33 Search Results for "Håstad, Johan"

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.1
A Technique for Hardness Amplification Against AC⁰

Authors: William M. Hoza

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract
We study hardness amplification in the context of two well-known "moderate" average-case hardness results for AC⁰ circuits. First, we investigate the extent to which AC⁰ circuits of depth d can approximate AC⁰ circuits of some larger depth d + k. The case k = 1 is resolved by Håstad, Rossman, Servedio, and Tan’s celebrated average-case depth hierarchy theorem (JACM 2017). Our contribution is a significantly stronger correlation bound when k ≥ 3. Specifically, we show that there exists a linear-size AC⁰_{d + k} circuit h : {0, 1}ⁿ → {0, 1} such that for every AC⁰_d circuit g, either g has size exp(n^{Ω(1/d)}), or else g agrees with h on at most a (1/2 + ε)-fraction of inputs where ε = exp(-(1/d) ⋅ Ω(log n)^{k-1}). For comparison, Håstad, Rossman, Servedio, and Tan’s result has ε = n^{-Θ(1/d)}. Second, we consider the majority function. It is well known that the majority function is moderately hard for AC⁰ circuits (and stronger classes). Our contribution is a stronger correlation bound for the XOR of t copies of the n-bit majority function, denoted MAJ_n^{⊕ t}. We show that if g is an AC⁰_d circuit of size S, then g agrees with MAJ_n^{⊕ t} on at most a (1/2 + ε)-fraction of inputs, where ε = (O(log S)^{d - 1} / √n)^t. To prove these results, we develop a hardness amplification technique that is tailored to a specific type of circuit lower bound proof. In particular, one way to show that a function h is moderately hard for AC⁰ circuits is to (a) design some distribution over random restrictions or random projections, (b) show that AC⁰ circuits simplify to shallow decision trees under these restrictions/projections, and finally (c) show that after applying the restriction/projection, h is moderately hard for shallow decision trees with respect to an appropriate distribution. We show that (roughly speaking) if h can be proven to be moderately hard by a proof with that structure, then XORing multiple copies of h amplifies its hardness. Our analysis involves a new kind of XOR lemma for decision trees, which might be of independent interest.
Cite as

William M. Hoza. A Technique for Hardness Amplification Against AC⁰. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 1:1-1:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{hoza:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.1,
  author =	{Hoza, William M.},
  title =	{{A Technique for Hardness Amplification Against AC⁰}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-203977},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Bounded-depth circuits, average-case lower bounds, hardness amplification, XOR lemmas}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.2
Streaming Zero-Knowledge Proofs

Authors: Graham Cormode, Marcel Dall'Agnol, Tom Gur, and Chris Hickey

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract
Streaming interactive proofs (SIPs) enable a space-bounded algorithm with one-pass access to a massive stream of data to verify a computation that requires large space, by communicating with a powerful but untrusted prover. This work initiates the study of zero-knowledge proofs for data streams. We define the notion of zero-knowledge in the streaming setting and construct zero-knowledge SIPs for the two main algorithmic building blocks in the streaming interactive proofs literature: the sumcheck and polynomial evaluation protocols. To the best of our knowledge all known streaming interactive proofs are based on either of these tools, and indeed, this allows us to obtain zero-knowledge SIPs for central streaming problems such as index, point and range queries, median, frequency moments, and inner product. Our protocols are efficient in terms of time and space, as well as communication: the verifier algorithm’s space complexity is polylog(n) and, after a non-interactive setup that uses a random string of near-linear length, the remaining parameters are n^o(1). En route, we develop an algorithmic toolkit for designing zero-knowledge data stream protocols, consisting of an algebraic streaming commitment protocol and a temporal commitment protocol. Our analyses rely on delicate algebraic and information-theoretic arguments and reductions from average-case communication complexity.
Cite as

Graham Cormode, Marcel Dall'Agnol, Tom Gur, and Chris Hickey. Streaming Zero-Knowledge Proofs. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 2:1-2:66, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{cormode_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.2,
  author =	{Cormode, Graham and Dall'Agnol, Marcel and Gur, Tom and Hickey, Chris},
  title =	{{Streaming Zero-Knowledge Proofs}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:66},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-203988},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Zero-knowledge proofs, streaming algorithms, computational complexity}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.10
Explicit Directional Affine Extractors and Improved Hardness for Linear Branching Programs

