We give new randomized algorithms for testing multivariate polynomial
identities over finite fields and rationals. The algorithms use
\lceil \sum_{i=1}^n \log(d_i+1)\rceil (plus \lceil\log\log C\rceil
in case of rationals where C is the largest coefficient)
random bits to test if a
polynomial P(x_1, ..., x_n) is zero where d_i is ... more >>>

We study the identity testing problem for depth $3$ arithmetic circuits ($\Sigma\Pi\Sigma$ circuits). We give the first deterministic polynomial time identity test for $\Sigma\Pi\Sigma$ circuits with bounded top fanin. We also show that the {\em rank} of a minimal and simple $\Sigma\Pi\Sigma$ circuit with bounded top fanin, computing zero, can ... more >>>

\begin{abstract}
Given a monomial ideal $I=\angle{m_1,m_2,\cdots,m_k}$ where $m_i$
are monomials and a polynomial $f$ as an arithmetic circuit the
\emph{Ideal Membership Problem } is to test if $f\in I$. We study
this problem and show the following results.
\begin{itemize}
\item[(a)] If the ideal $I=\angle{m_1,m_2,\cdots,m_k}$ for a
more >>>

In this paper we give the first deterministic polynomial time algorithm for testing whether a {\em diagonal} depth-$3$ circuit $C(\arg{x}{n})$ (i.e. $C$ is a sum of powers of linear functions) is zero. We also prove an exponential lower bound showing that such a circuit will compute determinant or permanent only ... more >>>

We show that proving exponential lower bounds on depth four arithmetic
circuits imply exponential lower bounds for unrestricted depth arithmetic
circuits. In other words, for exponential sized circuits additional depth
beyond four does not help.

We then show that a complete black-box derandomization of Identity Testing problem for depth four ... more >>>

Let $\F\{x_1,x_2,\cdots,x_n\}$ be the noncommutative polynomial
ring over a field $\F$, where the $x_i$'s are free noncommuting
formal variables. Given a finite automaton $\A$ with the $x_i$'s as
alphabet, we can define polynomials $\f( mod A)$ and $\f(div A)$
obtained by natural operations that we ... more >>>

Polynomial identity testing (PIT) is the problem of checking whether a given
arithmetic circuit is the zero circuit. PIT ranks as one of the most important
open problems in the intersection of algebra and computational complexity. In the last
few years, there has been an impressive progress on this ... more >>>

We give the first sub-exponential time deterministic polynomial
identity testing algorithm for depth-$4$ multilinear circuits with
a small top fan-in. More accurately, our algorithm works for
depth-$4$ circuits with a plus gate at the top (also known as
$\Spsp$ circuits) and has a running time of
$\exp(\poly(\log(n),\log(s),k))$ where $n$ is ... more >>>

An \emph{arithmetic read-once formula} (ROF for short) is a
formula (a circuit whose underlying graph is a tree) in which the
operations are $\{+,\times\}$ and such that every input variable
labels at most one leaf. A \emph{preprocessed ROF} (PROF for
short) is a ROF in which we are allowed to ... more >>>

Finding an efficient solution to the general problem of polynomial identity testing (PIT) is a challenging task. In this work, we study the complexity of two special but natural cases of identity testing - first is a case of depth-$3$ PIT, the other of depth-$4$ PIT.

Our first problem is ... more >>>

Algebraic independence is an advanced notion in commutative algebra that generalizes independence of linear polynomials to higher degree. Polynomials $\{f_1,\ldots, f_m\} \subset \mathbb{F}[x_1,\ldots, x_n]$ are called algebraically independent if there is no non-zero polynomial $F$ such that $F(f_1, \ldots, f_m) = 0$. The transcendence degree, $\mbox{trdeg}\{f_1,\ldots, f_m\}$, is the maximal ... more >>>

We study the problem of identity testing for multilinear $\Spsp(k)$ circuits, i.e. multilinear depth-$4$ circuits with fan-in $k$ at the top $+$ gate. We give the first polynomial-time deterministic
identity testing algorithm for such circuits. Our results also hold in the black-box setting.

