Arithmetic Circuits with Locally Low Algebraic Rank

In recent years there has been a flurry of activity proving lower bounds for homogeneous depth-4 arithmetic circuits, which has brought us very close to statements that are known to imply VP != VNP. It is a big question to go beyond homogeneity, and in this paper we make progress towards this by considering depth-4 circuits of low algebraic rank, which are a natural extension of homogeneous depth-4 arithmetic circuits. A depth-4 circuit is a representation of an N-variate, degree n polynomial P as P = sum_{i=1}^T Q_{i1} * Q_{i2} * ... * Q_{it} where the Q_{ij} are given by their monomial expansion. Homogeneity adds the constraint that for every i in [T], sum_{j} degree(Q_{ij}) = n. We study an extension where, for every i in [T], the algebraic rank of the set of polynomials {Q_{i1}, Q_{i2}, ... ,Q_{it}} is at most some parameter k. We call this the class of spnew circuits. Already for k=n, these circuits are a strong generalization of the class of homogeneous depth-4 circuits, where in particular t<=n (and hence k<=n). We study lower bounds and polynomial identity tests for such circuits and prove the following results. 1. Lower bounds: We give an explicit family of polynomials {P_n} of degree n in N = n^{O(1)} variables in VNP, such that any spnewn circuit computing P_n has size at least exp{(Omega(sqrt(n)*log(N)))}. This strengthens and unifies two lines of work: it generalizes the recent exponential lower bounds for homogeneous depth-4 circuits [KLSS14, KS-full] as well as the Jacobian based lower bounds of Agrawal et al. which worked for spnew circuits in the restricted setting where T * k <= n. 2. Hitting sets: Let spnewbounded be the class of spnew circuits with bottom fan-in at most d. We show that if d and k are at most poly(log(N)), then there is an explicit hitting set for spnewbounded circuits of size quasipolynomial in N and the size of the circuit. This strengthens a result of Forbes which showed such quasipolynomial sized hitting sets in the setting where d and t are at most poly(log(N)). A key technical ingredient of the proofs is a result which states that over any field of characteristic zero (or sufficiently large characteristic), upto a translation, every polynomial in a set of algebraically dependent polynomials can be written as a function of the polynomials in the transcendence basis. We believe this may be of independent interest. We combine this with shifted partial derivative based methods to obtain our final results

Sums of products of polynomials in few variables : lower bounds and polynomial identity testing

We study the complexity of representing polynomials as a sum of products of polynomials in few variables. More precisely, we study representations of the form $$P = \sum_{i = 1}^T \prod_{j = 1}^d Q_{ij}$$ such that each $Q_{ij}$ is an arbitrary polynomial that depends on at most $s$ variables. We prove the following results. 1. Over fields of characteristic zero, for every constant $\mu$ such that $0 \leq \mu < 1$, we give an explicit family of polynomials $\{P_{N}\}$, where $P_{N}$ is of degree $n$ in $N = n^{O(1)}$ variables, such that any representation of the above type for $P_{N}$ with $s = N^{\mu}$ requires $Td \geq n^{\Omega(\sqrt{n})}$. This strengthens a recent result of Kayal and Saha [KS14a] which showed similar lower bounds for the model of sums of products of linear forms in few variables. It is known that any asymptotic improvement in the exponent of the lower bounds (even for $s = \sqrt{n}$) would separate VP and VNP[KS14a]. 2. We obtain a deterministic subexponential time blackbox polynomial identity testing (PIT) algorithm for circuits computed by the above model when $T$ and the individual degree of each variable in $P$ are at most $\log^{O(1)} N$ and $s \leq N^{\mu}$ for any constant $\mu < 1/2$. We get quasipolynomial running time when $s < \log^{O(1)} N$. The PIT algorithm is obtained by combining our lower bounds with the hardness-randomness tradeoffs developed in [DSY09, KI04]. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first nontrivial PIT algorithm for this model (even for the case $s=2$), and the first nontrivial PIT algorithm obtained from lower bounds for small depth circuits

Towards Blackbox Identity Testing of Log-Variate Circuits

Derandomization of blackbox identity testing reduces to extremely special circuit models. After a line of work, it is known that focusing on circuits with constant-depth and constantly many variables is enough (Agrawal,Ghosh,Saxena, STOC\u2718) to get to general hitting-sets and circuit lower bounds. This inspires us to study circuits with few variables, eg. logarithmic in the size s. We give the first poly(s)-time blackbox identity test for n=O(log s) variate size-s circuits that have poly(s)-dimensional partial derivative space; eg. depth-3 diagonal circuits (or Sigma wedge Sigma^n). The former model is well-studied (Nisan,Wigderson, FOCS\u2795) but no poly(s2^n)-time identity test was known before us. We introduce the concept of cone-closed basis isolation and prove its usefulness in studying log-variate circuits. It subsumes the previous notions of rank-concentration studied extensively in the context of ROABP models

Algebraic Independence over Positive Characteristic: New Criterion and Applications to Locally Low Algebraic Rank Circuits

