We show that there is a constant $k$ such that Buss's intuitionistic theory $\mathbf{IS}^1_2$ does not prove that SAT requires co-nondeterministic circuits of size at least $n^k$. To our knowledge, this is the first unconditional unprovability result in bounded arithmetic in the context of worst-case fixed-polynomial size circuit lower bounds. ... more >>>

We prove optimal concentration of measure for lifted functions on high dimensional expanders (HDX). Let $X$ be a $k$-dimensional HDX. We show for any $i \leq k$ and function $f: X(i) \to [0,1]$:
\[
\Pr_{s \in X(k)}\left[\left|\underset{{t \subseteq s}}{\mathbb{E}}[f(t)] - \mu \right| \geq \varepsilon \right] \leq \exp\left(-\varepsilon^2 \frac{k}{i}\right).
\]
Using ... more >>>

In this paper we present a new proof system framework CLIP (Cumulation Linear Induction Proposition) for propositional model counting. A CLIP proof firstly involves a circuit, calculating the cumulative function (or running count) of models counted up to a point, and secondly a propositional proof arguing for the correctness of ... more >>>

We design polynomial size, constant depth (namely, $AC^0$) arithmetic formulae for the greatest common divisor (GCD) of two polynomials, as well as the related problems of the discriminant, resultant, Bézout coefficients, squarefree decomposition, and the inversion of structured matrices like Sylvester and Bézout matrices. Our GCD algorithm extends to any ... more >>>

Strong algebraic proof systems such as IPS (Ideal Proof System; Grochow-Pitassi JACM 2018) offer a general model for
deriving polynomials in an ideal and refuting unsatisfiable propositional formulas, subsuming most standard propositional proof systems. A major approach for lower bounding the size of IPS refutations is the Functional Lower Bound ... more >>>

A locally decodable code (LDC) is an error correcting code that allows for recovery of any desired bit in the message based on a constant number of randomly selected bits in the possibly corrupted codeword.
A relaxed LDC requires correct recovery only in case of actual codewords, while requiring that ... more >>>

In this work, we study the worst-case to average-case hardness of the Learning with Errors problem (LWE) under an alternative measure of hardness - the maximum success probability achievable by a probabilistic polynomial-time (PPT) algorithm. Previous works by Regev (STOC 2005), Peikert (STOC 2009), and Brakerski, Peikert, Langlois, Regev, Stehle ... more >>>

In a pair of recent breakthroughs \cite{CHR,Li} it was shown that the classes $S_2^E, ZPE^{NP}$, and $\Sigma_2^E$ require exponential circuit complexity, giving the first unconditional improvements to a classical result of Kannan. These results were obtained by designing a surprising new algorithm for the total search problem Range Avoidance: given ... more >>>

The Parameterized Inapproximability Hypothesis (PIH), which is an analog of the PCP theorem in parameterized complexity, asserts that, there is a constant $\varepsilon> 0$ such that for any computable function $f:\mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{N}$, no $f(k)\cdot n^{O(1)}$-time algorithm can, on input a $k$-variable CSP instance with domain size $n$, find an assignment satisfying ... more >>>

The class $ACC$ consists of Boolean functions that can be computed by constant-depth circuits of polynomial size with $AND, NOT$ and $MOD_m$ gates, where $m$ is a natural number. At the frontier of our understanding lies a widely believed conjecture asserting that $MAJORITY$ does not belong to $ACC$. The Boolean ... more >>>

Let $X=X_1\sqcup X_2\sqcup\ldots\sqcup X_k$ be a partitioned set of variables such that the variables in each part $X_i$ are noncommuting but for any $i\neq j$, the variables $x \in X_i$ commute with the variables $x' \in X_j$. Given as input a square matrix $T$ whose entries are linear forms over ... more >>>

Propositional proof complexity deals with the lengths of polynomial-time verifiable proofs for Boolean tautologies. An abundance of proof systems is known, including algebraic and semialgebraic systems, which work with polynomial equations and inequalities, respectively. The most basic algebraic proof system is based on Hilbert's Nullstellensatz (Beame et al., 1996). Tropical ... more >>>

Lifting theorems are theorems that bound the communication complexity
of a composed function $f\circ g^{n}$ in terms of the query complexity
of $f$ and the communication complexity of $g$. Such theorems
constitute a powerful generalization of direct-sum theorems for $g$,
and have seen numerous applications in recent years.

