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Spectral Refutations of Semirandom k-LIN over Larger Fields

Authors: Nicholas Kocurek and Peter Manohar

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 353, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)


Abstract
We study the problem of strongly refuting semirandom k-LIN(𝔽) instances: systems of k-sparse inhomogeneous linear equations over a finite field 𝔽. For the case of 𝔽 = 𝔽₂, this is the well-studied problem of refuting semirandom instances of k-XOR, where the works of [Venkatesan Guruswami et al., 2022; Jun-Ting Hsieh et al., 2023] establish a tight trade-off between runtime and clause density for refutation: for any choice of a parameter 𝓁, they give an n^{O(𝓁)}-time algorithm to certify that there is no assignment that can satisfy more than 1/2 + ε-fraction of constraints in a semirandom k-XOR instance, provided that the instance has O(n)⋅(n/𝓁)^{k/2 - 1} log n/ε⁴ constraints, and the work of [Pravesh K. Kothari et al., 2017] provides good evidence that this tight up to a polylog(n) factor via lower bounds for the Sum-of-Squares hierarchy. However, for larger fields, the only known results for this problem are established via black-box reductions to the case of 𝔽₂, resulting in a |𝔽|^{3k} gap between the current best upper and lower bounds. In this paper, we give an algorithm for refuting semirandom k-LIN(𝔽) instances with the "correct" dependence on the field size |𝔽|. For any choice of a parameter 𝓁, our algorithm runs in (|𝔽|)^O(𝓁)-time and strongly refutes semirandom k-LIN(𝔽) instances with at least O(n) ⋅ (|𝔽^*| n/𝓁) ^{k/2 - 1} log(n|𝔽^*|)/ε⁴ constraints. We give good evidence that this dependence on the field size |𝔽| is optimal by proving a lower bound for the Sum-of-Squares hierarchy that matches this threshold up to a polylog(n |𝔽^*|) factor. Our results also extend beyond finite fields to the more general case of ℤ_m and arbitrary finite Abelian groups. Our key technical innovation is a generalization of the "𝔽₂ Kikuchi matrices" of [Alexander S. Wein et al., 2019; Venkatesan Guruswami et al., 2022] to larger fields, and finite Abelian groups more generally.

Cite as

Nicholas Kocurek and Peter Manohar. Spectral Refutations of Semirandom k-LIN over Larger Fields. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 17:1-17:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{kocurek_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.17,
  author =	{Kocurek, Nicholas and Manohar, Peter},
  title =	{{Spectral Refutations of Semirandom k-LIN over Larger Fields}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{17:1--17:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-397-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{353},
  editor =	{Ene, Alina and Chattopadhyay, Eshan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.17},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-243834},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.17},
  annote =	{Keywords: Spectral Algorithms, CSP Refutation, Kikuchi Matrices}
}
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