Related papers: Algorithmic Thresholds for Refuting Random Polynom…
Proving super-polynomial size lower bounds for $\textsf{TC}^0$, the class of constant-depth, polynomial-size circuits of Majority gates, is a notorious open problem in complexity theory. A major frontier is to prove that $\textsf{NEXP}$…
Global polynomial optimization is an important tool across applied mathematics, with many applications in operations research, engineering, and physical sciences. In various settings, the polynomials depend on external parameters that may…
Suppose $F:=(f_1,\ldots,f_n)$ is a system of random $n$-variate polynomials with $f_i$ having degree $\leq\!d_i$ and the coefficient of $x^{a_1}_1\cdots x^{a_n}_n$ in $f_i$ being an independent complex Gaussian of mean $0$ and variance…
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…
An open problem in complexity theory is to find the minimal degree of a polynomial representing the $n$-bit OR function modulo composite $m$. This problem is related to understanding the power of circuits with $\text{MOD}_m$ gates where $m$…
The minimum degree algorithm is one of the most widely-used heuristics for reducing the cost of solving large sparse systems of linear equations. It has been studied for nearly half a century and has a rich history of bridging techniques…
Gradient-based (a.k.a. `first order') optimization algorithms are routinely used to solve large scale non-convex problems. Yet, it is generally hard to predict their effectiveness. In order to gain insight into this question, we revisit the…
This paper analyzes to what extent it is possible to efficiently reduce the number of clauses in NP-hard satisfiability problems, without changing the answer. Upper and lower bounds are established using the concept of kernelization.…
High-order tensor methods that employ Taylor-based local models (of degree $p\ge 3$) within adaptive regularization frameworks have been recently proposed for both convex and nonconvex optimization problems. They have been shown to have…
Random instances of constraint satisfaction problems such as k-SAT provide challenging benchmarks. If there are m constraints over n variables there is typically a large range of densities r=m/n where solutions are known to exist with…
For an $n$-variate order-$d$ tensor $A$, define $ A_{\max} := \sup_{\| x \|_2 = 1} \langle A , x^{\otimes d} \rangle$ to be the maximum value taken by the tensor on the unit sphere. It is known that for a random tensor with i.i.d $\pm 1$…
We study the approximability of two related problems on graphs with $n$ nodes and $m$ edges: $n$-Pairs Shortest Paths ($n$-PSP), where the goal is to find a shortest path between $O(n)$ prespecified pairs, and All Node Shortest Cycles…
The problem of finding large cliques in random graphs and its "planted" variant, where one wants to recover a clique of size $\omega \gg \log{(n)}$ added to an \Erdos-\Renyi graph $G \sim G(n,\frac{1}{2})$, have been intensely studied.…
In the \textsc{Maximum Degree Contraction} problem, input is a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices, and integers $k, d$, and the objective is to check whether $G$ can be transformed into a graph of maximum degree at most $d$, using at most $k$ edge…
The approximate degree of a Boolean function $f(x_{1},x_{2},\ldots,x_{n})$ is the minimum degree of a real polynomial that approximates $f$ pointwise within $1/3$. Upper bounds on approximate degree have a variety of applications in…
In quantum estimation for a $d$-parameter family of density operators on a finite-dimensional Hilbert space $\mathcal{H}$, an estimator is specified by a pair $\left(M,\hat{\theta}\right)$, where $M$ is a POVM with a finite outcome set…
We consider the following basic problem: given an $n$-variate degree-$d$ homogeneous polynomial $f$ with real coefficients, compute a unit vector $x \in \mathbb{R}^n$ that maximizes $|f(x)|$. Besides its fundamental nature, this problem…
We present and discuss general techniques for proving inapproximability results for truthful mechanisms. We make use of these techniques to prove lower bounds on the approximability of several non-utilitarian multi-parameter problems. In…
The field of fine-grained complexity aims at proving conditional lower bounds on the time complexity of computational problems. One of the most popular assumptions, Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH), implies that SAT cannot be…
We devise a scheme for solving an iterative sequence of linear programs (LPs) or second order cone programs (SOCPs) to approximate the optimal value of any semidefinite program (SDP) or sum of squares (SOS) program. The first LP and…