Authors: Xin Li and Yan Zhong

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract
Affine extractors give some of the best-known lower bounds for various computational models, such as AC⁰ circuits, parity decision trees, and general Boolean circuits. However, they are not known to give strong lower bounds for read-once branching programs (ROBPs). In a recent work, Gryaznov, Pudlák, and Talebanfard (CCC' 22) introduced a stronger version of affine extractors known as directional affine extractors, together with a generalization of ROBPs where each node can make linear queries, and showed that the former implies strong lower bound for a certain type of the latter known as strongly read-once linear branching programs (SROLBPs). Their main result gives explicit constructions of directional affine extractors for entropy k > 2n/3, which implies average-case complexity 2^{n/3-o(n)} against SROLBPs with exponentially small correlation. A follow-up work by Chattopadhyay and Liao (CCC' 23) improves the hardness to 2^{n-o(n)} at the price of increasing the correlation to polynomially large, via a new connection to sumset extractors introduced by Chattopadhyay and Li (STOC' 16) and explicit constructions of such extractors by Chattopadhyay and Liao (STOC' 22). Both works left open the questions of better constructions of directional affine extractors and improved average-case complexity against SROLBPs in the regime of small correlation. This paper provides a much more in-depth study of directional affine extractors, SROLBPs, and ROBPs. Our main results include: - An explicit construction of directional affine extractors with k = o(n) and exponentially small error, which gives average-case complexity 2^{n-o(n)} against SROLBPs with exponentially small correlation, thus answering the two open questions raised in previous works. - An explicit function in AC⁰ that gives average-case complexity 2^{(1-δ)n} against ROBPs with negligible correlation, for any constant δ > 0. Previously, no such average-case hardness is known, and the best size lower bound for any function in AC⁰ against ROBPs is 2^Ω(n). One of the key ingredients in our constructions is a new linear somewhere condenser for affine sources, which is based on dimension expanders. The condenser also leads to an unconditional improvement of the entropy requirement of explicit affine extractors with negligible error. We further show that the condenser also works for general weak random sources, under the Polynomial Freiman-Ruzsa Theorem in 𝖥₂ⁿ, recently proved by Gowers, Green, Manners, and Tao (arXiv' 23).
Cite as

Xin Li and Yan Zhong. Explicit Directional Affine Extractors and Improved Hardness for Linear Branching Programs. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 10:1-10:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{li_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.10,
  author =	{Li, Xin and Zhong, Yan},
  title =	{{Explicit Directional Affine Extractors and Improved Hardness for Linear Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{10:1--10:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.10},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-204060},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.10},
  annote =	{Keywords: Randomness Extractors, Affine, Read-once Linear Branching Programs, Low-degree polynomials, AC⁰ circuits}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.17
Local Enumeration and Majority Lower Bounds

Authors: Mohit Gurumukhani, Ramamohan Paturi, Pavel Pudlák, Michael Saks, and Navid Talebanfard

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract
Depth-3 circuit lower bounds and k-SAT algorithms are intimately related; the state-of-the-art Σ^k_3-circuit lower bound (Or-And-Or circuits with bottom fan-in at most k) and the k-SAT algorithm of Paturi, Pudlák, Saks, and Zane (J. ACM'05) are based on the same combinatorial theorem regarding k-CNFs. In this paper we define a problem which reveals new interactions between the two, and suggests a concrete approach to significantly stronger circuit lower bounds and improved k-SAT algorithms. For a natural number k and a parameter t, we consider the Enum(k, t) problem defined as follows: given an n-variable k-CNF and an initial assignment α, output all satisfying assignments at Hamming distance t(n) of α, assuming that there are no satisfying assignments of Hamming distance less than t(n) of α. We observe that an upper bound b(n, k, t) on the complexity of Enum(k, t) simultaneously implies depth-3 circuit lower bounds and k-SAT algorithms: - Depth-3 circuits: Any Σ^k_3 circuit computing the Majority function has size at least binom(n,n/2)/b(n, k, n/2). - k-SAT: There exists an algorithm solving k-SAT in time O(∑_{t=1}^{n/2}b(n, k, t)). A simple construction shows that b(n, k, n/2) ≥ 2^{(1 - O(log(k)/k))n}. Thus, matching upper bounds for b(n, k, n/2) would imply a Σ^k_3-circuit lower bound of 2^Ω(log(k)n/k) and a k-SAT upper bound of 2^{(1 - Ω(log(k)/k))n}. The former yields an unrestricted depth-3 lower bound of 2^ω(√n) solving a long standing open problem, and the latter breaks the Super Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis. In this paper, we propose a randomized algorithm for Enum(k, t) and introduce new ideas to analyze it. We demonstrate the power of our ideas by considering the first non-trivial instance of the problem, i.e., Enum(3, n/2). We show that the expected running time of our algorithm is 1.598ⁿ, substantially improving on the trivial bound of 3^{n/2} ≃ 1.732ⁿ. This already improves Σ^3_3 lower bounds for Majority function to 1.251ⁿ. The previous bound was 1.154ⁿ which follows from the work of Håstad, Jukna, and Pudlák (Comput. Complex.'95). By restricting ourselves to monotone CNFs, Enum(k, t) immediately becomes a hypergraph Turán problem. Therefore our techniques might be of independent interest in extremal combinatorics.
Cite as

