We show that the space-bounded Statistical Zero Knowledge classes SZK_L and NISZK_L are surprisingly robust, in that the power of the verifier and simulator can be strengthened or weakened without affecting the resulting class. Coupled with other recent characterizations of these classes, this can be viewed as lending support to ... more >>>

We show that a decidable promise problem has a non-interactive statistical zero-knowledge proof system if and only if it is randomly reducible to a promise problem for Kolmogorov-random strings, with a superlogarithmic additive approximation term. This extends recent work by Saks and Santhanam (CCC 2022). We build on this to ... more >>>

We investigate the complexity of languages that correspond to algebraic real numbers, and we present improved upper bounds on the complexity of these languages. Our key technical contribution is the presentation of improved uniform TC^0 circuits
for division, matrix powering, and related problems, where the improvement is in terms of ... more >>>

A version of time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity, denoted KT, has received attention in the past several years, due to its close connection to circuit complexity and to the Minimum Circuit Size Problem MCSP. Essentially all results about the complexity of MCSP hold also for MKTP (the problem of computing the KT ... more >>>

One-way functions (OWFs) are central objects of study in cryptography and computational complexity theory. In a seminal work, Liu and Pass (FOCS 2020) proved that the average-case hardness of computing time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity is equivalent to the existence of OWFs. It remained an open problem to establish such an equivalence ... more >>>

This paper focuses on a variant of the circuit minimization problem (MCSP), denoted MKTP, which studies resource-bounded Kolmogorov complexity in place of circuit size. MCSP is not known to be hard for any complexity class under any kind of m-reducibility, but recently MKTP was shown to be hard for DET ... more >>>

We survey recent developments related to the Minimum Circuit Size Problem

We present an algorithm for constructing a depth-first search tree in planar digraphs; the algorithm can be implemented in the complexity class UL, which is contained in nondeterministic logspace NL, which in turn lies in NC^2. Prior to this (for more than a quarter-century), the fastest uniform deterministic parallel algorithm ... more >>>

We provide new upper bounds on the complexity of the s-t-connectivity problem in planar graphs, thereby providing additional evidence that this problem is not complete for NL. This also yields a new upper bound on the complexity of computing edit distance. Building on these techniques, we provide new upper bounds ... more >>>

The Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP) has been the focus of intense study recently; MCSP is hard for SZK under rather powerful reductions, and is provably not hard under “local” reductions computable in TIME($n^{0.49}$). The question of whether MCSP is NP-hard (or indeed, hard even for small subclasses of P) ... more >>>

We study the computational power of deciding whether a given truth-table can be described by a circuit of a given size (the Minimum Circuit Size Problem, or MCSP for short), and of the variant denoted as MKTP where circuit size is replaced by a polynomially-related Kolmogorov measure. All prior reductions ... more >>>

The Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP) and a related problem (MKTP) that deals with time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity are prominent candidates for NP-intermediate status. We show that, under very modest cryptographic assumptions (such as the existence of one-way functions), the problem of approximating the minimum circuit size (or time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity) ... more >>>

Cost register automata (CRA) are one-way finite automata whose transitions have the side effect that a register is set to the result of applying a state-dependent semiring operation to a pair of registers. Here it is shown that CRAs over the semiring (N,min,+) can simulate polynomial time computation, proving along ... more >>>

We show that the Graph Automorphism problem is ZPP-reducible to MKTP, the problem of minimizing time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity. MKTP has previously been studied in connection with the Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP) and is often viewed as essentially a different encoding of MCSP. All prior reductions to MCSP have applied ... more >>>

We continue the study of the complexity classes VP(Zm) and LambdaP(Zm) which was initiated in [AGM15]. We distinguish between “strict” and “lax” versions of these classes and prove some new equalities and inclusions between these arithmetic circuit classes and various subclasses of ACC^1.

We give complexity bounds for various classes of functions computed by cost register automata.

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 >>>

We consider arithmetic complexity classes that are in some sense dual to the classes VP(Fp) that were introduced by Valiant. This provides new characterizations of the complexity classes ACC^1 and TC^1, and also provides a compelling example of
a class of high-degree polynomials that can be simulated via arithmetic circuits ... more >>>

We show that every problem in the complexity class SZK (Statistical Zero Knowledge) is
efficiently reducible to the Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP). In particular Graph Isomorphism lies in RP^MCSP.

