99 Search Results for "Shpilka, Amir"


Volume

LIPIcs, Volume 137

34th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2019)

CCC 2019, July 18-20, 2019, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Editors: Amir Shpilka

Document
Conditional Complexity Hardness: Monotone Circuit Size, Matrix Rigidity, and Tensor Rank

Authors: Nikolai Chukhin, Alexander S. Kulikov, Ivan Mihajlin, and Arina Smirnova

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 364, 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)


Abstract
Proving complexity lower bounds remains a challenging task: currently, we only know how to prove conditional uniform (algorithm) lower bounds and nonuniform (circuit) lower bounds in restricted circuit models. About a decade ago, Williams (STOC 2010) showed how to derive nonuniform lower bounds from uniform upper bounds: roughly, by designing a fast algorithm for checking satisfiability of circuits, one gets a lower bound for this circuit class. Since then, a number of results of this kind have been proved. For example, Jahanjou et al. (ICALP 2015) and Carmosino et al. (ITCS 2016) proved that if NSETH fails, then E^{NP} has series-parallel circuit size ω(n). One can also derive nonuniform lower bounds from nondeterministic uniform lower bounds. Perhaps the most well-known example is the Karp-Lipton theorem (STOC 1980): if Σ₂ ≠ Π₂, then NP ⊄ P/poly. Some recent examples include the following. Nederlof (STOC 2020) proved a lower bound on the matrix multiplication tensor rank under an assumption that TSP cannot be solved faster than in 2ⁿ time. Belova et al. (SODA 2024) proved that there exists an explicit polynomial family of arithmetic circuit size Ω(n^{δ}), for any δ > 0, assuming that MAX-3-SAT cannot be solved faster than in 2ⁿ nondeterministic time. Williams (FOCS 2024) proved an exponential lower bound for ETHR ∘ ETHR circuits under the Orthogonal Vectors conjecture. Whereas all the lower bounds above are proved under strong assumptions that might eventually be refuted, the revealed connections are of great interest and may still give further insights: one may be able to weaken the used assumptions or to construct generators from other fine-grained reductions. In this paper, we continue developing this line of research and show how uniform nondeterministic lower bounds can be used to construct generators of various types of combinatorial objects that are notoriously hard to analyze: Boolean functions of high circuit size, matrices of high rigidity, and tensors of high rank. Specifically, we prove the following. - If, for some ε and k, k-SAT cannot be solved in input-oblivious co-nondeterministic time O(2^{(1/2+ε)n}), then there exists a monotone Boolean function family in coNP of monotone circuit size 2^{Ω(n / log n)}. Combining this with the result above, we get win-win circuit lower bounds: either E^{NP{}} requires series-parallel circuits of size ω(n) or coNP requires monotone circuits of size 2^{Ω(n / log n)}. - If, for all ε > 0, MAX-3-SAT cannot be solved in co-nondeterministic time O(2^{(1 - ε)n}), then there exist small families of matrices with rigidity exceeding the best known constructions as well as small families of three-dimensional tensors of rank n^{1+Δ}, for some Δ > 0.

Cite as

Nikolai Chukhin, Alexander S. Kulikov, Ivan Mihajlin, and Arina Smirnova. Conditional Complexity Hardness: Monotone Circuit Size, Matrix Rigidity, and Tensor Rank. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 28:1-28:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{chukhin_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.28,
  author =	{Chukhin, Nikolai and Kulikov, Alexander S. and Mihajlin, Ivan and Smirnova, Arina},
  title =	{{Conditional Complexity Hardness: Monotone Circuit Size, Matrix Rigidity, and Tensor Rank}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{28:1--28:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-412-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{364},
  editor =	{Mahajan, Meena and Manea, Florin and McIver, Annabelle and Thắng, Nguy\~{ê}n Kim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.28},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255177},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.28},
  annote =	{Keywords: computational complexity, circuit complexity, lower bounds, conditional lower bounds, monotone circuits, matrix rigidity, tensor rank, arithmetic circuits, fine-grained complexity}
}
Document
Spectral Norm, Economical Sieve, and Linear Invariance Testing of Boolean Functions

Authors: Swarnalipa Datta, Arijit Ghosh, Chandrima Kayal, Manaswi Paraashar, and Manmatha Roy

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 364, 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)


