We consider the fault diagnosis problem: how to use parallel testing
rounds to identify which processors in a set are faulty. We prove
that 4 rounds suffice when 3% or less of the processors are faulty,
and 4 rounds are necessary when any nontrivial constant fraction of
the processors are ... more >>>

The model of span programs is a linear algebraic model of
computation. Lower bounds for span programs imply lower bounds for
contact schemes, symmetric branching programs and for formula size.
Monotone span programs correspond also to linear secret-sharing schemes.
We present a new technique for proving lower bounds for ... more >>>

Tiwari (1987) considered the following scenario: k+1 processors P_0,...,P_k,
connected by k links to form a linear array, compute a function f(x,y), for
inputs (x,y) from a finite domain X x Y, where x is only known to P_0 and
y is only known to P_k; the intermediate ... more >>>

We consider the well known problem of determining the k'th
vertex reached by chasing pointers in a directed graph of
out-degree 1. The famous "pointer doubling" technique
provides an O(log k) parallel time algorithm on a
Concurrent-Read Exclusive-Write (CREW) PRAM. We prove that ... more >>>

In this paper we study the Boolean Knapsack problem (KP$_{{\bf R}}$)
$a^Tx=1$, $x \in \{0,1\}^n$ with real coefficients, in the framework
of the Blum-Shub-Smale real number computational model \cite{BSS}.
We obtain a new lower bound
$\Omega \left( n\log n\right) \cdot f(1/a_{\min})$ for the time
complexity ... more >>>

We prove an exponential lower bound for tree-like Cutting Planes
refutations of a set of clauses which has polynomial size resolution
refutations. This implies an exponential separation between tree-like
and dag-like proofs for both Cutting Planes and resolution; in both
cases only superpolynomial separations were known before.
In order to ... more >>>

Our computational model is a random access machine with $n$
read only input registers each containing $ c \log n$ bits of
information and a read and write memory. We measure the time by the
number of accesses to the input registers. We show that for all $k$
there is ... more >>>

We study several old and new algorithms for computing lower
and upper bounds for the Steiner problem in networks using dual-ascent
and primal-dual strategies. These strategies have been proven to be
very useful for the algorithmic treatment of the Steiner problem. We
show that none of the known algorithms ... more >>>

Restricted branching programs are considered in complexity theory in
order to study the space complexity of sequential computations and
in applications as a data structure for Boolean functions. In this
paper (\oplus,k)-branching programs and (\vee,k)-branching
programs are considered, i.e., branching programs starting with a
... more >>>

This paper gives two distinct proofs of an exponential separation
between regular resolution and unrestricted resolution.
The previous best known separation between these systems was
quasi-polynomial.

The method of obtaining lower bounds on the complexity
of Boolean functions for nondeterministic branching programs
is proposed.
A nonlinear lower bound on the complexity of characteristic
functions of Reed--Muller codes for nondeterministic
branching programs is obtained.

We prove two lower bounds on the Statistical Query (SQ) learning
model. The first lower bound is on weak-learning. We prove that for a
concept class of SQ-dimension $d$, a running time of
$\Omega(d/\log d)$ is needed. The SQ-dimension of a concept class is
defined to be the maximum number ... more >>>

We introduce a ``Statistical Query Sampling'' model, in which
the goal of an algorithm is to produce an element in a hidden set
$S\subseteq\bit^n$ with reasonable probability. The algorithm
gains information about $S$ through oracle calls (statistical
queries), where the algorithm submits a query function $g(\cdot)$
and receives ... more >>>

We exhibit an explicitly computable `pseudorandom' generator stretching $l$ bits into $m(l) = l^{\Omega(\log l)}$ bits that look random to constant-depth circuits of size $m(l)$ with $\log m(l)$ arbitrary symmetric gates (e.g. PARITY, MAJORITY). This improves on a generator by Luby, Velickovic and Wigderson (ISTCS '93) that achieves the same ... more >>>

The width of a resolution proof is the maximal number of literals in any clause of the proof. The space of a proof is the maximal number of memory cells used if the proof is only allowed to resolve on clauses kept in memory. Both of these measures have previously ... more >>>

We investigate the following lower bound methods for regular
languages: The fooling set technique, the extended fooling set
technique, and the biclique edge cover technique. It is shown that
the maximal attainable lower bound for each of the above mentioned
techniques can be algorithmically deduced from ... more >>>

We study the correlation between low-degree GF(2) polynomials p and explicit functions. Our main results are the following:

(I) We prove that the Mod_m unction on n bits has correlation at most exp(-Omega(n/4^d)) with any GF(2) polynomial of degree d, for any fixed odd integer m. This improves on the ... more >>>

In this paper we study the one-way multi-party communication model,
in which every party speaks exactly once in its turn. For every
fixed $k$, we prove a tight lower bound of
$\Omega{n^{1/(k-1)}}$ on the probabilistic communication
complexity of pointer jumping in a $k$-layered tree, where the
pointers of the $i$-th ... more >>>

