637 research outputs found
Intermediate problems in modular circuits satisfiability
In arXiv:1710.08163 a generalization of Boolean circuits to arbitrary finite
algebras had been introduced and applied to sketch P versus NP-complete
borderline for circuits satisfiability over algebras from congruence modular
varieties. However the problem for nilpotent (which had not been shown to be
NP-hard) but not supernilpotent algebras (which had been shown to be polynomial
time) remained open.
In this paper we provide a broad class of examples, lying in this grey area,
and show that, under the Exponential Time Hypothesis and Strong Exponential
Size Hypothesis (saying that Boolean circuits need exponentially many modular
counting gates to produce boolean conjunctions of any arity), satisfiability
over these algebras have intermediate complexity between and , where measures how much a nilpotent algebra
fails to be supernilpotent. We also sketch how these examples could be used as
paradigms to fill the nilpotent versus supernilpotent gap in general.
Our examples are striking in view of the natural strong connections between
circuits satisfiability and Constraint Satisfaction Problem for which the
dichotomy had been shown by Bulatov and Zhuk
Systems of Linear Equations over and Problems Parameterized Above Average
In the problem Max Lin, we are given a system of linear equations
with variables over in which each equation is assigned a
positive weight and we wish to find an assignment of values to the variables
that maximizes the excess, which is the total weight of satisfied equations
minus the total weight of falsified equations. Using an algebraic approach, we
obtain a lower bound for the maximum excess.
Max Lin Above Average (Max Lin AA) is a parameterized version of Max Lin
introduced by Mahajan et al. (Proc. IWPEC'06 and J. Comput. Syst. Sci. 75,
2009). In Max Lin AA all weights are integral and we are to decide whether the
maximum excess is at least , where is the parameter.
It is not hard to see that we may assume that no two equations in have
the same left-hand side and . Using our maximum excess results,
we prove that, under these assumptions, Max Lin AA is fixed-parameter tractable
for a wide special case: for an arbitrary fixed function
.
Max -Lin AA is a special case of Max Lin AA, where each equation has at
most variables. In Max Exact -SAT AA we are given a multiset of
clauses on variables such that each clause has variables and asked
whether there is a truth assignment to the variables that satisfies at
least clauses. Using our maximum excess results, we
prove that for each fixed , Max -Lin AA and Max Exact -SAT AA can
be solved in time This improves
-time algorithms for the two problems obtained by Gutin et
al. (IWPEC 2009) and Alon et al. (SODA 2010), respectively
A Hypergraph Dictatorship Test with Perfect Completeness
A hypergraph dictatorship test is first introduced by Samorodnitsky and
Trevisan and serves as a key component in their unique games based \PCP
construction. Such a test has oracle access to a collection of functions and
determines whether all the functions are the same dictatorship, or all their
low degree influences are Their test makes queries and has
amortized query complexity but has an inherent loss of
perfect completeness. In this paper we give an adaptive hypergraph dictatorship
test that achieves both perfect completeness and amortized query complexity
.Comment: Some minor correction
Evolution of ultraviolet vision in the largest avian radiation - the passerines
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Interspecific variation in avian colour vision falls into two discrete classes: violet sensitive (VS) and ultraviolet sensitive (UVS). They are characterised by the spectral sensitivity of the most shortwave sensitive of the four single cones, the SWS1, which is seemingly under direct control of as little as one amino acid substitution in the cone opsin protein. Changes in spectral sensitivity of the SWS1 are ecologically important, as they affect the abilities of birds to accurately assess potential mates, find food and minimise visibility of social signals to predators. Still, available data have indicated that shifts between classes are rare, with only four to five independent acquisitions of UV sensitivity in avian evolution.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have classified a large sample of passeriform species as VS or UVS from genomic DNA and mapped the evolution of this character on a passerine phylogeny inferred from published molecular sequence data. Sequencing a small gene fragment has allowed us to trace the trait changing from one stable state to another through the radiation of the passeriform birds. Their ancestor is hypothesised to be UVS. In the subsequent radiation, colour vision changed between UVS and VS at least eight times.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The phylogenetic distribution of SWS1 cone opsin types in Passeriformes reveals a much higher degree of complexity in avian colour vision evolution than what was previously indicated from the limited data available. Clades with variation in the colour vision system are nested among clades with a seemingly stable VS or UVS state, providing a rare opportunity to understand how an ecologically important trait under simple genetic control may co-evolve with, and be stabilised by, associated traits in a character complex.</p
When Can Limited Randomness Be Used in Repeated Games?
