333 research outputs found
Verifying proofs in constant depth
In this paper we initiate the study of proof systems where verification of proofs proceeds by NC circuits. We investigate the question which languages admit proof systems in this very restricted model. Formulated alternatively, we ask which languages can be enumerated by NC functions. Our results show that the answer to this problem is not determined by the complexity of the language. On the one hand, we construct NC proof systems for a variety of languages ranging from regular to NP-complete. On the other hand, we show by combinatorial methods that even easy regular languages such as Exact-OR do not admit NC proof systems. We also present a general construction of proof systems for regular languages with strongly connected NFA's
Hamming Approximation of NP Witnesses
Given a satisfiable 3-SAT formula, how hard is it to find an assignment to
the variables that has Hamming distance at most n/2 to a satisfying assignment?
More generally, consider any polynomial-time verifier for any NP-complete
language. A d(n)-Hamming-approximation algorithm for the verifier is one that,
given any member x of the language, outputs in polynomial time a string a with
Hamming distance at most d(n) to some witness w, where (x,w) is accepted by the
verifier. Previous results have shown that, if P != NP, then every NP-complete
language has a verifier for which there is no
(n/2-n^(2/3+d))-Hamming-approximation algorithm, for various constants d > 0.
Our main result is that, if P != NP, then every paddable NP-complete language
has a verifier that admits no (n/2+O(sqrt(n log n)))-Hamming-approximation
algorithm. That is, one cannot get even half the bits right. We also consider
natural verifiers for various well-known NP-complete problems. They do have
n/2-Hamming-approximation algorithms, but, if P != NP, have no
(n/2-n^epsilon)-Hamming-approximation algorithms for any constant epsilon > 0.
We show similar results for randomized algorithms
Codeword stabilized quantum codes: algorithm and structure
The codeword stabilized ("CWS") quantum codes formalism presents a unifying
approach to both additive and nonadditive quantum error-correcting codes
(arXiv:0708.1021). This formalism reduces the problem of constructing such
quantum codes to finding a binary classical code correcting an error pattern
induced by a graph state. Finding such a classical code can be very difficult.
Here, we consider an algorithm which maps the search for CWS codes to a problem
of identifying maximum cliques in a graph. While solving this problem is in
general very hard, we prove three structure theorems which reduce the search
space, specifying certain admissible and optimal ((n,K,d)) additive codes. In
particular, we find there does not exist any ((7,3,3)) CWS code though the
linear programming bound does not rule it out. The complexity of the CWS search
algorithm is compared with the contrasting method introduced by Aggarwal and
Calderbank (arXiv:cs/0610159).Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur
An Atypical Survey of Typical-Case Heuristic Algorithms
Heuristic approaches often do so well that they seem to pretty much always
give the right answer. How close can heuristic algorithms get to always giving
the right answer, without inducing seismic complexity-theoretic consequences?
This article first discusses how a series of results by Berman, Buhrman,
Hartmanis, Homer, Longpr\'{e}, Ogiwara, Sch\"{o}ening, and Watanabe, from the
early 1970s through the early 1990s, explicitly or implicitly limited how well
heuristic algorithms can do on NP-hard problems. In particular, many desirable
levels of heuristic success cannot be obtained unless severe, highly unlikely
complexity class collapses occur. Second, we survey work initiated by Goldreich
and Wigderson, who showed how under plausible assumptions deterministic
heuristics for randomized computation can achieve a very high frequency of
correctness. Finally, we consider formal ways in which theory can help explain
the effectiveness of heuristics that solve NP-hard problems in practice.Comment: This article is currently scheduled to appear in the December 2012
issue of SIGACT New
Baby-Step Giant-Step Algorithms for the Symmetric Group
We study discrete logarithms in the setting of group actions. Suppose that
is a group that acts on a set . When , a solution
to can be thought of as a kind of logarithm. In this paper, we study
the case where , and develop analogs to the Shanks baby-step /
giant-step procedure for ordinary discrete logarithms. Specifically, we compute
two sets such that every permutation of can be
written as a product of elements and . Our
deterministic procedure is optimal up to constant factors, in the sense that
and can be computed in optimal asymptotic complexity, and and
are a small constant from in size. We also analyze randomized
"collision" algorithms for the same problem
On the Lattice Isomorphism Problem
We study the Lattice Isomorphism Problem (LIP), in which given two lattices
L_1 and L_2 the goal is to decide whether there exists an orthogonal linear
transformation mapping L_1 to L_2. Our main result is an algorithm for this
problem running in time n^{O(n)} times a polynomial in the input size, where n
is the rank of the input lattices. A crucial component is a new generalized
isolation lemma, which can isolate n linearly independent vectors in a given
subset of Z^n and might be useful elsewhere. We also prove that LIP lies in the
complexity class SZK.Comment: 23 pages, SODA 201
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