For a boolean function $f:\{0,1\}^n\rightarrow \{0,1\}$, let $\hat{f}$ be the unique multilinear polynomial such that $f(x)=\hat{f}(x)$ holds for every $x\in \{0,1\}^n$. We show that, assuming $\hbox{VP}\not=\hbox{VNP}$, there exists a polynomial-time computable $f$ such that $\hat{f}$ requires super-polynomial arithmetic circuits. In fact, this $f$ can be taken as a monotone 2-CNF, ... more >>>

It is a well-known fact that the permanent polynomial is complete for the complexity class VNP, and it is largely suspected that the determinant does not share this property, despite its similar expression.
We study the question of why the VNP-completeness proof of the permanent fails for the determinant.
We ... more >>>