The Merge Resolution proof system (M-Res) for QBFs, proposed by Beyersdorff et al. in 2019, explicitly builds partial strategies inside refutations. The original motivation for this approach was to overcome the limitations encountered in long-distance Q-Resolution proof system (LD-Q-Res), where the syntactic side-conditions, while prohibiting all unsound resolutions, also end ... more >>>
We continue the investigation on the relations of QCDCL and QBF resolution systems. In particular, we introduce QCDCL versions that tightly characterise QU-Resolution and (a slight variant of) long-distance Q-Resolution. We show that most QCDCL variants - parameterised by different policies for decisions, unit propagations and reductions -- lead to ... more >>>
Quantified conflict-driven clause learning (QCDCL) is one of the main approaches for solving quantified Boolean formulas (QBF). We formalise and investigate several versions of QCDCL that include cube learning and/or pure-literal elimination, and formally compare the resulting solving models via proof complexity techniques. Our results show that almost all of ... more >>>
We prove a query complexity lower bound for $QMA$ protocols that solve approximate counting: estimating the size of a set given a membership oracle. This gives rise to an oracle $A$ such that $SBP^A \not\subset QMA^A$, resolving an open problem of Aaronson [2]. Our proof uses the polynomial method to ... more >>>
This paper introduces a new technique for removing existential quantifiers
over quantum states. Using this technique, we show that there is no way
to pack an exponential number of bits into a polynomial-size quantum
state, in such a way that the value of any one of those bits ...
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We consider possible equality QMA=PP and give an argument
against it. Namely, this equality implies that PP contains PH. The argument is based on the strong form of Toda's theorem and
the strengthening of the proof for inclusion $QMA\subseteq PP$ due to Kitaev and Watrous.
Merge Resolution (MRes [Beyersdorff et al. J. Autom. Reason.'2021] ) is a refutational proof system for quantified Boolean formulas (QBF). Each line of MRes consists of clauses with only existential literals, together with information of countermodels stored as merge maps. As a result, MRes has strategy extraction by design. The ... more >>>
Decomposition theorems in classical Fourier analysis enable us to express a bounded function in terms of few linear phases with large Fourier coefficients plus a part that is pseudorandom with respect to linear phases. The Goldreich-Levin algorithm can be viewed as an algorithmic analogue of such a decomposition as it ... more >>>
This note proves the existence of a quadratic GF(2) map
$p : \{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ such that no constant-depth circuit
of size $\poly(n)$ can sample the distribution $(u,p(u))$
for uniform $u$.
The known proofs of $\text{MA}\subseteq\text{PP}$ incur a quadratic overhead in the running time. We prove that this quadratic overhead is necessary for black-box simulations; in particular, we obtain an oracle relative to which $\text{MA-TIME}(t)\not\subseteq\text{P-TIME}(o(t^2))$. We also show that 2-sided-error Merlin--Arthur games can be simulated by 1-sided-error Arthur--Merlin games with quadratic ... more >>>
Let $f:\{0,1\}^n \rightarrow \{0,1\}$ be a Boolean function. The certificate complexity $C(f)$ is a complexity measure that is quadratically tight for the zero-error randomized query complexity $R_0(f)$: $C(f) \leq R_0(f) \leq C(f)^2$. In this paper we study a new complexity measure that we call expectational certificate complexity $EC(f)$, which is ... more >>>
The constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) is a convenient framework for modelling search problems; the CSP involves deciding, given a set of constraints on variables, whether or not there is an assignment to the variables satisfying all of the constraints. This paper is concerned with the quantified constraint satisfaction problem (QCSP), ... more >>>
We consider constraint satisfaction problems parameterized by the set of allowed constraint predicates. We examine the complexity of quantified constraint satisfaction problems with a bounded number of quantifier alternations and the complexity of the associated counting problems. We obtain classification results that completely solve the Boolean case, and we show ... more >>>
One of the prominent current challenges in complexity theory is the attempt to prove lower bounds for $TC^0$, the class of constant-depth, polynomial-size circuits with majority gates. Relying on the results of Williams (2013), an appealing approach to prove such lower bounds is to construct a non-trivial derandomization algorithm for ... more >>>
We give new quantum algorithms for evaluating composed functions whose inputs may be shared between bottom-level gates. Let $f$ be a Boolean function and consider a function $F$ obtained by applying $f$ to conjunctions of possibly overlapping subsets of $n$ variables. If $f$ has quantum query complexity $Q(f)$, we give ... more >>>
We show polynomial-time quantum algorithms for the following problems:
(*) Short integer solution (SIS) problem under the infinity norm, where the public matrix is very wide, the modulus is a polynomially large prime, and the bound of infinity norm is set to be half of the modulus minus a ...
