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### Paper:

TR21-143 | 13th October 2021 18:21

#### Hitting Sets For Regular Branching Programs

TR21-143
Authors: Edward Pyne
Publication: 13th October 2021 18:27
Keywords:

Abstract:

We construct an explicit $\varepsilon$-hitting set generator (HSG) for regular ordered branching programs of length $n$ and $\textit{unbounded width}$ with a single accept state that has seed length
$O(\log(n)(\log\log(n)+\log(1/\varepsilon))).$
Previously, the best known seed length for regular branching programs of width $w$ with a single accept state was by Braverman, Rao, Raz and Yehudayoff (FOCS 2010, SICOMP 2014) and Hoza Pyne and Vadhan (ITCS 2021), which gave
$O(\log(n)(\log\log(n)+\min\{\log(w),\log(n)\}+\log(1/\varepsilon))).$
We also give a simple co-HSG for the model with optimal seed length $O(\log n)$.

For the more restricted model of $\textit{permutation}$ branching programs, Hoza Pyne and Vadhan (ITCS 2021) constructed a PRG with seed length matching our HSG, and then Pyne and Vadhan (CCC 2021) developed an error-reduction procedure that gave an HSG (in fact a weighted PRG'') with seed length $\widetilde{O}(\log(n)\sqrt{\log(n/\varepsilon)}+\log(1/\varepsilon)).$ We show that if an analogous error-reduction result could be obtained for our HSG, there is an explicit HSG for general ordered branching programs of width $w=n$ with seed length $\widetilde{O}(\log^{3/2}n)$, improving on the $O(\log^2n)$ seed length of Nisan (Combinatorica 1992).

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