4,470 research outputs found
Three Puzzles on Mathematics, Computation, and Games
In this lecture I will talk about three mathematical puzzles involving
mathematics and computation that have preoccupied me over the years. The first
puzzle is to understand the amazing success of the simplex algorithm for linear
programming. The second puzzle is about errors made when votes are counted
during elections. The third puzzle is: are quantum computers possible?Comment: ICM 2018 plenary lecture, Rio de Janeiro, 36 pages, 7 Figure
Separations in Query Complexity Based on Pointer Functions
In 1986, Saks and Wigderson conjectured that the largest separation between
deterministic and zero-error randomized query complexity for a total boolean
function is given by the function on bits defined by a complete
binary tree of NAND gates of depth , which achieves . We show this is false by giving an example of a total
boolean function on bits whose deterministic query complexity is
while its zero-error randomized query complexity is . We further show that the quantum query complexity of the same
function is , giving the first example of a total function
with a super-quadratic gap between its quantum and deterministic query
complexities.
We also construct a total boolean function on variables that has
zero-error randomized query complexity and bounded-error
randomized query complexity . This is the first
super-linear separation between these two complexity measures. The exact
quantum query complexity of the same function is .
These two functions show that the relations and are optimal, up to poly-logarithmic factors. Further
variations of these functions give additional separations between other query
complexity measures: a cubic separation between and , a -power
separation between and , and a 4th power separation between
approximate degree and bounded-error randomized query complexity.
All of these examples are variants of a function recently introduced by
\goos, Pitassi, and Watson which they used to separate the unambiguous
1-certificate complexity from deterministic query complexity and to resolve the
famous Clique versus Independent Set problem in communication complexity.Comment: 25 pages, 6 figures. Version 3 improves separation between Q_E and
R_0 and updates reference
Quantum Zero-Error Algorithms Cannot be Composed
We exhibit two black-box problems, both of which have an efficient quantum
algorithm with zero-error, yet whose composition does not have an efficient
quantum algorithm with zero-error. This shows that quantum zero-error
algorithms cannot be composed. In oracle terms, we give a relativized world
where ZQP^{ZQP}\=ZQP, while classically we always have ZPP^{ZPP}=ZPP.Comment: 7 pages LaTeX. 2nd version slightly rewritte
Nearly optimal solutions for the Chow Parameters Problem and low-weight approximation of halfspaces
The \emph{Chow parameters} of a Boolean function
are its degree-0 and degree-1 Fourier coefficients. It has been known
since 1961 (Chow, Tannenbaum) that the (exact values of the) Chow parameters of
any linear threshold function uniquely specify within the space of all
Boolean functions, but until recently (O'Donnell and Servedio) nothing was
known about efficient algorithms for \emph{reconstructing} (exactly or
approximately) from exact or approximate values of its Chow parameters. We
refer to this reconstruction problem as the \emph{Chow Parameters Problem.}
Our main result is a new algorithm for the Chow Parameters Problem which,
given (sufficiently accurate approximations to) the Chow parameters of any
linear threshold function , runs in time \tilde{O}(n^2)\cdot
(1/\eps)^{O(\log^2(1/\eps))} and with high probability outputs a
representation of an LTF that is \eps-close to . The only previous
algorithm (O'Donnell and Servedio) had running time \poly(n) \cdot
2^{2^{\tilde{O}(1/\eps^2)}}.
As a byproduct of our approach, we show that for any linear threshold
function over , there is a linear threshold function which
is \eps-close to and has all weights that are integers at most \sqrt{n}
\cdot (1/\eps)^{O(\log^2(1/\eps))}. This significantly improves the best
previous result of Diakonikolas and Servedio which gave a \poly(n) \cdot
2^{\tilde{O}(1/\eps^{2/3})} weight bound, and is close to the known lower
bound of (1/\eps)^{\Omega(\log \log (1/\eps))}\} (Goldberg,
Servedio). Our techniques also yield improved algorithms for related problems
in learning theory
Characterization and Lower Bounds for Branching Program Size using Projective Dimension
We study projective dimension, a graph parameter (denoted by pd for a
graph ), introduced by (Pudl\'ak, R\"odl 1992), who showed that proving
lower bounds for pd for bipartite graphs associated with a Boolean
function imply size lower bounds for branching programs computing .
