We study the problem of obtaining deterministic black-box polynomial identity testing algorithms (PIT) for algebraic branching programs (ABPs) that are read-once and oblivious. This class has an deterministic white-box polynomial identity testing algorithm (due to Raz and Shpilka), but prior to this work there was no known such black-box algorithm. The main result of this work gives the first quasi-polynomial sized hitting sets for size S circuits from this class, when the order of the variables is known. As our hitting set is of size exp(lg^2 S), this is analogous (in the terminology of boolean pseudorandomness) to a seed-length of lg^2 S, which is the seed length of the pseudorandom generators of Nisan and Impagliazzo-Nisan-Wigderson for read-once oblivious boolean branching programs. Our results are stronger for branching programs of bounded width, where we give a hitting set of size exp(lg^2 S lglg S), corresponding to a seed length of lg^2 S lglg S. This is in stark contrast to the known results for read-once oblivious boolean branching programs of bounded width, where no pseudorandom generator (or hitting set) with seed length o(lg^2 S) is known. In follow up work, we strengthened a result of Mulmuley, and showed that derandomizing a particular case of the Noether Normalization Lemma is reducible to black-box PIT of read-once oblivious ABPs. Using the results of the present work, this gives a derandomization of Noether Normalization in that case, which Mulmuley conjectured would difficult due to its relations to problems in algebraic geometry. We also show that several other circuit classes can be black-box reduced to read-once oblivious ABPs, including set-multilinear ABPs (a generalization of depth-3 set-multilinear formulas), non-commutative ABPs (generalizing non-commutative formulas), and (semi-)diagonal depth-4 circuits (as introduced by Saxena).
In this work, we give a quasi-polynomial hitting sets for diagonal circuits ( thm:diagonal ), making some of Mulmuley's weaker results unconditional. More interestingly, in follow-up work ( @cite_47 ), we improved Mulmuley's reduction from Noether Normalization to PIT in the case of the above ring @math of invariants, and showed that derandomizing PIT for read-once oblivious ABPs is sufficient for finding any explicit set @math of invariants generating the desired subring @math . By using the results of this paper ( thm:main ), one can construct an explicit set @math of size @math , despite the conjectured hardness of this problem.
@cite_47
2170546552
Mulmuley [Mul12a] recently gave an explicit version of Noether’s Normalization lemma for ring of invariants of matrices under simultaneous conjugation, under the conjecture that there are deterministic black-box algorithms for polynomial identity testing (PIT). He argued that this gives evidence that constructing such algorithms for PIT is beyond current techniques. In this work, we show this is not the case. That is, we improve Mulmuley’s reduction and correspondingly weaken the conjecture regarding PIT needed to give explicit Noether Normalization. We then observe that the weaker conjecture has recently been nearly settled by the authors ([FS12]), who gave quasipolynomial size hitting sets for the class of read-once oblivious algebraic branching programs (ROABPs). This gives the desired explicit Noether Normalization unconditionally, up to quasipolynomial factors. As a consequence of our proof we give a deterministic parallel polynomial-time algorithm for deciding if two matrix tuples have intersecting orbit closures, under simultaneous conjugation. We also study the strength of conjectures that Mulmuley requires to obtain similar results as ours. We prove that his conjectures are stronger, in the sense that the computational model he needs PIT algorithms for is equivalent to the well-known algebraic branching program (ABP) model, which is provably stronger than the ROABP model. Finally, we consider the depth-3 diagonal circuit model as defined by Saxena [Sax08], as PIT algorithms for this model also have implications in Mulmuley’s work. Previous work (such as [ASS12] and [FS12]) have given quasipolynomial size hitting sets for this model. In this work, we give a much simpler construction of such hitting sets, using techniques of Shpilka and Volkovich [SV09]. An arithmetic read-once formula (ROF for short) is a formula (a circuit whose underlying graph is a tree) in which the operations are + ,× and such that every input variable labels at most one leaf. In this paper we study the problems of giving deterministic identity testing and reconstruction algorithms for ROFs. Our main result is an @math time deterministic algorithm for checking whether a black box holding the sum of k n -variate ROFs computes the zero polynomial. In other words, we provide a hitting set of size @math for the sum of k ROFs. This result greatly improves [27] where an @math algorithm was given for the problem. Using our new results we obtain a deterministic reconstruction algorithms for read-once formulas that runs in time @math . In fact, our results also hold for the more general model of preprocessed read-once formulas that we define in this paper. In this model we are allowed to replace each variable x i with a polynomial T i (x i ). Our techniques are very close to the techniques in [27]. The main difference is that we obtain several tighter versions of the tools first used there. In particular we obtain a better version of the hardness of representation approach which was first used in [27]. This technique can be thought of as a very explicit way of transforming (mild) hardness of a very structured polynomial to an identity testing algorithm. In this paper we study polynomial identity testing of sums of @math read-once algebraic branching programs ( @math -RO-ABPs), generalizing the work in (Shpilka and Volkovich 2008,2009), who considered sums of @math read-once formulas ( @math -RO-formulas). We show that @math -RO-ABPs are strictly more powerful than @math -RO-formulas, for any @math , where @math is the number of variables. We obtain the following results: 1) Given free access to the RO-ABPs in the sum, we get a deterministic algorithm that runs in time @math , where @math bounds the size of any largest RO-ABP given on the input. This implies we have a deterministic polynomial time algorithm for testing whether the sum of a constant number of RO-ABPs computes the zero polynomial. 