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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 $\textsf{NEXP}$…
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…
A polynomial identity testing algorithm must determine whether a given input polynomial is identically equal to 0. We give a deterministic black-box identity testing algorithm for univariate polynomials of the form $\sum_{j=0}^t c_j…
We investigate the consequences of the existence of ``efficiently describable'' hitting sets for polynomial sized algebraic circuit ($\mathsf{VP}$), in particular, \emph{$\mathsf{VP}$-succinct hitting sets}. Existence of such hitting sets…
For every constant $d$, we design a subexponential time deterministic algorithm that takes as input a multivariate polynomial $f$ given as a constant depth algebraic circuit over the field of rational numbers, and outputs all irreducible…
We show that the GCD of two univariate polynomials can be computed by (piece-wise) algebraic circuits of constant depth and polynomial size over any sufficiently large field, regardless of the characteristic. This extends a recent result of…
In this short note, we reduce lower bounds on monotone projections of polynomials to lower bounds on extended formulations of polytopes. Applying our reduction to the seminal extended formulation lower bounds of Fiorini, Massar, Pokutta,…
Proving complexity lower bounds remains a challenging task: we only know how to prove conditional uniform lower bounds and nonuniform lower bounds in restricted circuit models. Williams (STOC 2010) showed how to derive nonuniform lower…
Recently, Gupta et.al. [GKKS2013] proved that over Q any $n^{O(1)}$-variate and $n$-degree polynomial in VP can also be computed by a depth three $\Sigma\Pi\Sigma$ circuit of size $2^{O(\sqrt{n}\log^{3/2}n)}$. Over fixed-size finite fields,…
Feasible interpolation is a general technique for proving proof complexity lower bounds. The monotone version of the technique converts, in its basic variant, lower bounds for monotone Boolean circuits separating two NP-sets to proof…
We study the complexity of representing polynomials as a sum of products of polynomials in few variables. More precisely, we study representations of the form $$P = \sum_{i = 1}^T \prod_{j = 1}^d Q_{ij}$$ such that each $Q_{ij}$ is an…
Resolution over linear equations is a natural extension of the popular resolution refutation system, augmented with the ability to carry out basic counting. Denoted Res(lin_R), this refutation system operates with disjunctions of linear…
$ \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 a sequence of seminal results in the 80's, Kaltofen showed that the complexity class VP is closed under taking factors. A natural question in this context is to understand if other natural classes of multivariate polynomials, for…
Assuming that the Permanent polynomial requires algebraic circuits of exponential size, we show that the class VNP does not have efficiently computable equations. In other words, any nonzero polynomial that vanishes on the coefficient…
The Schwartz-Zippel Lemma states that if a low-degree multivariate polynomial with coefficients in a field is not zero everywhere in the field, then it has few roots on every finite subcube of the field. This fundamental fact about…
We prove that if conditions I-II (below) hold and there is a sequence of Boolean functions $f_n$ hard to approximate by p-size circuits such that p-size circuit lower bounds for $f_n$ do not have p-size proofs in Extended Frege system EF,…
We survey recent progress in the proof complexity of strong proof systems and its connection to algebraic circuit complexity, showing how the synergy between the two gives rise to new approaches to fundamental open questions, solutions to…
We consider the proof complexity of the minimal complete fragment, KS, of standard deep inference systems for propositional logic. To examine the size of proofs we employ atomic flows, diagrams that trace structural changes through a proof…
We design a deterministic subexponential time algorithm that takes as input a multivariate polynomial $f$ computed by a constant-depth circuit over rational numbers, and outputs a list $L$ of circuits (of unbounded depth and possibly with…