The Circuit Size Hierarchy CSH$^a_b$ states that if $a > b \geq 1$ then the set of functions on $n$ variables computed by Boolean circuits of size $n^a$ is strictly larger than the set of functions computed by circuits of size $n^b$. This result, which is a cornerstone of circuit ... more >>>

A central open question within meta-complexity is that of NP-hardness of problems such as MCSP and MK$^t$P. Despite a large body of work giving consequences of and barriers for NP-hardness of these problems under (restricted) deterministic reductions, very little is known in the setting of randomized reductions. In this work, ... 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 >>>

Carmosino, Impagliazzo, Kabanets, and Kolokolova (CCC, 2016) showed that the existence of natural properties in the sense of Razborov and Rudich (JCSS, 1997) implies PAC learning algorithms in the sense of Valiant (Comm. ACM, 1984), for boolean functions in $\P/\poly$, under the uniform distribution and with membership queries. It is ... more >>>

We study close connections between Indistinguishability Obfuscation ($IO$) and the Minimum Circuit Size Problem ($MCSP$), and argue that algorithms for one of $MCSP$ or $IO$ would empower the other one. Some of our main results are:

\begin{itemize}
\item If there exists a perfect (imperfect) $IO$ that is computationally secure ... more >>>

Understanding the relationship between the worst-case and average-case complexities of $\mathrm{NP}$ and of other subclasses of $\mathrm{PH}$ is a long-standing problem in complexity theory. Over the last few years, much progress has been achieved in this front through the investigation of meta-complexity: the complexity of problems that refer to the ... more >>>

We give a simplified proof of Hirahara's STOC'21 result showing that $DistPH \subseteq AvgP$ would imply $PH \subseteq DTIME[2^{O(n/\log n)}]$. The argument relies on a proof of the new result: Symmetry of Information for time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity under the assumption that $NP$ is easy on average, which is interesting in ... more >>>

We investigate randomized LEARN-uniformity, which captures the power of randomness and equivalence queries (EQ) in the construction of Boolean circuits for an explicit problem. This is an intermediate notion between P-uniformity and non-uniformity motivated by connections to learning, complexity, and logic. Building on a number of techniques, we establish the ... more >>>

The class $FORMULA[s] \circ \mathcal{G}$ consists of Boolean functions computable by size-$s$ de Morgan formulas whose leaves are any Boolean functions from a class $\mathcal{G}$. We give lower bounds and (SAT, Learning, and PRG) algorithms for $FORMULA[n^{1.99}]\circ \mathcal{G}$, for classes $\mathcal{G}$ of functions with low communication complexity. Let $R^{(k)}(\mathcal{G})$ be ... more >>>

The Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP) asks if a given truth table of a Boolean function $f$ can be computed by a Boolean circuit of size at most $\theta$, for a given parameter $\theta$. We improve several circuit lower bounds for MCSP, using pseudorandom generators (PRGs) that are local; a ... more >>>

Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP) asks to decide if a given truth table of an $n$-variate boolean function has circuit complexity less than a given parameter $s$. We prove that MCSP is hard for constant-depth circuits with mod $p$ gates, for any prime $p\geq 2$ (the circuit class $AC^0[p])$. Namely, ... more >>>

A polynomial threshold function (PTF) is defined as the sign of a polynomial $p\colon\bool^n\to\mathbb{R}$. A PTF circuit is a Boolean circuit whose gates are PTFs. We study the problems of exact and (promise) approximate counting for PTF circuits of constant depth.

Satisfiability (#SAT). We give the first zero-error randomized algorithm ... more >>>

We show how the classical Nisan-Wigderson (NW) generator [Nisan & Wigderson, 1994] yields a nontrivial pseudorandom generator (PRG) for circuits with sublinearly many polynomial threshold function (PTF) gates. For the special case of a single PTF of degree $d$ on $n$ inputs, our PRG for error $\epsilon$ has the seed ... more >>>

The Black-Box Hypothesis, introduced by Barak et al. (JACM, 2012), states that any property of boolean functions decided efficiently (e.g., in BPP) with inputs represented by circuits can also be decided efficiently in the black-box setting, where an algorithm is given an oracle access to the input function and an ... more >>>