We prove ... more >>>

The notion of query-to-communication lifting theorems is a generic framework to convert query lower bounds into two-party communication lower bounds. Though this framework is very generic and beautiful, it has some inherent limitations such as it only applies to lifted functions. In order to address this issue, we propose gadgetless ... more >>>

The Stepanov-Bombieri proof of the Hasse-Weil bound also gives non-trivial bounds on the bias of character sums over curves with small genus, for any low-degree function $f$ that is not completely biased. For high genus curves, and in particular for curves used in AG codes over constant size fields, the ... more >>>

We give improved lower bounds for binary $3$-query locally correctable codes (3-LCCs) $C \colon \{0,1\}^k \rightarrow \{0,1\}^n$. Specifically, we prove:

(1) If $C$ is a linear design 3-LCC, then $n \geq 2^{(1 - o(1))\sqrt{k} }$. A design 3-LCC has the additional property that the correcting sets for every ... more >>>

Information complexity is one of the most powerful tools to prove information-theoretical lower bounds, with broad applications in communication complexity and streaming algorithms. A core notion in information complexity analysis is the Shannon entropy. Though it has some convenient properties, such as chain rules, Shannon entropy still has inherent limitations. ... more >>>

Relaxations for the constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) include bounded width, linear program (LP), semidefinite program (SDP), afinfe integer program (AIP), and the combined LP+AIP of Brakensiek, Guruswami, Wrochna, and Živný (SICOMP 2020). Tightening relaxations systematically leads to hierarchies and stronger algorithms. For the LP+AIP hierarchy, a constant level lower bound ... more >>>

Estimating quantiles is one of the foundational problems of data sketching. Given $n$ elements $x_1, x_2, \dots, x_n$ from some universe of size $U$ arriving in a data stream, a quantile sketch estimates the rank of any element with additive error at most $\varepsilon n$. A low-space algorithm solving this ... more >>>

We prove that the class of communication problems with public-coin randomized constant-cost protocols, called $BPP^0$, does not contain a complete problem. In other words, there is no randomized constant-cost problem $Q \in BPP^0$, such that all other problems $P \in BPP^0$ can be computed by a constant-cost deterministic protocol with ... more >>>

The fundamental theorem of Goldreich, Micali, and Wigderson (J. ACM 1991) shows that the existence of a one-way function is sufficient for constructing computational zero knowledge ($\mathrm{CZK}$) proofs for all languages in $\mathrm{NP}$. We prove its converse, thereby establishing characterizations of one-way functions based on the worst-case complexities of ... more >>>

We prove that a binary linear code of block length $n$ that is locally correctable with $3$ queries against a fraction $\delta > 0$ of adversarial errors must have dimension at most $O_{\delta}(\log^2 n \cdot \log \log n)$. This is almost tight in view of quadratic Reed-Muller codes being a ... more >>>

A Matching Vector ($\mathbf{MV}$) family modulo a positive integer $m \ge 2$ is a pair of ordered lists $\mathcal{U} = (\mathbf{u}_1, \cdots, \mathbf{u}_K)$ and $\mathcal{V} = (\mathbf{v}_1, \cdots, \mathbf{v}_K)$ where $\mathbf{u}_i, \mathbf{v}_j \in \mathbb{Z}_m^n$ with the following property: for any $i \in [K]$, the inner product $\langle \mathbf{u}_i, \mathbf{v}_i \rangle ... more >>>

Reverse mathematics is a program in mathematical logic that seeks to determine which axioms are necessary to prove a given theorem. In this work, we systematically explore the reverse mathematics of complexity lower bounds. We explore reversals in the setting of bounded arithmetic, with Cook's theory $\mathbf{PV}_1$ as the base ... more >>>

A search-to-decision reduction is a procedure that allows one to find a solution to a problem from the mere ability to decide when a solution exists. The existence of a search-to-decision reduction for time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity, i.e., the problem of checking if a string $x$ can be generated by a ... more >>>

The planted clique conjecture states that no polynomial-time algorithm can find a hidden clique of size $k \ll \sqrt{n}$ in an $n$-vertex Erd\H{o}s--R\'enyi random graph with a $k$-clique planted. In this paper, we prove the equivalence among many (in fact, \emph{most}) variants of planted clique conjectures, such as search ... more >>>

We give an algorithm for finding an $\epsilon$-fixed point of a contraction map $f:[0,1]^k\rightarrow [0,1]^k$ under the $\ell_\infty$-norm with query complexity $O (k^2\log (1/\epsilon ) )$.