The running time of our algorithm is ... more >>>

A set of multivariate polynomials, over a field of zero or large characteristic, can be tested for algebraic independence by the well-known Jacobian criterion. For fields of other characteristic $p>0$, there is no analogous characterization known. In this paper we give the first such criterion. Essentially, it boils down to ... more >>>

We consider the problem of verifying the identity of a distribution: Given the description of a distribution over a discrete support $p=(p_1,p_2,\ldots,p_n)$, how many samples (independent draws) must one obtain from an unknown distribution, $q$, to distinguish, with high probability, the case that $p=q$ from the case that the total ... more >>>

We survey the area of algebraic complexity theory; with the focus being on the problem of polynomial identity testing (PIT). We discuss the key ideas that have gone into the results of the last few years.

We present an algebraic-geometric approach for devising a deterministic polynomial time blackbox identity testing (PIT) algorithm for depth-4 circuits with bounded top fanin. Using our approach, we devise such an algorithm for the case when such circuits have bounded bottom fanin and satisfy a certain non-degeneracy condition. In particular, we ... more >>>

We consider the \emph{black-box} polynomial identity testing problem for a sub-class of
depth-4 circuits. Such circuits compute polynomials of the following type:
$
C(x) = \sum_{i=1}^k \prod_{j=1}^{d_i} Q_{i,j},
$
where $k$ is the fan-in of the top $\Sigma$ gate and $r$ is the maximum degree of the ... more >>>

In this paper we study the identity testing problem of \emph{arithmetic read-once formulas} (ROF) and some related models. A read-once formula is formula (a circuit whose underlying graph is a tree) in which the
operations are $\set{+,\times}$ and such that every input variable labels at most one leaf. We obtain ... more >>>

We study the problem of testing identity against a given distribution (a.k.a. goodness-of-fit) with a focus on the high confidence regime. More precisely, given samples from an unknown distribution $p$ over $n$ elements, an explicitly given distribution $q$, and parameters $0< \epsilon, \delta < 1$, we wish to distinguish, {\em ... more >>>

We study the question of algebraic rank or transcendence degree preserving homomorphisms over finite fields. This concept was first introduced by Beecken, Mittmann and Saxena (Information and Computing, 2013), and exploited by them, and Agrawal, Saha, Saptharishi and Saxena (Journal of Computing, 2016) to design algebraic independence based identity tests ... more >>>

Hrubeš and Wigderson [HW14] initiated the study of
noncommutative arithmetic circuits with division computing a
noncommutative rational function in the free skew field, and
raised the question of rational identity testing. It is now known
that the problem can be solved in deterministic polynomial time in
more >>>

Blackbox polynomial identity testing (PIT) affords 'extreme variable-bootstrapping' (Agrawal et al, STOC'18; PNAS'19; Guo et al, FOCS'19). This motivates us to study log-variate read-once oblivious algebraic branching programs (ROABP). We restrict width of ROABP to a constant and study the more general sum-of-ROABPs model. We give the first poly($s$)-time blackbox ... more >>>

Motivated by the question of data quantization and "binning," we revisit the problem of identity testing of discrete probability distributions. Identity testing (a.k.a. one-sample testing), a fundamental and by now well-understood problem in distribution testing, asks, given a reference distribution (model) $\mathbf{q}$ and samples from an unknown distribution $\mathbf{p}$, both ... more >>>

In a recent result of Bhargava, Saraf and Volkovich [FOCS’18; JACM’20], the first sparsity bound for constant individual degree polynomials was shown. In particular, it was shown that any factor of a polynomial with at most $s$ terms and individual degree bounded by $d$ can itself have at most $s^{O(d^2\log ... more >>>

An arithmetic formula is an arithmetic circuit where each gate has fan-out one. An \emph{arithmetic read-once formula} (ROF in short) is an arithmetic formula where each input variable labels at most one leaf. In this paper we present several efficient blackbox \emph{polynomial identity testing} (PIT) algorithms for some classes of ... more >>>