Abstract
Given Boolean functions f, g : 𝔽₂ⁿ → {-1,+1}, we say they are linearly isomorphic if there exists A ∈ GL_n(𝔽₂) such that f(x) = g(Ax) for all x. We study this problem in the tolerant property testing framework under the known-unknown model, where g is given explicitly and f is accessible only via oracle queries, meaning the algorithm may adaptively request the value of f(x) for inputs x ∈ 𝔽₂ⁿ of its choice. Given parameters ε ≥ 0 and ω > 0, the goal is to distinguish whether there exists A ∈ GL_n(𝔽₂) such that the normalized Hamming distance between f and g(Ax) is at most ε, or whether for every A ∈ GL_n(𝔽₂) the distance is at least ε+ω. Our main result is a tolerant tester making Õ ((m/ω) ⁴) queries to f, where m is an upper bound on the spectral norm of g, improving the previous Õ ((m/ω) ^{24}) bound of Wimmer and Yoshida. We complement this with a nearly matching lower bound of Ω(m²) for constant ω (for example, ω = 1/4), improving the prior Ω(log m) lower bound of Grigorescu, Wimmer and Xie. A key technical ingredient on the algorithmic side is a query-efficient local list corrector. For the lower bound, we give a reduction from communication complexity using a novel subclass of Maiorana-McFarland functions from symmetric-key cryptography.

Cite as

Swarnalipa Datta, Arijit Ghosh, Chandrima Kayal, Manaswi Paraashar, and Manmatha Roy. Spectral Norm, Economical Sieve, and Linear Invariance Testing of Boolean Functions. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 30:1-30:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{datta_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.30,
  author =	{Datta, Swarnalipa and Ghosh, Arijit and Kayal, Chandrima and Paraashar, Manaswi and Roy, Manmatha},
  title =	{{Spectral Norm, Economical Sieve, and Linear Invariance Testing of Boolean Functions}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{30:1--30:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-412-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{364},
  editor =	{Mahajan, Meena and Manea, Florin and McIver, Annabelle and Thắng, Nguy\~{ê}n Kim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.30},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255194},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.30},
  annote =	{Keywords: Boolean Function, Isomorphism of Boolean Function, Fourier Analysis, Sublinear Algorithm, Property Testing}
}
Document
Debordering Closure Results in Determinantal and Pfaffian Ideals

Authors: Anakin Dey and Zeyu Guo

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
One important question in algebraic complexity is understanding the complexity of polynomial ideals (Grochow, Bulletin of EATCS 131, 2020). Andrews and Forbes (STOC 2022) studied the determinantal ideals I^{det}_{n,m,r} generated by the r× r minors of n× m matrices. Over fields of characteristic zero or of sufficiently large characteristic, they showed that for any nonzero f ∈ I^{det}_{n,m,r}, the determinant of a t × t matrix of variables with t = Θ{r^{1/3}} is approximately computed by a constant-depth, polynomial-size f-oracle algebraic circuit, in the sense that the determinant lies in the border of such circuits. An analogous result was also obtained for Pfaffians in the same paper. In this work, we deborder the result of Andrews and Forbes by showing that when f has polynomial degree, the determinant is in fact exactly computed by a constant-depth, polynomial-size f-oracle algebraic circuit. We further establish an analogous result for Pfaffian ideals. Our results are established using the isolation lemma, combined with a careful analysis of straightening-law expansions of polynomials in determinantal and Pfaffian ideals.

Cite as

Anakin Dey and Zeyu Guo. Debordering Closure Results in Determinantal and Pfaffian Ideals. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 49:1-49:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{dey_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.49,
  author =	{Dey, Anakin and Guo, Zeyu},
  title =	{{Debordering Closure Results in Determinantal and Pfaffian Ideals}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{49:1--49:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.49},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253363},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.49},
  annote =	{Keywords: Algebraic circuit complexity, Isolation lemma, Debordering}
}
Document
AC⁰[p]-Frege Cannot Efficiently Prove That Constant-Depth Algebraic Circuit Lower Bounds Are Hard