This is the first theorem relating the computational power of Graph Isomorphism and MCSP, despite the long history these ... more >>>

We present improved uniform TC$^0$ circuits for division, matrix powering, and related problems, where the improvement is in terms of ``majority depth'' (initially studied by Maciel and Therien). As a corollary, we obtain improved bounds on the complexity of certain problems involving arithmetic circuits, which are known to lie in ... more >>>

This paper is motivated by a conjecture that BPP can be characterized in terms of polynomial-time nonadaptive reductions to the set of Kolmogorov-random strings. In this paper we show that an approach laid out by [Allender et al] to settle this conjecture cannot succeed without significant alteration, but that it ... more >>>

Can complexity classes be characterized in terms of efficient reducibility to the (undecidable) set of Kolmogorov-random strings? Although this might seem improbable, a series of papers has recently provided evidence that this may be the case. In particular, it is known that there is a class of problems $C$ defined ... more >>>

A decade has passed since Alekhnovich and Razborov presented an algorithm that solves SAT on instances $\phi$ of size $n$ having tree-width $TW(\phi)$, using time (and space) bounded by $2^{O(TW(\phi))}n^{O(1)}$. Although there have been several papers over the ensuing years building on the work of Alekhnovich and Razborov there has ... more >>>

We show that there are families of polynomials having small depth-two arithmetic circuits that cannot be expressed by algebraic branching programs of width two. This clarifies the complexity of the problem of computing the product of a sequence of two-by-two matrices, which arises in several
settings.

Let C(x) and K(x) denote plain and prefix Kolmogorov complexity, respectively, and let R_C and R_K denote the sets of strings that are ``random'' according to these measures; both R_K and R_C are undecidable. Earlier work has shown that every set in NEXP is in NP relative to both R_K ... more >>>

In this paper we give an exposition of a theorem by Muchnik and Positselsky, showing that there is a universal prefix Turing machine U, with the property that there is no truth-table reduction from the halting problem to the set {(x,i) : there is a description d of length at ... more >>>

We show that every language accepted by a nondeterministic auxiliary pushdown automaton in polynomial time (that is, every language in SAC$^1$ = LogCFL) can be accepted by a symmetric auxiliary pushdown automaton in polynomial time.

A recurring theme in the literature on derandomization is that probabilistic
algorithms can be simulated quickly by deterministic algorithms, if one can obtain *impressive* (i.e., superpolynomial, or even nearly-exponential) circuit size lower bounds for certain problems. In contrast to what is
needed for derandomization, existing lower bounds seem rather pathetic ... more >>>

It is a trivial observation that every decidable set has strings of length $n$ with Kolmogorov complexity $\log n + O(1)$ if it has any strings of length $n$ at all. Things become much more interesting when one asks whether a similar property holds when one
considers *resource-bounded* Kolmogorov complexity. ... more >>>

We continue an investigation into resource-bounded Kolmogorov complexity \cite{abkmr}, which highlights the close connections between circuit complexity and Levin's time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity measure Kt (and other measures with a similar flavor), and also exploits derandomization techniques to provide new insights regarding Kolmogorov complexity.
The Kolmogorov measures that have been ... more >>>

We observe that many important computational problems in NC^1 share a simple self-reducibility property. We then show that, for any problem A having this self-reducibility property, A has polynomial size TC^0 circuits if and only if it has TC^0 circuits of size n^{1+\epsilon} for every \epsilon > 0 (counting the ... more >>>

We study the complexity of restricted versions of st-connectivity, which is the standard complete problem for NL. Grid graphs are a useful tool in this regard, since
* reachability on grid graphs is logspace-equivalent to reachability in general planar digraphs, and
* reachability on certain classes of grid graphs gives ... more >>>

We investigate the s-t-connectivity problem for directed planar graphs, which is hard for L and is contained in NL but is not known to be complete. We show that this problem is logspace-reducible to its complement, and we show that the problem of searching graphs of genus 1 reduces to ... more >>>

For circuit classes R, the fundamental computational problem, Min-R,
asks for the minimum R-size of a boolean function presented as a truth
table. Prominent examples of this problem include Min-DNF, and
Min-Circuit (also called MCSP). We begin by presenting a new reduction
proving that Min-DNF is NP-complete. It is significantly ... more >>>

We study two quite different approaches to understanding the complexity
of fundamental problems in numerical analysis. We show that both hinge
on the question of understanding the complexity of the following problem,
which we call PosSLP:
Given a division-free straight-line program
producing an integer N, decide whether N>0.
more >>>

We show that ACC^0 is precisely what can be computed with constant-width circuits of polynomial size and polylogarithmic genus. This extends a characterization given by Hansen, showing that planar constant-width circuits also characterize ACC^0. Thus polylogarithmic genus provides no additional computational power in this model.
We consider other generalizations of ... more >>>

Schaefer proved in 1978 that the Boolean constraint satisfaction problem for a given constraint language is either in P or is NP-complete, and identified all tractable cases. Schaefer's dichotomy theorem actually shows that there are at most two constraint satisfaction problems, up to polynomial-time isomorphism (and these isomorphism types are ... more >>>

We investigate the question of whether one can characterize complexity
classes (such as PSPACE or NEXP) in terms of efficient
reducibility to the set of Kolmogorov-random strings R_C.
We show that this question cannot be posed without explicitly dealing
with issues raised by the choice of universal
machine in the ... more >>>

We consider sets of strings with high Kolmogorov complexity, mainly
in resource-bounded settings but also in the traditional
recursion-theoretic sense. We present efficient reductions, showing
that these sets are hard and complete for various complexity classes.