Hardness amplification is the fundamental task of
converting a $\delta$-hard function $f : {0,1}^n ->
{0,1}$ into a $(1/2-\eps)$-hard function $Amp(f)$,
where $f$ is $\gamma$-hard if small circuits fail to
compute $f$ on at least a $\gamma$ fraction of the
inputs. Typically, $\eps,\delta$ are small (and
$\delta=2^{-k}$ captures the case ... more >>>

Most state-of-the-art satisfiability algorithms today are variants of
the DPLL procedure augmented with clause learning. The main bottleneck
for such algorithms, other than the obvious one of time, is the amount
of memory used. In the field of proof complexity, the resources of
time and memory correspond to the length ... more >>>

We consider bounded depth circuits over an arbitrary field $K$. If the field $K$ is finite, then we allow arbitrary gates $K^n\to K$. For instance, in the case of field $GF(2)$ we allow any Boolean gates. If the field $K$ is infinite, then we allow only polinomials.

For every fixed ... more >>>

We prove a model-independent non-linear time lower bound for a slight generalization of the quantified Boolean formula problem (QBF). In particular, we give a reduction from arbitrary languages in alternating time t(n) to QBFs describable in O(t(n)) bits by a reasonable (polynomially) succinct encoding. The reduction works for many reasonable ... more >>>

One way to quantify how dense a multidag is in long paths is to find
the largest n, m such that whichever ≤ n edges are removed, there is still
a path from an original input to an original output with ≥ m edges
- the larger ... more >>>

We prove lower bounds on the redundancy necessary to
represent a set $S$ of objects using a number of bits
close to the information-theoretic minimum $\log_2 |S|$,
while answering various queries by probing few bits. Our
main results are:

\begin{itemize}
\item To represent $n$ ternary values $t \in
\zot^n$ in ... more >>>

For current state-of-the-art satisfiability algorithms based on the
DPLL procedure and clause learning, the two main bottlenecks are the
amounts of time and memory used. Understanding time and memory
consumption, and how they are related to one another, is therefore a
question of considerable practical importance. In the field of ... more >>>

We prove that to store n bits x so that each
prefix-sum query Sum(i) := sum_{k < i} x_k can be answered
by non-adaptively probing q cells of log n bits, one needs
memory > n + n/log^{O(q)} n.

Our bound matches a recent upper bound of n +
n/log^{Omega(q)} ... more >>>

An approximate membership data structure is a randomized data
structure for representing a set which supports membership
queries. It allows for a small false positive error rate but has
no false negative errors. Such data structures were first
introduced by Bloom in the 1970's, and have since had numerous
applications, ... more >>>

We show that the promise problem of distinguishing $n$-bit strings of hamming weight $\ge 1/2 + \Omega(1/\log^{d-1} n)$ from strings of weight $\le 1/2 - \Omega(1/\log^{d-1} n)$ can be solved by explicit, randomized (unbounded-fan-in) poly(n)-size depth-$d$ circuits with error $\le 1/3$, but cannot be solved by deterministic poly(n)-size depth-$(d+1)$ circuits, ... more >>>

We consider the randomized decision tree complexity of the recursive 3-majority function. For evaluating a height $h$ formulae, we prove a lower bound for the $\delta$-two-sided-error randomized decision tree complexity of $(1-2\delta)(5/2)^h$, improving the lower bound of $(1-2\delta)(7/3)^h$ given by Jayram et al. (STOC '03). We also state a conjecture ... more >>>

We put forth several simple candidate pseudorandom functions f_k : {0,1}^n -> {0,1} with security (a.k.a. hardness) 2^n that are inspired by the AES block-cipher by Daemen and Rijmen (2000). The functions are computable more efficiently, and use a shorter key (a.k.a. seed) than previous
constructions. In particular, we ... more >>>

We bound the minimum number $w$ of wires needed to compute any (asymptotically good) error-correcting code
$C:\{0,1\}^{\Omega(n)} \to \{0,1\}^n$ with minimum distance $\Omega(n)$,
using unbounded fan-in circuits of depth $d$ with arbitrary gates. Our main results are:

(1) If $d=2$ then $w = \Theta(n ({\log n/ \log \log n})^2)$.