Authors: Jiaqi Lu, Rahul Santhanam, and Iddo Tzameret

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
We study whether lower bounds against constant-depth algebraic circuits computing the Permanent over finite fields (Limaye-Srinivasan-Tavenas [J. ACM, 2025] and Forbes [CCC'24]) are hard to prove in certain proof systems. We focus on a DNF formula that expresses that such lower bounds are hard for constant-depth algebraic proofs. Using an adaptation of the diagonalization framework of Santhanam and Tzameret (SIAM J. Comput., 2025), we show unconditionally that this family of DNF formulas does not admit polynomial-size propositional AC⁰[p]-Frege proofs, infinitely often. This rules out the possibility that the DNF family is easy, and establishes that its status is either that of a hard tautology for AC⁰[p]-Frege or else unprovable (i.e., not a tautology). While it remains open whether the DNFs in question are tautologies, we provide evidence in this direction. In particular, under the plausible assumption that certain (weak) properties of multilinear algebra - specifically, those involving tensor rank - do not admit short constant-depth algebraic proofs, the DNFs are tautologies. We also observe that several weaker variants of the DNF formula are provably tautologies, and we show that the question of whether the DNFs are tautologies connects to conjectures of Razborov (ICALP'96) and Krajíček (J. Symb. Log., 2004). Additionally, our result has the following special features: ii) Existential depth amplification: the DNF formula considered is parameterised by a constant depth d bounding the depth of the algebraic proofs. We show that there exists some fixed depth d such that if there are no small depth-d algebraic proofs of certain circuit lower bounds for the Permanent, then there are no such small algebraic proofs in any constant depth. iii) Necessity: We show that our result is a necessary step towards establishing lower bounds against constant-depth algebraic proofs, and more generally against any sufficiently strong proof system. In particular, showing there are no short proofs for our DNF formulas, obtained by replacing "constant-depth algebraic circuits" with any "reasonable" algebraic circuit class C, is necessary in order to prove any super-polynomial lower bounds against algebraic proofs operating with circuits from C.

Cite as

Jiaqi Lu, Rahul Santhanam, and Iddo Tzameret. AC⁰[p]-Frege Cannot Efficiently Prove That Constant-Depth Algebraic Circuit Lower Bounds Are Hard. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 99:1-99:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{lu_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.99,
  author =	{Lu, Jiaqi and Santhanam, Rahul and Tzameret, Iddo},
  title =	{{AC⁰\lbrackp\rbrack-Frege Cannot Efficiently Prove That Constant-Depth Algebraic Circuit Lower Bounds Are Hard}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{99:1--99:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.99},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253865},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.99},
  annote =	{Keywords: Complexity, Lower bounds, Proof complexity, AC⁰\lbrackp\rbrack-Frege, Diagonalisation, Algebraic complexity}
}
Document
On Closure Properties of Read-Once Oblivious Algebraic Branching Programs

Authors: Robert Andrews, Jules Armand, Prateek Dwivedi, Magnus Rahbek Dalgaard Hansen, Nutan Limaye, Srikanth Srinivasan, and Sébastien Tavenas

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
We investigate the closure properties of read-once oblivious Algebraic Branching Programs (roABPs) under various natural algebraic operations and prove the following. - Non-closure under factoring: There is a sequence of explicit polynomials (f_n(x₁,…, x_n))_n that have poly(n)-sized roABPs such that some irreducible factor of f_n requires roABPs of superpolynomial size in any order. - Non-closure under powering: There is a sequence of polynomials (f_n(x₁,…, x_n))_n with poly(n)-sized roABPs such that any super-constant power of f_n does not have roABPs of polynomial size in any order (and f_nⁿ requires exponential size in any order). - Non-closure under symmetric operations: There are symmetric polynomials (f_n(e₁,…, e_n))_n that have roABPs of polynomial size such that f_n(x₁,…, x_n) do not have roABPs of subexponential size. (Here, e₁,…, e_n denote the elementary symmetric polynomials in n variables.) These results should be viewed in light of known results on models such as algebraic circuits, (general) algebraic branching programs, formulas and constant-depth circuits, all of which are known to be closed under these operations. To prove non-closure under factoring, we construct hard polynomials based on expander graphs using gadgets that lift their hardness from sparse polynomials to roABPs. For symmetric compositions, we show that the circulant polynomial requires roABPs of exponential size in every variable order.