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Quantum computers are expected to revolutionize our ability to process information. The advancement from classical to quantum computing is a product of our advancement from classical to quantum physics -- the more our understanding of the universe grows, so does our ability to use it for computation. A natural question ... more >>>
A strong direct product theorem says that if we want to compute
k independent instances of a function, using less than k times
the resources needed for one instance, then our overall success
probability will be exponentially small in k.
We establish such theorems for the classical as well as ...
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We initiate the study of quantifying the quantumness of
a quantum circuit by the number of gates that do not preserve
the computational basis, as a means to understand the nature
of quantum algorithmic speedups.
Intuitively, a reduction in the quantumness requires
an increase in the amount of classical computation, ...
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Communication complexity of XOR functions $f (x \oplus y)$ has attracted increasing attention in recent years, because of its connections to Fourier analysis, and its exhibition of exponential separations between classical and quantum communication complexities of total functions.However, the complexity of certain basic functions still seems elusive especially in the ... more >>>
We prove upper and lower bounds on the power of quantum and stochastic
branching programs of bounded width. We show any NC^1 language can
be accepted exactly by a width-2 quantum branching program of
polynomial length, in contrast to the classical case where width 5 is
necessary unless \NC^1=\ACC. ...
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We prove the first hardness results against efficient proof search by quantum algorithms. We show that under Learning with Errors (LWE), the standard lattice-based cryptographic assumption, no quantum algorithm can weakly automate $\mathbf{TC}^0$-Frege. This extends the line of results of Kraí?ek and Pudlák (Information and Computation, 1998), Bonet, Pitassi, and ... more >>>
Given a Boolean function f, we study two natural generalizations of the certificate complexity C(f): the randomized certificate complexity RC(f) and the quantum certificate complexity QC(f). Using Ambainis' adversary method, we exactly characterize QC(f) as the square root of RC(f). We then use this result to prove the new relation ... more >>>
We propose definitions of $\QAC^0$, the quantum analog of the
classical class $\AC^0$ of constant-depth circuits with AND and OR
gates of arbitrary fan-in, and $\QACC^0[q]$, the analog of the class
$\ACC^0[q]$ where $\Mod_q$ gates are also allowed. We show that it is
possible to make a `cat' state on ...
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We exhibit a total search problem whose communication complexity in the quantum SMP (simultaneous message passing) model is exponentially smaller than in the classical two-way randomized model. Moreover, the quantum protocol is computationally efficient and its solutions are classically verifiable, that is, the problem lies in the communication analogue of ... more >>>
I study the class of problems efficiently solvable by a quantum computer, given the ability to "postselect" on the outcomes of measurements. I prove that this class coincides with a classical complexity class called PP, or Probabilistic Polynomial-Time. Using this result, I show that several simple changes to the axioms ... more >>>
We survey some results in quantum cryptography. After a brief
introduction to classical cryptography, we provide the physical and
mathematical background needed and present some fundamental protocols
from quantum cryptography, including quantum key distribution and
quantum bit commitment protocols.
We define propositional quantum Frege proof systems and compare it
with classical Frege proof systems.