We consider the task of locally correcting, and locally list-correcting, multivariate linear functions over the domain $\{0,1\}^n$ over arbitrary fields and more generally Abelian groups. Such functions form error-correcting codes of relative distance $1/2$ and we give local-correction algorithms correcting up to nearly $1/4$-fraction errors making $\widetilde{\mathcal{O}}(\log n)$ queries. This ... more >>>

Only a handful candidates for computational assumptions that imply secure key-agreement protocols (KA) are known, and even fewer are believed to be quantum safe. In this paper, we present a new hardness assumption---the worst-case hardness of a promise problem related to an interactive version of Kolmogorov Complexity.
Roughly speaking, the ... more >>>

We study the problem of function inversion with preprocessing where, given a function $f : [N] \to [N]$ and a point $y$ in its image, the goal is to find an $x$ such that $f(x) = y$ using at most $T$ oracle queries to $f$ and $S$ bits of preprocessed ... more >>>

We demonstrate that under believable cryptographic hardness assumptions, Gap versions of standard meta-complexity problems, such as the Minimum Circuit Size problem (MCSP) and the Minimum Time-Bounded Kolmogorov Complexity problem (MKTP) are not NP-complete w.r.t. Levin (i.e., witness-preserving many-to-one) reductions.

In more detail:
- Assuming the existence of indistinguishability obfuscation, and ... more >>>

We give a corrected proof that if PP $\subseteq$ BQP/qpoly, then the Counting Hierarchy collapses, as originally claimed by [Aaronson, CCC 2006]. This recovers the related unconditional claim that PP does not have circuits of any fixed size $n^k$ even with quantum advice. We do so by proving that YQP*, ... more >>>

While classic result in the 1980s establish that one-way functions (OWFs) imply the existence of pseudorandom generators (PRGs) which in turn imply pseudorandom functions (PRFs), the constructions (most notably the one from OWFs to PRGs) is complicated and inefficient.

Consequently, researchers have developed alternative \emph{direct} constructions of PRFs from various ... more >>>

Quantum computers are expected to revolutionize our ability to process information. The advancement from classical to quantum computing is a product of our advancement from classical to quantum physics -- the more our understanding of the universe grows, so does our ability to use it for computation. A natural question ... more >>>

In this work we study oblivious complexity classes. Among our results:
1) For each $k \in \mathbb{N}$, we construct an explicit language $L_k \in O_2P$ that cannot be computed by circuits of size $n^k$.
2) We prove a hierarchy theorem for $O_2TIME$. In particular, for any function $t:\mathbb{N} \rightarrow \mathbb{N}$ ... more >>>

Whether $BPL=L$ (which is conjectured to be equal), or even whether $BPL\subseteq NL$, is a big open problem in theoretical computer science. It is well known that $L-NC^1\subseteq L\subseteq NL\subseteq L-AC^1$. In this work we will show that $BPL\subseteq L-AC^1$, which was not known before. Our proof is based on ... more >>>

We consider the query complexity of testing local graph properties in the bounded-degree graph model.
A local property is defined in terms of forbidden subgraphs that are augmented by degree information, where the latter account also for neighbors that are not in the subgraph.
Indeed, this formulation yields a generalized ... more >>>

For every $n >0$, we show the existence of a CNF tautology over $O(n^2)$ variables of width $O(\log n)$ such that it has a Polynomial Calculus Resolution refutation over $\{0,1\}$ variables of size $O(n^3polylog(n))$ but any Polynomial Calculus refutation over $\{+1,-1\}$ variables requires size $2^{\Omega(n)}$. This shows that Polynomial Calculus ... more >>>

The concept of redundancy in SAT lead to more expressive and powerful proof search techniques, e.g. able to express various inprocessing techniques, and to interesting hierarchies of proof systems [Heule et.al’20, Buss-Thapen’19].
We propose a general way to integrate redundancy rules in MaxSAT, that is we define MaxSAT variants of ... more >>>

The matching and linear matroid intersection problems are solvable in quasi-NC, meaning that there exist deterministic algorithms that run in polylogarithmic time and use quasi-polynomially many parallel processors. However, such a parallel algorithm is unknown for linear matroid matching, which generalizes both of these problems. In this work, we propose ... more >>>

We design a deterministic subexponential time algorithm that takes as input a multivariate polynomial $f$ computed by a constant-depth circuit over rational numbers, and outputs a list $L$ of circuits (of unbounded depth and possibly with division gates) that contains all irreducible factors of $f$ computable by constant-depth circuits. This ... more >>>

