27,165 research outputs found
A Nearly Optimal Lower Bound on the Approximate Degree of AC
The approximate degree of a Boolean function is the least degree of a real polynomial that
approximates pointwise to error at most . We introduce a generic
method for increasing the approximate degree of a given function, while
preserving its computability by constant-depth circuits.
Specifically, we show how to transform any Boolean function with
approximate degree into a function on variables with approximate degree at least . In particular, if , then
is polynomially larger than . Moreover, if is computed by a
polynomial-size Boolean circuit of constant depth, then so is .
By recursively applying our transformation, for any constant we
exhibit an AC function of approximate degree . This
improves over the best previous lower bound of due to
Aaronson and Shi (J. ACM 2004), and nearly matches the trivial upper bound of
that holds for any function. Our lower bounds also apply to
(quasipolynomial-size) DNFs of polylogarithmic width.
We describe several applications of these results. We give:
* For any constant , an lower bound on the
quantum communication complexity of a function in AC.
* A Boolean function with approximate degree at least ,
where is the certificate complexity of . This separation is optimal
up to the term in the exponent.
* Improved secret sharing schemes with reconstruction procedures in AC.Comment: 40 pages, 1 figur
Discovering the roots: Uniform closure results for algebraic classes under factoring
Newton iteration (NI) is an almost 350 years old recursive formula that
approximates a simple root of a polynomial quite rapidly. We generalize it to a
matrix recurrence (allRootsNI) that approximates all the roots simultaneously.
In this form, the process yields a better circuit complexity in the case when
the number of roots is small but the multiplicities are exponentially
large. Our method sets up a linear system in unknowns and iteratively
builds the roots as formal power series. For an algebraic circuit
of size we prove that each factor has size at most a
polynomial in: and the degree of the squarefree part of . Consequently,
if is a -hard polynomial then any nonzero multiple
is equally hard for arbitrary positive 's, assuming
that is at most .
It is an old open question whether the class of poly()-sized formulas
(resp. algebraic branching programs) is closed under factoring. We show that
given a polynomial of degree and formula (resp. ABP) size
we can find a similar size formula (resp. ABP) factor in
randomized poly()-time. Consequently, if determinant requires
size formula, then the same can be said about any of its
nonzero multiples.
As part of our proofs, we identify a new property of multivariate polynomial
factorization. We show that under a random linear transformation ,
completely factors via power series roots. Moreover, the
factorization adapts well to circuit complexity analysis. This with allRootsNI
are the techniques that help us make progress towards the old open problems,
supplementing the large body of classical results and concepts in algebraic
circuit factorization (eg. Zassenhaus, J.NT 1969, Kaltofen, STOC 1985-7 \&
Burgisser, FOCS 2001).Comment: 33 Pages, No figure
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