Mohit Gurumukhani, Ramamohan Paturi, Pavel Pudlák, Michael Saks, and Navid Talebanfard. Local Enumeration and Majority Lower Bounds. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 17:1-17:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{gurumukhani_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.17,
  author =	{Gurumukhani, Mohit and Paturi, Ramamohan and Pudl\'{a}k, Pavel and Saks, Michael and Talebanfard, Navid},
  title =	{{Local Enumeration and Majority Lower Bounds}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{17:1--17:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.17},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-204136},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.17},
  annote =	{Keywords: Depth 3 circuits, k-CNF satisfiability, Circuit lower bounds, Majority function}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.18
Pseudorandomness, Symmetry, Smoothing: I

Authors: Harm Derksen, Peter Ivanov, Chin Ho Lee, and Emanuele Viola

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract
We prove several new results about bounded uniform and small-bias distributions. A main message is that, small-bias, even perturbed with noise, does not fool several classes of tests better than bounded uniformity. We prove this for threshold tests, small-space algorithms, and small-depth circuits. In particular, we obtain small-bias distributions that - achieve an optimal lower bound on their statistical distance to any bounded-uniform distribution. This closes a line of research initiated by Alon, Goldreich, and Mansour in 2003, and improves on a result by O'Donnell and Zhao. - have heavier tail mass than the uniform distribution. This answers a question posed by several researchers including Bun and Steinke. - rule out a popular paradigm for constructing pseudorandom generators, originating in a 1989 work by Ajtai and Wigderson. This again answers a question raised by several researchers. For branching programs, our result matches a bound by Forbes and Kelley. Our small-bias distributions above are symmetric. We show that the xor of any two symmetric small-bias distributions fools any bounded function. Hence our examples cannot be extended to the xor of two small-bias distributions, another popular paradigm whose power remains unknown. We also generalize and simplify the proof of a result of Bazzi.
Cite as

Harm Derksen, Peter Ivanov, Chin Ho Lee, and Emanuele Viola. Pseudorandomness, Symmetry, Smoothing: I. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 18:1-18:27, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{derksen_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.18,
  author =	{Derksen, Harm and Ivanov, Peter and Lee, Chin Ho and Viola, Emanuele},
  title =	{{Pseudorandomness, Symmetry, Smoothing: I}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{18:1--18:27},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.18},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-204144},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.18},
  annote =	{Keywords: pseudorandomness, k-wise uniform distributions, small-bias distributions, noise, symmetric tests, thresholds, Krawtchouk polynomials}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.22
Depth-d Frege Systems Are Not Automatable Unless 𝖯 = NP

Authors: Theodoros Papamakarios

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract
We show that for any integer d > 0, depth-d Frege systems are NP-hard to automate. Namely, given a set S of depth-d formulas, it is NP-hard to find a depth-d Frege refutation of S in time polynomial in the size of the shortest such refutation. This extends the result of Atserias and Müller [JACM, 2020] for the non-automatability of resolution - a depth-1 Frege system - to Frege systems of any depth d > 0.
Cite as

Theodoros Papamakarios. Depth-d Frege Systems Are Not Automatable Unless 𝖯 = NP. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 22:1-22:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{papamakarios:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.22,
  author =	{Papamakarios, Theodoros},
  title =	{{Depth-d Frege Systems Are Not Automatable Unless 𝖯 = NP}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{22:1--22:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.22},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-204187},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.22},
  annote =	{Keywords: Proof complexity, Automatability, Bounded-depth Frege}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.30
The Computational Advantage of MIP^∗ Vanishes in the Presence of Noise

Authors: Yangjing Dong, Honghao Fu, Anand Natarajan, Minglong Qin, Haochen Xu, and Penghui Yao

