13,059 research outputs found
The Multivariate Resultant is NP-hard in any Characteristic
The multivariate resultant is a fundamental tool of computational algebraic
geometry. It can in particular be used to decide whether a system of n
homogeneous equations in n variables is satisfiable (the resultant is a
polynomial in the system's coefficients which vanishes if and only if the
system is satisfiable). In this paper we present several NP-hardness results
for testing whether a multivariate resultant vanishes, or equivalently for
deciding whether a square system of homogeneous equations is satisfiable. Our
main result is that testing the resultant for zero is NP-hard under
deterministic reductions in any characteristic, for systems of low-degree
polynomials with coefficients in the ground field (rather than in an
extension). We also observe that in characteristic zero, this problem is in the
Arthur-Merlin class AM if the generalized Riemann hypothesis holds true. In
positive characteristic, the best upper bound remains PSPACE.Comment: 13 page
Positivity Problems for Low-Order Linear Recurrence Sequences
We consider two decision problems for linear recurrence sequences (LRS) over
the integers, namely the Positivity Problem (are all terms of a given LRS
positive?) and the Ultimate Positivity Problem} (are all but finitely many
terms of a given LRS positive?). We show decidability of both problems for LRS
of order 5 or less, with complexity in the Counting Hierarchy for Positivity,
and in polynomial time for Ultimate Positivity. Moreover, we show by way of
hardness that extending the decidability of either problem to LRS of order 6
would entail major breakthroughs in analytic number theory, more precisely in
the field of Diophantine approximation of transcendental numbers
Unary Pushdown Automata and Straight-Line Programs
We consider decision problems for deterministic pushdown automata over a
unary alphabet (udpda, for short). Udpda are a simple computation model that
accept exactly the unary regular languages, but can be exponentially more
succinct than finite-state automata. We complete the complexity landscape for
udpda by showing that emptiness (and thus universality) is P-hard, equivalence
and compressed membership problems are P-complete, and inclusion is
coNP-complete. Our upper bounds are based on a translation theorem between
udpda and straight-line programs over the binary alphabet (SLPs). We show that
the characteristic sequence of any udpda can be represented as a pair of
SLPs---one for the prefix, one for the lasso---that have size linear in the
size of the udpda and can be computed in polynomial time. Hence, decision
problems on udpda are reduced to decision problems on SLPs. Conversely, any SLP
can be converted in logarithmic space into a udpda, and this forms the basis
for our lower bound proofs. We show coNP-hardness of the ordered matching
problem for SLPs, from which we derive coNP-hardness for inclusion. In
addition, we complete the complexity landscape for unary nondeterministic
pushdown automata by showing that the universality problem is -hard, using a new class of integer expressions. Our techniques have
applications beyond udpda. We show that our results imply -completeness for a natural fragment of Presburger arithmetic and coNP lower
bounds for compressed matching problems with one-character wildcards
A PCP Characterization of AM
We introduce a 2-round stochastic constraint-satisfaction problem, and show
that its approximation version is complete for (the promise version of) the
complexity class AM. This gives a `PCP characterization' of AM analogous to the
PCP Theorem for NP. Similar characterizations have been given for higher levels
of the Polynomial Hierarchy, and for PSPACE; however, we suggest that the
result for AM might be of particular significance for attempts to derandomize
this class.
To test this notion, we pose some `Randomized Optimization Hypotheses'
related to our stochastic CSPs that (in light of our result) would imply
collapse results for AM. Unfortunately, the hypotheses appear over-strong, and
we present evidence against them. In the process we show that, if some language
in NP is hard-on-average against circuits of size 2^{Omega(n)}, then there
exist hard-on-average optimization problems of a particularly elegant form.
All our proofs use a powerful form of PCPs known as Probabilistically
Checkable Proofs of Proximity, and demonstrate their versatility. We also use
known results on randomness-efficient soundness- and hardness-amplification. In
particular, we make essential use of the Impagliazzo-Wigderson generator; our
analysis relies on a recent Chernoff-type theorem for expander walks.Comment: 18 page
Near-Optimal Complexity Bounds for Fragments of the Skolem Problem
Given a linear recurrence sequence (LRS), specified using the initial conditions and the recurrence relation, the Skolem problem asks if zero ever occurs in the infinite sequence generated by the LRS. Despite active research over last few decades, its decidability is known only for a few restricted subclasses, by either restricting the order of the LRS (upto 4) or by restricting the structure of the LRS (e.g., roots of its characteristic polynomial).
In this paper, we identify a subclass of LRS of arbitrary order for which the Skolem problem is easy, namely LRS all of whose characteristic roots are (possibly complex) roots of real algebraic numbers, i.e., roots satisfying x^d = r for r real algebraic. We show that for this subclass, the Skolem problem can be solved in NP^RP. As a byproduct, we implicitly obtain effective bounds on the zero set of the LRS for this subclass. While prior works in this area often exploit deep results from algebraic and transcendental number theory to get such effective results, our techniques are primarily algorithmic and use linear algebra and Galois theory. We also complement our upper bounds with a NP lower bound for the Skolem problem via a new direct reduction from 3-CNF-SAT, matching the best known lower bounds
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