9,744 research outputs found
Time-space trade-offs for branching programs
AbstractBranching program depth and the logarithm of branching program complexity are lower bounds on time and space requirements for any reasonable model of sequential computation. In order to gain more insight to the complexity of branching programs and to the problems of time-space trade-offs one considers, on one hand, width-restricted and, on the other hand, depth-restricted branching programs. We present these computation models and the trade-off results already proved. We prove a new result of this type by presenting an effectively defined Boolean function whose complexity in depth-restricted one-time-only branching programs is exponential while its complexity even in width-2 branching programs is polynomial
On uncertainty versus size in branching programs
AbstractWe propose an information-theoretic approach to proving lower bounds on the size of branching programs. The argument is based on Kraft type inequalities for the average amount of uncertainty about (or entropy of) a given input during the various stages of computation. The uncertainty is measured by the average depth of so-called ‘splitting trees’ for sets of inputs reaching particular nodes of the program.We first demonstrate the approach for read-once branching programs. Then, we introduce a strictly larger class of so-called ‘balanced’ branching programs and, using the suggested approach, prove that some explicit Boolean functions cannot be computed by balanced programs of polynomial size. These lower bounds are new since some explicit functions, which are known to be hard for most previously considered restricted classes of branching programs, can be easily computed by balanced branching programs of polynomial size
Circuits with Medium Fan-In
We consider boolean circuits in which every gate may compute an arbitrary boolean function of k other gates, for a parameter k. We give an explicit function $f:{0,1}^n -> {0,1} that requires at least Omega(log^2(n)) non-input gates when k = 2n/3. When the circuit is restricted to being layered and depth 2, we prove a lower bound of n^(Omega(1)) on the number of non-input gates. When the circuit is a formula with gates of fan-in k, we give a lower bound Omega(n^2/k*log(n)) on the total number of gates.
Our model is connected to some well known approaches to proving lower bounds in complexity theory. Optimal lower bounds for the Number-On-Forehead model in communication complexity, or for bounded depth circuits in AC_0, or extractors for varieties over small fields would imply strong lower bounds in our model. On the other hand, new lower bounds for our model would prove new time-space tradeoffs for branching programs and impossibility results for (fan-in 2) circuits with linear size and logarithmic depth. In particular, our lower bound gives a different proof for a known time-space tradeoff for oblivious branching programs
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
Complexity of Restricted and Unrestricted Models of Molecular Computation
In [9] and [2] a formal model for molecular computing was
proposed, which makes focused use of affinity purification.
The use of PCR was suggested to expand the range of
feasible computations, resulting in a second model. In this
note, we give a precise characterization of these two models
in terms of recognized computational complexity classes,
namely branching programs (BP) and nondeterministic
branching programs (NBP) respectively. This allows us to
give upper and lower bounds on the complexity of desired
computations. Examples are given of computable and
uncomputable problems, given limited time
Circuit Complexity Meets Ontology-Based Data Access
Ontology-based data access is an approach to organizing access to a database
augmented with a logical theory. In this approach query answering proceeds
through a reformulation of a given query into a new one which can be answered
without any use of theory. Thus the problem reduces to the standard database
setting.
However, the size of the query may increase substantially during the
reformulation. In this survey we review a recently developed framework on
proving lower and upper bounds on the size of this reformulation by employing
methods and results from Boolean circuit complexity.Comment: To appear in proceedings of CSR 2015, LNCS 9139, Springe
Lower Bounds for (Non-Monotone) Comparator Circuits
Comparator circuits are a natural circuit model for studying the concept of bounded fan-out computations, which intuitively corresponds to whether or not a computational model can make "copies" of intermediate computational steps. Comparator circuits are believed to be weaker than general Boolean circuits, but they can simulate Branching Programs and Boolean formulas. In this paper we prove the first superlinear lower bounds in the general (non-monotone) version of this model for an explicitly defined function. More precisely, we prove that the n-bit Element Distinctness function requires ?((n/ log n)^(3/2)) size comparator circuits
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