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract
The class MIP^* of quantum multiprover interactive proof systems with entanglement is much more powerful than its classical counterpart MIP [Babai et al., 1991; Zhengfeng Ji et al., 2020; Zhengfeng Ji et al., 2020]: while MIP = NEXP, the quantum class MIP^* is equal to RE, a class including the halting problem. This is because the provers in MIP^* can share unbounded quantum entanglement. However, recent works [Qin and Yao, 2021; Qin and Yao, 2023] have shown that this advantage is significantly reduced if the provers' shared state contains noise. This paper attempts to exactly characterize the effect of noise on the computational power of quantum multiprover interactive proof systems. We investigate the quantum two-prover one-round interactive system MIP^*[poly,O(1)], where the verifier sends polynomially many bits to the provers and the provers send back constantly many bits. We show noise completely destroys the computational advantage given by shared entanglement in this model. Specifically, we show that if the provers are allowed to share arbitrarily many EPR states, where each EPR state is affected by an arbitrarily small constant amount of noise, the resulting complexity class is equivalent to NEXP = MIP. This improves significantly on the previous best-known bound of NEEEXP (nondeterministic triply exponential time) [Qin and Yao, 2021]. We also show that this collapse in power is due to the noise, rather than the O(1) answer size, by showing that allowing for noiseless EPR states gives the class the full power of RE = MIP^*[poly, poly]. Along the way, we develop two technical tools of independent interest. First, we give a new, deterministic tester for the positivity of an exponentially large matrix, provided it has a low-degree Fourier decomposition in terms of Pauli matrices. Secondly, we develop a new invariance principle for smooth matrix functions having bounded third-order Fréchet derivatives or which are Lipschitz continuous.
Cite as

Yangjing Dong, Honghao Fu, Anand Natarajan, Minglong Qin, Haochen Xu, and Penghui Yao. The Computational Advantage of MIP^∗ Vanishes in the Presence of Noise. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 30:1-30:71, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{dong_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.30,
  author =	{Dong, Yangjing and Fu, Honghao and Natarajan, Anand and Qin, Minglong and Xu, Haochen and Yao, Penghui},
  title =	{{The Computational Advantage of MIP^∗ Vanishes in the Presence of Noise}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{30:1--30:71},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.30},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-204263},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.30},
  annote =	{Keywords: Interactive proofs, Quantum complexity theory, Quantum entanglement, Fourier analysis, Matrix analysis, Invariance principle, Derandomization, PCP, Locally testable code, Positivity testing}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.34
Search-To-Decision Reductions for Kolmogorov Complexity

Authors: Noam Mazor and Rafael Pass

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract
A long-standing open problem dating back to the 1960s is whether there exists a search-to-decision reduction for the time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity problem - that is, the problem of determining whether the length of the shortest time-t program generating a given string x is at most s. In this work, we consider the more "robust" version of the time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity problem, referred to as the GapMINKT problem, where given a size bound s and a running time bound t, the goal is to determine whether there exists a poly(t,|x|)-time program of length s+O(log |x|) that generates x. We present the first non-trivial search-to-decision reduction R for the GapMINKT problem; R has a running-time bound of 2^{ε n} for any ε > 0 and additionally only queries its oracle on "thresholds" s of size s+O(log |x|). As such, we get that any algorithm with running-time (resp. circuit size) 2^{α s} poly(|x|,t,s) for solving GapMINKT (given an instance (x,t,s), yields an algorithm for finding a witness with running-time (resp. circuit size) 2^{(α+ε) s} poly(|x|,t,s). Our second result is a polynomial-time search-to-decision reduction for the time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity problem in the average-case regime. Such a reduction was recently shown by Liu and Pass (FOCS'20), heavily relying on cryptographic techniques. Our reduction is more direct and additionally has the advantage of being length-preserving, and as such also applies in the exponential time/size regime. A central component in both of these results is the use of Kolmogorov and Levin’s Symmetry of Information Theorem.
Cite as

Noam Mazor and Rafael Pass. Search-To-Decision Reductions for Kolmogorov Complexity. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 34:1-34:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{mazor_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.34,
  author =	{Mazor, Noam and Pass, Rafael},
  title =	{{Search-To-Decision Reductions for Kolmogorov Complexity}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{34:1--34:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.34},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-204308},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.34},
  annote =	{Keywords: Kolmogorov complexity, search to decision}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.16
NP-Hardness of Testing Equivalence to Sparse Polynomials and to Constant-Support Polynomials

Authors: Omkar Baraskar, Agrim Dewan, Chandan Saha, and Pulkit Sinha

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 297, 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)