Cite as

Robert Andrews, Jules Armand, Prateek Dwivedi, Magnus Rahbek Dalgaard Hansen, Nutan Limaye, Srikanth Srinivasan, and Sébastien Tavenas. On Closure Properties of Read-Once Oblivious Algebraic Branching Programs. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 9:1-9:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{andrews_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.9,
  author =	{Andrews, Robert and Armand, Jules and Dwivedi, Prateek and Hansen, Magnus Rahbek Dalgaard and Limaye, Nutan and Srinivasan, Srikanth and Tavenas, S\'{e}bastien},
  title =	{{On Closure Properties of Read-Once Oblivious Algebraic Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-252964},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: Factoring, Closure Properties, Sparsity Bounds, Symmetric Polynomials, roABP, Expander Graphs}
}
Document
Multi-Quadratic Sum-Of-Squares Lower Bounds Imply VNC ¹ ≠ VNP

Authors: Benjamin Rossman and Davidson Zhu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
The sum-of-squares (SoS) complexity of a d-multiquadratic polynomial f (quadratic in each of d blocks of n variables) is the minimum s such that f = ∑_{i = 1}^s g_i² with each g_i d-multilinear. In the case d = 2, Hrubeš, Wigderson and Yehudayoff [Hrubeš et al., 2011] showed that an n^{1+Ω(1)} lower bound on the SoS complexity of explicit biquadratic polynomials implies an exponential lower bound for non-commutative arithmetic circuits. In this paper, we establish an analogous connection between general multiquadratic sum-of-squares and commutative arithmetic formulas. Specifically, we show that an n^{d-o(log d)} lower bound on the SoS complexity of explicit d-multiquadratic polynomials, for any d = d(n) with ω(1) ≤ d(n) ≤ O((log n)/(log log n)), would separate the algebraic complexity classes VNC¹ and VNP.

Cite as

Benjamin Rossman and Davidson Zhu. Multi-Quadratic Sum-Of-Squares Lower Bounds Imply VNC ¹ ≠ VNP. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 113:1-113:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{rossman_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.113,
  author =	{Rossman, Benjamin and Zhu, Davidson},
  title =	{{Multi-Quadratic Sum-Of-Squares Lower Bounds Imply VNC ¹ ≠ VNP}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{113:1--113:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.113},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-254006},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.113},
  annote =	{Keywords: sum-of-squares, arithmetic formulas}
}
Document
Interactive Proofs for Distribution Testing with Conditional Oracles

Authors: Ari Biswas, Mark Bun, Clément L. Canonne, and Satchit Sivakumar

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
We revisit the framework of interactive proofs for distribution testing, first introduced by Chiesa and Gur (ITCS 2018), which has recently experienced a surge in interest, accompanied by notable progress (e.g., Herman and Rothblum, STOC 2022, FOCS 2023; Herman, RANDOM 2024). In this model, a data-poor verifier determines whether a probability distribution has a property of interest by interacting with an all-powerful, data-rich but untrusted prover bent on convincing them that it has the property. While prior work gave sample-, time-, and communication-efficient protocols for testing and estimating a range of distribution properties, they all suffer from an inherent issue: for most interesting properties of distributions over a domain of size N, the verifier must draw at least Ω(√N) samples of its own. While sublinear in N, this is still prohibitive for large domains encountered in practice. In this work, we circumvent this limitation by augmenting the verifier with the ability to perform an exponentially smaller number of more powerful (but reasonable) pairwise conditional queries, effectively enabling them to perform "local comparison checks" of the prover’s claims. We systematically investigate the landscape of interactive proofs in this new setting, giving poly-logarithmic query and sample protocols for (tolerantly) testing all label-invariant properties, thus demonstrating exponential savings without compromising on communication, for this large and fundamental class of testing tasks.

Cite as

Ari Biswas, Mark Bun, Clément L. Canonne, and Satchit Sivakumar. Interactive Proofs for Distribution Testing with Conditional Oracles. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 18:1-18:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{biswas_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.18,
  author =	{Biswas, Ari and Bun, Mark and Canonne, Cl\'{e}ment L. and Sivakumar, Satchit},
  title =	{{Interactive Proofs for Distribution Testing with Conditional Oracles}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{18:1--18:13},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.18},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253059},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.18},
  annote =	{Keywords: Distribution Testing, Interactive Proofs}
}
Document
Lower Bounds Beyond DNF of Parities

Authors: Artur Riazanov, Anastasia Sofronova, and Dmitry Sokolov

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
We consider a subclass of AC⁰[2] circuits that simultaneously captures DNF∘Xor and depth-3 AC⁰ circuits. For this class we show a technique for proving lower bounds inspired by the top-down approach. We give lower bounds for the middle slice function, inner product function, and affine dispersers.

