603 research outputs found
Quantified Derandomization of Linear Threshold Circuits
One of the prominent current challenges in complexity theory is the attempt
to prove lower bounds for , the class of constant-depth, polynomial-size
circuits with majority gates. Relying on the results of Williams (2013), an
appealing approach to prove such lower bounds is to construct a non-trivial
derandomization algorithm for . In this work we take a first step towards
the latter goal, by proving the first positive results regarding the
derandomization of circuits of depth .
Our first main result is a quantified derandomization algorithm for
circuits with a super-linear number of wires. Specifically, we construct an
algorithm that gets as input a circuit over input bits with
depth and wires, runs in almost-polynomial-time, and
distinguishes between the case that rejects at most inputs
and the case that accepts at most inputs. In fact, our
algorithm works even when the circuit is a linear threshold circuit, rather
than just a circuit (i.e., is a circuit with linear threshold gates,
which are stronger than majority gates).
Our second main result is that even a modest improvement of our quantified
derandomization algorithm would yield a non-trivial algorithm for standard
derandomization of all of , and would consequently imply that
. Specifically, if there exists a quantified
derandomization algorithm that gets as input a circuit with depth
and wires (rather than wires), runs in time at
most , and distinguishes between the case that rejects at
most inputs and the case that accepts at most
inputs, then there exists an algorithm with running time
for standard derandomization of .Comment: Changes in this revision: An additional result (a PRG for quantified
derandomization of depth-2 LTF circuits); rewrite of some of the exposition;
minor correction
Algorithms and lower bounds for de Morgan formulas of low-communication leaf gates
The class consists of Boolean functions
computable by size- de Morgan formulas whose leaves are any Boolean
functions from a class . We give lower bounds and (SAT, Learning,
and PRG) algorithms for , for classes
of functions with low communication complexity. Let
be the maximum -party NOF randomized communication
complexity of . We show:
(1) The Generalized Inner Product function cannot be computed in
on more than fraction of inputs
for As a corollary, we get an average-case lower bound for
against .
(2) There is a PRG of seed length that -fools . For
, we get the better seed length . This gives the first
non-trivial PRG (with seed length ) for intersections of half-spaces
in the regime where .
(3) There is a randomized -time SAT algorithm for , where In particular, this implies a nontrivial
#SAT algorithm for .
(4) The Minimum Circuit Size Problem is not in .
On the algorithmic side, we show that can be
PAC-learned in time
Satisfiability and Derandomization for Small Polynomial Threshold Circuits
A polynomial threshold function (PTF) is defined as the sign of a polynomial p : {0,1}^n ->R. A PTF circuit is a Boolean circuit whose gates are PTFs. We study the problems of exact and (promise) approximate counting for PTF circuits of constant depth.
- Satisfiability (#SAT). We give the first zero-error randomized algorithm faster than exhaustive search that counts the number of satisfying assignments of a given constant-depth circuit with a super-linear number of wires whose gates are s-sparse PTFs, for s almost quadratic in the input size of the circuit; here a PTF is called s-sparse if its underlying polynomial has at most s monomials. More specifically, we show that, for any large enough constant c, given a depth-d circuit with (n^{2-1/c})-sparse PTF gates that has at most n^{1+epsilon_d} wires, where epsilon_d depends only on c and d, the number of satisfying assignments of the circuit can be computed in randomized time 2^{n-n^{epsilon_d}} with zero error. This generalizes the result by Chen, Santhanam and Srinivasan (CCC, 2016) who gave a SAT algorithm for constant-depth circuits of super-linear wire complexity with linear threshold function (LTF) gates only.
- Quantified derandomization. The quantified derandomization problem, introduced by Goldreich and Wigderson (STOC, 2014), asks to compute the majority value of a given Boolean circuit, under the promise that the minority-value inputs to the circuit are very few. We give a quantified derandomization algorithm for constant-depth PTF circuits with a super-linear number of wires that runs in quasi-polynomial time. More specifically, we show that for any sufficiently large constant c, there is an algorithm that, given a degree-Delta PTF circuit C of depth d with n^{1+1/c^d} wires such that C has at most 2^{n^{1-1/c}} minority-value inputs, runs in quasi-polynomial time exp ((log n)^{O (Delta^2)}) and determines the majority value of C. (We obtain a similar quantified derandomization result for PTF circuits with n^{Delta}-sparse PTF gates.) This extends the recent result of Tell (STOC, 2018) for constant-depth LTF circuits of super-linear wire complexity.