For every constant $\epsilon>0$, we give an $\exp(\tilde{O}(\sqrt{n}))$-time algorithm for the $1$ vs $1-\epsilon$ Best Separable State (BSS) problem of distinguishing, given an $n^2\times n^2$ matrix $M$ corresponding to a quantum measurement, between the case that there is a separable (i.e., non-entangled) state $\rho$ that $M$ accepts with probability $1$, ... more >>>
We introduce a new type of cryptographic primitive that we call hiding fingerprinting. No classical fingerprinting scheme is hiding. We construct quantum hiding fingerprinting schemes and argue their optimality.
more >>>We present three new quantum hardcore functions for any quantum one-way function. We also give a "quantum" solution to Damgard's question (CRYPTO'88) on his pseudorandom generator by proving the quantum hardcore property of his generator, which has been unknown to have the classical hardcore property.
Our technical tool is ...
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In this paper we study the quantum learnability of constant-depth classical circuits under the uniform distribution and in the distribution-independent framework of PAC learning. In order to attain our results, we establish connections between quantum learning and quantum-secure cryptosystems. We then achieve the following results.
1) Hardness of learning ... more >>>
Based on the recent breakthrough of Huang (2019), we show that for any total Boolean function $f$, the deterministic query complexity, $D(f)$, is at most quartic in the quantum query complexity, $Q(f)$: $D(f) = O(Q(f)^4)$. This matches the known separation (up to log factors) due to Ambainis, Balodis, Belovs, Lee, ... more >>>
We show how to encode $2^n$ (classical) bits $a_1,...,a_{2^n}$
by a single quantum state $|\Psi \rangle$ of size $O(n)$ qubits,
such that:
for any constant $k$ and any $i_1,...,i_k \in \{1,...,2^n\}$,
the values of the bits $a_{i_1},...,a_{i_k}$ can be retrieved
from $|\Psi \rangle$ by a one-round Arthur-Merlin interactive ...
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We establish the first general connection between the design of quantum algorithms and circuit lower bounds. Specifically, let $\mathrm{C}$ be a class of polynomial-size concepts, and suppose that $\mathrm{C}$ can be PAC-learned with membership queries under the uniform distribution with error $1/2 - \gamma$ by a time $T$ quantum algorithm. ... more >>>
Classical locally recoverable codes, which permit highly efficient recovery from localized errors as well as global recovery from larger errors, provide some of the most useful codes for distributed data storage in practice. In this paper, we initiate the study of quantum locally recoverable codes (qLRCs). In the long ... more >>>
In a recent breakthrough result, Chattopadhyay, Mande and Sherif [ECCC TR18-17] showed an exponential separation between the log approximate rank and randomized communication complexity of a total function $f$, hence refuting the log approximate rank conjecture of Lee and Shraibman [2009]. We provide an alternate proof of their randomized communication ... more >>>
We give a quantum logspace algorithm for powering contraction matrices, that is, matrices with spectral norm at most 1. The algorithm gets as an input an arbitrary $n\times n$ contraction matrix $A$, and a parameter $T \leq poly(n)$ and outputs the entries of $A^T$, up to (arbitrary) polynomially small additive ... more >>>
In this note, we observe that quantum logspace computations are verifiable by classical logspace algorithms, with unconditional security. More precisely, every language in BQL has an information-theoretically secure) streaming proof with a quantum logspace prover and a classical logspace verifier. The prover provides a polynomial-length proof that is streamed to ... more >>>
Lov{\'a}sz Local Lemma (LLL) is a very powerful tool in combinatorics and probability theory to show the possibility of avoiding all ``bad" events under some ``weakly dependent" condition. Over the last decades, the algorithmic aspect of LLL has also attracted lots of attention in theoretical computer science \cite{moser2010constructive, kolipaka2011moser, harvey2015algorithmic}. ... more >>>
We consider the following problem: estimate the size of a nonempty set $S\subseteq\left[ N\right] $, given both quantum queries to a membership oracle for $S$, and a device that generates equal superpositions $\left\vert S\right\rangle $ over $S$ elements. We show that, if $\left\vert S\right\vert $ is neither too large nor ... more >>>
Given a random permutation $f: [N] \to [N]$ as a black box and $y \in [N]$, we want to output $x = f^{-1}(y)$. Supplementary to our input, we are given classical advice in the form of a pre-computed data structure; this advice can depend on the permutation but \emph{not} on ... more >>>
We revisit the oft-neglected 'recursive Fourier sampling' (RFS) problem, introduced by Bernstein and Vazirani to prove an oracle separation between BPP and BQP. We show that the known quantum algorithm for RFS is essentially optimal, despite its seemingly wasteful need to uncompute information. This implies that, to place BQP outside ... more >>>
This paper proves new limitations on the power of quantum computers to solve approximate counting---that is, multiplicatively estimating the size of a nonempty set $S\subseteq [N]$.