Cite as

Artur Riazanov, Anastasia Sofronova, and Dmitry Sokolov. Lower Bounds Beyond DNF of Parities. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 112:1-112:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{riazanov_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.112,
  author =	{Riazanov, Artur and Sofronova, Anastasia and Sokolov, Dmitry},
  title =	{{Lower Bounds Beyond DNF of Parities}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{112:1--112:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.112},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253996},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.112},
  annote =	{Keywords: boolean circuits, top-down, unpredictability}
}
Document
Communication Complexity of Equality and Error-Correcting Codes

Authors: Dale Jacobs, John Jeang, Vladimir Podolskii, Morgan Prior, and Ilya Volkovich

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 360, 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)


Abstract
We study the public-coin randomized communication complexity of the equality function. The communication complexity of this function is known to be low when the error probability is constant and the players have access to many random bits. The complexity grows, however, if the allowed error probability and the amount of randomness are restricted. We show that public-coin randomized protocols for equality and error-correcting codes are essentially the same object. That is, given a protocol for equality, we can construct a code, and vice versa. We substantially extend the protocol-implies-code direction: any protocol computing a function with a large fooling set can be converted into an error-correcting code. As a corollary, we show that among functions with a fooling set of size s, equality on log s bits has the least randomized communication complexity, regardless of the restrictions on the error probability and the amount of randomness. Finally, we use the connection to error-correcting codes to analyze the randomized communication complexity of equality for varying restrictions on the error probability and the amount of randomness. In most cases, we provide tight bounds. We pinpoint the setting in which tight bounds are still unknown.

Cite as

Dale Jacobs, John Jeang, Vladimir Podolskii, Morgan Prior, and Ilya Volkovich. Communication Complexity of Equality and Error-Correcting Codes. In 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 360, pp. 37:1-37:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{jacobs_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.37,
  author =	{Jacobs, Dale and Jeang, John and Podolskii, Vladimir and Prior, Morgan and Volkovich, Ilya},
  title =	{{Communication Complexity of Equality and Error-Correcting Codes}},
  booktitle =	{45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)},
  pages =	{37:1--37:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-406-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{360},
  editor =	{Aiswarya, C. and Mehta, Ruta and Roy, Subhajit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.37},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-251175},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.37},
  annote =	{Keywords: communication complexity, randomized communication complexity, error-correcting codes}
}
Document
The Algebraic Cost of a Boolean Sum

Authors: Ian Orzel, Srikanth Srinivasan, Sébastien Tavenas, and Amir Yehudayoff

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 360, 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)


Abstract
It is a well-known fact that the permanent polynomial is complete for the complexity class VNP, and it is largely suspected that the determinant does not share this property, despite its similar expression. We study the question of why the VNP-completeness proof of the permanent fails for the determinant. We isolate three fundamental properties that are sufficient to prove a polynomial sequence is VNP-hard, of which two are shared by both the permanent and the determinant. We proceed to show that the permanent satisfies the third property, which we refer to as the "cost of a boolean sum", while the determinant does not, showcasing the fundamental difference between the polynomial families. We further note that this differentiation also applies in the border complexity setting and that our results apply for counting complexity.

Cite as

Ian Orzel, Srikanth Srinivasan, Sébastien Tavenas, and Amir Yehudayoff. The Algebraic Cost of a Boolean Sum. In 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 360, pp. 47:1-47:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{orzel_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.47,
  author =	{Orzel, Ian and Srinivasan, Srikanth and Tavenas, S\'{e}bastien and Yehudayoff, Amir},
  title =	{{The Algebraic Cost of a Boolean Sum}},
  booktitle =	{45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)},
  pages =	{47:1--47:13},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-406-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{360},
  editor =	{Aiswarya, C. and Mehta, Ruta and Roy, Subhajit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.47},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-251271},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.47},
  annote =	{Keywords: Algebraic Complexity, Computational Complexity, Permanent, Determinant}
}
Document
Randomized Black-Box PIT for Small Depth +-Regular Non-Commutative Circuits