2) Given black-box access to the RO-ABPs computing the individual polynomials in the sum, we get a deterministic algorithm that runs in time @math . 3) Finally, given only black-box access to the polynomial computed by the sum of the @math RO-ABPs, we obtain an @math time deterministic algorithm. par>We prove some non-approximability results for restrictions of basic combinatorial optimization problems to instances of bounded “degreeror bounded “width.” Specifically: We prove that the Max 3SAT problem on instances where each variable occurs in at most B clauses, is hard to approximate to within a factor @math , unless @math . H stad [18] proved that the problem is approximable to within a factor @math in polynomial time, and that is hard to approximate to within a factor @math . Our result uses a new randomized reduction from general instances of Max 3SAT to bounded-occurrences instances. The randomized reduction applies to other Max SNP problems as well. We observe that the Set Cover problem on instances where each set has size at most B is hard to approximate to within a factor @math unless @math . The result follows from an appropriate setting of parameters in Feige's reduction [11]. This is essentially tight in light of the existence of @math -approximate algorithms [20, 23, 9] We present a new PCP construction, based on applying parallel repetition to the inner verifier,'' and we provide a tight analysis for it. Using the new construction, and some modifications to known reductions from PCP to Hitting Set, we prove that Hitting Set with sets of size B is hard to approximate to within a factor @math . The problem can be approximated to within a factor B [19], and it is the Vertex Cover problem for B =2. The relationship between hardness of approximation and set size seems to have not been explored before. We observe that the Independent Set problem on graphs having degree at most B is hard to approximate to within a factor @math , unless P = NP . This follows from a comination of results by Clementi and Trevisan [28] and Reingold, Vadhan and Wigderson [27]. It had been observed that the problem is hard to approximate to within a factor @math unless P = NP [1]. An algorithm achieving factor @math is also known [21, 2, 30, 16 . Recently, an interest in constructing pseudorandom or hitting set generators for restricted branching programs has increased, which is motivated by the fundamental problem of derandomizing space bounded computations. Such constructions have been known only in the case of width 2 and in very restricted cases of bounded width. In our previous work, we have introduced a so-called richness condition which is, in a certain sense, sufficient for a set to be a hitting set for read-once branching programs of width 3. In this paper, we prove that, for a suitable constant C, any almost C log n-wise independent set satisfies this richness condition. Hence, we achieve an explicit polynomial time construction of a hitting set for read-once branching programs of width 3 with the acceptance probability greater than √12 13 by using the result due to (1992). We study the problem of polynomial identity testing (PIT) for depth 2 arithmetic circuits over matrix algebra. We show that identity testing of depth 3 (SPS) arithmetic circuits over a field F is polynomial time equivalent to identity testing of depth 2 (PS) arithmetic circuits over U2(F), the algebra of upper-triangular 2 2 matrices with entries from F. Such a connection is a bit surprising since we also show that, as computational models, PS circuits over U2(F) are strictly ‘weaker’ than SPS circuits over F. The equivalence further implies that PIT of SPS circuits reduces to PIT of width-2 commutative Algebraic Branching Programs(ABP). Further, we give a deterministic polynomial time identity testing algorithm for a PS circuit of size s over commutative algebras of dimension O(log s log log s) over F. Over commutative algebras of dimension poly(s), we show that identity testing of PS circuits is at least as hard as that of SPS circuits over F. We construct an explicit polynomial @math , with coefficients in @math , such that the size of any syntactically multilinear arithmetic circuit computing @math is at least @math . The lower bound holds over any field. We study arithmetic proof systems @math and @math operating with arithmetic circuits and arithmetic formulas, respectively, and that prove polynomial identities over a field @math . We establish a series of structural theorems about these proof systems, the main one stating that @math proofs can be balanced: if a polynomial identity of syntactic degree @math and depth @math has a @math proof of size @math , then it also has a @math proof of size @math in which every circuit has depth @math . As a corollary, we obtain a quasi-polynomial simulation of @math by @math . Using these results we obtain the following: consider the identities @math where @math , and @math are @math square matrices and @math is a triangular matrix with $z_... The multiple knapsack problem (MKP) is a natural and well-known generalization of the single knapsack problem and is defined as follows. We are given a set of @math items and @math bins (knapsacks) such that each item @math has a