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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.95

The Planted Orthogonal Vectors Problem

Authors: David Kühnemann, Adam Polak, and Alon Rosen

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 351, 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)

Abstract

In the k-Orthogonal Vectors (k-OV) problem we are given k sets, each containing n binary vectors of dimension d = n^o(1), and our goal is to pick one vector from each set so that at each coordinate at least one vector has a zero. It is a central problem in fine-grained complexity, conjectured to require n^{k-o(1)} time in the worst case. We propose a way to plant a solution among vectors with i.i.d. p-biased entries, for appropriately chosen p, so that the planted solution is the unique one. Our conjecture is that the resulting k-OV instances still require time n^{k-o(1)} to solve, on average. Our planted distribution has the property that any subset of strictly less than k vectors has the same marginal distribution as in the model distribution, consisting of i.i.d. p-biased random vectors. We use this property to give average-case search-to-decision reductions for k-OV.

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David Kühnemann, Adam Polak, and Alon Rosen. The Planted Orthogonal Vectors Problem. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 95:1-95:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{kuhnemann_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.95,
  author =	{K\"{u}hnemann, David and Polak, Adam and Rosen, Alon},
  title =	{{The Planted Orthogonal Vectors Problem}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{95:1--95:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-395-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{351},
  editor =	{Benoit, Anne and Kaplan, Haim and Wild, Sebastian and Herman, Grzegorz},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.95},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245640},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.95},
  annote =	{Keywords: Average-case complexity, fine-grained complexity, orthogonal vectors}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.2

Hardness Amplification for Real-Valued Functions

Authors: Yunqi Li and Prashant Nalini Vasudevan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 339, 40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025)

Abstract

Given an integer-valued function f:{0,1}ⁿ → {0,1,… , m-1} that is mildly hard to compute on instances drawn from some distribution D over {0,1}ⁿ, we show that the function g(x_1, … , x_t) = f(x_1) + ⋯ + f(x_t) is strongly hard to compute on instances (x_1,… ,x_t) drawn from the product distribution D^t. We also show the same for the task of approximately computing real-valued functions f:{0,1}ⁿ → [0,m). Our theorems immediately imply hardness self-amplification for several natural problems including Max-Clique and Max-SAT, Approximate #SAT, Entropy Estimation, etc..

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Yunqi Li and Prashant Nalini Vasudevan. Hardness Amplification for Real-Valued Functions. In 40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 339, pp. 2:1-2:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{li_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2025.2,
  author =	{Li, Yunqi and Vasudevan, Prashant Nalini},
  title =	{{Hardness Amplification for Real-Valued Functions}},
  booktitle =	{40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-379-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{339},
  editor =	{Srinivasan, Srikanth},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-236967},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Average-case complexity, hardness amplification}
}

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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.14

The More the Merrier! On Total Coding and Lattice Problems and the Complexity of Finding Multicollisions

Authors: Huck Bennett, Surendra Ghentiyala, and Noah Stephens-Davidowitz

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 325, 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)

Abstract

We show a number of connections between two types of search problems: (1) the problem of finding an L-wise multicollision in the output of a function; and (2) the problem of finding two codewords in a code (or two vectors in a lattice) that are within distance d of each other. Specifically, we study these problems in the total regime, in which L and d are chosen so that such a solution is guaranteed to exist, though it might be hard to find. In more detail, we study the total search problem in which the input is a function 𝒞 : [A] → [B] (represented as a circuit) and the goal is to find L ≤ ⌈A/B⌉ distinct elements x_1,…, x_L ∈ A such that 𝒞(x_1) = ⋯ = 𝒞(x_L). The associated complexity classes Polynomial Multi-Pigeonhole Principle ((A,B)-PMPP^L) consist of all problems that reduce to this problem. We show close connections between (A,B)-PMPP^L and many celebrated upper bounds on the minimum distance of a code or lattice (and on the list-decoding radius). In particular, we show that the associated computational problems (i.e., the problem of finding two distinct codewords or lattice points that are close to each other) are in (A,B)-PMPP^L, with a more-or-less smooth tradeoff between the distance d and the parameters A, B, and L. These connections are particularly rich in the case of codes, in which case we show that multiple incomparable bounds on the minimum distance lie in seemingly incomparable complexity classes. Surprisingly, we also show that the computational problems associated with some bounds on the minimum distance of codes are actually hard for these classes (for codes represented by arbitrary circuits). In fact, we show that finding two vectors within a certain distance d is actually hard for the important (and well-studied) class PWPP = (B²,B)-PMPP² in essentially all parameter regimes for which an efficient algorithm is not known, so that our hardness results are essentially tight. In fact, for some d (depending on the block length, message length, and alphabet size), we obtain both hardness and containment. We therefore completely settle the complexity of this problem for such parameters and add coding problems to the short list of problems known to be complete for PWPP. We also study (A,B)-PMPP^L as an interesting family of complexity classes in its own right, and we uncover a rich structure. Specifically, we use recent techniques from the cryptographic literature on multicollision-resistant hash functions to (1) show inclusions of the form (A,B)-PMPP^L ⊆ (A',B')-PMPP^L' for certain non-trivial parameters; (2) black-box separations between such classes in different parameter regimes; and (3) a non-black-box proof that (A,B)-PMPP^L ∈ FP if (A',B')-PMPP^L' ∈ FP for yet another parameter regime. We also show that (A,B)-PMPP^L lies in the recently introduced complexity class Polynomial Long Choice for some parameters.

