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Monotone Bounded Depth Formula Complexity of Graph Homomorphism Polynomials

Authors: Balagopal Komarath and Rohit Narayanan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 386, 51st International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2026)


Abstract
We introduce baggy elimination trees, a novel graph decomposition that generalises the classical elimination trees underlying treedepth, and use them to give a complete characterisation of the monotone bounded-depth formula complexity of graph homomorphism and coloured isomorphism polynomials. Specifically, we prove that the Δ-product depth monotone formula complexity of these polynomials is Θ(n^λ_Δ(H)), where λ_Δ(H) is the minimum cost of a baggy elimination tree for H at BET-depth Δ. This result closes the last open case in the programme initiated by Komarath, Pandey and Rahul [Balagopal Komarath et al., 2023] and continued by Bhargav, Chen, Curticapean and Dwivedi [C. S. Bhargav et al., 2025]: tight size characterisations of monotone circuit complexity (via treewidth / bounded-depth treewidth), monotone ABP complexity (via pathwidth / bounded-depth pathwidth), and monotone formula complexity (via treedepth) were already known; our theorem supplies the missing bounded-depth formula characterisation via the new notion of bounded-depth baggy-elimination-tree cost λ_Δ, completing the picture for all three models in algebraic complexity and their fixed depth variants. As applications, for constant-degree polynomial families we derive an almost-optimal separation between monotone circuits and monotone formulas at every fixed product depth: there exists a family computable by O(N)-size monotone circuits of product depth Δ that requires Ω(N^{Δ/2})-size monotone formulas of the same depth (and this exponent is optimal up to a constant factor). We also prove a strict depth hierarchy: for every Δ ≥ 1 and every constant k ≥ 2, there is a constant-degree family with O(s(N))-size monotone formulas of product depth Δ that requires Ω(s(N)^k)-size monotone formulas of product depth Δ - 1.

Cite as

Balagopal Komarath and Rohit Narayanan. Monotone Bounded Depth Formula Complexity of Graph Homomorphism Polynomials. In 51st International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 386, pp. 58:1-58:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{komarath_et_al:LIPIcs.MFCS.2026.58,
  author =	{Komarath, Balagopal and Narayanan, Rohit},
  title =	{{Monotone Bounded Depth Formula Complexity of Graph Homomorphism Polynomials}},
  booktitle =	{51st International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2026)},
  pages =	{58:1--58:13},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-442-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{386},
  editor =	{Kouck\'{y}, Michal and Petrișan, Daniela},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2026.58},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-274406},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.MFCS.2026.58},
  annote =	{Keywords: Monotone complexity, bounded depth, formula complexity, graph homomorphism, algebraic complexity}
}
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