The central result of classical game theory states that every finite normal
form game has a Nash equilibrium, provided that players are allowed to use
randomized (mixed) strategies. However, in practice, humans are known to be bad
at generating random-like sequences, and true random bits may be unavailable.
Even if the players have access to enough random bits for a single instance of
the game their randomness might be insufficient if the game is played many
times.
In this work, we ask whether randomness is necessary for equilibria to exist
in finitely repeated games. We show that for a large class of games containing
arbitrary two-player zero-sum games, approximate Nash equilibria of the
-stage repeated version of the game exist if and only if both players have
random bits. In contrast, we show that there exists a class of
games for which no equilibrium exists in pure strategies, yet the -stage
repeated version of the game has an exact Nash equilibrium in which each player
uses only a constant number of random bits.
When the players are assumed to be computationally bounded, if cryptographic
pseudorandom generators (or, equivalently, one-way functions) exist, then the
players can base their strategies on "random-like" sequences derived from only
a small number of truly random bits. We show that, in contrast, in repeated
two-player zero-sum games, if pseudorandom generators \emph{do not} exist, then
random bits remain necessary for equilibria to exist
Universal Test for Quantum One-Way Permutations
The next bit test was introduced by Blum and Micali and proved by Yao to be a
universal test for cryptographic pseudorandom generators. On the other hand, no
universal test for the cryptographic one-wayness of functions (or permutations)
is known, though the existence of cryptographic pseudorandom generators is
equivalent to that of cryptographic one-way functions. In the quantum
computation model, Kashefi, Nishimura and Vedral gave a sufficient condition of
(cryptographic) quantum one-way permutations and conjectured that the condition
would be necessary. In this paper, we affirmatively settle their conjecture and
complete a necessary and sufficient for quantum one-way permutations. The
necessary and sufficient condition can be regarded as a universal test for
quantum one-way permutations, since the condition is described as a collection
of stepwise tests similar to the next bit test for pseudorandom generators.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures. The previous version included some error. This
is a corrected version. Fortunately, the proof is simplified and results are
improve
On the Approximability of Digraph Ordering
Given an n-vertex digraph D = (V, A) the Max-k-Ordering problem is to compute
a labeling maximizing the number of forward edges, i.e.
edges (u,v) such that (u) < (v). For different values of k, this
reduces to Maximum Acyclic Subgraph (k=n), and Max-Dicut (k=2). This work
studies the approximability of Max-k-Ordering and its generalizations,
motivated by their applications to job scheduling with soft precedence
constraints. We give an LP rounding based 2-approximation algorithm for
Max-k-Ordering for any k={2,..., n}, improving on the known
2k/(k-1)-approximation obtained via random assignment. The tightness of this
rounding is shown by proving that for any k={2,..., n} and constant
, Max-k-Ordering has an LP integrality gap of 2 -
for rounds of the
Sherali-Adams hierarchy.
A further generalization of Max-k-Ordering is the restricted maximum acyclic
subgraph problem or RMAS, where each vertex v has a finite set of allowable
labels . We prove an LP rounding based
approximation for it, improving on the
approximation recently given by Grandoni et al.
(Information Processing Letters, Vol. 115(2), Pages 182-185, 2015). In fact,
our approximation algorithm also works for a general version where the
objective counts the edges which go forward by at least a positive offset
specific to each edge.
The minimization formulation of digraph ordering is DAG edge deletion or
DED(k), which requires deleting the minimum number of edges from an n-vertex
directed acyclic graph (DAG) to remove all paths of length k. We show that
both, the LP relaxation and a local ratio approach for DED(k) yield
k-approximation for any .Comment: 21 pages, Conference version to appear in ESA 201
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