Authors: G. V. Sumukha Bharadwaj and S. Raja

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 360, 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)


Abstract
In this paper, we address the black-box polynomial identity testing (PIT) problem for non-commutative polynomials computed by +-regular circuits, a class of homogeneous circuits introduced by Arvind, Joglekar, Mukhopadhyay, and Raja (STOC 2017, Theory of Computing 2019). These circuits can compute polynomials with a number of monomials that are doubly exponential in the circuit size. They gave an efficient randomized PIT algorithm for +-regular circuits of depth 3 and posed the problem of developing an efficient black-box PIT for higher depths as an open problem. Our work makes progress on this open problem by resolving it for constant-depth +-regular circuits. We present a randomized black-box polynomial-time algorithm for +-regular circuits of any constant depth. Specifically, our algorithm runs in s^{O(d²)} time, where s and d represent the size and the depth of the +-regular circuit, respectively. Our approach combines several key techniques in a novel way. We employ a nondeterministic substitution automaton that transforms the polynomial into a structured form and utilizes polynomial sparsification along with commutative transformations to maintain non-zeroness. Additionally, we introduce matrix composition, coefficient modification via the automaton, and multi-entry outputs - methods that have not previously been applied in the context of black-box PIT. Together, these techniques enable us to effectively handle exponential degrees and doubly exponential sparsity in non-commutative settings, enabling polynomial identity testing for higher-depth circuits. In particular, we show that if f is a non-zero non-commutative polynomial in n variables over the field 𝔽, computed by a depth-d +-regular circuit of size s, then f cannot be a polynomial identity for the matrix algebra 𝕄_{N}(𝔽), where N = s^{O(d²)} and the size of the field 𝔽 depends on the degree of f. Interestingly, the size of the matrices does not depend on the degree of f. Our result can be interpreted as an Amitsur-Levitzki-type result [Amitsur and Levitzki, 1950] for polynomials computed by small-depth +-regular circuits.

Cite as

G. V. Sumukha Bharadwaj and S. Raja. Randomized Black-Box PIT for Small Depth +-Regular Non-Commutative Circuits. In 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 360, pp. 51:1-51:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{sumukhabharadwaj_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.51,
  author =	{Sumukha Bharadwaj, G. V. and Raja, S.},
  title =	{{Randomized Black-Box PIT for Small Depth +-Regular Non-Commutative Circuits}},
  booktitle =	{45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)},
  pages =	{51:1--51:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-406-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{360},
  editor =	{Aiswarya, C. and Mehta, Ruta and Roy, Subhajit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.51},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-250949},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.51},
  annote =	{Keywords: Polynomial Identity Testing, Non-commutative Circuits, Algebraic Circuits, +-Regular Circuits, Black-Box}
}
Document
On the Hardness of Order Finding and Equivalence Testing for ROABPs

Authors: C. Ramya and Pratik Shastri

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 360, 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)


Abstract
The complexity of representing a polynomial by a Read-Once Oblivious Algebraic Branching Program (ROABP) is highly dependent on the chosen variable ordering. Bhargava et al. [Bhargava et al., 2024] prove that finding the optimal ordering is NP-hard, and provide some evidence (based on the Small Set Expansion hypothesis) that it is also hard to approximate the optimal ROABP width. In another work, Baraskar et al. [Baraskar et al., 2024] show that it is NP-hard to test whether a polynomial is in the GL_n orbit of a polynomial of sparsity at most s. Building upon these works, we show the following results: first, we prove that approximating the minimum ROABP width up to any constant factor is NP-hard, when the input is presented as a circuit. This removes the reliance on stronger conjectures in the previous work [Bhargava et al., 2024]. Second, we show that testing if an input polynomial given in the sparse representation is in the affine GL_n orbit of a width-w ROABP is NP-hard. Furthermore, we show that over fields of characteristic 0, the problem is NP-hard even when the input polynomial is homogeneous. This provides the first NP-hardness results for membership testing for a dense subclass of polynomial sized algebraic branching programs (VBP). Finally, we locate the source of hardness for the order finding problem at the lowest possible non-trivial degree, proving that the problem is NP-hard even for quadratic forms.