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Huck Bennett, Surendra Ghentiyala, and Noah Stephens-Davidowitz. The More the Merrier! On Total Coding and Lattice Problems and the Complexity of Finding Multicollisions. In 16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 325, pp. 14:1-14:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bennett_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.14,
  author =	{Bennett, Huck and Ghentiyala, Surendra and Stephens-Davidowitz, Noah},
  title =	{{The More the Merrier! On Total Coding and Lattice Problems and the Complexity of Finding Multicollisions}},
  booktitle =	{16th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2025)},
  pages =	{14:1--14:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-361-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{325},
  editor =	{Meka, Raghu},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.14},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-226424},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2025.14},
  annote =	{Keywords: Multicollisions, Error-correcting codes, Lattices}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.22

PPP-Completeness and Extremal Combinatorics

Authors: Romain Bourneuf, Lukáš Folwarczný, Pavel Hubáček, Alon Rosen, and Nikolaj I. Schwartzbach

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 251, 14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023)

Abstract

Many classical theorems in combinatorics establish the emergence of substructures within sufficiently large collections of objects. Well-known examples are Ramsey’s theorem on monochromatic subgraphs and the Erdős-Rado sunflower lemma. Implicit versions of the corresponding total search problems are known to be PWPP-hard under randomized reductions in the case of Ramsey’s theorem and PWPP-hard in the case of the sunflower lemma; here "implicit” means that the collection is represented by a poly-sized circuit inducing an exponentially large number of objects. We show that several other well-known theorems from extremal combinatorics - including Erdős-Ko-Rado, Sperner, and Cayley’s formula – give rise to complete problems for PWPP and PPP. This is in contrast to the Ramsey and Erdős-Rado problems, for which establishing inclusion in PWPP has remained elusive. Besides significantly expanding the set of problems that are complete for PWPP and PPP, our work identifies some key properties of combinatorial proofs of existence that can give rise to completeness for these classes. Our completeness results rely on efficient encodings for which finding collisions allows extracting the desired substructure. These encodings are made possible by the tightness of the bounds for the problems at hand (tighter than what is known for Ramsey’s theorem and the sunflower lemma). Previous techniques for proving bounds in TFNP invariably made use of structured algorithms. Such algorithms are not known to exist for the theorems considered in this work, as their proofs "from the book" are non-constructive.

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Romain Bourneuf, Lukáš Folwarczný, Pavel Hubáček, Alon Rosen, and Nikolaj I. Schwartzbach. PPP-Completeness and Extremal Combinatorics. In 14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 251, pp. 22:1-22:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{bourneuf_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.22,
  author =	{Bourneuf, Romain and Folwarczn\'{y}, Luk\'{a}\v{s} and Hub\'{a}\v{c}ek, Pavel and Rosen, Alon and Schwartzbach, Nikolaj I.},
  title =	{{PPP-Completeness and Extremal Combinatorics}},
  booktitle =	{14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023)},
  pages =	{22:1--22:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-263-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{251},
  editor =	{Tauman Kalai, Yael},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.22},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-175255},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.22},
  annote =	{Keywords: total search problems, extremal combinatorics, PPP-completeness}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2021.2

More Communication Lower Bounds for Information-Theoretic MPC

Authors: Ivan Bjerre Damgård, Boyang Li, and Nikolaj Ignatieff Schwartzbach

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 199, 2nd Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2021)

Abstract

We prove two classes of lower bounds on the communication complexity of information-theoretically secure multiparty computation. The first lower bound applies to perfect passive secure multiparty computation in the standard model with n = 2t+1 parties of which t are corrupted. We show a lower bound that applies to secure evaluation of any function, assuming that each party can choose to learn or not learn the output. Specifically, we show that there is a function H^* such that for any protocol that evaluates y_i = b_i ⋅ f(x₁,...,x_n) with perfect passive security (where b_i is a private boolean input), the total communication must be at least 1/2 ∑_{i = 1}ⁿ H_f^*(x_i) bits of information. The second lower bound applies to the perfect maliciously secure setting with n = 3t+1 parties. We show that for any n and all large enough S, there exists a reactive functionality F_S taking an S-bit string as input (and with short output) such that any protocol implementing F_S with perfect malicious security must communicate Ω(nS) bits. Since the functionalities we study can be implemented with linear size circuits, the result can equivalently be stated as follows: for any n and all large enough g ∈ ℕ there exists a reactive functionality F_C doing computation specified by a Boolean circuit C with g gates, where any perfectly secure protocol implementing F_C must communicate Ω(n g) bits. The results easily extends to constructing similar functionalities defined over any fixed finite field. Using known techniques, we also show an upper bound that matches the lower bound up to a constant factor (existing upper bounds are a factor lg n off for Boolean circuits). Both results also extend to the case where the threshold t is suboptimal. Namely if n = kt+s the bound is weakened by a factor O(s), which corresponds to known optimizations via packed secret-sharing.

Cite as

Ivan Bjerre Damgård, Boyang Li, and Nikolaj Ignatieff Schwartzbach. More Communication Lower Bounds for Information-Theoretic MPC. In 2nd Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 199, pp. 2:1-2:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

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@InProceedings{damgard_et_al:LIPIcs.ITC.2021.2,
  author =	{Damg\r{a}rd, Ivan Bjerre and Li, Boyang and Schwartzbach, Nikolaj Ignatieff},
  title =	{{More Communication Lower Bounds for Information-Theoretic MPC}},
  booktitle =	{2nd Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2021)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-197-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{199},
  editor =	{Tessaro, Stefano},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2021.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-143211},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2021.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Multiparty Computation, Lower bounds}
}

5 Search Results for "Schwartzbach, Nikolaj I."

The Planted Orthogonal Vectors Problem

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Hardness Amplification for Real-Valued Functions

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The More the Merrier! On Total Coding and Lattice Problems and the Complexity of Finding Multicollisions

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PPP-Completeness and Extremal Combinatorics

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More Communication Lower Bounds for Information-Theoretic MPC

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