A polynomial threshold function (PTF) of degree $d$ is a boolean function of the form $f=\mathrm{sgn}(p)$, where $p$ is a degree-$d$ polynomial, and $\mathrm{sgn}$ is the sign function. The main result of the paper is an almost optimal bound on the probability that a random restriction of a PTF is ... more >>>

We study the power of randomized complexity classes that are given oracle access to a natural property of Razborov and Rudich (JCSS, 1997) or its special case, the Minimal Circuit Size Problem (MCSP).
We obtain new circuit lower bounds, as well as some hardness results for the relativized version ... more >>>

We give a combinatorial analysis (using edge expansion) of a variant of the iterative expander construction due to Reingold, Vadhan, and Wigderson [Annals of Mathematics, 2002], and show that this analysis can be formalized in the bounded-arithmetic system $VNC^1$ (corresponding to the ``$NC^1$ reasoning''). As a corollary, we prove the ... more >>>

Impagliazzo and Wigderson showed that if $\text{E}=\text{DTIME}(2^{O(n)})$ requires size $2^{\Omega(n)}$ circuits, then
every time $T$ constant-error randomized algorithm can be simulated deterministically in time $\poly(T)$. However, such polynomial slowdown is a deal breaker when $T=2^{\alpha \cdot n}$, for a constant $\alpha>0$, as is the case for some randomized algorithms for ... more >>>

Circuit analysis algorithms such as learning, SAT, minimum circuit size, and compression imply circuit lower bounds. We show a generic implication in the opposite direction: natural properties (in the sense of Razborov and Rudich) imply randomized learning and compression algorithms. This is the first such implication outside of the derandomization ... more >>>

We revisit the gate elimination method, generalize it to prove correlation bounds of boolean circuits with Parity, and also derive deterministic #SAT algorithms for small linear-size circuits. In particular, we prove that, for boolean circuits of size $3n - n^{0.51}$, the correlation with Parity is at most $2^{-n^{\Omega(1)}}$, and there ... more >>>

We consider variants of the Minimum Circuit Size Problem MCSP, where the goal is to minimize the size of oracle circuits computing a given function. When the oracle is QBF, the resulting problem MCSP$^{QBF}$ is known to be complete for PSPACE under ZPP reductions. We show that it is not ... more >>>

For Boolean functions computed by de Morgan formulas of subquadratic size or read-once de Morgan formulas, we prove a sharp concentration of the Fourier mass on ``small-degree'' coefficients. For a Boolean function $f:\{0,1\}^n\to\{1,-1\}$ computable by a de Morgan formula of size $s$, we show that
\[
\sum_{A\subseteq [n]\; :\; |A|>s^{1/\Gamma ... more >>>

We give a deterministic #SAT algorithm for de Morgan formulas of size up to $n^{2.63}$, which runs in time $2^{n-n^{\Omega(1)}}$. This improves upon the deterministic #SAT algorithm of \cite{CKKSZ13}, which has similar running time but works only for formulas of size less than $n^{2.5}$.

Our new algorithm is based on ... more >>>

We show that circuit lower bound proofs based on the method of random restrictions yield non-trivial compression algorithms for ``easy'' Boolean functions from the corresponding circuit classes. The compression problem is defined as follows: given the truth table of an $n$-variate Boolean function $f$ computable by some unknown small circuit ... more >>>

We consider the problem of compression for ``easy'' Boolean functions: given the truth table of an $n$-variate Boolean function $f$ computable by some \emph{unknown small circuit} from a \emph{known class} of circuits, find in deterministic time $\poly(2^n)$ a circuit $C$ (no restriction on the type of $C$) computing $f$ so ... more >>>

A family of Boolean circuits $\{C_n\}_{n\geq 0}$ is called \emph{$\gamma(n)$-weakly uniform} if
there is a polynomial-time algorithm for deciding the direct-connection language of every $C_n$,
given \emph{advice} of size $\gamma(n)$. This is a relaxation of the usual notion of uniformity, which allows one
to interpolate between complete uniformity (when $\gamma(n)=0$) ... more >>>