profit @math and a size @math , and each bin @math has a capacity @math . The goal is to find a subset of items of maximum profit such that they have a feasible packing in the bins. MKP is a special case of the generalized assignment problem (GAP) where the profit and the size of an item can vary based on the specific bin that it is assigned to. GAP is APX-hard and a 2-approximation, for it is implicit in the work of Shmoys and Tardos [Math. Program. A, 62 (1993), pp. 461-474], and thus far, this was also the best known approximation for MKP @. The main result of this paper is a polynomial time approximation scheme (PTAS) for MKP @. Apart from its inherent theoretical interest as a common generalization of the well-studied knapsack and bin packing problems, it appears to be the strongest special case of GAP that is not APX-hard. We substantiate this by showing that slight generalizations of MKP are APX-hard. Thus our results help demarcate the boundary at which instances of GAP become APX-hard. An interesting aspect of our approach is a PTAS-preserving reduction from an arbitrary instance of MKP to an instance with @math distinct sizes and profits. The subspace approximation problem Subspace( @math , @math ) asks for a @math -dimensional linear subspace that fits a given set of points optimally, where the error for fitting is a generalization of the least squares fit and uses the @math norm instead. Most of the previous work on subspace approximation has focused on small or constant @math and @math , using coresets and sampling techniques from computational geometry. In this paper, extending another line of work based on convex relaxation and rounding, we give a polynomial time algorithm, , with the approximation guarantee roughly @math , where @math is the @math -th moment of a standard normal random variable N(0,1). We show that the convex relaxation we use has an integrality gap (or "rank gap") of @math , for any constant @math . Finally, we show that assuming the Unique Games Conjecture, the subspace approximation problem is hard to approximate within a factor better than @math , for any constant @math . In this paper we show a new way of constructing deterministic polynomial-time approximation algorithms for computing complex-valued evaluations of a large class of graph polynomials on bounded degree graphs. In particular, our approach works for the Tutte polynomial and independence polynomial, as well as partition functions of complex-valued spin and edge-coloring models. More specifically, we define a large class of graph polynomials @math and show that if @math and there is a disk @math centered at zero in the complex plane such that @math does not vanish on @math for all bounded degree graphs @math , then for each @math in the interior of @math there exists a deterministic polynomial-time approximation algorithm for evaluating @math at @math . This gives an explicit connection between absence of zeros of graph polynomials and the existence of efficient approximation algorithms, allowing us to show new relationships between well-known conjectures. Our work builds on a recent line of work initiated b... Let @math denote a random symmetric @math matrix whose upper diagonal entries are independent and identically distributed Bernoulli random variables (which take values @math and @math with probability @math each). It is widely conjectured that @math is singular with probability at most @math . On the other hand, the best known upper bound on the singularity probability of @math , due to Vershynin (2011), is @math , for some unspecified small constant @math . This improves on a polynomial singularity bound due to Costello, Tao, and Vu (2005), and a bound of Nguyen (2011) showing that the singularity probability decays faster than any polynomial. In this paper, improving on all previous results, we show that the probability of singularity of @math is at most @math for all sufficiently large @math . The proof utilizes and extends a novel combinatorial approach to discrete random matrix theory, which has been recently introduced by the authors together with Luh and Samotij. The @math -online Ramsey game is a combinatorial game between two players, Builder and Painter. Starting from an infinite set of isolated vertices, Builder draws an edge at each step and Painter immediately paints the edge red or blue. Builder's goal is to force Painter to create either a red @math or a blue @math using as few edges as possible. The online Ramsey number @math is the minimum number of edges Builder needs to guarantee a win in the @math -online Ramsey game. By analyzing the special case where Painter plays randomly, we obtain an exponential improvement [ r (n,n) 2^ (2- 2 )n + O(1) ] for the lower bound on the diagonal online Ramsey number, as well as a corresponding improvement [ r (m,n) n^ (2- 2 )m + O(1) ] for the off-diagonal case, where @math is fixed and @math . Using a different randomized Painter strategy and the Lopsided Lov 'asz Local Lemma, we prove that @math , determining this function up to a polylogarithmic factor. We also improve the upper bound in the off-diagonal case for @math . In connection with the online Ramsey game with random Painter, we study the problem of finding a copy of a target graph @math in a sufficiently large unknown Erd o s--R ' e nyi random graph @math using as few queries as possible, where each query reveals whether or not a particular pair of vertices are adjacent. We call this problem the Subgraph Query Problem. We determine the order of the number of queries needed for complete graphs up to five vertices and prove general bounds for this problem. Assuming that NP @math @math BPTIME( @math ), we show that graph min-bisection, dense @math -subgraph, and bipartite clique have no polynomial time approximation scheme (PTAS). We give a reduction from