Cite as

C. Ramya and Pratik Shastri. On the Hardness of Order Finding and Equivalence Testing for ROABPs. In 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 360, pp. 49:1-49:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{ramya_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.49,
  author =	{Ramya, C. and Shastri, Pratik},
  title =	{{On the Hardness of Order Finding and Equivalence Testing for ROABPs}},
  booktitle =	{45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)},
  pages =	{49:1--49:13},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-406-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{360},
  editor =	{Aiswarya, C. and Mehta, Ruta and Roy, Subhajit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.49},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-251296},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.49},
  annote =	{Keywords: ROABP, Order Finding, Equivalence Testing, NP-hardness, Hardness of Approximation}
}
Document
Testing Sumsets Is Hard

Authors: Xi Chen, Shivam Nadimpalli, Tim Randolph, Rocco A. Servedio, and Or Zamir

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 351, 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)


Abstract
A subset S of the Boolean hypercube 𝔽₂ⁿ is a sumset if S = {a + b : a, b ∈ A} for some A ⊆ 𝔽₂ⁿ. Sumsets are central objects of study in additive combinatorics, where they play a role in several of the field’s most important results. We prove a lower bound of Ω(2^{n/2}) for the number of queries needed to test whether a Boolean function f:𝔽₂ⁿ → {0,1} is the indicator function of a sumset, ruling out an efficient testing algorithm for sumsets. Our lower bound for testing sumsets follows from sharp bounds on the related problem of shift testing, which may be of independent interest. We also give a near-optimal {2^{n/2} ⋅ poly(n)}-query algorithm for a smoothed analysis formulation of the sumset refutation problem. Finally, we include a simple proof that the number of different sumsets in 𝔽₂ⁿ is 2^{(1±o(1))2^{n-1}}.

Cite as

Xi Chen, Shivam Nadimpalli, Tim Randolph, Rocco A. Servedio, and Or Zamir. Testing Sumsets Is Hard. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 14:1-14:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.14,
  author =	{Chen, Xi and Nadimpalli, Shivam and Randolph, Tim and Servedio, Rocco A. and Zamir, Or},
  title =	{{Testing Sumsets Is Hard}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{14:1--14:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-395-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{351},
  editor =	{Benoit, Anne and Kaplan, Haim and Wild, Sebastian and Herman, Grzegorz},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.14},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-244822},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.14},
  annote =	{Keywords: Sumsets, additive combinatorics, property testing, Boolean functions}
}
Document
Testing Depth First Search Numbering

Authors: Artur Czumaj, Christian Sohler, and Stefan Walzer

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 351, 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)


Abstract
Property Testing is a formal framework to study the computational power and complexity of sampling from combinatorial objects. A central goal in standard graph property testing is to understand which graph properties are testable with sublinear query complexity. Here, a graph property P is testable with a sublinear query complexity if there is an algorithm that makes a sublinear number of queries to the input graph and accepts with probability at least 2/3, if the graph has property P, and rejects with probability at least 2/3 if it is ε-far from every graph that has property P. In this paper, we introduce a new variant of the bounded degree graph model. In this variant, in addition to the standard representation of a bounded degree graph, we assume that every vertex v has a unique label num(v) from {1, … , |V|}, and in addition to the standard queries in the bounded degree graph model, we also allow a property testing algorithm to query for the label of a vertex (but not for a vertex with a given label). Our new model is motivated by certain graph processes such as a DFS traversal, which assign consecutive numbers (labels) to the vertices of the graph. We want to study which of these numberings can be tested in sublinear time. As a first step in understanding such a model, we develop a property testing algorithm for discovery times of a DFS traversal with query complexity O(n^{1/3}/ε) and for constant ε > 0 we give a matching lower bound.

Cite as

Artur Czumaj, Christian Sohler, and Stefan Walzer. Testing Depth First Search Numbering. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 78:1-78:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{czumaj_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.78,
  author =	{Czumaj, Artur and Sohler, Christian and Walzer, Stefan},
  title =	{{Testing Depth First Search Numbering}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{78:1--78:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-395-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{351},
  editor =	{Benoit, Anne and Kaplan, Haim and Wild, Sebastian and Herman, Grzegorz},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.78},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245466},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.78},
  annote =	{Keywords: Randomized Algorithms, Graph Algorithms, Property Testing}
}
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