The motivation for this work comes from two problems--test algebraic independence of arithmetic circuits over a field of small characteristic, and generalize the structural property of algebraic dependence used by (Kumar, Saraf CCC\u2716) to arbitrary fields. It is known that in the case of zero, or large characteristic, using a classical criterion based on the Jacobian, we get a randomized poly-time algorithm to test algebraic independence. Over small characteristic, the Jacobian criterion fails and there is no subexponential time algorithm known. This problem could well be conjectured to be in RP, but the current best algorithm puts it in NP^#P (Mittmann, Saxena, Scheiblechner Trans.AMS\u2714). Currently, even the case of two bivariate circuits over F_2 is open. We come up with a natural generalization of Jacobian criterion, that works over all characteristic. The new criterion is efficient if the underlying inseparable degree is promised to be a constant. This is a modest step towards the open question of fast independence testing, over finite fields, posed in (Dvir, Gabizon, Wigderson FOCS\u2707). In a set of linearly dependent polynomials, any polynomial can be written as a linear combination of the polynomials forming a basis. The analogous property for algebraic dependence is false, but a property approximately in that spirit is named as ``functional dependence\u27\u27 in (Kumar, Saraf CCC\u2716) and proved for zero or large characteristic. We show that functional dependence holds for arbitrary fields, thereby answering the open questions in (Kumar, Saraf CCC\u2716). Following them we use the functional dependence lemma to prove the first exponential lower bound for locally low algebraic rank circuits for arbitrary fields (a model that strongly generalizes homogeneous depth-4 circuits). We also recover their quasipoly-time hitting-set for such models, for fields of characteristic smaller than the ones known before. Our results show that approximate functional dependence is indeed a more fundamental concept than the Jacobian as it is field independent. We achieve the former by first picking a ``good\u27\u27 transcendence basis, then translating the circuits by new variables, and finally approximating them by truncating higher degree monomials. We give a tight analysis of the ``degree\u27\u27 of approximation needed in the criterion. To get the locally low algebraic rank circuit applications we follow the known shifted partial derivative based methods

Proof complexity lower bounds from algebraic circuit complexity

We give upper and lower bounds on the power of subsystems of the Ideal Proof System (IPS), the algebraic proof system recently proposed by Grochow and Pitassi, where the circuits comprising the proof come from various restricted algebraic circuit classes. This mimics an established research direction in the boolean setting for subsystems of Extended Frege proofs, where proof-lines are circuits from restricted boolean circuit classes. Except one, all of the subsystems considered in this paper can simulate the well-studied Nullstellensatz proof system, and prior to this work there were no known lower bounds when measuring proof size by the algebraic complexity of the polynomials (except with respect to degree, or to sparsity). We give two general methods of converting certain algebraic lower bounds into proof complexity ones. Our methods require stronger notions of lower bounds, which lower bound a polynomial as well as an entire family of polynomials it defines. Our techniques are reminiscent of existing methods for converting boolean circuit lower bounds into related proof complexity results, such as feasible interpolation. We obtain the relevant types of lower bounds for a variety of classes (sparse polynomials, depth-3 powering formulas, read-once oblivious algebraic branching programs, and multilinear formulas), and infer the relevant proof complexity results. We complement our lower bounds by giving short refutations of the previously-studied subset-sum axiom using IPS subsystems, allowing us to conclude strict separations between some of these subsystems

Hardness vs Randomness for Bounded Depth Arithmetic Circuits

In this paper, we study the question of hardness-randomness tradeoffs for bounded depth arithmetic circuits. We show that if there is a family of explicit polynomials {f_n}, where f_n is of degree O(log^2n/log^2 log n) in n variables such that f_n cannot be computed by a depth Delta arithmetic circuits of size poly(n), then there is a deterministic sub-exponential time algorithm for polynomial identity testing of arithmetic circuits of depth Delta-5. This is incomparable to a beautiful result of Dvir et al.[SICOMP, 2009], where they showed that super-polynomial lower bounds for depth Delta circuits for any explicit family of polynomials (of potentially high degree) implies sub-exponential time deterministic PIT for depth Delta-5 circuits of bounded individual degree. Thus, we remove the "bounded individual degree" condition in the work of Dvir et al. at the cost of strengthening the hardness assumption to hold for polynomials of low degree. The key technical ingredient of our proof is the following property of roots of polynomials computable by a bounded depth arithmetic circuit : if f(x_1, x_2, ..., x_n) and P(x_1, x_2, ..., x_n, y) are polynomials of degree d and r respectively, such that P can be computed by a circuit of size s and depth Delta and P(x_1, x_2, ..., x_n, f) equiv 0, then, f can be computed by a circuit of size poly(n, s, r, d^{O(sqrt{d})}) and depth Delta + 3. In comparison, Dvir et al. showed that f can be computed by a circuit of depth Delta + 3 and size poly(n, s, r, d^{t}), where t is the degree of P in y. Thus, the size upper bound in the work of Dvir et al. is non-trivial when t is small but d could be large, whereas our size upper bound is non-trivial when d is small, but t could be large

Polynomial Identity Testing via Evaluation of Rational Functions

We introduce a hitting set generator for Polynomial Identity Testing based on evaluations of low-degree univariate rational functions at abscissas associated with the variables. In spite of the univariate nature, we establish an equivalence up to rescaling with a generator introduced by Shpilka and Volkovich, which has a similar structure but uses multivariate polynomials in the abscissas. We study the power of the generator by characterizing its vanishing ideal, i.e., the set of polynomials that it fails to hit. Capitalizing on the univariate nature, we develop a small collection of polynomials that jointly produce the vanishing ideal. As corollaries, we obtain tight bounds on the minimum degree, sparseness, and partition size of set-multi-linearity in the vanishing ideal. Inspired by an alternating algebra representation, we develop a structured deterministic membership test for the vanishing ideal. As a proof of concept we rederive known derandomization results based on the generator by Shpilka and Volkovich, and present a new application for read-once oblivious arithmetic branching programs that provably transcends the usual combinatorial techniques