), captures the limitations of many complexity-theoretic techniques based on arithmetization. Notably, several circuit lower bounds that overcome the relativization barrier (Buhrman-Fortnow-Thierauf, CCC '98; Vinodchandran, TCS '05; Santhanam, STOC '07, SICOMP '09) remain subject to the algebrization barrier. In this work, we establish several new algebrization barriers to circuit lower bounds by studying the communication complexity of the following problem, called XOR-Missing-String: For m < 2^{n/2}, Alice gets a list of m strings x₁, … , x_m ∈ {0, 1}ⁿ, Bob gets a list of m strings y₁, … , y_m ∈ {0, 1}ⁿ, and the goal is to output a string s ∈ {0, 1}ⁿ that is not equal to x_i⊕ y_j for any i, j ∈ [m]. 1) We construct an oracle A₁ and its multilinear extension A₁̃ such that PostBPE^{A₁̃} has linear-size A₁-oracle circuits on infinitely many input lengths. That is, proving PostBPE ̸ ⊆ i.o.- SIZE[O(n)] requires non-algebrizing techniques. This barrier follows from a PostBPP communication lower bound for XOR-Missing-String. This is in contrast to the well-known algebrizing lower bound MA_E (⊆ PostBPE) ̸ ⊆ P/_poly. 2) We construct an oracle A₂ and its multilinear extension A₂̃ such that BPE^{A₂̃} has linear-size A₂-oracle circuits on all input lengths. Previously, a similar barrier was demonstrated by Aaronson and Wigderson, but in their result, A₂̃ is only a multiquadratic extension of A₂. Our results show that communication complexity is more useful than previously thought for proving algebrization barriers, as Aaronson and Wigderson wrote that communication-based barriers were "more contrived". This serves as an example of how XOR-Missing-String forms new connections between communication lower bounds and algebrization barriers. 3) Finally, we study algebrization barriers to circuit lower bounds for MA_E. Buhrman, Fortnow, and Thierauf proved a sub-half-exponential circuit lower bound for MA_E via algebrizing techniques. Toward understanding whether the half-exponential bound can be improved, we define a natural subclass of MA_E that includes their hard MA_E language, and prove the following result: For every super-half-exponential function h(n), we construct an oracle A₃ and its multilinear extension A₃̃ such that this natural subclass of MA_E^{A₃̃} has h(n)-size A₃-oracle circuits on all input lengths. This suggests that half-exponential might be the correct barrier for MA_E circuit lower bounds w.r.t. algebrizing techniques.

Cite as

Lijie Chen, Yang Hu, and Hanlin Ren. New Algebrization Barriers to Circuit Lower Bounds via Communication Complexity of Missing-String. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 37:1-37:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.37,
  author =	{Chen, Lijie and Hu, Yang and Ren, Hanlin},
  title =	{{New Algebrization Barriers to Circuit Lower Bounds via Communication Complexity of Missing-String}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{37:1--37:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.37},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253246},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.37},
  annote =	{Keywords: circuit lower bound, algebrization barrier, missing string, communication complexity}
}
Document
Identity Testing for Circuits with Exponentiation Gates

Authors: Jiatu Li and Mengdi Wu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
Motivated by practical applications in the design of optimization compilers for neural networks, we initiated the study of identity testing problems for arithmetic circuits augmented with exponentiation gates that compute the real function x↦ e^x. These circuits compute real functions of form P(→x)/P'(→x), where both P(→x) and P'(→x) are exponential polynomials ∑_{i = 1}^k f_i(→x)⋅ exp((g_i(→x))/(h_i(→x))), for polynomials f_i(→x),g_i(→x), and h_i(→x). We formalize a black-box query model over finite fields for this class of circuits, which is mathematical simple and reflects constraints faced by real-world neural network compilers. We proved that a simple and efficient randomized identity testing algorithm achieves perfect completeness and non-trivial soundness. Concurrent with our work, the algorithm has been implemented in the optimization compiler Mirage by Wu et al. (OSDI 2025), demonstrating promising empirical performance in both efficiency and soundness error. Finally, we propose a number-theoretic conjecture under which our algorithm is sound with high probability.

