Related papers: Circuit complexity, proof complexity, and polynomi…

We investigate the complexity of uniform OR circuits and AND circuits of polynomial-size and depth. As their name suggests, OR circuits have OR gates as their computation gates, as well as the usual input, output and constant (0/1) gates.…

We show that sharp thresholds for Boolean functions directly imply average-case circuit lower bounds. More formally we show that any Boolean function exhibiting a sharp enough threshold at \emph{arbitrary} critical density cannot be…

Mulmuley recently gave an explicit version of Noether's Normalization lemma for ring of invariants of matrices under simultaneous conjugation, under the conjecture that there are deterministic black-box algorithms for polynomial identity…

Let $C$ be a depth-3 arithmetic circuit of size at most $s$, computing a polynomial $ f \in \mathbb{F}[x_1,\ldots, x_n] $ (where $\mathbb{F}$ = $\mathbb{Q}$ or $\mathbb{C}$) and the fan-in of the product gates of $C$ is bounded by $d$. We…

We show that there is a defining equation of degree at most $\mathsf{poly}(n)$ for the (Zariski closure of the) set of the non-rigid matrices: that is, we show that for every large enough field $\mathbb{F}$, there is a non-zero…

Tavenas has recently proved that any n^{O(1)}-variate and degree n polynomial in VP can be computed by a depth-4 circuit of size 2^{O(\sqrt{n}\log n)}. So to prove VP not equal to VNP, it is sufficient to show that an explicit polynomial in…

In this paper, we prove superpolynomial lower bounds for the class of homogeneous depth 4 arithmetic circuits. We give an explicit polynomial in VNP of degree $n$ in $n^2$ variables such that any homogeneous depth 4 arithmetic circuit…

We study the Radical Identity Testing problem (RIT): Given an algebraic circuit representing a polynomial $f\in \mathbb{Z}[x_1, \ldots, x_k]$ and nonnegative integers $a_1, \ldots, a_k$ and $d_1, \ldots,$ $d_k$, written in binary, test…

Recently, Forbes, Kumar and Saptharishi [CCC, 2016] proved that there exists an explicit $d^{O(1)}$-variate and degree $d$ polynomial $P_{d}\in VNP$ such that if any depth four circuit $C$ of bounded formal degree $d$ which computes a…

We show that derandomizing polynomial identity testing over an arbitrary finite field implies that NEXP does not have polynomial size boolean circuits. In other words, for any finite field F(q) of size q, $PIT_q\in NSUBEXP\Rightarrow…

It has often been claimed in recent papers that one can find a degree d Sum-of-Squares proof if one exists via the Ellipsoid algorithm. In [O17], Ryan O'Donnell notes this widely quoted claim is not necessarily true. He presents an example…

We connect learning algorithms and algorithms automating proof search in propositional proof systems: for every sufficiently strong, well-behaved propositional proof system $P$, we prove that the following statements are equivalent, 1.…

We prove the first unconditional consistency result for superpolynomial circuit lower bounds with a relatively strong theory of bounded arithmetic. Namely, we show that the theory V$^0_2$ is consistent with the conjecture that NEXP…

Lower bounds against strong algebraic proof systems and specifically fragments of the Ideal Proof System (IPS), have been obtained in an ongoing line of work. All of these bounds, however, are proved only over large (or characteristic $0$)…

In this paper we study arithmetic computations in the nonassociative, and noncommutative free polynomial ring $\mathbb{F}\{x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_n\}$. Prior to this work, nonassociative arithmetic computation was considered by Hrubes, Wigderson,…

Theoretical computer scientists have been debating the role of oracles since the 1970's. This paper illustrates both that oracles can give us nontrivial insights about the barrier problems in circuit complexity, and that they need not…

$ \newcommand{\inparen}[1]{\left( #1 \right)} \newcommand{\pfrac}[2]{\inparen{\frac{1}{2}}} \newcommand{\ilog}[1]{\log^{\circ #1}} \newcommand{\F}{\mathbb{F}} $The Polynomial Identity Lemma (also called the "Schwartz--Zippel lemma") states…

In the present paper we show a dichotomy theorem for the complexity of polynomial evaluation. We associate to each graph H a polynomial that encodes all graphs of a fixed size homomorphic to H. We show that this family is computable by…

We show that lower bounds for explicit constant-variate polynomials over fields of characteristic $p > 0$ are sufficient to derandomize polynomial identity testing over fields of characteristic $p$. In this setting, existing work on…

Cook and Reckhow 1979 pointed out that NP is not closed under complementation iff there is no propositional proof system that admits polynomial size proofs of all tautologies. Theory of proof complexity generators aims at constructing sets…