2,545 research outputs found

    DNF Sparsification and a Faster Deterministic Counting Algorithm

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    Given a DNF formula on n variables, the two natural size measures are the number of terms or size s(f), and the maximum width of a term w(f). It is folklore that short DNF formulas can be made narrow. We prove a converse, showing that narrow formulas can be sparsified. More precisely, any width w DNF irrespective of its size can be ϵ\epsilon-approximated by a width ww DNF with at most (wlog(1/ϵ))O(w)(w\log(1/\epsilon))^{O(w)} terms. We combine our sparsification result with the work of Luby and Velikovic to give a faster deterministic algorithm for approximately counting the number of satisfying solutions to a DNF. Given a formula on n variables with poly(n) terms, we give a deterministic nO~(loglog(n))n^{\tilde{O}(\log \log(n))} time algorithm that computes an additive ϵ\epsilon approximation to the fraction of satisfying assignments of f for \epsilon = 1/\poly(\log n). The previous best result due to Luby and Velickovic from nearly two decades ago had a run-time of nexp(O(loglogn))n^{\exp(O(\sqrt{\log \log n}))}.Comment: To appear in the IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity, 201

    The quantum adversary method and classical formula size lower bounds

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    We introduce two new complexity measures for Boolean functions, or more generally for functions of the form f:S->T. We call these measures sumPI and maxPI. The quantity sumPI has been emerging through a line of research on quantum query complexity lower bounds via the so-called quantum adversary method [Amb02, Amb03, BSS03, Zha04, LM04], culminating in [SS04] with the realization that these many different formulations are in fact equivalent. Given that sumPI turns out to be such a robust invariant of a function, we begin to investigate this quantity in its own right and see that it also has applications to classical complexity theory. As a surprising application we show that sumPI^2(f) is a lower bound on the formula size, and even, up to a constant multiplicative factor, the probabilistic formula size of f. We show that several formula size lower bounds in the literature, specifically Khrapchenko and its extensions [Khr71, Kou93], including a key lemma of [Has98], are in fact special cases of our method. The second quantity we introduce, maxPI(f), is always at least as large as sumPI(f), and is derived from sumPI in such a way that maxPI^2(f) remains a lower bound on formula size. While sumPI(f) is always a lower bound on the quantum query complexity of f, this is not the case in general for maxPI(f). A strong advantage of sumPI(f) is that it has both primal and dual characterizations, and thus it is relatively easy to give both upper and lower bounds on the sumPI complexity of functions. To demonstrate this, we look at a few concrete examples, for three functions: recursive majority of three, a function defined by Ambainis, and the collision problem.Comment: Appears in Conference on Computational Complexity 200

    A Nearly Optimal Lower Bound on the Approximate Degree of AC0^0

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    The approximate degree of a Boolean function f ⁣:{1,1}n{1,1}f \colon \{-1, 1\}^n \rightarrow \{-1, 1\} is the least degree of a real polynomial that approximates ff pointwise to error at most 1/31/3. We introduce a generic method for increasing the approximate degree of a given function, while preserving its computability by constant-depth circuits. Specifically, we show how to transform any Boolean function ff with approximate degree dd into a function FF on O(npolylog(n))O(n \cdot \operatorname{polylog}(n)) variables with approximate degree at least D=Ω(n1/3d2/3)D = \Omega(n^{1/3} \cdot d^{2/3}). In particular, if d=n1Ω(1)d= n^{1-\Omega(1)}, then DD is polynomially larger than dd. Moreover, if ff is computed by a polynomial-size Boolean circuit of constant depth, then so is FF. By recursively applying our transformation, for any constant δ>0\delta > 0 we exhibit an AC0^0 function of approximate degree Ω(n1δ)\Omega(n^{1-\delta}). This improves over the best previous lower bound of Ω(n2/3)\Omega(n^{2/3}) due to Aaronson and Shi (J. ACM 2004), and nearly matches the trivial upper bound of nn that holds for any function. Our lower bounds also apply to (quasipolynomial-size) DNFs of polylogarithmic width. We describe several applications of these results. We give: * For any constant δ>0\delta > 0, an Ω(n1δ)\Omega(n^{1-\delta}) lower bound on the quantum communication complexity of a function in AC0^0. * A Boolean function ff with approximate degree at least C(f)2o(1)C(f)^{2-o(1)}, where C(f)C(f) is the certificate complexity of ff. This separation is optimal up to the o(1)o(1) term in the exponent. * Improved secret sharing schemes with reconstruction procedures in AC0^0.Comment: 40 pages, 1 figur

    Dp-minimality: basic facts and examples

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    We study the notion of dp-minimality, beginning by providing several essential facts, establishing several equivalent definitions, and comparing dp-minimality to other minimality notions. The rest of the paper is dedicated to examples. We establish via a simple proof that any weakly o-minimal theory is dp-minimal and then give an example of a weakly o-minimal group not obtained by adding traces of externally definable sets. Next we give an example of a divisible ordered Abelian group which is dp-minimal and not weakly o-minimal. Finally we establish that the field of p-adic numbers is dp-minimal.Comment: 19 pages; simplified proof for the p-adic

    The non-locality of Markov chain approximations to two-dimensional diffusions

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    In this short paper, we consider discrete-time Markov chains on lattices as approximations to continuous-time diffusion processes. The approximations can be interpreted as finite difference schemes for the generator of the process. We derive conditions on the diffusion coefficients which permit transition probabilities to match locally first and second moments. We derive a novel formula which expresses how the matching becomes more difficult for larger (absolute) correlations and strongly anisotropic processes, such that instantaneous moves to more distant neighbours on the lattice have to be allowed. Roughly speaking, for non-zero correlations, the distance covered in one timestep is proportional to the ratio of volatilities in the two directions. We discuss the implications to Markov decision processes and the convergence analysis of approximations to Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations in the Barles-Souganidis framework.Comment: Corrected two errata from previous and journal version: definition of R in (5) and summations in (7
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