In earlier work, we gave an oracle separating the relational versions of BQP
and the polynomial hierarchy, and showed that an oracle separating the decision
versions would follow from what we called the Generalized Linial-Nisan (GLN)
Conjecture: that "almost k-wise independent" distributions are
indistinguishable from the uniform distribution by constant-depth circuits. The
original Linial-Nisan Conjecture was recently proved by Braverman; we offered a
200prizeforthegeneralizedversion.Inthispaper,wesaveourselves200
by showing that the GLN Conjecture is false, at least for circuits of depth 3
and higher. As a byproduct, our counterexample also implies that Pi2P is not
contained in P^NP relative to a random oracle with probability 1. It has been
conjectured since the 1980s that PH is infinite relative to a random oracle,
but the highest levels of PH previously proved separate were NP and coNP.
Finally, our counterexample implies that the famous results of Linial, Mansour,
and Nisan, on the structure of AC0 functions, cannot be improved in several
interesting respects.Comment: 17 page