Analyzing refutations of the well known
pebbling formulas we prove some new strong connections between pebble games and algebraic proof system, showing that
there is a parallelism between the reversible, black and black-white pebbling games on one side, and
the three algebraic proof systems NS, MC and ... more >>>

In this work, we initiate the study of the space complexity of the Polynomial Identity Testing problem (PIT).
First, we observe that the majority of the existing (time-)efficient ``blackbox'' PIT algorithms already give rise to space-efficient ``whitebox'' algorithms for the respective classes of arithmetic formulas via a space-efficient ... more >>>

We study extractors computable in uniform $\mathrm{AC}^0$ and uniform $\mathrm{NC}^1$.

For the $\mathrm{AC}^0$ setting, we give a construction such that for every $k \ge n/ \mathrm{poly} \log n, \eps \ge 2^{-\mathrm{poly} \log n}$, it can extract $(1-\gamma)k$ randomness from an $(n, k)$ source for an arbitrary constant ... more >>>

In the Minmax Set Cover Reconfiguration problem, given a set system $\mathcal{F}$ over a universe and its two covers $\mathcal{C}^\mathrm{start}$ and $\mathcal{C}^\mathrm{goal}$ of size $k$, we wish to transform $\mathcal{C}^\mathrm{start}$ into $\mathcal{C}^\mathrm{goal}$ by repeatedly adding or removing a single set of $\mathcal{F}$ while covering the universe in any intermediate state. ... more >>>

We initiate an in-depth proof-complexity analysis of polynomial calculus (Q-PC) for Quantified Boolean Formulas (QBF). In the course of this we establish a tight proof-size characterisation of Q-PC in terms of a suitable circuit model (polynomial decision lists). Using this correspondence we show a size-degree relation for Q-PC, similar in ... more >>>

Lifting theorems are used for transferring lower bounds between Boolean function complexity measures. Given a lower bound on a complexity measure $A$ for some function $f$, we compose $f$ with a carefully chosen gadget function $g$ and get essentially the same lower bound on a complexity measure $B$ for the ... more >>>

A $q$-locally correctable code (LCC) $C:\{0,1\}^k \to \{0,1\}^n$ is a code in which it is possible to correct every bit of a (not too) corrupted codeword by making at most $q$ queries to the word. The cases in which $q$ is constant are of special interest, and so are the ... more >>>

In an attempt to show that the acceptance probability of a quantum query algorithm making $q$ queries can be well-approximated almost everywhere by a classical decision tree of depth $\leq \text{poly}(q)$, Aaronson and Ambainis proposed the following conjecture: let $f: \{ \pm 1\}^n \rightarrow [0,1]$ be a degree $d$ polynomial ... more >>>

Let $f$ be a Boolean function given as either a truth table or a circuit. How difficult is it to find the decision tree complexity, also known as deterministic query complexity, of $f$ in both cases? We prove that this problem is $NC$-hard and PSPACE-hard, respectively. The second bound is ... more >>>

Regular resolution is a refinement of the resolution proof system requiring that no variable be resolved on more than once along any path in the proof. It is known that there exist sequences of formulas that require exponential-size proofs in regular resolution while admitting polynomial-size proofs in resolution. Thus, with ... more >>>

We give the first explicit constant rate, constant relative distance, linear codes with an encoder that runs in time $n^{1 + o(1)}$ and space $\mathop{polylog}(n)$ provided random access to the message. Prior to this work, the only such codes were non-explicit, for instance repeat accumulate codes [DJM98] and the codes ... more >>>

Spurred by the influential work of Viola (Journal of Computing 2012), the past decade has witnessed an active line of research into the complexity of (approximately) sampling distributions, in contrast to the traditional focus on the complexity of computing functions.

