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Documents authored by McKay, Dylan M.

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2019.30
Relations and Equivalences Between Circuit Lower Bounds and Karp-Lipton Theorems

Authors: Lijie Chen, Dylan M. McKay, Cody D. Murray, and R. Ryan Williams

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 137, 34th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2019)

Abstract
A frontier open problem in circuit complexity is to prove P^{NP} is not in SIZE[n^k] for all k; this is a necessary intermediate step towards NP is not in P_{/poly}. Previously, for several classes containing P^{NP}, including NP^{NP}, ZPP^{NP}, and S_2 P, such lower bounds have been proved via Karp-Lipton-style Theorems: to prove C is not in SIZE[n^k] for all k, we show that C subset P_{/poly} implies a "collapse" D = C for some larger class D, where we already know D is not in SIZE[n^k] for all k. It seems obvious that one could take a different approach to prove circuit lower bounds for P^{NP} that does not require proving any Karp-Lipton-style theorems along the way. We show this intuition is wrong: (weak) Karp-Lipton-style theorems for P^{NP} are equivalent to fixed-polynomial size circuit lower bounds for P^{NP}. That is, P^{NP} is not in SIZE[n^k] for all k if and only if (NP subset P_{/poly} implies PH subset i.o.- P^{NP}_{/n}). Next, we present new consequences of the assumption NP subset P_{/poly}, towards proving similar results for NP circuit lower bounds. We show that under the assumption, fixed-polynomial circuit lower bounds for NP, nondeterministic polynomial-time derandomizations, and various fixed-polynomial time simulations of NP are all equivalent. Applying this equivalence, we show that circuit lower bounds for NP imply better Karp-Lipton collapses. That is, if NP is not in SIZE[n^k] for all k, then for all C in {Parity-P, PP, PSPACE, EXP}, C subset P_{/poly} implies C subset i.o.-NP_{/n^epsilon} for all epsilon > 0. Note that unconditionally, the collapses are only to MA and not NP. We also explore consequences of circuit lower bounds for a sparse language in NP. Among other results, we show if a polynomially-sparse NP language does not have n^{1+epsilon}-size circuits, then MA subset i.o.-NP_{/O(log n)}, MA subset i.o.-P^{NP[O(log n)]}, and NEXP is not in SIZE[2^{o(m)}]. Finally, we observe connections between these results and the "hardness magnification" phenomena described in recent works.
Cite as

Lijie Chen, Dylan M. McKay, Cody D. Murray, and R. Ryan Williams. Relations and Equivalences Between Circuit Lower Bounds and Karp-Lipton Theorems. In 34th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2019). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 137, pp. 30:1-30:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2019)

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@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2019.30,
  author =	{Chen, Lijie and McKay, Dylan M. and Murray, Cody D. and Williams, R. Ryan},
  title =	{{Relations and Equivalences Between Circuit Lower Bounds and Karp-Lipton Theorems}},
  booktitle =	{34th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2019)},
  pages =	{30:1--30:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-116-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2019},
  volume =	{137},
  editor =	{Shpilka, Amir},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2019.30},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-108525},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2019.30},
  annote =	{Keywords: Karp-Lipton Theorems, Circuit Lower Bounds, Derandomization, Hardness Magnification}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2019.56
Quadratic Time-Space Lower Bounds for Computing Natural Functions with a Random Oracle

Authors: Dylan M. McKay and Richard Ryan Williams

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 124, 10th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2019)

Abstract
We define a model of size-S R-way branching programs with oracles that can make up to S distinct oracle queries over all of their possible inputs, and generalize a lower bound proof strategy of Beame [SICOMP 1991] to apply in the case of random oracles. Through a series of succinct reductions, we prove that the following problems require randomized algorithms where the product of running time and space usage must be Omega(n^2/poly(log n)) to obtain correct answers with constant nonzero probability, even for algorithms with constant-time access to a uniform random oracle (i.e., a uniform random hash function): - Given an unordered list L of n elements from [n] (possibly with repeated elements), output [n]-L. - Counting satisfying assignments to a given 2CNF, and printing any satisfying assignment to a given 3CNF. Note it is a major open problem to prove a time-space product lower bound of n^{2-o(1)} for the decision version of SAT, or even for the decision problem Majority-SAT. - Printing the truth table of a given CNF formula F with k inputs and n=O(2^k) clauses, with values printed in lexicographical order (i.e., F(0^k), F(0^{k-1}1), ..., F(1^k)). Thus we have a 4^k/poly(k) lower bound in this case. - Evaluating a circuit with n inputs and O(n) outputs. As our lower bounds are based on R-way branching programs, they hold for any reasonable model of computation (e.g. log-word RAMs and multitape Turing machines).
Cite as

Dylan M. McKay and Richard Ryan Williams. Quadratic Time-Space Lower Bounds for Computing Natural Functions with a Random Oracle. In 10th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2019). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 124, pp. 56:1-56:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2019)

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@InProceedings{mckay_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2019.56,
  author =	{McKay, Dylan M. and Williams, Richard Ryan},
  title =	{{Quadratic Time-Space Lower Bounds for Computing Natural Functions with a Random Oracle}},
  booktitle =	{10th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2019)},
  pages =	{56:1--56:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-095-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2019},
  volume =	{124},
  editor =	{Blum, Avrim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2019.56},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-101493},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2019.56},
  annote =	{Keywords: branching programs, random oracles, time-space tradeoffs, lower bounds, SAT, counting complexity}
}
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