Sign-Rank Can Increase Under Intersection

The communication class UPP^{cc} is a communication analog of the Turing Machine complexity class PP. It is characterized by a matrix-analytic complexity measure called sign-rank (also called dimension complexity), and is essentially the most powerful communication class against which we know how to prove lower bounds. For a communication problem f, let f wedge f denote the function that evaluates f on two disjoint inputs and outputs the AND of the results. We exhibit a communication problem f with UPP^{cc}(f)= O(log n), and UPP^{cc}(f wedge f) = Theta(log^2 n). This is the first result showing that UPP communication complexity can increase by more than a constant factor under intersection. We view this as a first step toward showing that UPP^{cc}, the class of problems with polylogarithmic-cost UPP communication protocols, is not closed under intersection. Our result shows that the function class consisting of intersections of two majorities on n bits has dimension complexity n^{Omega(log n)}. This matches an upper bound of (Klivans, O\u27Donnell, and Servedio, FOCS 2002), who used it to give a quasipolynomial time algorithm for PAC learning intersections of polylogarithmically many majorities. Hence, fundamentally new techniques will be needed to learn this class of functions in polynomial time

Sign-rank can increase under intersection

https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.00544Accepted manuscrip

Minimal genera of open 4-manifolds

We study exotic smoothings of open 4-manifolds using the minimal genus function and its analog for end homology. While traditional techniques in open 4-manifold smoothing theory give no control of minimal genera, we make progress by using the adjunction inequality for Stein surfaces. Smoothings can be constructed with much more control of these genus functions than the compact setting seems to allow. As an application, we expand the range of 4-manifolds known to have exotic smoothings (up to diffeomorphism). For example, every 2-handlebody interior (possibly infinite or nonorientable) has an exotic smoothing, and "most" have infinitely, or sometimes uncountably many, distinguished by the genus function and admitting Stein structures when orientable. Manifolds with 3-homology are also accessible. We investigate topological submanifolds of smooth 4-manifolds. Every domain of holomorphy (Stein open subset) in the complex plane $C^2$ is topologically isotopic to uncountably many other diffeomorphism types of domains of holomorphy with the same genus functions, or with varying but controlled genus functions.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure. v3 is essentially the version published in Geometry and Topology, obtained from v2 by major streamlining for readability. Several new examples added since v2; see last paragraph of introduction for detail

On biunimodular vectors for unitary matrices

A biunimodular vector of a unitary matrix $A \in U(n)$ is a vector v \in \mathbb{T}^n\subset\bc^n such that $Av \in \mathbb{T}^n$ as well. Over the last 30 years, the sets of biunimodular vectors for Fourier matrices have been the object of extensive research in various areas of mathematics and applied sciences. Here, we broaden this basic harmonic analysis perspective and extend the search for biunimodular vectors to arbitrary unitary matrices. This search can be motivated in various ways. The main motivation is provided by the fact, that the existence of biunimodular vectors for an arbitrary unitary matrix allows for a natural understanding of the structure of all unitary matrices

A unifying poset perspective on alternating sign matrices, plane partitions, Catalan objects, tournaments, and tableaux

Alternating sign matrices (ASMs) are square matrices with entries 0, 1, or -1 whose rows and columns sum to 1 and whose nonzero entries alternate in sign. We present a unifying perspective on ASMs and other combinatorial objects by studying a certain tetrahedral poset and its subposets. We prove the order ideals of these subposets are in bijection with a variety of interesting combinatorial objects, including ASMs, totally symmetric self-complementary plane partitions (TSSCPPs), staircase shaped semistandard Young tableaux, Catalan objects, tournaments, and totally symmetric plane partitions. We prove product formulas counting these order ideals and give the rank generating function of some of the corresponding lattices of order ideals. We also prove an expansion of the tournament generating function as a sum over TSSCPPs. This result is analogous to a result of Robbins and Rumsey expanding the tournament generating function as a sum over alternating sign matrices.Comment: 24 pages, 23 figures, full published version of arXiv:0905.449

Convex Rank Tests and Semigraphoids

Convex rank tests are partitions of the symmetric group which have desirable geometric properties. The statistical tests defined by such partitions involve counting all permutations in the equivalence classes. Each class consists of the linear extensions of a partially ordered set specified by data. Our methods refine existing rank tests of non-parametric statistics, such as the sign test and the runs test, and are useful for exploratory analysis of ordinal data. We establish a bijection between convex rank tests and probabilistic conditional independence structures known as semigraphoids. The subclass of submodular rank tests is derived from faces of the cone of submodular functions, or from Minkowski summands of the permutohedron. We enumerate all small instances of such rank tests. Of particular interest are graphical tests, which correspond to both graphical models and to graph associahedra

On sets of terms with a given intersection type

We are interested in how much of the structure of a strongly normalizable lambda term is captured by its intersection types and how much all the terms of a given type have in common. In this note we consider the theory BCD (Barendregt, Coppo, and Dezani) of intersection types without the top element. We show: for each strongly normalizable lambda term M, with beta-eta normal form N, there exists an intersection type A such that, in BCD, N is the unique beta-eta normal term of type A. A similar result holds for finite sets of strongly normalizable terms for each intersection type A if the set of all closed terms M such that, in BCD, M has type A, is infinite then, when closed under beta-eta conversion, this set forms an adaquate numeral system for untyped lambda calculus. A number of related results are also proved

Box Graphs and Singular Fibers

We determine the higher codimension fibers of elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau fourfolds with section by studying the three-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric gauge theory with matter which describes the low energy effective theory of M-theory compactified on the associated Weierstrass model, a singular model of the fourfold. Each phase of the Coulomb branch of this theory corresponds to a particular resolution of the Weierstrass model, and we show that these have a concise description in terms of decorated box graphs based on the representation graph of the matter multiplets, or alternatively by a class of convex paths on said graph. Transitions between phases have a simple interpretation as `flopping' of the path, and in the geometry correspond to actual flop transitions. This description of the phases enables us to enumerate and determine the entire network between them, with various matter representations for all reductive Lie groups. Furthermore, we observe that each network of phases carries the structure of a (quasi-)minuscule representation of a specific Lie algebra. Interpreted from a geometric point of view, this analysis determines the generators of the cone of effective curves as well as the network of flop transitions between crepant resolutions of singular elliptic Calabi-Yau fourfolds. From the box graphs we determine all fiber types in codimensions two and three, and we find new, non-Kodaira, fiber types for E_6, E_7 and E_8.Comment: 107 pages, 44 figures, v2: added case of E7 monodromy-reduced fiber