the minimum distance of code (MDC) problem. Starting with an instance of MDC, we build a quasi-random probabilistically checkable proof (PCP) that suffices to prove the desired inapproximability results. In a quasi-random PCP, the query pattern of the verifier looks random in a certain precise sense. Among the several new techniques we introduce, the most interesting one gives a way of certifying that a given polynomial belongs to a given linear subspace of polynomials. As is important for our purpose, the certificate itself happens to be another polynomial, and it can be checked probabilistically by reading a constant number of its values. In this work, we study indistinguishability obfuscation and functional encryption for general circuits: Indistinguishability obfuscation requires that given any two equivalent circuits @math and @math of similar size, the obfuscations of @math and @math should be computationally indistinguishable. In functional encryption, ciphertexts encrypt inputs @math and keys are issued for circuits @math . Using the key @math to decrypt a ciphertext @math yields the value @math but does not reveal anything else about @math . Furthermore, no collusion of secret key holders should be able to learn anything more than the union of what they can each learn individually. We give constructions for indistinguishability obfuscation and functional encryption that supports all polynomial-size circuits. We accomplish this goal in three steps: (1) We describe a candidate construction for indistinguishability obfuscation for @math circuits. The security of this construction is based on a new al... In this paper, we prove tight lower bounds on the smallest degree of a nonzero polynomial in the ideal generated by @math or @math in the polynomial ring @math , @math are coprime, which is called over @math . The immunity of @math is lower bounded by @math , which is achievable when @math is a multiple of @math ; the immunity of @math is exactly @math for every @math and @math . Our result improves the previous bound @math by Green. We observe how immunity over @math is related to @math circuit lower bound. For example, if the immunity of @math over @math is lower bounded by @math , and @math , then @math requires @math circuit of exponential size to compute. A Fixed-Parameter Tractable ( ) @math -approximation algorithm for a minimization (resp. maximization) parameterized problem @math is an FPT algorithm that, given an instance @math computes a solution of cost at most @math (resp. @math ) if a solution of cost at most (resp. at least) @math exists; otherwise the output can be arbitrary. For well-known intractable problems such as the W[1]-hard Clique and W[2]-hard Set Cover problems, the natural question is whether we can get any -approximation. It is widely believed that both Clique and Set-Cover admit no FPT @math -approximation algorithm, for any increasing function @math . Assuming standard conjectures such as the Exponential Time Hypothesis (ETH) eth-paturi and the Projection Games Conjecture (PGC) r3 , we make the first progress towards proving this conjecture by showing that 1. Under the ETH and PGC, there exist constants @math such that the Set Cover problem does not admit an FPT approximation algorithm with ratio @math in @math time, where @math is the size of the universe and @math is the number of sets. 2. Unless @math , for every @math there exists a constant @math such that Clique has no FPT cost approximation with ratio @math in @math time, where @math is the number of vertices in the graph. In the second part of the paper we consider various W[1]-hard problems such as , , Directed Steiner Network and . For all these problem we give polynomial time @math -approximation algorithms for some small function @math (the largest approximation ratio we give is @math ). We exhibit an @math -node graph whose independent set polytope requires extended formulations of size exponential in @math . Previously, no explicit examples of @math -dimensional @math -polytopes were known with extension complexity larger than exponential in @math . Our construction is inspired by a relatively little-known connection between extended formulations and (monotone) circuit depth. An @math m×n matrix @math A with column supports @math Si is k-separable if the disjunctions @math źiźKSi are all distinct over all sets @math K of cardinality k. While a simple counting bound shows that @math m>klog2n k rows are required for a separable matrix to exist, in fact it is necessary for m to be about a factor of k more than this. In this paper, we consider a weaker definition of almost k-separability', which requires that the disjunctions are mostly distinct'. We show using a random construction that these matrices exist with @math m=O(klogn) rows, which is optimal for @math k=O(n1-β). Further, by calculating explicit constants, we show how almost separable matrices give new bounds on the rate of nonadaptive group testing. We present a new tensoring technique for LWE-based fully homomorphic encryption. While in all previous works, the ciphertext noise grows quadratically @math with every multiplication before "refreshing", our noise only grows linearly @math . We use this technique to construct a scale-invariant fully homomorphic encryption scheme, whose properties only depend on the ratio between the modulus q and the initial noise level B, and not on their absolute values. Our scheme has a number of advantages over previous candidates: It uses the same modulus throughout the evaluation process no need for "modulus switching", and this modulus can take arbitrary form. In addition, security can be classically reduced from the worst-case hardness of the GapSVP problem with quasi-polynomial approximation factor, whereas previous constructions could only exhibit a quantum reduction from GapSVP.