We strengthen existing evidence for the so-called "algebrization barrier". Algebrization --- short for algebraic relativization --- was introduced by Aaronson and Wigderson (AW) in order to characterize proofs involving arithmetization, simulation, and other "current techniques". However, unlike relativization, eligible statements under this notion do not seem to have basic closure ... more >>>

The *algebrization barrier*, proposed by Aaronson and Wigderson (STOC '08, ToCT '09), captures the limitations of many complexity-theoretic techniques based on arithmetization. Notably, several circuit lower bounds that overcome the relativization barrier (Buhrman--Fortnow--Thierauf, CCC '98; Vinodchandran, TCS '05; Santhanam, STOC '07, SICOMP '09) remain subject to the algebrization barrier.

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