We study bounded degree graph problems, mainly the problem of
k-Dimensional Matching \emph{(k-DM)}, namely, the problem of
finding a maximal matching in a k-partite k-uniform balanced
hyper-graph. We prove that k-DM cannot be efficiently approximated
to within a factor of $ O(\frac{k}{ \ln k}) $ unless $P = NP$.
This ... more >>>

We study the correlation between low-degree GF(2) polynomials p and explicit functions. Our main results are the following:

(I) We prove that the Mod_m unction on n bits has correlation at most exp(-Omega(n/4^d)) with any GF(2) polynomial of degree d, for any fixed odd integer m. This improves on the ... more >>>

We prove that the sum of $d$ small-bias generators $L
: \F^s \to \F^n$ fools degree-$d$ polynomials in $n$
variables over a prime field $\F$, for any fixed
degree $d$ and field $\F$, including $\F = \F_2 =
{0,1}$.

Our result improves on both the work by Bogdanov and
Viola ... more >>>

Functions in arithmetic NC1 are known to have equivalent constant
width polynomial degree circuits, but the converse containment is
unknown. In a partial answer to this question, we show that syntactic
multilinear circuits of constant width and polynomial degree can be
depth-reduced, though the resulting circuits need not be ... more >>>

In 2003, Atserias and Dalmau resolved a major open question about the resolution proof system by establishing that the space complexity of CNF formulas is always an upper bound on the width needed to refute them. Their proof is beautiful but somewhat mysterious in that it relies heavily on tools ... more >>>

We prove that there are 3-CNF formulas over n variables that can be refuted in resolution in width w but require resolution proofs of size n^Omega(w). This shows that the simple counting argument that any formula refutable in width w must have a proof in size n^O(w) is essentially tight. ... more >>>

We exhibit families of 4-CNF formulas over n variables that have sums-of-squares (SOS) proofs of unsatisfiability of degree (a.k.a. rank) d but require SOS proofs of size n^{Omega(d)} for values of d = d(n) from constant all the way up to n^{delta} for some universal constant delta. This shows that ... more >>>

We study the problem of obtaining lower bounds for polynomial calculus (PC) and polynomial calculus resolution (PCR) on proof degree, and hence by [Impagliazzo et al. '99] also on proof size. [Alekhnovich and Razborov '03] established that if the clause-variable incidence graph of a CNF formula F is a good ... more >>>

The well-known Sensitivity Conjecture regarding combinatorial complexity measures on Boolean functions states that for any Boolean function $f:\{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$, block sensitivity of $f$ is polynomially related to sensitivity of $f$ (denoted by $\mathbf{sens}(f)$). From the complexity theory side, the XOR Log-Rank Conjecture states that for any Boolean function, $f:\{0,1\}^n ... more >>>

In this paper, we study the Boolean function parameters sensitivity ($\mathbf{s}$), block sensitivity ($\mathbf{bs}$), and alternation ($\mathbf{alt}$) under specially designed affine transforms and show several applications. For a function $f:\mathbb{F}_2^n \to \{0,1\}$, and $A = Mx+b$ for $M \in \mathbb{F}_2^{n \times n}$ and $b \in \mathbb{F}_2^n$, the result of the ... more >>>

We study a natural complexity measure of Boolean functions known as the (exact) rational degree. For total functions $f$, it is conjectured that $\mathrm{rdeg}(f)$ is polynomially related to $\mathrm{deg}(f)$, where $\mathrm{deg}(f)$ is the Fourier degree. Towards this conjecture, we show that symmetric functions have rational degree at least $\mathrm{deg}(f)/2$ and ... more >>>