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Documents authored by McKenzie, Pierre

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.1
Does Looking Inside a Circuit Help?

Authors: Russell Impagliazzo, Valentine Kabanets, Antonina Kolokolova, Pierre McKenzie, and Shadab Romani

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 83, 42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2017)

Abstract
The Black-Box Hypothesisstates that any property of Boolean functions decided efficiently (e.g., in BPP) with inputs represented by circuits can also be decided efficiently in the black-box setting, where an algorithm is given an oracle access to the input function and an upper bound on its circuit size. If this hypothesis is true, then P neq NP. We focus on the consequences of the hypothesis being false, showing that (under general conditions on the structure of a counterexample) it implies a non-trivial algorithm for CSAT. More specifically, we show that if there is a property F of boolean functions such that F has high sensitivity on some input function f of subexponential circuit complexity (which is a sufficient condition for F being a counterexample to the Black-Box Hypothesis), then CSAT is solvable by a subexponential-size circuit family. Moreover, if such a counterexample F is symmetric, then CSAT is in Ppoly. These results provide some evidence towards the conjecture (made in this paper) that the Black-Box Hypothesis is false if and only if CSAT is easy.
Cite as

Russell Impagliazzo, Valentine Kabanets, Antonina Kolokolova, Pierre McKenzie, and Shadab Romani. Does Looking Inside a Circuit Help?. In 42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 83, pp. 1:1-1:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)

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@InProceedings{impagliazzo_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.1,
  author =	{Impagliazzo, Russell and Kabanets, Valentine and Kolokolova, Antonina and McKenzie, Pierre and Romani, Shadab},
  title =	{{Does Looking Inside a Circuit Help?}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2017)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:13},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-046-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{83},
  editor =	{Larsen, Kim G. and Bodlaender, Hans L. and Raskin, Jean-Francois},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-80975},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Black-Box Hypothesis, Rice's theorem, circuit complexity, SAT, sensitivity of boolean functions, decision tree complexity}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.2
The Power of Programs over Monoids in DA

Authors: Nathan Grosshans, Pierre McKenzie, and Luc Segoufin

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 83, 42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2017)

Abstract
The program-over-monoid model of computation originates with Barrington's proof that it captures the complexity class NC^1. Here we make progress in understanding the subtleties of the model. First, we identify a new tameness condition on a class of monoids that entails a natural characterization of the regular languages recognizable by programs over monoids from the class. Second, we prove that the class known as DA satisfies tameness and hence that the regular languages recognized by programs over monoids in DA are precisely those recognizable in the classical sense by morphisms from QDA. Third, we show by contrast that the well studied class of monoids called J is not tame and we exhibit a regular language, recognized by a program over a monoid from J, yet not recognizable classically by morphisms from the class QJ. Finally, we exhibit a program-length-based hierarchy within the class of languages recognized by programs over monoids from DA.
Cite as

Nathan Grosshans, Pierre McKenzie, and Luc Segoufin. The Power of Programs over Monoids in DA. In 42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 83, pp. 2:1-2:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)

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@InProceedings{grosshans_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.2,
  author =	{Grosshans, Nathan and McKenzie, Pierre and Segoufin, Luc},
  title =	{{The Power of Programs over Monoids in DA}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2017)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-046-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{83},
  editor =	{Larsen, Kim G. and Bodlaender, Hans L. and Raskin, Jean-Francois},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-80909},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Programs over monoids, DA, lower-bounds}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.24
Better Complexity Bounds for Cost Register Automata

Authors: Eric Allender, Andreas Krebs, and Pierre McKenzie

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 83, 42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2017)

Abstract
Cost register automata (CRAs) are one-way finite automata whose transitions have the side effect that a register is set to the result of applying a state-dependent semiring operation to a pair of registers. Here it is shown that CRAs over the tropical semiring (N U {infinity},\min,+) can simulate polynomial time computation, proving along the way that a naturally defined width-k circuit value problem over the tropical semiring is P-complete. Then the copyless variant of the CRA, requiring that semiring operations be applied to distinct registers, is shown no more powerful than NC^1 when the semiring is (Z,+,x) or (Gamma^*,max,concat). This relates questions left open in recent work on the complexity of CRA-computable functions to long-standing class separation conjectures in complexity theory, such as NC versus P and NC^1 versus GapNC^1.
Cite as

Eric Allender, Andreas Krebs, and Pierre McKenzie. Better Complexity Bounds for Cost Register Automata. In 42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 83, pp. 24:1-24:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)

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@InProceedings{allender_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.24,
  author =	{Allender, Eric and Krebs, Andreas and McKenzie, Pierre},
  title =	{{Better Complexity Bounds for Cost Register Automata}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2017)},
  pages =	{24:1--24:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-046-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{83},
  editor =	{Larsen, Kim G. and Bodlaender, Hans L. and Raskin, Jean-Francois},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.24},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-80661},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2017.24},
  annote =	{Keywords: computational complexity, cost registers}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/DagRep.4.3.153
Reachability Problems for Infinite-State Systems (Dagstuhl Seminar 14141)

Authors: Javier Esparza, Alain Finkel, Pierre McKenzie, and Joel Ouaknine

Published in: Dagstuhl Reports, Volume 4, Issue 3 (2014)

Abstract
This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 14141 "Reachability Problems for Infinite-State Systems", held from March 30th until April 4th, 2014. The seminar gathered 44 participants and the program consisted of 34 presentations. Participants were asked to contribute open questions prior and during the seminar. A list of these open questions appears in a separate section of the present report. This list generated collaborations among participants and gave rise to research publications solving (partially), for example, question 5.13, namely "what functions are computable by VASS?"
Cite as