(2) ... more >>>

Suppose each of $k \le n^{o(1)}$ players holds an $n$-bit number $x_i$ in its hand. The players wish to determine if $\sum_{i \le k} x_i = s$. We give a public-coin protocol with error $1\%$ and communication $O(k \lg k)$. The communication bound is independent of $n$, and for $k ... more >>>

We obtain the first deterministic randomness extractors
for $n$-bit sources with min-entropy $\ge n^{1-\alpha}$
generated (or sampled) by single-tape Turing machines
running in time $n^{2-16 \alpha}$, for all sufficiently
small $\alpha > 0$. We also show that such machines
cannot sample a uniform $n$-bit input to the Inner
Product function ... more >>>

Agrawal and Vinay (FOCS 2008) have recently shown that an exponential lower bound for depth four homogeneous circuits with bottom layer of $\times$ gates having sublinear fanin translates to an exponential lower bound for a general arithmetic circuit computing the permanent. Motivated by this, we examine the complexity of computing ... more >>>

The polynomial method and the adversary method are the two main techniques to prove lower bounds on quantum query complexity, and they have so far been considered as unrelated approaches. Here, we show an explicit reduction from the polynomial method to the multiplicative adversary method. The proof goes by extending ... more >>>

The paper is devoted to lower bounds on the time complexity of DPLL algorithms that solve the satisfiability problem using a splitting strategy. Exponential lower bounds on the running time of DPLL algorithms on unsatisfiable formulas follow from the lower bounds for resolution proofs. Lower bounds on satisfiable instances are ... more >>>

Communication complexity is a central model of computation introduced by Yao in 1979, where
two players, Alice and Bob, receive inputs x and y respectively and want to compute $f(x; y)$ for some fixed
function f with the least amount of communication. Recently people have revisited the question of the ... more >>>

For each natural number $d$ we consider a finite structure ${\bf M}_{d}$ whose universe is the set of all $0,1$-sequence of length $n=2^{d}$, each representing a natural number in the set $\lbrace 0,1,...,2^{n}-1\rbrace$ in binary form. The operations included in the structure are the four constants $0,1,2^{n}-1,n$, multiplication and addition ... more >>>

We survey the area of algebraic complexity theory; with the focus being on the problem of polynomial identity testing (PIT). We discuss the key ideas that have gone into the results of the last few years.

We show here a $2^{\Omega(\sqrt{d} \cdot \log N)}$ size lower bound for homogeneous depth four arithmetic formulas. That is, we give
an explicit family of polynomials of degree $d$ on $N$ variables (with $N = d^3$ in our case) with $0, 1$-coefficients such that
for any representation of ... more >>>

Shpilka and Wigderson (CCC 1999) had posed the problem of proving exponential lower bounds for (nonhomogeneous) depth three arithmetic circuits with bounded bottom fanin over a field $\mathbb{F}$ of characteristic zero. We resolve this problem by proving a $N^{\Omega(\frac{d}{\tau})}$ lower bound for (nonhomogeneous) depth three arithmetic circuits with bottom fanin ... more >>>

We prove that there are 3-CNF formulas over n variables that can be refuted in resolution in width w but require resolution proofs of size n^Omega(w). This shows that the simple counting argument that any formula refutable in width w must have a proof in size n^O(w) is essentially tight. ... more >>>

We provide a characterisation for the size of proofs in tree-like Q-Resolution by a Prover-Delayer game, which is inspired by a similar characterisation for the proof size in classical tree-like Resolution. This gives the first successful transfer of one of the lower bound techniques for classical proof systems to QBF ... more >>>

We exhibit families of 4-CNF formulas over n variables that have sums-of-squares (SOS) proofs of unsatisfiability of degree (a.k.a. rank) d but require SOS proofs of size n^{Omega(d)} for values of d = d(n) from constant all the way up to n^{delta} for some universal constant delta. This shows that ... more >>>

We study the problem of obtaining lower bounds for polynomial calculus (PC) and polynomial calculus resolution (PCR) on proof degree, and hence by [Impagliazzo et al. '99] also on proof size. [Alekhnovich and Razborov '03] established that if the clause-variable incidence graph of a CNF formula F is a good ... more >>>

One can learn any hypothesis class $H$ with $O(\log|H|)$ labeled examples. Alas, learning with so few examples requires saving the examples in memory, and this requires $|X|^{O(\log|H|)}$ memory states, where $X$ is the set of all labeled examples. A question that arises is how many labeled examples are needed in ... more >>>

We investigate the power of Non-commutative Arithmetic Circuits, which compute polynomials over the free non-commutative polynomial ring $\mathbb{F}\langle x_1,\dots,x_N \rangle$, where variables do not commute. We consider circuits that are restricted in the ways in which they can compute monomials: this can be seen as restricting the families of parse ... more >>>

We prove that to estimate within a constant factor the number of defective items in a non-adaptive group testing algorithm we need at least $\tilde\Omega((\log n)(\log(1/\delta)))$ tests. This solves the open problem posed by Damaschke and Sheikh Muhammad.

