28 research outputs found
Dedekind Zeta Functions and the Complexity of Hilbert's Nullstellensatz
Let HN denote the problem of determining whether a system of multivariate
polynomials with integer coefficients has a complex root. It has long been
known that HN in P implies P=NP and, thanks to recent work of Koiran, it is now
known that the truth of the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis (GRH) yields the
implication that HN not in NP implies P is not equal to NP. We show that the
assumption of GRH in the latter implication can be replaced by either of two
more plausible hypotheses from analytic number theory. The first is an
effective short interval Prime Ideal Theorem with explicit dependence on the
underlying field, while the second can be interpreted as a quantitative
statement on the higher moments of the zeroes of Dedekind zeta functions. In
particular, both assumptions can still hold even if GRH is false. We thus
obtain a new application of Dedekind zero estimates to computational algebraic
geometry. Along the way, we also apply recent explicit algebraic and analytic
estimates, some due to Silberman and Sombra, which may be of independent
interest.Comment: 16 pages, no figures. Paper corresponds to a semi-plenary talk at
FoCM 2002. This version corrects some minor typos and adds an
acknowledgements sectio
On the frontiers of polynomial computations in tropical geometry
We study some basic algorithmic problems concerning the intersection of
tropical hypersurfaces in general dimension: deciding whether this intersection
is nonempty, whether it is a tropical variety, and whether it is connected, as
well as counting the number of connected components. We characterize the
borderline between tractable and hard computations by proving
-hardness and #-hardness results under various
strong restrictions of the input data, as well as providing polynomial time
algorithms for various other restrictions.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Journal of Symbolic Computatio
The Multivariate Resultant is NP-hard in any Characteristic
The multivariate resultant is a fundamental tool of computational algebraic
geometry. It can in particular be used to decide whether a system of n
homogeneous equations in n variables is satisfiable (the resultant is a
polynomial in the system's coefficients which vanishes if and only if the
system is satisfiable). In this paper we present several NP-hardness results
for testing whether a multivariate resultant vanishes, or equivalently for
deciding whether a square system of homogeneous equations is satisfiable. Our
main result is that testing the resultant for zero is NP-hard under
deterministic reductions in any characteristic, for systems of low-degree
polynomials with coefficients in the ground field (rather than in an
extension). We also observe that in characteristic zero, this problem is in the
Arthur-Merlin class AM if the generalized Riemann hypothesis holds true. In
positive characteristic, the best upper bound remains PSPACE.Comment: 13 page
Near NP-Completeness for Detecting p-adic Rational Roots in One Variable
We show that deciding whether a sparse univariate polynomial has a p-adic
rational root can be done in NP for most inputs. We also prove a
polynomial-time upper bound for trinomials with suitably generic p-adic Newton
polygon. We thus improve the best previous complexity upper bound of EXPTIME.
We also prove an unconditional complexity lower bound of NP-hardness with
respect to randomized reductions for general univariate polynomials. The best
previous lower bound assumed an unproved hypothesis on the distribution of
primes in arithmetic progression. We also discuss how our results complement
analogous results over the real numbers.Comment: 8 pages in 2 column format, 1 illustration. Submitted to a conferenc
Some Speed-Ups and Speed Limits for Real Algebraic Geometry
We give new positive and negative results (some conditional) on speeding up
computational algebraic geometry over the reals: (1) A new and sharper upper
bound on the number of connected components of a semialgebraic set. Our bound
is novel in that it is stated in terms of the volumes of certain polytopes and,
for a large class of inputs, beats the best previous bounds by a factor
exponential in the number of variables. (2) A new algorithm for approximating
the real roots of certain sparse polynomial systems. Two features of our
algorithm are (a) arithmetic complexity polylogarithmic in the degree of the
underlying complex variety (as opposed to the super-linear dependence in
earlier algorithms) and (b) a simple and efficient generalization to certain
univariate exponential sums. (3) Detecting whether a real algebraic surface
(given as the common zero set of some input straight-line programs) is not
smooth can be done in polynomial time within the classical Turing model (resp.
BSS model over C) only if P=NP (resp. NP<=BPP). The last result follows easily
from an unpublished result of Steve Smale.Comment: This is the final journal version which will appear in Journal of
Complexity. More typos are corrected, and a new section is added where the
bounds here are compared to an earlier result of Benedetti, Loeser, and
Risler. The LaTeX source needs the ajour.cls macro file to compil
The node-deletion problem for hereditary properties is NP-complete
AbstractWe consider the family of graph problems called node-deletion problems, defined as follows; For a fixed graph property Î , what is the minimum number of nodes which must be deleted from a given graph so that the resulting subgraph satisfies Î ? We show that if Î is nontrivial and hereditary on induced subgraphs, then the node-deletion problem for Î is NP-complete for both undirected and directed graphs
Polynomial-Time Amoeba Neighborhood Membership and Faster Localized Solving
We derive efficient algorithms for coarse approximation of algebraic
hypersurfaces, useful for estimating the distance between an input polynomial
zero set and a given query point. Our methods work best on sparse polynomials
of high degree (in any number of variables) but are nevertheless completely
general. The underlying ideas, which we take the time to describe in an
elementary way, come from tropical geometry. We thus reduce a hard algebraic
problem to high-precision linear optimization, proving new upper and lower
complexity estimates along the way.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to a conference proceeding
Efficiently Detecting Torsion Points and Subtori
Suppose X is the complex zero set of a finite collection of polynomials in
Z[x_1,...,x_n]. We show that deciding whether X contains a point all of whose
coordinates are d_th roots of unity can be done within NP^NP (relative to the
sparse encoding), under a plausible assumption on primes in arithmetic
progression. In particular, our hypothesis can still hold even under certain
failures of the Generalized Riemann Hypothesis, such as the presence of
Siegel-Landau zeroes. Furthermore, we give a similar (but UNconditional)
complexity upper bound for n=1. Finally, letting T be any algebraic subgroup of
(C^*)^n we show that deciding whether X contains T is coNP-complete (relative
to an even more efficient encoding),unconditionally. We thus obtain new
non-trivial families of multivariate polynomial systems where deciding the
existence of complex roots can be done unconditionally in the polynomial
hierarchy -- a family of complexity classes lying between PSPACE and P,
intimately connected with the P=?NP Problem. We also discuss a connection to
Laurent's solution of Chabauty's Conjecture from arithmetic geometry.Comment: 21 pages, no figures. Final version, with additional commentary and
references. Also fixes a gap in Theorems 2 (now Theorem 1.3) regarding
translated subtor