We build upon and make explicit earlier implicit results of ... more >>>

Recently, the proof system MICE for the model counting problem #SAT was introduced by Fichte, Hecher and Roland (SAT’22). As demonstrated by Fichte et al., the system MICE can be used for proof logging for state-of-the-art #SAT solvers.
We perform a proof-complexity study of MICE. For this we first simplify ... more >>>

We prove the first hardness results against efficient proof search by quantum algorithms. We show that under Learning with Errors (LWE), the standard lattice-based cryptographic assumption, no quantum algorithm can weakly automate $\mathbf{TC}^0$-Frege. This extends the line of results of Kraí?ek and Pudlák (Information and Computation, 1998), Bonet, Pitassi, and ... more >>>

We construct explicit pseudorandom generators that fool $n$-variate polynomials of degree at most $d$ over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. The seed length of our generators is $O(d \log n + \log q)$, over fields of size exponential in $d$ and characteristic at least $d(d-1)+1$. Previous constructions such as Bogdanov's (STOC ... more >>>

We show that for all $\varepsilon>0$, for sufficiently large prime power $q\in\mathbb{N}$, for all $\delta>0$, it is NP-hard to distinguish whether a $2$-Prover-$1$-Round projection game with alphabet size $q$ has value at least $1-\delta$, or value at most $1/q^{1-\varepsilon}$. This establishes a nearly optimal alphabet-to-soundness tradeoff for $2$-query PCPs ... more >>>

For every $n$, we construct a sum-of-squares identitity
\[ (\sum_{i=1}^n x_i^2) (\sum_{j=1}^n y_j^2)= \sum_{k=1}^s f_k^2\,,\]
where $f_k$ are bilinear forms with complex coefficients and $s= O(n^{1.62})$. Previously, such a construction was known with $s=O(n^2/\log n)$.
The same bound holds over any field of positive characteristic.

A nearest neighbor representation of a Boolean function $f$ is a set of vectors (anchors) labeled by $0$ or $1$ such that $f(x) = 1$ if and only if the closest anchor to $x$ is labeled by $1$. This model was introduced by Hajnal, Liu, and Turán (2022), who studied ... more >>>

A zero-knowledge proof enables a prover to convince a verifier that $x \in S$, without revealing anything beyond this fact. By running a zero-knowledge proof $k$ times, it is possible to prove (still in zero-knowledge) that $k$ separate instances $x_1,\dots,x_k$ are all in $S$. However, this increases the communication by ... more >>>

Motivated by the inapproximability of reconfiguration problems, we present a new PCP-type characterization of PSPACE, which we call a probabilistically checkable reconfiguration proof (PCRP): Any PSPACE computation can be encoded into an exponentially long sequence of polynomially long proofs such that every adjacent pair of the proofs differs in at ... more >>>

Proving super-polynomial lower bounds on the size of proofs of unsatisfiability of Boolean formulas using resolution over parities, is an outstanding problem that has received a lot of attention after its introduction by Raz and Tzamaret (2008). Very recently, Efremenko, Garlik and Itsykson (2023) proved the first exponential lower bounds ... more >>>

In this paper we prove the following two results.
* We show that for any $C \in {mVF, mVP, mVNP}$, $C = \overline{C}$. Here, $mVF, mVP$, and $mVNP$ are monotone variants of $VF, VP$, and $VNP$, respectively. For an algebraic complexity class $C$, $\overline{C}$ denotes the closure of $C$. ... more >>>

Let $X$ be a $d$-dimensional simplicial complex. A function $F\colon X(k)\to \{0,1\}^k$ is said to be a direct product function if there exists a function $f\colon X(1)\to \{0,1\}$ such that $F(\sigma) = (f(\sigma_1), \ldots, f(\sigma_k))$ for each $k$-face $\sigma$. In an effort to simplify components of the PCP theorem, Goldreich ... more >>>

We solve the derandomized direct product testing question in the low acceptance regime, by constructing new high dimensional expanders that have no small connected covers. We show that our complexes have swap cocycle expansion, which allows us to deduce the agreement theorem by relying on previous work.

Derandomized direct product ... more >>>

We study the problem of finding multicollisions, that is, the total search problem in which the input is a function $\mathcal{C} : [A] \to [B]$ (represented as a circuit) and the goal is to find $L \leq \lceil A/B \rceil$ distinct elements $x_1,\ldots, x_L \in A$ such that $\mathcal{C}(x_1) = ... more >>>

The generalized pigeonhole principle says that if tN + 1 pigeons are put into N holes then there must be a hole containing at least t + 1 pigeons. Let t-PPP denote the class of all total NP-search problems reducible to finding such a t-collision of pigeons. We introduce a ... more >>>

Let R_eps denote randomized query complexity for error probability eps, and R:=R_{1/3}. In this work we investigate whether a perfect composition theorem R(f o g^n)=Omega(R(f).R(g)) holds for a relation f in {0,1}^n * S and a total inner function g:{0,1}^m \to {0, 1}.