Given only a membership oracle for $S$, it is well known that approximate counting takes $\Theta(\sqrt{N/|S|})$ quantum queries. But what if a quantum algorithm ... more >>>
We present a polynomial quantum algorithm for the Abelian stabilizer problem
which includes both factoring and the discrete logarithm. Thus we extend famous
Shor's results. Our method is based on a procedure for measuring an eigenvalue
of a unitary operator. Another application of this
procedure is a polynomial ...
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In this work, we initiate the study of the Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP) in the quantum setting. MCSP is a problem to compute the circuit complexity of Boolean functions. It is a fascinating problem in complexity theory---its hardness is mysterious, and a better understanding of its hardness can have ... more >>>
Forty years ago, Wiesner pointed out that quantum mechanics raises the striking possibility of money that cannot be counterfeited according to the laws of physics. We propose the first quantum money scheme that is (1) public-key, meaning that anyone can verify a banknote as genuine, not only the bank that ... more >>>
We define a complexity class for randomized algorithms with one-sided error that is exactly equal to a constant (unlike the usual definitions, in which the error is only bounded above or below by a constant). We show that the corresponding quantum classes (one each for a different error probability) are ... more >>>
In STOC 1999, Raz presented a (partial) function for which there is a quantum protocol
communicating only $O(\log n)$ qubits, but for which any classical (randomized, bounded-error) protocol requires $\poly(n)$ bits of communication. That quantum protocol requires two rounds of communication. Ever since Raz's paper it was open whether the ...
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We show that any language in nondeterministic time $\exp(\exp(\cdots\exp(n)))$, where the number of iterated exponentials is an arbitrary function $R(n)$, can be decided by a multiprover interactive proof system with a classical polynomial-time verifier and a constant number of quantum entangled provers, with completeness $1$ and soundness $1 - \exp(-C\exp(\cdots\exp(n)))$, ... more >>>
Alongside the development of quantum algorithms and quantum complexity theory in recent years, quantum techniques have also proved instrumental in obtaining results in classical (non-quantum) areas. In this paper we survey these results and the quantum toolbox they use.
more >>>We initiate the systematic study of QMA algorithms in the setting of property testing, to which we refer as QMA proofs of proximity (QMAPs). These are quantum query algorithms that receive explicit access to a sublinear-size untrusted proof and are required to accept inputs having a property $\Pi$ and reject ... more >>>
Motivated by the quantum algorithm in \cite{MN05} for testing
commutativity of black-box groups, we study the following problem:
Given a black-box finite ring $R=\angle{r_1,\cdots,r_k}$ where
$\{r_1,r_2,\cdots,r_k\}$ is an additive generating set for $R$ and a
multilinear polynomial $f(x_1,\cdots,x_m)$ over $R$ also accessed as
a ...
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Buhrman, Cleve and Wigderson (STOC'98) observed that for every Boolean function $f : \{-1, 1\}^n \to \{-1, 1\}$ and $\bullet : \{-1, 1\}^2 \to \{-1, 1\}$ the two-party bounded-error quantum communication complexity of $(f \circ \bullet)$ is $O(Q(f) \log n)$, where $Q(f)$ is the bounded-error quantum query complexity of $f$. ... more >>>
A t-design for quantum states is a finite set of quantum states with the property of simulating the Haar-measure on quantum states w.r.t. any test that uses at most t copies of a state. We give efficient constructions for approximate quantum t-designs for arbitrary t.