The Valiant-Vazirani Isolation Lemma [TCS, vol. 47, pp. 85--93, 1986] provides an efficient procedure for isolating a satisfying assignment of a given satisfiable circuit: given a Boolean circuit $C$ on $n$ input variables, the procedure outputs a new circuit $C'$ on the same $n$ input variables with the property that ... more >>>

We give a simple combinatorial proof of the Chernoff-Hoeffding concentration bound~\cite{Chernoff, Hof63}, which says that the sum of independent $\{0,1\}$-valued random variables is highly concentrated around the expected value. Unlike the standard proofs,
our proof does not use the method of higher moments, but rather uses a simple ... more >>>

The “direct product code” of a function f gives its values on all k-tuples (f(x1), . . . , f(xk)).
This basic construct underlies “hardness amplification” in cryptography, circuit complexity and
PCPs. Goldreich and Safra [GS00] pioneered its local testing and its PCP application. A recent
result by Dinur and ... more >>>

The classical Direct-Product Theorem for circuits says
that if a Boolean function $f:\{0,1\}^n\to\{0,1\}$ is somewhat hard
to compute on average by small circuits, then the corresponding
$k$-wise direct product function
$f^k(x_1,\dots,x_k)=(f(x_1),\dots,f(x_k))$ (where each
$x_i\in\{0,1\}^n$) is significantly harder to compute on average by
slightly smaller ... more >>>

For any given Boolean formula $\phi(x_1,\dots,x_n)$, one can
efficiently construct (using \emph{arithmetization}) a low-degree
polynomial $p(x_1,\dots,x_n)$ that agrees with $\phi$ over all
points in the Boolean cube $\{0,1\}^n$; the constructed polynomial
$p$ can be interpreted as a polynomial over an arbitrary field
$\mathbb{F}$. The problem ... more >>>

We consider the problem of amplifying uniform average-case hardness
of languages in $\NP$, where hardness is with respect to $\BPP$
algorithms. We introduce the notion of \emph{monotone}
error-correcting codes, and show that hardness amplification for
$\NP$ is essentially equivalent to constructing efficiently
\emph{locally} encodable and \emph{locally} list-decodable monotone
codes. The ... more >>>

We prove a version of the derandomized Direct Product Lemma for
deterministic space-bounded algorithms. Suppose a Boolean function
$g:\{0,1\}^n\to\{0,1\}$ cannot be computed on more than $1-\delta$
fraction of inputs by any deterministic time $T$ and space $S$
algorithm, where $\delta\leq 1/t$ for some $t$. Then, for $t$-step
walks $w=(v_1,\dots, v_t)$ ... more >>>

We show that derandomizing Polynomial Identity Testing is,
essentially, equivalent to proving circuit lower bounds for
NEXP. More precisely, we prove that if one can test in polynomial
time (or, even, nondeterministic subexponential time, infinitely
often) whether a given arithmetic circuit over integers computes an
identically zero polynomial, then either ... more >>>

This survey focuses on the recent (after 1998) developments in
the area of derandomization, with the emphasis on the derandomization of
time-bounded randomized complexity classes.

We consider a class, denoted APP, of real-valued functions
f:{0,1}^n\rightarrow [0,1] such that f can be approximated, to
within any epsilon>0, by a probabilistic Turing machine running in
time poly(n,1/epsilon). We argue that APP can be viewed as a
generalization of BPP, and show that APP contains a natural
complete ... more >>>

We study the complexity of the circuit minimization problem:
given the truth table of a Boolean function f and a parameter s, decide
whether f can be realized by a Boolean circuit of size at most s. We argue
why this problem is unlikely to be in P (or ... more >>>

Andreev et al.~\cite{ABCR97} give constructions of Boolean
functions (computable by polynomial-size circuits) that require large
read-once branching program (1-b.p.'s): a function in P that requires
1-b.p. of size at least $2^{n-\polylog(n)}$, a function in quasipolynomial
time that requires 1-b.p. of size at least $2^{n-O(\log n)}$, and a
function in LINSPACE ... more >>>