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In this paper we develop efficient randomized algorithms to solve the black-box reconstruction problem for polynomials over finite fields, computable by depth three arithmetic circuits with alternating addition/multiplication gates, such that output gate is an addition gate with in-degree two. Such circuits naturally compute polynomials of the form G×(T₁ + T₂), where G,T₁,T₂ are product of affine forms computed at the first layer in the circuit, and polynomials T₁,T₂ have no common factors. Rank of such a circuit is defined to be the dimension of vector space spanned by all affine factors of T₁ and T₂. For any polynomial f computable by such a circuit, rank(f) is defined to be the minimum rank of any such circuit computing it. Our work develops randomized reconstruction algorithms which take as input black-box access to a polynomial f (over finite field 𝔽), computable by such a circuit. Here are the results.
- [Low rank]: When 5 ≤ rank(f) = O(log³ d), it runs in time (nd^{log³d}log |𝔽|)^{O(1)}, and, with high probability, outputs a depth three circuit computing f, with top addition gate having in-degree ≤ d^{rank(f)}.
- [High rank]: When rank(f) = Ω(log³ d), it runs in time (ndlog |𝔽|)^{O(1)}, and, with high probability, outputs a depth three circuit computing f, with top addition gate having in-degree two.
Prior to our work, black-box reconstruction for this circuit class was addressed in [Amir Shpilka, 2007; Karnin and Shpilka, 2009; Sinha, 2016]. Reconstruction algorithm in [Amir Shpilka, 2007] runs in time quasi-polynomial in n,d,|𝔽| and that in [Karnin and Shpilka, 2009] is quasi-polynomial in d,|𝔽|. Algorithm in [Sinha, 2016] works only for polynomials over characteristic zero fields. Thus, ours is the first blackbox reconstruction algorithm for this class of circuits that runs in time polynomial in log |𝔽|. This problem has been mentioned as an open problem in [Ankit Gupta et al., 2012] (STOC 2012). In the high rank case, our algorithm runs in (ndlog|𝔽|)^{O(1)} time, thereby significantly improving the existing algorithms in [Amir Shpilka, 2007; Karnin and Shpilka, 2009].
@InProceedings{sinha:LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.118,
author = {Sinha, Gaurav},
title = {{Efficient Reconstruction of Depth Three Arithmetic Circuits with Top Fan-In Two}},
booktitle = {13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022)},
pages = {118:1--118:33},
series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
ISBN = {978-3-95977-217-4},
ISSN = {1868-8969},
year = {2022},
volume = {215},
editor = {Braverman, Mark},
publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
address = {Dagstuhl, Germany},
URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.118},
URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-157143},
doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.118},
annote = {Keywords: Arithmetic Circuits, Circuit Reconstruction}
}