3,368 research outputs found
Consistency of circuit lower bounds with bounded theories
Proving that there are problems in that require
boolean circuits of super-linear size is a major frontier in complexity theory.
While such lower bounds are known for larger complexity classes, existing
results only show that the corresponding problems are hard on infinitely many
input lengths. For instance, proving almost-everywhere circuit lower bounds is
open even for problems in . Giving the notorious difficulty of
proving lower bounds that hold for all large input lengths, we ask the
following question: Can we show that a large set of techniques cannot prove
that is easy infinitely often? Motivated by this and related
questions about the interaction between mathematical proofs and computations,
we investigate circuit complexity from the perspective of logic.
Among other results, we prove that for any parameter it is
consistent with theory that computational class , where is one of
the pairs: and , and , and
. In other words, these theories cannot establish
infinitely often circuit upper bounds for the corresponding problems. This is
of interest because the weaker theory already formalizes
sophisticated arguments, such as a proof of the PCP Theorem. These consistency
statements are unconditional and improve on earlier theorems of [KO17] and
[BM18] on the consistency of lower bounds with
Sciduction: Combining Induction, Deduction, and Structure for Verification and Synthesis
Even with impressive advances in automated formal methods, certain problems
in system verification and synthesis remain challenging. Examples include the
verification of quantitative properties of software involving constraints on
timing and energy consumption, and the automatic synthesis of systems from
specifications. The major challenges include environment modeling,
incompleteness in specifications, and the complexity of underlying decision
problems.
This position paper proposes sciduction, an approach to tackle these
challenges by integrating inductive inference, deductive reasoning, and
structure hypotheses. Deductive reasoning, which leads from general rules or
concepts to conclusions about specific problem instances, includes techniques
such as logical inference and constraint solving. Inductive inference, which
generalizes from specific instances to yield a concept, includes algorithmic
learning from examples. Structure hypotheses are used to define the class of
artifacts, such as invariants or program fragments, generated during
verification or synthesis. Sciduction constrains inductive and deductive
reasoning using structure hypotheses, and actively combines inductive and
deductive reasoning: for instance, deductive techniques generate examples for
learning, and inductive reasoning is used to guide the deductive engines.
We illustrate this approach with three applications: (i) timing analysis of
software; (ii) synthesis of loop-free programs, and (iii) controller synthesis
for hybrid systems. Some future applications are also discussed
Pseudorandomness for Approximate Counting and Sampling
We study computational procedures that use both randomness and nondeterminism. The goal of this paper is to derandomize such procedures under the weakest possible assumptions.
Our main technical contribution allows one to “boost” a given hardness assumption: We show that if there is a problem in EXP that cannot be computed by poly-size nondeterministic circuits then there is one which cannot be computed by poly-size circuits that make non-adaptive NP oracle queries. This in particular shows that the various assumptions used over the last few years by several authors to derandomize Arthur-Merlin games (i.e., show AM = NP) are in fact all equivalent.
We also define two new primitives that we regard as the natural pseudorandom objects associated with approximate counting and sampling of NP-witnesses. We use the “boosting” theorem and hashing techniques to construct these primitives using an assumption that is no stronger than that used to derandomize AM.
We observe that Cai's proof that S_2^P ⊆ PP⊆(NP) and the learning algorithm of Bshouty et al. can be seen as reductions to sampling that are not probabilistic. As a consequence they can be derandomized under an assumption which is weaker than the assumption that was previously known to suffice
Bit-Vector Model Counting using Statistical Estimation
Approximate model counting for bit-vector SMT formulas (generalizing \#SAT)
has many applications such as probabilistic inference and quantitative
information-flow security, but it is computationally difficult. Adding random
parity constraints (XOR streamlining) and then checking satisfiability is an
effective approximation technique, but it requires a prior hypothesis about the
model count to produce useful results. We propose an approach inspired by
statistical estimation to continually refine a probabilistic estimate of the
model count for a formula, so that each XOR-streamlined query yields as much
information as possible. We implement this approach, with an approximate
probability model, as a wrapper around an off-the-shelf SMT solver or SAT
solver. Experimental results show that the implementation is faster than the
most similar previous approaches which used simpler refinement strategies. The
technique also lets us model count formulas over floating-point constraints,
which we demonstrate with an application to a vulnerability in differential
privacy mechanisms
Recommended from our members
Complexity Theory
Computational Complexity Theory is the mathematical study of the intrinsic power and limitations of computational resources like time, space, or randomness. The current workshop focused on recent developments in various sub-areas including arithmetic complexity, Boolean complexity, communication complexity, cryptography, probabilistic proof systems, pseudorandomness and randomness extraction. Many of the developments are related to diverse mathematical fields such as algebraic geometry, combinatorial number theory, probability theory, representation theory, and the theory of error-correcting codes
Parameterized complexity of DPLL search procedures
We study the performance of DPLL algorithms on parameterized problems. In particular, we investigate how difficult it is to decide whether small solutions exist for satisfiability and other combinatorial problems. For this purpose we develop a Prover-Delayer game which models the running time of DPLL procedures and we establish an information-theoretic method to obtain lower bounds to the running time of parameterized DPLL procedures. We illustrate this technique by showing lower bounds to the parameterized pigeonhole principle and to the ordering principle. As our main application we study the DPLL procedure for the problem of deciding whether a graph has a small clique. We show that proving the absence of a k-clique requires n steps for a non-trivial distribution of graphs close to the critical threshold. For the restricted case of tree-like Parameterized Resolution, this result answers a question asked in [11] of understanding the Resolution complexity of this family of formulas
Oracle Complexity Classes and Local Measurements on Physical Hamiltonians
The canonical problem for the class Quantum Merlin-Arthur (QMA) is that of
estimating ground state energies of local Hamiltonians. Perhaps surprisingly,
[Ambainis, CCC 2014] showed that the related, but arguably more natural,
problem of simulating local measurements on ground states of local Hamiltonians
(APX-SIM) is likely harder than QMA. Indeed, [Ambainis, CCC 2014] showed that
APX-SIM is P^QMA[log]-complete, for P^QMA[log] the class of languages decidable
by a P machine making a logarithmic number of adaptive queries to a QMA oracle.
In this work, we show that APX-SIM is P^QMA[log]-complete even when restricted
to more physical Hamiltonians, obtaining as intermediate steps a variety of
related complexity-theoretic results.
We first give a sequence of results which together yield P^QMA[log]-hardness
for APX-SIM on well-motivated Hamiltonians: (1) We show that for NP, StoqMA,
and QMA oracles, a logarithmic number of adaptive queries is equivalent to
polynomially many parallel queries. These equalities simplify the proofs of our
subsequent results. (2) Next, we show that the hardness of APX-SIM is preserved
under Hamiltonian simulations (a la [Cubitt, Montanaro, Piddock, 2017]). As a
byproduct, we obtain a full complexity classification of APX-SIM, showing it is
complete for P, P^||NP, P^||StoqMA, or P^||QMA depending on the Hamiltonians
employed. (3) Leveraging the above, we show that APX-SIM is P^QMA[log]-complete
for any family of Hamiltonians which can efficiently simulate spatially sparse
Hamiltonians, including physically motivated models such as the 2D Heisenberg
model.
Our second focus considers 1D systems: We show that APX-SIM remains
P^QMA[log]-complete even for local Hamiltonians on a 1D line of 8-dimensional
qudits. This uses a number of ideas from above, along with replacing the "query
Hamiltonian" of [Ambainis, CCC 2014] with a new "sifter" construction.Comment: 38 pages, 3 figure
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