Hitting Sets and Reconstruction for Dense Orbits in VP_{e} and ΣΠΣ Circuits

In this paper we study polynomials in VP_{e} (polynomial-sized formulas) and in ΣΠΣ (polynomial-size depth-3 circuits) whose orbits, under the action of the affine group GL^{aff}_n(𝔽) (the action of (A,b) ∈ GL^{aff}_n(𝔽) on a polynomial f ∈ 𝔽[x] is defined as (A,b)∘f = f(A^Tx+b)), are dense in their ambient class. We construct hitting sets and interpolating sets for these orbits as well as give reconstruction algorithms. Specifically, we obtain the following results: 1) For C_n(ℓ_1(x),…,ℓ_n(x)) ≜ Trace(\begin{pmatrix} 𝓁₁(x) & 1 \\ 1 & 0 \end{pmatrix} ⋅ … ⋅ \begin{pmatrix} 𝓁_n(x) & 1 \\ 1 & 0 \end{pmatrix}), where the 𝓁_is are linearly independent linear functions, we construct a polynomial-sized interpolating set, and give a polynomial-time reconstruction algorithm. By a result of Bringmann, Ikenmeyer and Zuiddam, the set of all such polynomials is dense in VP_e [Karl Bringmann et al., 2018], thus our construction gives the first polynomial-size interpolating set for a dense subclass of VP_e. 2) For polynomials of the form ANF_Δ(𝓁₁(x),…,𝓁_{4^Δ}(x)), where ANF_Δ(x) is the canonical read-once formula in alternating normal form, of depth 2Δ, and the 𝓁_is are linearly independent linear functions, we provide a quasipolynomial-size interpolating set. We also observe that the reconstruction algorithm of [Ankit Gupta et al., 2014] works for all polynomials in this class. This class is also dense in VP_e. 3) Similarly, we give a quasipolynomial-sized hitting set for read-once formulas (not necessarily in alternating normal form) composed with a set of linearly independent linear functions. This gives another dense class in VP_e. 4) We give a quasipolynomial-sized hitting set for polynomials of the form f(𝓁₁(x),…,𝓁_{m}(x)), where f is an m-variate s-sparse polynomial. and the 𝓁_is are linearly independent linear functions in n ≥ m variables. This class is dense in ΣΠΣ. 5) For polynomials of the form ∑_{i=1}^{s}∏_{j=1}^{d}𝓁_{i,j}(x), where the 𝓁_{i,j}s are linearly independent linear functions, we construct a polynomial-sized interpolating set. We also observe that the reconstruction algorithm of [Neeraj Kayal and Chandan Saha, 2019] works for every polynomial in the class. This class is dense in ΣΠΣ. As VP = VNC², our results for VP_{e} translate immediately to VP with a quasipolynomial blow up in parameters. If any of our hitting or interpolating sets could be made robust then this would immediately yield a hitting set for the superclass in which the relevant class is dense, and as a consequence also a lower bound for the superclass. Unfortunately, we also prove that the kind of constructions that we have found (which are defined in terms of k-independent polynomial maps) do not necessarily yield robust hitting sets.