Cite as

Jiatu Li and Mengdi Wu. Identity Testing for Circuits with Exponentiation Gates. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 95:1-95:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{li_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.95,
  author =	{Li, Jiatu and Wu, Mengdi},
  title =	{{Identity Testing for Circuits with Exponentiation Gates}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{95:1--95:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.95},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253821},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.95},
  annote =	{Keywords: Polynomial Identity Testing, Exponential Polynomials}
}
Document
A Note on the Parameterised Complexity of Coverability in Vector Addition Systems

Authors: Michał Pilipczuk, Sylvain Schmitz, and Henry Sinclair-Banks

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 358, 20th International Symposium on Parameterized and Exact Computation (IPEC 2025)


Abstract
We investigate the parameterised complexity of the classic coverability problem for vector addition systems (VAS): V ⊆ ℤ^d, an initial configuration s ∈ ℕ^d, and a target configuration t ∈ ℕ^d, decide whether starting from s, one can iteratively add vectors from V to ultimately arrive at a configuration that is larger than or equal to t on every coordinate, while not observing any negative value on any coordinate along the way. We consider two natural parameters for the problem: the dimension d and the size of V, defined as the total bitsize of its encoding. We present several results charting the complexity of those two parameterisations, among which the highlight is that coverability for VAS parameterised by the dimension and with all the numbers in the input encoded in unary is complete for the class XNL under PL-reductions. We also discuss open problems in the topic, most notably the question about fixed-parameter tractability for the parameterisation by the size of V.

Cite as

Michał Pilipczuk, Sylvain Schmitz, and Henry Sinclair-Banks. A Note on the Parameterised Complexity of Coverability in Vector Addition Systems. In 20th International Symposium on Parameterized and Exact Computation (IPEC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 358, pp. 24:1-24:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{pilipczuk_et_al:LIPIcs.IPEC.2025.24,
  author =	{Pilipczuk, Micha{\l} and Schmitz, Sylvain and Sinclair-Banks, Henry},
  title =	{{A Note on the Parameterised Complexity of Coverability in Vector Addition Systems}},
  booktitle =	{20th International Symposium on Parameterized and Exact Computation (IPEC 2025)},
  pages =	{24:1--24:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-407-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{358},
  editor =	{Agrawal, Akanksha and van Leeuwen, Erik Jan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.IPEC.2025.24},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-251563},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.IPEC.2025.24},
  annote =	{Keywords: vector addition system, Petri net, parameterised complexity, coverability}
}
Document
ε-Stationary Nash Equilibria in Multi-Player Stochastic Graph Games

Authors: Ali Asadi, Léonard Brice, Krishnendu Chatterjee, and K. S. Thejaswini

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 360, 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)


Abstract
A strategy profile in a multi-player game is a Nash equilibrium if no player can unilaterally deviate to achieve a strictly better payoff. A profile is an ε-Nash equilibrium if no player can gain more than ε by unilaterally deviating from their strategy. In this work, we use ε-Nash equilibria to approximate the computation of Nash equilibria. Specifically, we focus on turn-based, multiplayer stochastic games played on graphs, where players are restricted to stationary strategies - strategies that use randomness but not memory. The problem of deciding the constrained existence of stationary Nash equilibria - where each player’s payoff must lie within a given interval - is known to be ∃ℝ-complete in such a setting (Hansen and Sølvsten, 2020). We extend this line of work to stationary ε-Nash equilibria and present an algorithm that solves the following promise problem: given a game with a Nash equilibrium satisfying the constraints, compute an ε-Nash equilibrium that ε-satisfies those same constraints - satisfies the constraints up to an ε additive error. Our algorithm runs in FNP^NP time. To achieve this, we first show that if a constrained Nash equilibrium exists, then one exists where the non-zero probabilities are at least an inverse of a double-exponential in the input. We further prove that such a strategy can be encoded using floating-point representations, as in the work of Frederiksen and Miltersen (2013), which finally gives us our FNP^NP algorithm. We further show that the decision version of the promise problem is NP-hard. Finally, we show a partial tightness result by proving a lower bound for such techniques: if a constrained Nash equilibrium exists, then there must be one where the probabilities in the strategies are double-exponentially small.

Cite as

Ali Asadi, Léonard Brice, Krishnendu Chatterjee, and K. S. Thejaswini. ε-Stationary Nash Equilibria in Multi-Player Stochastic Graph Games. In 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 360, pp. 9:1-9:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{asadi_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.9,
  author =	{Asadi, Ali and Brice, L\'{e}onard and Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Thejaswini, K. S.},
  title =	{{\epsilon-Stationary Nash Equilibria in Multi-Player Stochastic Graph Games}},
  booktitle =	{45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-406-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{360},
  editor =	{Aiswarya, C. and Mehta, Ruta and Roy, Subhajit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-250897},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: Nash Equilibria, \epsilon-Nash equilibria, Approximation, Existential Theory of Reals}
}
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