Abstract
An s-sparse polynomial has at most s monomials with nonzero coefficients. The Equivalence Testing problem for sparse polynomials (ETsparse) asks to decide if a given polynomial f is equivalent to (i.e., in the orbit of) some s-sparse polynomial. In other words, given f ∈ 𝔽[𝐱] and s ∈ ℕ, ETsparse asks to check if there exist A ∈ GL(|𝐱|, 𝔽) and 𝐛 ∈ 𝔽^|𝐱| such that f(A𝐱 + 𝐛) is s-sparse. We show that ETsparse is NP-hard over any field 𝔽, if f is given in the sparse representation, i.e., as a list of nonzero coefficients and exponent vectors. This answers a question posed by Gupta, Saha and Thankey (SODA 2023) and also, more explicitly, by Baraskar, Dewan and Saha (STACS 2024). The result implies that the Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP) is NP-hard for a dense subclass of depth-3 arithmetic circuits if the input is given in sparse representation. We also show that approximating the smallest s₀ such that a given s-sparse polynomial f is in the orbit of some s₀-sparse polynomial to within a factor of s^{1/3 - ε} is NP-hard for any ε > 0; observe that s-factor approximation is trivial as the input is s-sparse. Finally, we show that for any constant σ ≥ 6, checking if a polynomial (given in sparse representation) is in the orbit of some support-σ polynomial is NP-hard. Support of a polynomial f is the maximum number of variables present in any monomial of f. These results are obtained via direct reductions from the 3-SAT problem.
Cite as

Omkar Baraskar, Agrim Dewan, Chandan Saha, and Pulkit Sinha. NP-Hardness of Testing Equivalence to Sparse Polynomials and to Constant-Support Polynomials. In 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 297, pp. 16:1-16:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{baraskar_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.16,
  author =	{Baraskar, Omkar and Dewan, Agrim and Saha, Chandan and Sinha, Pulkit},
  title =	{{NP-Hardness of Testing Equivalence to Sparse Polynomials and to Constant-Support Polynomials}},
  booktitle =	{51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)},
  pages =	{16:1--16:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-322-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{297},
  editor =	{Bringmann, Karl and Grohe, Martin and Puppis, Gabriele and Svensson, Ola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.16},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-201598},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.16},
  annote =	{Keywords: Equivalence testing, MCSP, sparse polynomials, 3SAT}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.56
Lower Bounds for Matroid Optimization Problems with a Linear Constraint

Authors: Ilan Doron-Arad, Ariel Kulik, and Hadas Shachnai

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 297, 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)

Abstract
We study a family of matroid optimization problems with a linear constraint (MOL). In these problems, we seek a subset of elements which optimizes (i.e., maximizes or minimizes) a linear objective function subject to (i) a matroid independent set, or a matroid basis constraint, (ii) additional linear constraint. A notable member in this family is budgeted matroid independent set (BM), which can be viewed as classic 0/1-Knapsack with a matroid constraint. While special cases of BM, such as knapsack with cardinality constraint and multiple-choice knapsack, admit a fully polynomial-time approximation scheme (Fully PTAS), the best known result for BM on a general matroid is an Efficient PTAS. Prior to this work, the existence of a Fully PTAS for BM, and more generally, for any problem in the family of MOL problems, has been open. In this paper, we answer this question negatively by showing that none of the (non-trivial) problems in this family admits a Fully PTAS. This resolves the complexity status of several well studied problems. Our main result is obtained by showing first that exact weight matroid basis (EMB) does not admit a pseudo-polynomial time algorithm. This distinguishes EMB from the special cases of k-subset sum and EMB on a linear matroid, which are solvable in pseudo-polynomial time. We then obtain unconditional hardness results for the family of MOL problems in the oracle model (even if randomization is allowed), and show that the same results hold when the matroids are encoded as part of the input, assuming P ≠ NP. For the hardness proof of EMB, we introduce the Π-matroid family. This intricate subclass of matroids, which exploits the interaction between a weight function and the matroid constraint, may find use in tackling other matroid optimization problems.
Cite as

Ilan Doron-Arad, Ariel Kulik, and Hadas Shachnai. Lower Bounds for Matroid Optimization Problems with a Linear Constraint. In 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 297, pp. 56:1-56:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{doronarad_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.56,
  author =	{Doron-Arad, Ilan and Kulik, Ariel and Shachnai, Hadas},
  title =	{{Lower Bounds for Matroid Optimization Problems with a Linear Constraint}},
  booktitle =	{51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)},
  pages =	{56:1--56:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-322-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{297},
  editor =	{Bringmann, Karl and Grohe, Martin and Puppis, Gabriele and Svensson, Ola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.56},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-201990},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.56},
  annote =	{Keywords: matroid optimization, budgeted problems, knapsack, approximation schemes}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.108
Two-Source and Affine Non-Malleable Extractors for Small Entropy