- Pseudorandom generators. We show how the classical Nisan-Wigderson (NW) generator (JCSS, 1994) yields a nontrivial pseudorandom generator for PTF circuits (of unrestricted depth) with sub-linearly many gates. As a corollary, we get a PRG for degree-Delta PTFs with the seed length exp (sqrt{Delta * log n})* log^2(1/epsilon)
Algorithms and Lower Bounds in Circuit Complexity
Computational complexity theory aims to understand what problems can be efficiently solved by computation. This thesis studies computational complexity in the model of Boolean circuits. Boolean circuits provide a basic mathematical model for computation and play a central role in complexity theory, with important applications in separations of complexity classes, algorithm design, and pseudorandom constructions. In this thesis, we investigate various types of circuit models such as threshold circuits, Boolean formulas, and their extensions, focusing on obtaining complexity-theoretic lower bounds and algorithmic upper bounds for these circuits. (1) Algorithms and lower bounds for generalized threshold circuits: We extend the study of linear threshold circuits, circuits with gates computing linear threshold functions, to the more powerful model of polynomial threshold circuits where the gates can compute polynomial threshold functions. We obtain hardness and meta-algorithmic results for this circuit model, including strong average-case lower bounds, satisfiability algorithms, and derandomization algorithms for constant-depth polynomial threshold circuits with super-linear wire complexity. (2) Algorithms and lower bounds for enhanced formulas: We investigate the model of Boolean formulas whose leaf gates can compute complex functions. In particular, we study De Morgan formulas whose leaf gates are functions with "low communication complexity". Such gates can capture a broad class of functions including symmetric functions and polynomial threshold functions. We obtain new and improved results in terms of lower bounds and meta-algorithms (satisfiability, derandomization, and learning) for such enhanced formulas. (3) Circuit lower bounds for MCSP: We study circuit lower bounds for the Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP), the fundamental problem of deciding whether a given function (in the form of a truth table) can be computed by small circuits. We get new and improved lower bounds for MCSP that nearly match the best-known lower bounds against several well-studied circuit models such as Boolean formulas and constant-depth circuits
Luby-Velickovic-Wigderson Revisited: Improved Correlation Bounds and Pseudorandom Generators for Depth-Two Circuits
We study correlation bounds and pseudorandom generators for depth-two
circuits that consist of a -gate (computing an arbitrary
symmetric function) or -gate (computing an arbitrary linear
threshold function) that is fed by gates. Such circuits were
considered in early influential work on unconditional derandomization of Luby,
Veli\v{c}kovi\'c, and Wigderson [LVW93], who gave the first non-trivial PRG
with seed length that -fools
these circuits.
In this work we obtain the first strict improvement of [LVW93]'s seed length:
we construct a PRG that -fools size-
circuits over
with seed length
an exponential (and near-optimal) improvement of the -dependence
of [LVW93]. The above PRG is actually a special case of a more general PRG
which we establish for constant-depth circuits containing multiple
or gates, including as a special case
circuits. These more
general results strengthen previous results of Viola [Vio06] and essentially
strengthen more recent results of Lovett and Srinivasan [LS11].
Our improved PRGs follow from improved correlation bounds, which are
transformed into PRGs via the Nisan--Wigderson "hardness versus randomness"
paradigm [NW94]. The key to our improved correlation bounds is the use of a
recent powerful \emph{multi-switching} lemma due to H{\aa}stad [H{\aa}s14]
Near-Optimal Pseudorandom Generators for Constant-Depth Read-Once Formulas
We give an explicit pseudorandom generator (PRG) for read-once AC^0, i.e., constant-depth read-once formulas over the basis {wedge, vee, neg} with unbounded fan-in. The seed length of our PRG is O~(log(n/epsilon)). Previously, PRGs with near-optimal seed length were known only for the depth-2 case [Gopalan et al., 2012]. For a constant depth d > 2, the best prior PRG is a recent construction by Forbes and Kelley with seed length O~(log^2 n + log n log(1/epsilon)) for the more general model of constant-width read-once branching programs with arbitrary variable order [Michael A. Forbes and Zander Kelley, 2018]. Looking beyond read-once AC^0, we also show that our PRG fools read-once AC^0[oplus] with seed length O~(t + log(n/epsilon)), where t is the number of parity gates in the formula.
Our construction follows Ajtai and Wigderson\u27s approach of iterated pseudorandom restrictions [Ajtai and Wigderson, 1989]. We assume by recursion that we already have a PRG for depth-d AC^0 formulas. To fool depth-(d + 1) AC^0 formulas, we use the given PRG, combined with a small-bias distribution and almost k-wise independence, to sample a pseudorandom restriction. The analysis of Forbes and Kelley [Michael A. Forbes and Zander Kelley, 2018] shows that our restriction approximately preserves the expectation of the formula. The crux of our work is showing that after poly(log log n) independent applications of our pseudorandom restriction, the formula simplifies in the sense that every gate other than the output has only polylog n remaining children. Finally, as the last step, we use a recent PRG by Meka, Reingold, and Tal [Meka et al., 2019] to fool this simpler formula
Pseudorandom generators and the BQP vs. PH problem
It is a longstanding open problem to devise an oracle relative to which BQP
does not lie in the Polynomial-Time Hierarchy (PH). We advance a natural
conjecture about the capacity of the Nisan-Wigderson pseudorandom generator
[NW94] to fool AC_0, with MAJORITY as its hard function. Our conjecture is
essentially that the loss due to the hybrid argument (which is a component of
the standard proof from [NW94]) can be avoided in this setting. This is a
question that has been asked previously in the pseudorandomness literature
[BSW03]. We then make three main contributions: (1) We show that our conjecture
implies the existence of an oracle relative to which BQP is not in the PH. This
entails giving an explicit construction of unitary matrices, realizable by
small quantum circuits, whose row-supports are "nearly-disjoint." (2) We give a
simple framework (generalizing the setting of Aaronson [A10]) in which any
efficiently quantumly computable unitary gives rise to a distribution that can
be distinguished from the uniform distribution by an efficient quantum
algorithm. When applied to the unitaries we construct, this framework yields a
problem that can be solved quantumly, and which forms the basis for the desired
oracle. (3) We prove that Aaronson's "GLN conjecture" [A10] implies our
conjecture; our conjecture is thus formally easier to prove. The GLN conjecture
was recently proved false for depth greater than 2 [A10a], but it remains open
for depth 2. If true, the depth-2 version of either conjecture would imply an
oracle relative to which BQP is not in AM, which is itself an outstanding open
problem. Taken together, our results have the following interesting
interpretation: they give an instantiation of the Nisan-Wigderson generator
that can be broken by quantum computers, but not by the relevant modes of
classical computation, if our conjecture is true.Comment: Updated in light of counterexample to the GLN conjectur
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