We then show that an ... more >>>
Tanner codes are long error correcting codes obtained from short codes and a graph, with bits on the edges and parity-check constraints from the short codes enforced at the vertices of the graph. Combining good short codes together with a spectral expander graph yields the celebrated expander codes of Sipser ... more >>>
We consider the time and space required for quantum computers to solve a wide variety of problems involving matrices, many of which have only been analyzed classically in prior work. Our main results show that for a range of linear algebra problems---including matrix-vector product, matrix inversion, matrix multiplication and powering---existing ... more >>>
This paper studies whether quantum proofs are more powerful than
classical proofs, or in complexity terms, whether QMA=QCMA. We prove
two results about this question. First, we give a "quantum oracle
separation" between QMA and QCMA. More concretely, we show that any
quantum algorithm needs order sqrt(2^n/(m+1)) queries to find ...
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We study the problem of designing worst-case to average-case reductions for quantum algorithms. For all linear problems, we provide an explicit and efficient transformation of quantum algorithms that are only correct on a small (even sub-constant) fraction of their inputs into ones that are correct on all inputs. This stands ... more >>>
We construct the first Message Authentication Codes (MACs) that are existentially unforgeable against a quantum chosen message attack. These chosen message attacks model a quantum adversary’s ability to obtain the MAC on a superposition of messages of its choice. We begin by showing that a quantum secure PRF is sufficient ... more >>>
The seminal result that every language having an interactive proof also has a zero-knowledge interactive proof assumes the existence of one-way functions. Ostrovsky and Wigderson (ISTCS 1993) proved that this assumption is necessary: if one-way functions do not exist, then only languages in BPP have zero-knowledge interactive proofs.
Ben-Or et ... more >>>
We study the class of non-commutative Unambiguous circuits or Unique-Parse-Tree (UPT) circuits, and a related model of Few-Parse-Trees (FewPT) circuits (which were recently introduced by Lagarde, Malod and Perifel [LMP16] and Lagarde, Limaye and Srinivasan [LLS17]) and give the following constructions:
• An explicit hitting set of quasipolynomial size for ...
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We call a depth-$4$ formula $C$ $\textit{ set-depth-4}$ if there exists a (unknown) partition $X_1\sqcup\cdots\sqcup X_d$ of the variable indices $[n]$ that the top product layer respects, i.e. $C(\mathbf{x})=\sum_{i=1}^k {\prod_{j=1}^{d} {f_{i,j}(\mathbf{x}_{X_j})}}$ $ ,$ where $f_{i,j}$ is a $\textit{sparse}$ polynomial in $\mathbb{F}[\mathbf{x}_{X_j}]$. Extending this definition to any depth - we call ... more >>>
We consider codes for space bounded channels. This is a model for communication under noise that was studied by Guruswami and Smith (J. ACM 2016) and lies between the Shannon (random) and Hamming (adversarial) models. In this model, a channel is a space bounded procedure that reads the codeword in ... more >>>
We study the problem of obtaining efficient, deterministic, black-box polynomial identity testing (PIT) algorithms for read-once oblivious algebraic branching programs (ABPs). This class has an efficient, deterministic, white-box polynomial identity testing algorithm (due to Raz and Shpilka), but prior to this work had no known such black-box algorithm. Here we ... more >>>
Let $G$ be a group such that any non-trivial representation has dimension
at least $d$. Let $X=(X_{1},X_{2},\ldots,X_{t})$ and $Y=(Y_{1},Y_{2},\ldots,Y_{t})$
be distributions over $G^{t}$. Suppose that $X$ is independent from
$Y$. We show that for any $g\in G$ we have
\[
\left|\mathbb{P}[X_{1}Y_{1}X_{2}Y_{2}\cdots X_{t}Y_{t}=g]-1/|G|\right|\le\frac{|G|^{2t-1}}{d^{t-1}}\sqrt{\mathbb{E}_{h\in G^{t}}X(h)^{2}}\sqrt{\mathbb{E}_{h\in G^{t}}Y(h)^{2}}.
\]
Our results generalize, improve, and ...
