Direct Sum and Partitionability Testing over General Groups

Abstract

A function f(x₁, … , x_n) from a product domain 𝒟₁ × ⋯ × 𝒟_n to an abelian group 𝒢 is a direct sum if it is of the form f₁(x₁) + ⋯ + f_n(x_n). We present a new 4-query direct sum test with optimal (up to constant factors) soundness error. This generalizes a result of Dinur and Golubev (RANDOM 2019) which is tailored to the target group 𝒢 = ℤ₂. As a special case, we obtain an optimal affinity test for 𝒢-valued functions on domain {0, 1}ⁿ under product measure. Our analysis relies on the hypercontractivity of the binary erasure channel.
We also study the testability of function partitionability over product domains into disjoint components. A 𝒢-valued f(x₁, … , x_n) is k-direct sum partitionable if it can be written as a sum of functions over k nonempty disjoint sets of inputs. A function f(x₁, … , x_n) with unstructured product range ℛ^k is direct product partitionable if its outputs depend on disjoint sets of inputs. 
We show that direct sum partitionability and direct product partitionability are one-sided error testable with O((n - k)(log n + 1/ε) + 1/ε) adaptive queries and O((n/ε) log²(n/ε)) nonadaptive queries, respectively. Both bounds are tight up to the logarithmic factors for constant ε even with respect to adaptive, two-sided error testers. We also give a non-adaptive one-sided error tester for direct sum partitionability with query complexity O(kn² (log n)² / ε).