Despite several attempts (Pudl\'ak, R\"odl 1992 ; Babai, R\'{o}nyai, Ganapathy
2000), proving super-linear lower bounds for projective dimension of explicit
families of graphs has remained elusive.
We show that there exist a Boolean function (on bits) for which the
gap between the projective dimension and size of the optimal branching program
computing (denoted by bpsize), is . Motivated by the
argument in (Pudl\'ak, R\"odl 1992), we define two variants of projective
dimension - projective dimension with intersection dimension 1 (denoted by
upd) and bitwise decomposable projective dimension (denoted by
bitpdim).
As our main result, we show that there is an explicit family of graphs on vertices such that the projective dimension is , the
projective dimension with intersection dimension is and the
bitwise decomposable projective dimension is .
We also show that there exist a Boolean function (on bits) for which
the gap between upd and bpsize is . In contrast, we
also show that the bitwise decomposable projective dimension characterizes size
of the branching program up to a polynomial factor. That is, there exists a
constant and for any function , . We also study two other
variants of projective dimension and show that they are exactly equal to
well-studied graph parameters - bipartite clique cover number and bipartite
partition number respectively.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figure
The relation between tree size complexity and probability for Boolean functions generated by uniform random trees
We consider a probability distribution on the set of Boolean functions in n
variables which is induced by random Boolean expressions. Such an expression is
a random rooted plane tree where the internal vertices are labelled with
connectives And and OR and the leaves are labelled with variables or negated
variables. We study limiting distribution when the tree size tends to infinity
and derive a relation between the tree size complexity and the probability of a
function. This is done by first expressing trees representing a particular
function as expansions of minimal trees representing this function and then
computing the probabilities by means of combinatorial counting arguments
relying on generating functions and singularity analysis
Lower Bounds for Monotone Counting Circuits
A {+,x}-circuit counts a given multivariate polynomial f, if its values on
0-1 inputs are the same as those of f; on other inputs the circuit may output
arbitrary values. Such a circuit counts the number of monomials of f evaluated
to 1 by a given 0-1 input vector (with multiplicities given by their
coefficients). A circuit decides if it has the same 0-1 roots as f. We
first show that some multilinear polynomials can be exponentially easier to
count than to compute them, and can be exponentially easier to decide than to
count them. Then we give general lower bounds on the size of counting circuits.Comment: 20 page
Counting Euler Tours in Undirected Bounded Treewidth Graphs
We show that counting Euler tours in undirected bounded tree-width graphs is
tractable even in parallel - by proving a upper bound. This is in
stark contrast to #P-completeness of the same problem in general graphs.
Our main technical contribution is to show how (an instance of) dynamic
programming on bounded \emph{clique-width} graphs can be performed efficiently
in parallel. Thus we show that the sequential result of Espelage, Gurski and
Wanke for efficiently computing Hamiltonian paths in bounded clique-width
graphs can be adapted in the parallel setting to count the number of
Hamiltonian paths which in turn is a tool for counting the number of Euler
tours in bounded tree-width graphs. Our technique also yields parallel
algorithms for counting longest paths and bipartite perfect matchings in
bounded-clique width graphs.
While establishing that counting Euler tours in bounded tree-width graphs can
be computed by non-uniform monotone arithmetic circuits of polynomial degree
(which characterize ) is relatively easy, establishing a uniform
bound needs a careful use of polynomial interpolation.Comment: 17 pages; There was an error in the proof of the GapL upper bound
claimed in the previous version which has been subsequently remove
- …