10 research outputs found
Blackbox identity testing for bounded top fanin depth-3 circuits: the field doesn't matter
Let C be a depth-3 circuit with n variables, degree d and top fanin k (called
sps(k,d,n) circuits) over base field F. It is a major open problem to design a
deterministic polynomial time blackbox algorithm that tests if C is identically
zero. Klivans & Spielman (STOC 2001) observed that the problem is open even
when k is a constant. This case has been subjected to a serious study over the
past few years, starting from the work of Dvir & Shpilka (STOC 2005).
We give the first polynomial time blackbox algorithm for this problem. Our
algorithm runs in time poly(nd^k), regardless of the base field. The only field
for which polynomial time algorithms were previously known is F=Q (Kayal &
Saraf, FOCS 2009, and Saxena & Seshadhri, FOCS 2010). This is the first
blackbox algorithm for depth-3 circuits that does not use the rank based
approaches of Karnin & Shpilka (CCC 2008).
We prove an important tool for the study of depth-3 identities. We design a
blackbox polynomial time transformation that reduces the number of variables in
a sps(k,d,n) circuit to k variables, but preserves the identity structure.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure, preliminary versio
Deterministic Factorization of Sparse Polynomials with Bounded Individual Degree
In this paper we study the problem of deterministic factorization of sparse
polynomials. We show that if is a
polynomial with monomials, with individual degrees of its variables bounded
by , then can be deterministically factored in time . Prior to our work, the only efficient factoring algorithms known for
this class of polynomials were randomized, and other than for the cases of
and , only exponential time deterministic factoring algorithms were
known.
A crucial ingredient in our proof is a quasi-polynomial sparsity bound for
factors of sparse polynomials of bounded individual degree. In particular we
show if is an -sparse polynomial in variables, with individual
degrees of its variables bounded by , then the sparsity of each factor of
is bounded by . This is the first nontrivial bound on
factor sparsity for . Our sparsity bound uses techniques from convex
geometry, such as the theory of Newton polytopes and an approximate version of
the classical Carath\'eodory's Theorem.
Our work addresses and partially answers a question of von zur Gathen and
Kaltofen (JCSS 1985) who asked whether a quasi-polynomial bound holds for the
sparsity of factors of sparse polynomials
Jacobian hits circuits: Hitting-sets, lower bounds for depth-D occur-k formulas & depth-3 transcendence degree-k circuits
We present a single, common tool to strictly subsume all known cases of
polynomial time blackbox polynomial identity testing (PIT) that have been
hitherto solved using diverse tools and techniques. In particular, we show that
polynomial time hitting-set generators for identity testing of the two
seemingly different and well studied models - depth-3 circuits with bounded top
fanin, and constant-depth constant-read multilinear formulas - can be
constructed using one common algebraic-geometry theme: Jacobian captures
algebraic independence. By exploiting the Jacobian, we design the first
efficient hitting-set generators for broad generalizations of the
above-mentioned models, namely:
(1) depth-3 (Sigma-Pi-Sigma) circuits with constant transcendence degree of
the polynomials computed by the product gates (no bounded top fanin
restriction), and (2) constant-depth constant-occur formulas (no multilinear
restriction).
Constant-occur of a variable, as we define it, is a much more general concept
than constant-read. Also, earlier work on the latter model assumed that the
formula is multilinear. Thus, our work goes further beyond the results obtained
by Saxena & Seshadhri (STOC 2011), Saraf & Volkovich (STOC 2011), Anderson et
al. (CCC 2011), Beecken et al. (ICALP 2011) and Grenet et al. (FSTTCS 2011),
and brings them under one unifying technique.
In addition, using the same Jacobian based approach, we prove exponential
lower bounds for the immanant (which includes permanent and determinant) on the
same depth-3 and depth-4 models for which we give efficient PIT algorithms. Our
results reinforce the intimate connection between identity testing and lower
bounds by exhibiting a concrete mathematical tool - the Jacobian - that is
equally effective in solving both the problems on certain interesting and
previously well-investigated (but not well understood) models of computation
On Annihilators of Explicit Polynomial Maps
We study the algebraic complexity of annihilators of polynomials maps. In
particular, when a polynomial map is `encoded by' a small algebraic circuit, we
show that the coefficients of an annihilator of the map can be computed in
PSPACE. Even when the underlying field is that of reals or complex numbers, an
analogous statement is true. We achieve this by using the class VPSPACE that
coincides with computability of coefficients in PSPACE, over integers.
As a consequence, we derive the following two conditional results. First, we
show that a VP-explicit hitting set generator for all of VP would separate
either VP from VNP, or non-uniform P from PSPACE. Second, in relation to
algebraic natural proofs, we show that proving an algebraic natural proofs
barrier would imply either VP VNP or DSPACE()
P
Improved polynomial identity testing for read-once formulas
An arithmetic read-once formula (ROF for short) is a formula (a circuit whose underlying graph is a tree) in which the operations are {+, ×} and such that every input variable labels at most one leaf. A preprocessed ROF (PROF for short) is a ROF in which we are allowed to replace each variable xi with a univariate polynomial Ti(xi). In this paper we study the problems of giving deterministic identity testing and reconstruction algorithms for preprocessed ROFs. In particular we obtain the following results. 1. We give an (nd) O(log n) black-box polynomial identity-testing algorithm for PROFs in n variables of individual degrees at most d (i.e. each Ti(xi) is of degree at most d). This improves and generalizes the previous n O( √ n) algorithm of [SV08] for ROFs. 2. Given k PROFs in n variables of individual degrees at most d we give a deterministic (non black-box) algorithm that checks whether they sum to zero or not. The running time of the algorithm is n O(k). This result improves and extends the previous results of [SV08]. 3. Combining the two results above we obtain an (nd) O(k+log n) time deterministic algorith
Variety Membership Testing in Algebraic Complexity Theory
In this thesis, we study some of the central problems in algebraic complexity theory through the lens of the variety membership testing problem. In the first part, we investigate whether separations between algebraic complexity classes can be phrased as instances of the variety membership testing problem. For this, we compare some complexity classes with their closures. We show that monotone commutative single-(source, sink) ABPs are closed. Further, we prove that multi-(source, sink) ABPs are not closed in both the monotone commutative and the noncommutative settings. However, the corresponding complexity classes are closed in all these settings. Next, we observe a separation between the complexity class VQP and the closure of VNP. In the second part, we cover the blackbox polynomial identity testing (PIT) problem, and the rank computation problem of symbolic matrices, both phrasable as instances of the variety membership testing problem. For the blackbox PIT, we give a randomized polynomial time algorithm that uses the number of random bits that matches the information-theoretic lower bound, differing from it only in the lower order terms. For the rank computation problem, we give a deterministic polynomial time approximation scheme (PTAS) when the degrees of the entries of the matrices are bounded by a constant. Finally, we show NP-hardness of two problems on 3-tensors, both of which are instances of the variety membership testing problem. The first problem is the orbit closure containment problem for the action of GLk x GLm x GLn on 3-tensors, while the second problem is to decide whether the slice rank of a given 3-tensor is at most r