Let D^(prod) denote the maximum distributional query ... more >>>

An elementary proof of quadratic lower bound for determinantal complexity of the permanent in positive characteristic is stated. This is achieved by constructing a sequence of matrices with zero permanent, but the rank of Hessian is bounded below by a degree two polynomial.

We study the complexity of memory checkers with computational security and prove the first general tight lower bound.

Memory checkers, first introduced over 30 years ago by Blum, Evans, Gemmel, Kannan, and Naor (FOCS '91, Algorithmica '94), allow a user to store and maintain a large memory on a remote ... more >>>

We consider the notion of a local-characterization of an infinite family of unlabeled bounded-degree graphs.
Such a local-characterization is defined in terms of a finite set of (marked) graphs yielding a generalized notion of subgraph-freeness, which extends the standard notions of induced and non-induced subgraph freeness.

We survey the work ... more >>>

Several theorems and conjectures in communication complexity state or speculate that the complexity of a matrix in a given communication model is controlled by a related analytic or algebraic matrix parameter, e.g., rank, sign-rank, discrepancy, etc. The forward direction is typically easy as the structural implications of small complexity often ... more >>>

We consider the time and space required for quantum computers to solve a wide variety of problems involving matrices, many of which have only been analyzed classically in prior work. Our main results show that for a range of linear algebra problems---including matrix-vector product, matrix inversion, matrix multiplication and powering---existing ... more >>>

The complexity class PPP contains all total search problems many-one reducible to the PIGEON problem, where we are given a succinct encoding of a function mapping n+1 pigeons to n holes, and must output two pigeons that collide in a hole. PPP is one of the “original five” syntactically-defined subclasses ... more >>>

We give a lower bound of ?(?n) on the unambiguous randomised parity-query complexity of the approximate majority problem – that is, on the lowest randomised parity-query complexity of any function over {0,1}? whose value is "0" if the Hamming weight of the input is at most n/3, is "1" if ... more >>>

Given a non-negative real matrix $M$ of non-negative rank at least $r$, can we witness this fact by a small submatrix of $M$? While Moitra (SIAM J. Comput. 2013) proved that this cannot be achieved exactly, we show that such a witnessing is possible approximately: an $m\times n$ matrix always ... more >>>

The field of combinatorial reconfiguration studies search problems with a focus on transforming one feasible solution into another.

Recently, Ohsaka [STACS'23] put forth the Reconfiguration Inapproximability Hypothesis (RIH), which roughly asserts that there is some $\varepsilon>0$ such that given as input a $k$-CSP instance (for some constant $k$) over ... more >>>

We introduce the entangled quantum polynomial hierarchy $QEPH$ as the class of problems that are efficiently verifiable given alternating quantum proofs that may be entangled with each other. We prove $QEPH$ collapses to its second level. In fact, we show that a polynomial number of alternations collapses to just two. ... more >>>

This paper presents the first Distributed Oblivious RAM (DORAM) protocol that achieves sub-logarithmic communication overhead without computational assumptions.
That is, given $n$ $d$-bit memory locations, we present an information-theoretically secure protocol which requires $o(d \cdot \log(n))$ bits of communication per access (when $d = \Omega(\log^2(n)$).

This comes as a surprise, ... more >>>

An $n$-variate polynomial $g$ of degree $d$ is a $(n,d,t)$ design polynomial if the degree of the gcd of every pair of monomials of $g$ is at most $t-1$. The power symmetric polynomial $\mathrm{PSym}_{n,d} := \sum_{i=1}^{n} x^d_i$ and the sum-product polynomial $\mathrm{SP}_{s,d} := \sum_{i=1}^{s}\prod_{j=1}^{d} x_{i,j}$ are instances of design polynomials ... more >>>

A long-standing open problem dating back to the 1960s is whether there exists a search-to-decision reduction for the time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity problem - that is, the problem of determining whether the length of the shortest time-$t$ program generating a given string $x$ is at most $s$.

In this work, we ... more >>>

Recently, Pasarkar, Papadimitriou, and Yannakakis (ITCS 2023) have introduced the new TFNP subclass called PLC that contains the class PPP; they also have proven that several search problems related to extremal combinatorial principles (e.g., Ramsey’s theorem and the Sunflower lemma) belong to PLC. This short paper shows that the class ... more >>>

We describe CNFs in n variables which, over a range of parameters, have small resolution refutations but are such that any small refutation must have height larger than n (even exponential in n), where the height of a refutation is the length of the longest path in it. This is ... more >>>