We say a subset $C \subseteq \{1,2,\dots,k\}^n$ is a $k$-hash code (also called $k$-separated) if for every subset of $k$ codewords from $C$, there exists a coordinate where all these codewords have distinct values. Understanding the largest possible rate (in bits), defined as $(\log_2 |C|)/n$, of a $k$-hash code is ... more >>>

In 1985, Ben-Or and Linial (Advances in Computing Research '89) introduced the collective coin-flipping problem, where $n$ parties communicate via a single broadcast channel and wish to generate a common random bit in the presence of adaptive Byzantine corruptions. In this model, the adversary can decide to corrupt a party ... more >>>

An $(n,k,\ell)$-vector MDS code is a $\mathbb{F}$-linear subspace of $(\mathbb{F}^\ell)^n$ (for some field $\mathbb{F}$) of dimension $k\ell$, such that any $k$ (vector) symbols of the codeword suffice to determine the remaining $r=n-k$ (vector) symbols. The length $\ell$ of each codeword symbol is called the sub-packetization of the code. Such a ... more >>>

A hitting-set generator (HSG) is a polynomial map $Gen:\mathbb{F}^k \to \mathbb{F}^n$ such that for all $n$-variate polynomials $Q$ of small enough circuit size and degree, if $Q$ is non-zero, then $Q\circ Gen$ is non-zero. In this paper, we give a new construction of such a HSG assuming that we have ... more >>>

Schur Polynomials are families of symmetric polynomials that have been
classically studied in Combinatorics and Algebra alike. They play a central
role in the study of Symmetric functions, in Representation theory [Sta99], in
Schubert calculus [LM10] as well as in Enumerative combinatorics [Gas96, Sta84,
Sta99]. In recent years, they have ... more >>>

We show that the size of any regular resolution refutation of Tseitin formula $T(G,c)$ based on a graph $G$ is at least $2^{\Omega(tw(G)/\log n)}$, where $n$ is the number of vertices in $G$ and $tw(G)$ is the treewidth of $G$. For constant degree graphs there is known upper bound $2^{O(tw(G))}$ ... more >>>

The two-way finite automaton with quantum and classical states (2QCFA), defined by Ambainis and Watrous, is a model of quantum computation whose quantum part is extremely limited; however, as they showed, 2QCFA are surprisingly powerful: a 2QCFA with only a single-qubit can recognize the language $L_{pal}=\{w \in \{a,b\}^*:w \text{ is ... more >>>

The partial string avoidability problem is stated as follows: given a finite set of strings with possible ``holes'' (wildcard symbols), determine whether there exists a two-sided infinite string containing no substrings from this set, assuming that a hole matches every symbol. The problem is known to be NP-hard and in ... more >>>

In a distributed coin-flipping protocol, Blum [ACM Transactions on Computer Systems '83],
the parties try to output a common (close to) uniform bit, even when some adversarially chosen parties try to bias the common output. In an adaptively secure full-information coin flip, Ben-Or and Linial [FOCS '85], the parties communicate ... more >>>

Motivated in part by applications in lattice-based cryptography, we initiate the study of the size of linear threshold (`$t$-out-of-$n$') secret-sharing where the linear reconstruction function is restricted to coefficients in $\{0,1\}$. We prove upper and lower bounds on the share size of such schemes. One ramification of our results is ... more >>>

A recent work of Li and Wootters (2021) shows a redundancy lower bound of $\Omega(\sqrt{Nk})$ for systematic linear $k$-batch codes of block length $N$ by looking at the $O(k)$ tensor power of the dual code. In this note, we present an alternate proof of their result via a linear independence ... more >>>

Merge Resolution (MRes [Beyersdorff et al. J. Autom. Reason.'2021]) is a recently introduced proof system for false QBFs. Unlike other known QBF proof systems, it builds winning strategies for the universal player within the proofs. Every line of this proof system consists of existential clauses along with countermodels. MRes stores ... more >>>

Koch, Strassle, and Tan [SODA 2023], show that, under the randomized exponential time hypothesis, there is no distribution-free PAC-learning algorithm that runs in time $n^{\tilde O(\log\log s)}$ for the classes of $n$-variable size-$s$ DNF, size-$s$ Decision Tree, and $\log s$-Junta by DNF (that returns a DNF hypothesis). Assuming a natural ... more >>>

We prove that a $O(k \log k)$-probe local algorithm for $k$-Missing String presented by Vyas and Williams is asymptotically optimal among a certain class of algorithms for this problem. The best lower bound we are aware of for the general case is still $\Omega(k)$.

Let $X$ be a set of items of size $n$ , which may contain some defective items denoted by $I$, where $I \subseteq X$. In group testing, a {\it test} refers to a subset of items $Q \subset X$. The test outcome is $1$ (positive) if $Q$ contains at least ... more >>>

We study the complexity of memory checkers with computational security and prove the first general tight lower bound.

Memory checkers, first introduced over 30 years ago by Blum, Evans, Gemmel, Kannan, and Naor (FOCS '91, Algorithmica '94), allow a user to store and maintain a large memory on a remote ... more >>>