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We propose an abstract framework for studying search-to-decision reductions for NP. Specifically, we study the following witness finding problem: for a hidden nonempty set $W\subseteq\{0,1\}^n$, the goal is to output a witness in $W$ with constant probability by making randomized queries of the form ``is $Q\cap W$ nonempty?''\ where $Q\subseteq\{0,1\}^n$. ... more >>>
An errorless circuit for a boolean function is one that outputs the correct answer or ``don't know'' on each input (and never outputs the wrong answer). The goal of errorless hardness amplification is to show that if $f$ has no size $s$ errorless circuit that outputs ``don't know'' on at ... more >>>
A binary code $\text{Enc}:\{0,1\}^k \rightarrow \{0,1\}^n$ is $(\frac{1}{2}-\varepsilon,L)$-list decodable if for every $w \in \{0,1\}^n$, there exists a set $\text{List}(w)$ of size at most $L$, containing all messages $m \in \{0,1\}^k$ such that the relative Hamming distance between $\text{Enc}(m)$ and $w$ is at most $\frac{1}{2}-\varepsilon$.
A $q$-query local list-decoder is ...
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We investigate the problem of {\em local reconstruction}, as defined by Saks and Seshadhri (2008), in the context of error correcting codes.
The first problem we address is that of {\em message reconstruction}, where given oracle access to a corrupted encoding $w \in \zo^n$ of some message $x \in \zo^k$ ... more >>>
In this work, we resolve the query complexity of global minimum cut problem for a graph by designing a randomized algorithm for approximating the size of minimum cut in a graph, where the graph can be accessed through local queries like \textsc{Degree}, \textsc{Neighbor}, and \textsc{Adjacency} queries.
Given $\epsilon \in (0,1)$, ... more >>>
We consider the following computational problem: Given a rooted tree and a ranking of its leaves, what is the minimum number of inversions of the leaves that can be attained by ordering the tree? This variation of the well-known problem of counting inversions in arrays originated in mathematical psychology. It ... more >>>
Let $\mathcal{M}$ be a bridgeless matroid on ground set $\{1,\ldots, n\}$ and $f_{\mathcal{M}}: \{0,1\}^n \to \{0, 1\}$ be the indicator function of its independent sets. A folklore fact is that $f_\mathcal{M}$ is ``evasive," i.e., $D(f_\mathcal{M}) = n$ where $D(f)$ denotes the deterministic decision tree complexity of $f.$ Here we prove ... more >>>
We relate various complexity measures like sensitivity, block sensitivity, certificate complexity for multi-output functions to the query complexities of such functions. Using these relations, we improve upon the known relationship between pseudo-deterministic query complexity and deterministic query complexity for total search problems: We show that pseudo-deterministic query complexity is at ... more >>>
A $k$-query locally decodable code (LDC)
$\textbf{C}:\Sigma^{n}\rightarrow \Gamma^{N}$ encodes each message $x$ into
a codeword $\textbf{C}(x)$ such that each symbol of $x$ can be probabilistically
recovered by querying only $k$ coordinates of $\textbf{C}(x)$, even after a
constant fraction of the coordinates have been corrupted.
Yekhanin (2008)
constructed a $3$-query LDC ...
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For any $n$-bit boolean function $f$, we show that the randomized communication complexity of the composed function $f\circ g^n$, where $g$ is an index gadget, is characterized by the randomized decision tree complexity of $f$. In particular, this means that many query complexity separations involving randomized models (e.g., classical vs.\ ... more >>>
We prove that the $\text{P}^{\small\text{NP}}$-type query complexity (alternatively, decision list width) of any boolean function $f$ is quadratically related to the $\text{P}^{\small\text{NP}}$-type communication complexity of a lifted version of $f$. As an application, we show that a certain "product" lower bound method of Impagliazzo and Williams (CCC 2010) fails to ... more >>>
Lifting theorems are theorems that relate the query complexity of a function $f:\left\{ 0,1 \right\}^n\to \left\{ 0,1 \right\}$ to the communication complexity of the composed function $f\circ g^n$, for some “gadget” $g:\left\{ 0,1 \right\}^b\times \left\{ 0,1 \right\}^b\to \left\{ 0,1 \right\}$. Such theorems allow transferring lower bounds from query complexity to ... more >>>