The Complexity of Local Proof Search in Linear Logic (Extended Abstract)

AbstractProof search in linear logic is known to be difficult: the provability of propositional linear logic formulas is undecidable. Even without the modalities, multiplicative-additive fragment of propositional linear logic, mall, is known to be PSPACE-complete, and the pure multiplicative fragment, mll, is known to be np-complete. However, this still leaves open the possibility that there might be proof search heuristics (perhaps involving randomization) that often lead to a proof if there is one, or always lead to something close to a proof. One approach to these problems is to study strategies for proof games. A class of linear logic proof games is developed, each with a numeric score that depends on the number of certain preferred axioms used in a complete or partial proof tree. Using recent techniques for proving lower bounds on optimization problems, the complexity of these games is analyzed for the fragment mll extended with additive constants and for the fragment MALL. It is shown that no efficient heuristics exist unless there is an unexpected collapse in the complexity hierarchy

New Complexity Bounds for Certain Real Fewnomial Zero Sets

Consider real bivariate polynomials f and g, respectively having 3 and m monomial terms. We prove that for all m>=3, there are systems of the form (f,g) having exactly 2m-1 roots in the positive quadrant. Even examples with m=4 having 7 positive roots were unknown before this paper, so we detail an explicit example of this form. We also present an O(n^{11}) upper bound for the number of diffeotopy types of the real zero set of an n-variate polynomial with n+4 monomial terms.Comment: 8 pages, no figures. Extended abstract accepted and presented at MEGA (Effective Methods in Algebraic Geometry) 200

Circuit complexity, proof complexity, and polynomial identity testing

We introduce a new algebraic proof system, which has tight connections to (algebraic) circuit complexity. In particular, we show that any super-polynomial lower bound on any Boolean tautology in our proof system implies that the permanent does not have polynomial-size algebraic circuits (VNP is not equal to VP). As a corollary to the proof, we also show that super-polynomial lower bounds on the number of lines in Polynomial Calculus proofs (as opposed to the usual measure of number of monomials) imply the Permanent versus Determinant Conjecture. Note that, prior to our work, there was no proof system for which lower bounds on an arbitrary tautology implied any computational lower bound. Our proof system helps clarify the relationships between previous algebraic proof systems, and begins to shed light on why proof complexity lower bounds for various proof systems have been so much harder than lower bounds on the corresponding circuit classes. In doing so, we highlight the importance of polynomial identity testing (PIT) for understanding proof complexity. More specifically, we introduce certain propositional axioms satisfied by any Boolean circuit computing PIT. We use these PIT axioms to shed light on AC^0[p]-Frege lower bounds, which have been open for nearly 30 years, with no satisfactory explanation as to their apparent difficulty. We show that either: a) Proving super-polynomial lower bounds on AC^0[p]-Frege implies VNP does not have polynomial-size circuits of depth d - a notoriously open question for d at least 4 - thus explaining the difficulty of lower bounds on AC^0[p]-Frege, or b) AC^0[p]-Frege cannot efficiently prove the depth d PIT axioms, and hence we have a lower bound on AC^0[p]-Frege. Using the algebraic structure of our proof system, we propose a novel way to extend techniques from algebraic circuit complexity to prove lower bounds in proof complexity

A Calculus for Timed Automata (Extended Abstract)

A language for representing timed automata is introduced. Its semantics i defined in terms of timed automata. This language is complete in the sense that any timed automaton can be represented by a term in the language. We also define a direct operational semantics for the language in terms of (timed) transition systems. This is proven to be equivalent (or, more precisely, timed bisimilar) to the interpretation in terms of timed automata. In addition, a set of axioms is given that is shown to be sound for timed bisimulation. Finally, we introduce several features including the parallel composition and derived time operations like wait, time-out and urgency. We conclude with an example and show that we can eliminate non-reachable states using algebraic techniques

Stable divisorial gonality is in NP

Divisorial gonality and stable divisorial gonality are graph parameters, which have an origin in algebraic geometry. Divisorial gonality of a connected graph $G$ can be defined with help of a chip firing game on $G$. The stable divisorial gonality of $G$ is the minimum divisorial gonality over all subdivisions of edges of $G$. In this paper we prove that deciding whether a given connected graph has stable divisorial gonality at most a given integer $k$ belongs to the class NP. Combined with the result that (stable) divisorial gonality is NP-hard by Gijswijt, we obtain that stable divisorial gonality is NP-complete. The proof consist of a partial certificate that can be verified by solving an Integer Linear Programming instance. As a corollary, we have that the number of subdivisions needed for minimum stable divisorial gonality of a graph with $n$ vertices is bounded by $2^{p(n)}$ for a polynomial $p$

