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Certification with an NP Oracle

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

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


Abstract
In the certification problem, the algorithm is given a function f with certificate complexity k and an input x^⋆, and the goal is to find a certificate of size ≤ poly(k) for f’s value at x^⋆. This problem is in NP^NP, and assuming 𝖯 ≠ NP, is not in 𝖯. Prior works, dating back to Valiant in 1984, have therefore sought to design efficient algorithms by imposing assumptions on f such as monotonicity. Our first result is a BPP^NP algorithm for the general problem. The key ingredient is a new notion of the balanced influence of variables, a natural variant of influence that corrects for the bias of the function. Balanced influences can be accurately estimated via uniform generation, and classic BPP^NP algorithms are known for the latter task. We then consider certification with stricter instance-wise guarantees: for each x^⋆, find a certificate whose size scales with that of the smallest certificate for x^⋆. In sharp contrast with our first result, we show that this problem is NP^NP-hard even to approximate. We obtain an optimal inapproximability ratio, adding to a small handful of problems in the higher levels of the polynomial hierarchy for which optimal inapproximability is known. Our proof involves the novel use of bit-fixing dispersers for gap amplification.

Cite as

Guy Blanc, Caleb Koch, Jane Lange, Carmen Strassle, and Li-Yang Tan. Certification with an NP Oracle. In 14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 251, pp. 18:1-18:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)


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@InProceedings{blanc_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.18,
  author =	{Blanc, Guy and Koch, Caleb and Lange, Jane and Strassle, Carmen and Tan, Li-Yang},
  title =	{{Certification with an NP Oracle}},
  booktitle =	{14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023)},
  pages =	{18:1--18:22},
  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-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.18},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-175217},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.18},
  annote =	{Keywords: Certificate complexity, Boolean functions, polynomial hierarchy, hardness of approximation}
}
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