Authors: Xin Li and Yan Zhong

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 297, 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)

Abstract
Non-malleable extractors are generalizations and strengthening of standard randomness extractors, that are resilient to adversarial tampering. Such extractors have wide applications in cryptography and have become important cornerstones in recent breakthroughs of explicit constructions of two-source extractors and affine extractors for small entropy. However, explicit constructions of non-malleable extractors appear to be much harder than standard extractors. Indeed, in the well-studied models of two-source and affine non-malleable extractors, the previous best constructions only work for entropy rate > 2/3 and 1-γ for some small constant γ > 0 respectively by Li (FOCS' 23). In this paper, we present explicit constructions of two-source and affine non-malleable extractors that match the state-of-the-art constructions of standard ones for small entropy. Our main results include: - Two-source and affine non-malleable extractors (over 𝖥₂) for sources on n bits with min-entropy k ≥ log^C n and polynomially small error, matching the parameters of standard extractors by Chattopadhyay and Zuckerman (STOC' 16, Annals of Mathematics' 19) and Li (FOCS' 16). - Two-source and affine non-malleable extractors (over 𝖥₂) for sources on n bits with min-entropy k = O(log n) and constant error, matching the parameters of standard extractors by Li (FOCS' 23). Our constructions significantly improve previous results, and the parameters (entropy requirement and error) are the best possible without first improving the constructions of standard extractors. In addition, our improved affine non-malleable extractors give strong lower bounds for a certain kind of read-once linear branching programs, recently introduced by Gryaznov, Pudlák, and Talebanfard (CCC' 22) as a generalization of several well studied computational models. These bounds match the previously best-known average-case hardness results given by Chattopadhyay and Liao (CCC' 23) and Li (FOCS' 23), where the branching program size lower bounds are close to optimal, but the explicit functions we use here are different. Our results also suggest a possible deeper connection between non-malleable extractors and standard ones.
Cite as

Xin Li and Yan Zhong. Two-Source and Affine Non-Malleable Extractors for Small Entropy. In 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 297, pp. 108:1-108:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{li_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.108,
  author =	{Li, Xin and Zhong, Yan},
  title =	{{Two-Source and Affine Non-Malleable Extractors for Small Entropy}},
  booktitle =	{51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)},
  pages =	{108:1--108:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-322-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{297},
  editor =	{Bringmann, Karl and Grohe, Martin and Puppis, Gabriele and Svensson, Ola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.108},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-202512},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.108},
  annote =	{Keywords: Randomness Extractors, Non-malleable, Two-source, Affine}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.85
Optimal PSPACE-Hardness of Approximating Set Cover Reconfiguration

Authors: Shuichi Hirahara and Naoto Ohsaka

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 297, 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)

Abstract
In the Minmax Set Cover Reconfiguration problem, given a set system ℱ over a universe 𝒰 and its two covers 𝒞^start and 𝒞^goal of size k, we wish to transform 𝒞^start into 𝒞^goal by repeatedly adding or removing a single set of ℱ while covering the universe 𝒰 in any intermediate state. Then, the objective is to minimize the maximum size of any intermediate cover during transformation. We prove that Minmax Set Cover Reconfiguration and Minmax Dominating Set Reconfiguration are PSPACE-hard to approximate within a factor of 2-(1/polyloglog N), where N is the size of the universe and the number of vertices in a graph, respectively, improving upon Ohsaka (SODA 2024) [Ohsaka, 2024] and Karthik C. S. and Manurangsi (2023) [Karthik C. S. and Manurangsi, 2023]. This is the first result that exhibits a sharp threshold for the approximation factor of any reconfiguration problem because both problems admit a 2-factor approximation algorithm as per Ito, Demaine, Harvey, Papadimitriou, Sideri, Uehara, and Uno (Theor. Comput. Sci., 2011) [Takehiro Ito et al., 2011]. Our proof is based on a reconfiguration analogue of the FGLSS reduction [Feige et al., 1996] from Probabilistically Checkable Reconfiguration Proofs of Hirahara and Ohsaka (STOC 2024) [Hirahara and Ohsaka, 2024]. We also prove that for any constant ε ∈ (0,1), Minmax Hypergraph Vertex Cover Reconfiguration on poly(ε^-1)-uniform hypergraphs is PSPACE-hard to approximate within a factor of 2-ε.
Cite as