In particular, in addition to the usual Kolmogorov complexity measure
K, ... more >>>

We extend the lower bound techniques of [Fortnow], to the
unbounded-error probabilistic model. A key step in the argument
is a generalization of Nepomnjascii's theorem from the Boolean
setting to the arithmetic setting. This generalization is made
possible, due to the recent discovery of logspace-uniform TC^0
more >>>

Integer division has been known to lie in P-uniform TC^0 since
the mid-1980's, and recently this was improved to DLOG-uniform
TC^0. At the time that the results in this paper were proved and
submitted for conference presentation, it was unknown whether division
lay in DLOGTIME-uniform TC^0 (also known as ... more >>>

The essential idea in the fast parallel computation of division and
related problems is that of Chinese remainder representation
(CRR) -- storing a number in the form of its residues modulo many
small primes. Integer division provides one of the few natural
examples of problems for which ... more >>>

Constant-depth arithmetic circuits have been defined and studied
in [AAD97,ABL98]; these circuits yield the function classes #AC^0
and GapAC^0. These function classes in turn provide new
characterizations of the computational power of threshold circuits,
and provide a link between the circuit classes AC^0 ... more >>>

Recent work by Bernasconi, Damm and Shparlinski
proved lower bounds on the circuit complexity of the square-free
numbers, and raised as an open question if similar (or stronger)
lower bounds could be proved for the set of prime numbers. In
this short note, we answer this question ... more >>>

The aim of this paper is to use formal power series techniques to
study the structure of small arithmetic complexity classes such as
GapNC^1 and GapL. More precisely, we apply the Kleene closure of
languages and the formal power series operations of inversion and
root ... more >>>

Motivated by the question of how to define an analog of interactive
proofs in the setting of logarithmic time- and space-bounded
computation, we study complexity classes defined in terms of
operators quantifying over oracles. We obtain new
characterizations of $\NCe$, $\L$, $\NL$, $\NP$, ... more >>>

We show that the complexity class LogFew is contained
in NL $\cap$ SPL. Previously, this was known only to
hold in the nonuniform setting.

We show that the perfect matching problem is in the
complexity class SPL (in the nonuniform setting).
This provides a better upper bound on the complexity of the
matching problem, as well as providing motivation for studying
the complexity class SPL.

Using similar ... more >>>

Continuing a line of investigation that has studied the
function classes #P, #SAC^1, #L, and #NC^1, we study the
class of functions #AC^0. One way to define #AC^0 is as the
class of functions computed by constant-depth polynomial-size
arithmetic circuits of unbounded fan-in addition ... more >>>

We show that in the context of nonuniform complexity,
nondeterministic logarithmic space bounded computation can be made
unambiguous. An analogous result holds for the class of problems
reducible to context-free languages. In terms of complexity classes,
this can be stated as:
NL/poly = UL/poly
LogCFL/poly ... more >>>

We present a deterministic algorithm running in space
O((log^2 n)/loglog n) solving the connectivity problem
on strongly unambiguous graphs. In addition, we present
an O(log n) time-bounded algorithm for this problem
running on a parallel pointer machine.

We characterize the complexity of some natural and important
problems in linear algebra. In particular, we identify natural
complexity classes for which the problems of (a) determining if a
system of linear equations is feasible and (b) computing the rank of
an integer matrix, ... more >>>

A very recent paper by Caussinus, McKenzie, Therien, and Vollmer
[CMTV] shows that ACC^0 is properly contained in ModPH, and TC^0
is properly contained in the counting hierarchy. Thus, [CMTV] shows
that there are problems in ModPH that require superpolynomial-size
uniform ACC^0 ... more >>>

We show that all sets complete for NC$^1$ under AC$^0$
reductions are isomorphic under AC$^0$-computable isomorphisms.

Although our proof does not generalize directly to other
complexity classes, we do show that, for all complexity classes C
closed under NC$^1$-computable many-one reductions, the sets ... more >>>

We investigate the phenomenon of depth-reduction in commutative
and non-commutative arithmetic circuits. We prove that in the
commutative setting, uniform semi-unbounded arithmetic circuits of
logarithmic depth are as powerful as uniform arithmetic circuits of
polynomial degree; earlier proofs did not work in the ... more >>>

In (Allender and Strauss, FOCS '95), we defined a notion of
measure on the complexity class P (in the spirit of the work of (Lutz,
JCSS '92) that provides a notion of measure on complexity classes at least
as large as E, and the work of (Mayordomo, Phd. ... more >>>

We present a notion of resource-bounded measure for P and other
subexponential-time classes. This generalization is based on Lutz's
notion of measure, but overcomes the limitations that cause Lutz's
definitions to apply only to classes at least as large as E. We
present many of the basic properties of this ... more >>>