English

From an odd arity signature to a Holant dichotomy

Computational Complexity 2025-02-11 v1

Abstract

\textsf{Holant} is an essential framework in the field of counting complexity. For over fifteen years, researchers have been clarifying the complexity classification for complex-valued \textsf{Holant} on the Boolean domain, a challenge that remains unresolved. In this article, we prove a complexity dichotomy for complex-valued \textsf{Holant} on Boolean domain when a non-trivial signature of odd arity exists. This dichotomy is based on the dichotomy for \textsf{\#EO}, and consequently is an FPNP\text{FP}^\text{NP} vs. \#P dichotomy as well, stating that each problem is either in FPNP\text{FP}^\text{NP} or \#P-hard. Furthermore, we establish a generalized version of the decomposition lemma for complex-valued \textsf{Holant} on Boolean domain. It asserts that each signature can be derived from its tensor product with other signatures, or conversely, the problem itself is in FPNP\text{FP}^\text{NP}. We believe that this result is a powerful method for building reductions in complex-valued \textsf{Holant}, as it is also employed as a pivotal technique in the proof of the aforementioned dichotomy in this article.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.05597,
  title  = {From an odd arity signature to a Holant dichotomy},
  author = {Boning Meng and Juqiu Wang and Mingji Xia and Jiayi Zheng},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.05597},
  year   = {2025}
}