Shuichi Hirahara and Naoto Ohsaka. Optimal PSPACE-Hardness of Approximating Set Cover Reconfiguration. In 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 297, pp. 85:1-85:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{hirahara_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.85,
  author =	{Hirahara, Shuichi and Ohsaka, Naoto},
  title =	{{Optimal PSPACE-Hardness of Approximating Set Cover Reconfiguration}},
  booktitle =	{51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)},
  pages =	{85:1--85:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-322-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{297},
  editor =	{Bringmann, Karl and Grohe, Martin and Puppis, Gabriele and Svensson, Ola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.85},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-202283},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.85},
  annote =	{Keywords: reconfiguration problems, hardness of approximation, probabilistic proof systems, FGLSS reduction}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.110
Impagliazzo’s Worlds Through the Lens of Conditional Kolmogorov Complexity

Authors: Zhenjian Lu and Rahul Santhanam

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 297, 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)

Abstract
We develop new characterizations of Impagliazzo’s worlds Algorithmica, Heuristica and Pessiland by the intractability of conditional Kolmogorov complexity 𝖪 and conditional probabilistic time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity pK^t. In our first set of results, we show that NP ⊆ BPP iff pK^t(x ∣ y) can be computed efficiently in the worst case when t is sublinear in |x| + |y|; DistNP ⊆ HeurBPP iff pK^t(x ∣ y) can be computed efficiently over all polynomial-time samplable distributions when t is sublinear in |x| + |y|; and infinitely-often one-way functions fail to exist iff pK^t(x ∣ y) can be computed efficiently over all polynomial-time samplable distributions for t a sufficiently large polynomial in |x| + |y|. These results characterize Impagliazzo’s worlds Algorithmica, Heuristica and Pessiland purely in terms of the tractability of conditional pK^t. Notably, the results imply that Pessiland fails to exist iff the average-case intractability of conditional pK^t is insensitive to the difference between sublinear and polynomially bounded t. As a corollary, while we prove conditional pK^t to be NP-hard for sublinear t, showing NP-hardness for large enough polynomially bounded t would eliminate Pessiland as a possible world of average-case complexity. In our second set of results, we characterize Impagliazzo’s worlds Algorithmica, Heuristica and Pessiland by the distributional tractability of a natural problem, i.e., approximating the conditional Kolmogorov complexity, that is provably intractable in the worst case. We show that NP ⊆ BPP iff conditional Kolmogorov complexity can be approximated in the semi-worst case; and DistNP ⊆ HeurBPP iff conditional Kolmogorov complexity can be approximated on average over all independent polynomial-time samplable distributions. It follows from a result by Ilango, Ren, and Santhanam (STOC 2022) that infinitely-often one-way functions fail to exist iff conditional Kolmogorov complexity can be approximated on average over all polynomial-time samplable distributions. Together, these results yield the claimed characterizations. Our techniques, combined with previous work, also yield a characterization of auxiliary-input one-way functions and equivalences between different average-case tractability assumptions for conditional Kolmogorov complexity and its variants. Our results suggest that novel average-case tractability assumptions such as tractability in the semi-worst case and over independent polynomial-time samplable distributions might be worthy of further study.
Cite as

Zhenjian Lu and Rahul Santhanam. Impagliazzo’s Worlds Through the Lens of Conditional Kolmogorov Complexity. In 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 297, pp. 110:1-110:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{lu_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.110,
  author =	{Lu, Zhenjian and Santhanam, Rahul},
  title =	{{Impagliazzo’s Worlds Through the Lens of Conditional Kolmogorov Complexity}},
  booktitle =	{51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)},
  pages =	{110:1--110:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-322-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{297},
  editor =	{Bringmann, Karl and Grohe, Martin and Puppis, Gabriele and Svensson, Ola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.110},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-202538},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.110},
  annote =	{Keywords: meta-complexity, Kolmogorov complexity, one-way functions, average-case complexity}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.113
Alphabet Reduction for Reconfiguration Problems

Authors: Naoto Ohsaka

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 297, 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)