Simple Doubly-Efficient Interactive Proof Systems for Locally-Characterizable Sets

A proof system is called doubly-efficient if the prescribed prover strategy can be implemented in polynomial-time and the verifier\u27s strategy can be implemented in almost-linear-time. We present direct constructions of doubly-efficient interactive proof systems for problems in P that are believed to have relatively high complexity. Specifically, such constructions are presented for t-CLIQUE and t-SUM. In addition, we present a generic construction of such proof systems for a natural class that contains both problems and is in NC (and also in SC). The proof systems presented by us are significantly simpler than the proof systems presented by Goldwasser, Kalai and Rothblum (JACM, 2015), let alone those presented by Reingold, Rothblum, and Rothblum (STOC, 2016), and can be implemented using a smaller number of rounds

Interactive proofs of proximity: Delegating computation in sublinear time

We study interactive proofs with sublinear-time verifiers. These proof systems can be used to ensure approximate correctness for the results of computations delegated to an untrusted server. Following the literature on property testing, we seek proof systems where with high probability the verifier accepts every input in the language, and rejects every input that is far from the language. The verifier's query complexity (and computation complexity), as well as the communication, should all be sublinear. We call such a proof system an Interactive Proof of Proximity (IPP). On the positive side, our main result is that all languages in NC have Interactive Proofs of Proximity with roughly √n query and communication and complexities, and polylog(n) communication rounds. This is achieved by identifying a natural language, membership in an affine subspace (for a structured class of subspaces), that is complete for constructing interactive proofs of proximity, and providing efficient protocols for it. In building an IPP for this complete language, we show a tradeoff between the query and communication complexity and the number of rounds. For example, we give a 2-round protocol with roughly $n^{3/4}$ queries and communication. On the negative side, we show that there exist natural languages in $NC^1$, for which the sum of queries and communication in any constant-round interactive proof of proximity must be polynomially related to n. In particular, for any 2-round protocol, the sum of queries and communication must be at least ~Ω(√n). Finally, we construct much better IPPs for specific functions, such as bipartiteness on random or well-mixing graphs, and the majority function. The query complexities of these protocols are provably better (by exponential or polynomial factors) than what is possible in the standard property testing model, i.e. without a prover.Engineering and Applied Science

Dyck path triangulations and extendability (extended abstract)

International audienceWe introduce the Dyck path triangulation of the cartesian product of two simplices $\Delta_{n-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$. The maximal simplices of this triangulation are given by Dyck paths, and its construction naturally generalizes to produce triangulations of $\Delta_{r\ n-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$ using rational Dyck paths. Our study of the Dyck path triangulation is motivated by extendability problems of partial triangulations of products of two simplices. We show that whenever$m\geq k>n$, any triangulations of $\Delta_{m-1}^{(k-1)}\times\Delta_{n-1}$ extends to a unique triangulation of $\Delta_{m-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$. Moreover, with an explicit construction, we prove that the bound $k>n$ is optimal. We also exhibit interpretations of our results in the language of tropical oriented matroids, which are analogous to classical results in oriented matroid theory.Nous introduisons la triangulation par chemins de Dyck du produit cartésien de deux simplexes $\Delta_{n-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$. Les simplexes maximaux de cette triangulation sont donnés par des chemins de Dyck, et cette construction se généralise de façon naturelle pour produire des triangulations $\Delta_{r\ n-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$ qui utilisent des chemins de Dyck rationnels. Notre étude de la triangulation par chemins de Dyck est motivée par des problèmes de prolongement de triangulations partielles de produits de deux simplexes. On montre que $m\geq k>n$ alors toute triangulation de $\Delta_{m-1}^{(k-1)}\times\Delta_{n-1}$ se prolonge en une unique triangulation de $\Delta_{m-1}\times\Delta_{n-1}$. De plus, avec une construction explicite, nous montrons que la borne $k>n$ est optimale. Nous présentons aussi des interprétations de nos résultats dans le langage des matroïdes orientés tropicaux, qui sont analogues aux résultats classiques de la théorie des matroïdes orientés