Javier Esparza, Alain Finkel, Pierre McKenzie, and Joel Ouaknine. Reachability Problems for Infinite-State Systems (Dagstuhl Seminar 14141). In Dagstuhl Reports, Volume 4, Issue 3, pp. 153-180, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2014)

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@Article{esparza_et_al:DagRep.4.3.153,
  author =	{Esparza, Javier and Finkel, Alain and McKenzie, Pierre and Ouaknine, Joel},
  title =	{{Reachability Problems for Infinite-State Systems (Dagstuhl Seminar 14141)}},
  pages =	{153--180},
  journal =	{Dagstuhl Reports},
  ISSN =	{2192-5283},
  year =	{2014},
  volume =	{4},
  number =	{3},
  editor =	{Esparza, Javier and Finkel, Alain and McKenzie, Pierre and Ouaknine, Joel},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagRep.4.3.153},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-46121},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagRep.4.3.153},
  annote =	{Keywords: Infinite-State Systems, Reachability Problems, Formal Verification, Well-Structured Transition Systems, Counter Machines, Vector Addition Systems, Timed Systems}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2009.2311
Fractional Pebbling and Thrifty Branching Programs

Authors: Mark Braverman, Stephen Cook, Pierre McKenzie, Rahul Santhanam, and Dustin Wehr

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 4, IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (2009)

Abstract
We study the branching program complexity of the {\em tree evaluation problem}, introduced in \cite{BrCoMcSaWe09} as a candidate for separating \nl\ from\logcfl. The input to the problem is a rooted, balanced $d$-ary tree of height$h$, whose internal nodes are labelled with $d$-ary functions on$[k]=\{1,\ldots,k\}$, and whose leaves are labelled with elements of $[k]$.Each node obtains a value in $[k]$ equal to its $d$-ary function applied to the values of its $d$ children. The output is the value of the root. Deterministic $k$-way branching programs as related to black pebbling algorithms have been studied in \cite{BrCoMcSaWe09}. Here we introduce the notion of {\em fractional pebbling} of graphs to study non-deterministicbranching program size. We prove that this yields non-deterministic branching programs with $\Theta(k^{h/2+1})$ states solving the Boolean problem ``determine whether the root has value 1'' for binary trees - this isasymptotically better than the branching program size corresponding toblack-white pebbling. We prove upper and lower bounds on the fractionalpebbling number of $d$-ary trees, as well as a general result relating thefractional pebbling number of a graph to the black-white pebbling number. We introduce a simple semantic restriction called {\em thrifty} on $k$-way branching programs solving tree evaluation problems and show that the branchingprogram size bound of $\Theta(k^h)$ is tight (up to a constant factor) for all $h\ge 2$ for deterministic thrifty programs. We show that thenon-deterministic branching programs that correspond to fractional pebbling are thrifty as well, and that the bound of $\Theta(k^{h/2+1})$ is tight for non-deterministic thrifty programs for $h=2,3,4$. We hypothesise that thrifty branching programs are optimal among $k$-way branching programs solving the tree evaluation problem - proving this for deterministic programs would separate \lspace\ from \logcfl\, and proving it for non-deterministic programs would separate \nl\ from \logcfl.
Cite as

Mark Braverman, Stephen Cook, Pierre McKenzie, Rahul Santhanam, and Dustin Wehr. Fractional Pebbling and Thrifty Branching Programs. In IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science. Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 4, pp. 109-120, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2009)

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@InProceedings{braverman_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2009.2311,
  author =	{Braverman, Mark and Cook, Stephen and McKenzie, Pierre and Santhanam, Rahul and Wehr, Dustin},
  title =	{{Fractional Pebbling and Thrifty Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science},
  pages =	{109--120},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-13-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2009},
  volume =	{4},
  editor =	{Kannan, Ravi and Narayan Kumar, K.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2009.2311},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-23111},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2009.2311},
  annote =	{Keywords: Branching programs, space complexity, tree evaluation, pebbling}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/DagSemProc.06111.10
Incremental branching programs

Authors: Anna Gál, Pierre McKenzie, and Michal Koucký

Published in: Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 6111, Complexity of Boolean Functions (2006)

Abstract
We propose a new model of restricted branching programs which we call {em incremental branching programs}. We show that {em syntactic} incremental branching programs capture previously studied structured models of computation for the problem GEN, namely marking machines [Cook74]. and Poon's extension [Poon93] of jumping automata on graphs [CookRackoff80]. We then prove exponential size lower bounds for our syntactic incremental model, and for some other restricted branching program models as well. We further show that nondeterministic syntactic incremental branching programs are provably stronger than their deterministic counterpart when solving a natural NL-complete GEN subproblem. It remains open if syntactic incremental branching programs are as powerful as unrestricted branching programs for GEN problems. Joint work with Anna Gál and Michal Koucký
Cite as

Anna Gál, Pierre McKenzie, and Michal Koucký. Incremental branching programs. In Complexity of Boolean Functions. Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings, Volume 6111, pp. 1-20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2006)

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@InProceedings{gal_et_al:DagSemProc.06111.10,
  author =	{G\'{a}l, Anna and McKenzie, Pierre and Kouck\'{y}, Michal},
  title =	{{Incremental branching programs}},
  booktitle =	{Complexity of Boolean Functions},
  pages =	{1--20},
  series =	{Dagstuhl Seminar Proceedings (DagSemProc)},
  ISSN =	{1862-4405},
  year =	{2006},
  volume =	{6111},
  editor =	{Matthias Krause and Pavel Pudl\'{a}k and R\"{u}diger Reischuk and Dieter van Melkebeek},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagSemProc.06111.10},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-6230},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagSemProc.06111.10},
  annote =	{Keywords: Complexity theory, branching programs, logarithmic space, marking machines}
}
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