Abstract
We present a reconfiguration analogue of alphabet reduction à la Dinur (J. ACM, 2007) and its applications. Given a binary constraint graph G and its two satisfying assignments ψ^ini and ψ^tar, the Maxmin 2-CSP Reconfiguration problem requests to transform ψ^ini into ψ^tar by repeatedly changing the value of a single vertex so that the minimum fraction of satisfied edges is maximized. We demonstrate a polynomial-time reduction from Maxmin 2-CSP Reconfiguration with arbitrarily large alphabet size W ∈ ℕ to itself with universal alphabet size W₀ ∈ ℕ such that 1) the perfect completeness is preserved, and 2) if any reconfiguration for the former violates ε-fraction of edges, then Ω(ε)-fraction of edges must be unsatisfied during any reconfiguration for the latter. The crux of its construction is the reconfigurability of Hadamard codes, which enables to reconfigure between a pair of codewords, while avoiding getting too close to the other codewords. Combining this alphabet reduction with gap amplification due to Ohsaka (SODA 2024), we are able to amplify the 1 vs. 1-ε gap for arbitrarily small ε ∈ (0,1) up to the 1 vs. 1-ε₀ for some universal ε₀ ∈ (0,1) without blowing up the alphabet size. In particular, a 1 vs. 1-ε₀ gap version of Maxmin 2-CSP Reconfiguration with alphabet size W₀ is PSPACE-hard given a probabilistically checkable reconfiguration proof system having any soundness error 1-ε due to Hirahara and Ohsaka (STOC 2024) and Karthik C. S. and Manurangsi (2023). As an immediate corollary, we show that there exists a universal constant ε₀ ∈ (0,1) such that many popular reconfiguration problems are PSPACE-hard to approximate within a factor of 1-ε₀, including those of 3-SAT, Independent Set, Vertex Cover, Clique, Dominating Set, and Set Cover. This may not be achieved only by gap amplification of Ohsaka, which makes the alphabet size gigantic depending on ε^-1.
Cite as

Naoto Ohsaka. Alphabet Reduction for Reconfiguration Problems. In 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 297, pp. 113:1-113:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{ohsaka:LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.113,
  author =	{Ohsaka, Naoto},
  title =	{{Alphabet Reduction for Reconfiguration Problems}},
  booktitle =	{51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)},
  pages =	{113:1--113:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-322-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{297},
  editor =	{Bringmann, Karl and Grohe, Martin and Puppis, Gabriele and Svensson, Ola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.113},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-202560},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.113},
  annote =	{Keywords: reconfiguration problems, hardness of approximation, Hadamard codes, alphabet reduction}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.115
On the Cut-Query Complexity of Approximating Max-Cut

Authors: Orestis Plevrakis, Seyoon Ragavan, and S. Matthew Weinberg

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 297, 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)

Abstract
We consider the problem of query-efficient global max-cut on a weighted undirected graph in the value oracle model examined by [Rubinstein et al., 2018]. Graph algorithms in this cut query model and other query models have recently been studied for various other problems such as min-cut, connectivity, bipartiteness, and triangle detection. Max-cut in the cut query model can also be viewed as a natural special case of submodular function maximization: on query S ⊆ V, the oracle returns the total weight of the cut between S and V\S. Our first main technical result is a lower bound stating that a deterministic algorithm achieving a c-approximation for any c > 1/2 requires Ω(n) queries. This uses an extension of the cut dimension to rule out approximation (prior work of [Graur et al., 2020] introducing the cut dimension only rules out exact solutions). Secondly, we provide a randomized algorithm with Õ(n) queries that finds a c-approximation for any c < 1. We achieve this using a query-efficient sparsifier for undirected weighted graphs (prior work of [Rubinstein et al., 2018] holds only for unweighted graphs). To complement these results, for most constants c ∈ (0,1], we nail down the query complexity of achieving a c-approximation, for both deterministic and randomized algorithms (up to logarithmic factors). Analogously to general submodular function maximization in the same model, we observe a phase transition at c = 1/2: we design a deterministic algorithm for global c-approximate max-cut in O(log n) queries for any c < 1/2, and show that any randomized algorithm requires Ω(n/log n) queries to find a c-approximate max-cut for any c > 1/2. Additionally, we show that any deterministic algorithm requires Ω(n²) queries to find an exact max-cut (enough to learn the entire graph).
Cite as

Orestis Plevrakis, Seyoon Ragavan, and S. Matthew Weinberg. On the Cut-Query Complexity of Approximating Max-Cut. In 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 297, pp. 115:1-115:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{plevrakis_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.115,
  author =	{Plevrakis, Orestis and Ragavan, Seyoon and Weinberg, S. Matthew},
  title =	{{On the Cut-Query Complexity of Approximating Max-Cut}},
  booktitle =	{51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)},
  pages =	{115:1--115:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-322-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{297},
  editor =	{Bringmann, Karl and Grohe, Martin and Puppis, Gabriele and Svensson, Ola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.115},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-202587},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.115},
  annote =	{Keywords: query complexity, maximum cut, approximation algorithms, graph sparsification}
}
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