81 research outputs found
Logic Meets Algebra: the Case of Regular Languages
The study of finite automata and regular languages is a privileged meeting
point of algebra and logic. Since the work of Buchi, regular languages have
been classified according to their descriptive complexity, i.e. the type of
logical formalism required to define them. The algebraic point of view on
automata is an essential complement of this classification: by providing
alternative, algebraic characterizations for the classes, it often yields the
only opportunity for the design of algorithms that decide expressibility in
some logical fragment.
We survey the existing results relating the expressibility of regular
languages in logical fragments of MSO[S] with algebraic properties of their
minimal automata. In particular, we show that many of the best known results in
this area share the same underlying mechanics and rely on a very strong
relation between logical substitutions and block-products of pseudovarieties of
monoid. We also explain the impact of these connections on circuit complexity
theory.Comment: 37 page
Formal Theories for Linear Algebra
We introduce two-sorted theories in the style of [CN10] for the complexity
classes \oplusL and DET, whose complete problems include determinants over Z2
and Z, respectively. We then describe interpretations of Soltys' linear algebra
theory LAp over arbitrary integral domains, into each of our new theories. The
result shows equivalences of standard theorems of linear algebra over Z2 and Z
can be proved in the corresponding theory, but leaves open the interesting
question of whether the theorems themselves can be proved.Comment: This is a revised journal version of the paper "Formal Theories for
Linear Algebra" (Computer Science Logic) for the journal Logical Methods in
Computer Scienc
Logical definability and query languages over ranked and unranked trees
We study relations on trees defined by first-order constraints over a vocabulary that includes the tree extension relation T ≺ T ′ , holding if and only if every branch of T extends to a branch of T ′, unary node-tests, and a binary relation checking if the domains of two trees are equal. We consider both ranked and unranked trees. These are trees with and without a restriction on the number of children of nodes. We adopt the model-theoretic approach to tree relations and study relations definable over the structure consisting of the set of all trees and the above predicates. We relate definability of sets and relations of trees to computability by tree automata. We show that some natural restrictions correspond to familiar logics in the more classical setting, where every tree is a structure over a fixed vocabulary, and to logics studied in the context of XML pattern languages. We then look at relational calculi over collections of trees, and obtain quantifier-restriction results that give us bounds on the expressive power and complexity. As unrestricted relational calculi can express problems complete for each level of the polynomial hierarchy, we look at their restrictions, corresponding to the restricted logics over the family of all unranked trees, and find several calculi with low (NC 1) data complexity, while still expressing properties important for database an
Randomisation and Derandomisation in Descriptive Complexity Theory
We study probabilistic complexity classes and questions of derandomisation
from a logical point of view. For each logic L we introduce a new logic BPL,
bounded error probabilistic L, which is defined from L in a similar way as the
complexity class BPP, bounded error probabilistic polynomial time, is defined
from PTIME. Our main focus lies on questions of derandomisation, and we prove
that there is a query which is definable in BPFO, the probabilistic version of
first-order logic, but not in Cinf, finite variable infinitary logic with
counting. This implies that many of the standard logics of finite model theory,
like transitive closure logic and fixed-point logic, both with and without
counting, cannot be derandomised. Similarly, we present a query on ordered
structures which is definable in BPFO but not in monadic second-order logic,
and a query on additive structures which is definable in BPFO but not in FO.
The latter of these queries shows that certain uniform variants of AC0
(bounded-depth polynomial sized circuits) cannot be derandomised. These results
are in contrast to the general belief that most standard complexity classes can
be derandomised. Finally, we note that BPIFP+C, the probabilistic version of
fixed-point logic with counting, captures the complexity class BPP, even on
unordered structures
Frege systems for quantified Boolean logic
We define and investigate Frege systems for quantified Boolean formulas (QBF). For these new proof systems, we develop a lower bound technique that directly lifts circuit lower bounds for a circuit class C to the QBF Frege system operating with lines from C. Such a direct transfer from circuit to proof complexity lower bounds has often been postulated for propositional systems but had not been formally established in such generality for any proof systems prior to this work. This leads to strong lower bounds for restricted versions of QBF Frege, in particular an exponential lower bound for QBF Frege systems operating with AC0[p] circuits. In contrast, any non-trivial lower bound for propositional AC0[p]-Frege constitutes a major open problem. Improving these lower bounds to unrestricted QBF Frege tightly corresponds to the major problems in circuit complexity and propositional proof complexity. In particular, proving a lower bound for QBF Frege systems operating with arbitrary P/poly circuits is equivalent to either showing a lower bound for P/poly or for propositional extended Frege (which operates with P/poly circuits). We also compare our new QBF Frege systems to standard sequent calculi for QBF and establish a correspondence to intuitionistic bounded arithmetic.This research was supported by grant nos. 48138 and 60842 from the John Templeton Foundation, EPSRC grant
EP/L024233/1, and a Doctoral Prize Fellowship from EPSRC (third author). The second author was funded by the European
Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/ERC grant agreement
no. 279611 and under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme/ERC grant agreement no.
648276 AUTAR. The fourth author was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) under project number P28699 and by
the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2014)/ERC Grant
Agreement no. 61507.
Part of this work was done when Beyersdorff and Pich were at the University of Leeds and Bonacina at Sapienza University
Rome.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version
Processing Succinct Matrices and Vectors
We study the complexity of algorithmic problems for matrices that are
represented by multi-terminal decision diagrams (MTDD). These are a variant of
ordered decision diagrams, where the terminal nodes are labeled with arbitrary
elements of a semiring (instead of 0 and 1). A simple example shows that the
product of two MTDD-represented matrices cannot be represented by an MTDD of
polynomial size. To overcome this deficiency, we extended MTDDs to MTDD_+ by
allowing componentwise symbolic addition of variables (of the same dimension)
in rules. It is shown that accessing an entry, equality checking, matrix
multiplication, and other basic matrix operations can be solved in polynomial
time for MTDD_+-represented matrices. On the other hand, testing whether the
determinant of a MTDD-represented matrix vanishes PSPACE$-complete, and the
same problem is NP-complete for MTDD_+-represented diagonal matrices. Computing
a specific entry in a product of MTDD-represented matrices is #P-complete.Comment: An extended abstract of this paper will appear in the Proceedings of
CSR 201
From proof complexity to circuit complexity via interactive protocols
Folklore in complexity theory suspects that circuit lower bounds against NC1 or P/poly, currently
out of reach, are a necessary step towards proving strong proof complexity lower bounds for systems like Frege or Extended Frege. Establishing such a connection formally, however, is already daunting, as it would imply the breakthrough separation NEXP ⊈ P/poly, as recently observed by Pich and Santhanam [Pich and Santhanam, 2023].
We show such a connection conditionally for the Implicit Extended Frege proof system (iEF) introduced by Krajíček [Krajíček, 2004], capable of formalizing most of contemporary complexity theory. In particular, we show that if iEF proves efficiently the standard derandomization assumption that a concrete Boolean function is hard on average for subexponential-size circuits, then any superpolynomial lower bound on the length of iEF proofs implies #P ⊈ FP/poly (which would in turn imply, for example, PSPACE ⊈ P/poly). Our proof exploits the formalization inside iEF of the soundness of the sum-check protocol of Lund, Fortnow, Karloff, and Nisan [Lund et al., 1992]. This has consequences for the self-provability of circuit upper bounds in iEF. Interestingly, further improving our result seems to require progress in constructing interactive proof systems with more efficient provers
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