Cell-probe Lower Bounds for Dynamic Problems via a New Communication Model

In this paper, we develop a new communication model to prove a data structure lower bound for the dynamic interval union problem. The problem is to maintain a multiset of intervals $\mathcal{I}$ over $[0, n]$ with integer coordinates, supporting the following operations: - insert(a, b): add an interval $[a, b]$ to $\mathcal{I}$, provided that $a$ and $b$ are integers in $[0, n]$; - delete(a, b): delete a (previously inserted) interval $[a, b]$ from $\mathcal{I}$; - query(): return the total length of the union of all intervals in $\mathcal{I}$. It is related to the two-dimensional case of Klee's measure problem. We prove that there is a distribution over sequences of operations with $O(n)$ insertions and deletions, and $O(n^{0.01})$ queries, for which any data structure with any constant error probability requires $\Omega(n\log n)$ time in expectation. Interestingly, we use the sparse set disjointness protocol of H\aa{}stad and Wigderson [ToC'07] to speed up a reduction from a new kind of nondeterministic communication games, for which we prove lower bounds. For applications, we prove lower bounds for several dynamic graph problems by reducing them from dynamic interval union

Hardness Results for Dynamic Problems by Extensions of Fredman and Saks’ Chronogram Method

We introduce new models for dynamic computation based on the cell probe model of Fredman and Yao. We give these models access to nondeterministic queries or the right answer +-1 as an oracle. We prove that for the dynamic partial sum problem, these new powers do not help, the problem retains its lower bound of  Omega(log n/log log n). From these results we easily derive a large number of lower bounds of order Omega(log n/log log n) for conventional dynamic models like the random access machine. We prove lower bounds for dynamic algorithms for reachability in directed graphs, planarity testing, planar point location, incremental parsing, fundamental data structure problems like maintaining the majority of the prefixes of a string of bits and range queries. We characterise the complexity of maintaining the value of any symmetric function on the prefixes of a bit string

Coarse-grained complexity for dynamic algorithms

To date, the only way to argue polynomial lower bounds for dynamic algorithms is via fine-grained complexity arguments. These arguments rely on strong assumptions about specific problems such as the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH) and the Online Matrix-Vector Multiplication Conjecture (OMv). While they have led to many exciting discoveries, dynamic algorithms still miss out some benefits and lessons from the traditional “coarse-grained” approach that relates together classes of problems such as P and NP. In this paper we initiate the study of coarse-grained complexity theory for dynamic algorithms. Below are among questions that this theory can answer

The Quantum Complexity of Set Membership

We study the quantum complexity of the static set membership problem: given a subset S (|S| \leq n) of a universe of size m (m \gg n), store it as a table of bits so that queries of the form `Is x \in S?' can be answered. The goal is to use a small table and yet answer queries using few bitprobes. This problem was considered recently by Buhrman, Miltersen, Radhakrishnan and Venkatesh, where lower and upper bounds were shown for this problem in the classical deterministic and randomized models. In this paper, we formulate this problem in the "quantum bitprobe model" and show tradeoff results between space and time.In this model, the storage scheme is classical but the query scheme is quantum.We show, roughly speaking, that similar lower bounds hold in the quantum model as in the classical model, which imply that the classical upper bounds are more or less tight even in the quantum case. Our lower bounds are proved using linear algebraic techniques.Comment: 19 pages, a preliminary version appeared in FOCS 2000. This is the journal version, which will appear in Algorithmica (Special issue on Quantum Computation and Quantum Cryptography). This version corrects some bugs in the parameters of some theorem

On-Line Reevaluation of Functions

Given a finite set S and a function f : S^n -> S^m, we consider the problem of making a data structure which maintains a value of x in S^n and allows us to efficiently change an arbitrary coordinate of x and efficiently evaluate f_i(x) for arbitrary i. We both examine the problem for specific choices of f and relate the possibility of an efficient solution to general properties of f: expressibility as a formula, space complexity and time complexity

Intrinsic Universality in Self-Assembly

We show that the Tile Assembly Model exhibits a strong notion of universality where the goal is to give a single tile assembly system that simulates the behavior of any other tile assembly system. We give a tile assembly system that is capable of simulating a very wide class of tile systems, including itself. Specifically, we give a tile set that simulates the assembly of any tile assembly system in a class of systems that we call \emph{locally consistent}: each tile binds with exactly the strength needed to stay attached, and that there are no glue mismatches between tiles in any produced assembly. Our construction is reminiscent of the studies of \emph{intrinsic universality} of cellular automata by Ollinger and others, in the sense that our simulation of a tile system $T$ by a tile system $U$ represents each tile in an assembly produced by $T$ by a $c \times c$ block of tiles in $U$, where $c$ is a constant depending on $T$ but not on the size of the assembly $T$ produces (which may in fact be infinite). Also, our construction improves on earlier simulations of tile assembly systems by other tile assembly systems (in particular, those of Soloveichik and Winfree, and of Demaine et al.) in that we simulate the actual process of self-assembly, not just the end result, as in Soloveichik and Winfree's construction, and we do not discriminate against infinite structures. Both previous results simulate only temperature 1 systems, whereas our construction simulates tile assembly systems operating at temperature 2

Marked Ancestor Problems (Preliminary Version)

Consider a rooted tree whose nodes can be marked or unmarked. Given a node, we want to find its nearest marked ancestor. This generalises the well-known predecessor problem, where the tree is a path. We show tight upper and lower bounds for this problem. The lower bounds are proved in the cell probe model, the upper bounds run on a unit-cost RAM. As easy corollaries we prove (often optimal) lower bounds on a number of problems. These include planar range searching, including the existential or emptiness problem, priority search trees, static tree union-find, and several problems from dynamic computational geometry, including intersection problems, proximity problems, and ray shooting. Our upper bounds improve a number of algorithms from various fields, including dynamic dictionary matching and coloured ancestor problems

Interactive Proof Systems

The report is a compilation of lecture notes that were prepared during the course ``Interactive Proof Systems'' given by the authors at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay. These notes were also used for a short course ``Interactive Proof Systems'' given by the second author at MPI, Saarbruecken. The objective of the course was to study the recent developments in complexity theory about interactive proof systems, which led to some surprising consequences on nonapproximability of NP hard problems. We start the course with an introduction to complexity theory and covered some classical results related with circuit complexity, randomizations and counting classes, notions which are either part of the definitions of interactive proof systems or are used in proving the above results. We define arthur merlin games and interactive proof systems, which are equivalent formulations of the notion of interactive proofs and show their equivalence to each other and to the complexity class PSPACE. We introduce probabilistically checkable proofs, which are special forms of interactive proofs and show through sequence of intermediate results that the class NP has probabilistically checkable proofs of very special form and very small complexity. Using this we conclude that several NP hard problems are not even weakly approximable in polynomial time unless P = NP