We introduce and study the following natural total search problem, which we call the {\it heavy element avoidance} (Heavy Avoid) problem: for a distribution on $N$ bits specified by a Boolean circuit sampling it, and for some parameter $\delta(N) \ge 1/\poly(N)$ fixed in advance, output an $N$-bit string that has ... more >>>

We give a new approach to the fundamental question of whether proof complexity lower bounds for concrete propositional proof systems imply super-polynomial Boolean circuit lower bounds.

For any poly-time computable function $f$, we define the witnessing formulas $w_n^k(f)$, which are propositional formulas stating that for any circuit $C$ of size ... more >>>

A randomized algorithm for a search problem is *pseudodeterministic* if it produces a fixed canonical solution to the search problem with high probability. In their seminal work on the topic, Gat and Goldwasser posed as their main open problem whether prime numbers can be pseudodeterministically constructed in polynomial time.

We propose a new family of circuit-based sampling tasks, such that non-trivial algorithmic solutions to certain tasks from this family imply frontier uniform lower bounds such as ``NP is not in uniform ACC^0" and ``NP does not have uniform polynomial-size depth-two threshold circuits". Indeed, the most general versions of our ... more >>>

We study the power of randomized polynomial-time non-adaptive reductions to the problem of approximating Kolmogorov complexity and its polynomial-time bounded variants.

As our first main result, we give a sharp dichotomy for randomized non-adaptive reducibility to approximating Kolmogorov complexity. We show that any computable language $L$ that has a randomized ... more >>>

We consider the range avoidance problem (called Avoid): given the description of a circuit $C:\{0, 1\}^n \to \{0, 1\}^\ell$ (where $\ell > n$), find a string $y\in\{0, 1\}^\ell$ that is not in the range of $C$. This problem is complete for the class APEPP that corresponds to explicit constructions of ... more >>>

Motivated by the goal of showing stronger structural results about the complexity of learning, we study the learnability of strong concept classes beyond P/poly, such as PSPACE/poly and EXP/poly. We show the following:

1. (Unconditional Lower Bounds for Learning) Building on [KKO13], we prove unconditionally that BPE/poly cannot be weakly ... more >>>

Meta-complexity studies the complexity of computational problems about complexity theory, such as the Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP) and its variants. We show that a relativization barrier applies to many important open questions in meta-complexity. We give relativized worlds where:

* MCSP can be solved in deterministic polynomial time, but ... more >>>

We show that one-way functions exist if and only if there is some samplable distribution D such that it is hard to approximate the Kolmogorov complexity of a string sampled from D. Thus we characterize the existence of one-way functions by the average-case hardness of a natural \emph{uncomputable} problem on ... more >>>

A recent breakthrough of Liu and Pass (FOCS'20) shows that one-way functions exist if and only if the (polynomial-)time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity K^t is bounded-error hard on average to compute. In this paper, we strengthen this result and extend it to other complexity measures:

1. We show, perhaps surprisingly, that the ... more >>>

Hardness magnification reduces major complexity separations (such as $EXP \not\subseteq NC^1$) to proving lower bounds for some natural problem $Q$ against weak circuit models. Several recent works [OS18, MMW19, CT19, OPS19, CMMW19, Oli19, CJW19a] have established results of this form. In the most intriguing cases, the required lower bound is ... more >>>

We explore the possibility of basing one-way functions on the average-case hardness of the fundamental Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP[$s$]), which asks whether a Boolean function on $n$ bits specified by its truth table has circuits of size $s(n)$.

1. (Pseudorandomness from Zero-Error Average-Case Hardness) We show that for ... more >>>

We study the complexity of computing symmetric and threshold functions by constant-depth circuits with Parity gates, also known as AC$^0[\oplus]$ circuits. Razborov (1987) and Smolensky (1987, 1993) showed that Majority requires depth-$d$ AC$^0[\oplus]$ circuits of size $2^{\Omega(n^{1/2(d-1)})}$. By using a divide-and-conquer approach, it is easy to show that Majority can ... more >>>

We introduce new forms of attack on expander-based cryptography, and in particular on Goldreich's pseudorandom generator and one-way function. Our attacks exploit low circuit complexity of the underlying expander's neighbor function and/or of the local predicate. Our two key conceptual contributions are:

* The security of Goldreich's PRG and OWF ... more >>>

This work continues the development of hardness magnification. The latter proposes a strategy for showing strong complexity lower bounds by reducing them to a refined analysis of weaker models, where combinatorial techniques might be successful.

We consider gap versions of the meta-computational problems MKtP and MCSP, where one needs ... more >>>

We show that for several natural problems of interest, complexity lower bounds that are barely non-trivial imply super-polynomial or even exponential lower bounds in strong computational models. We term this phenomenon "hardness magnification". Our examples of hardness magnification include:

1. Let MCSP$[s]$ be the decision problem whose YES instances are ... more >>>

We continue the study of pseudo-deterministic algorithms initiated by Gat and Goldwasser
[GG11]. A pseudo-deterministic algorithm is a probabilistic algorithm which produces a fixed
output with high probability. We explore pseudo-determinism in the settings of learning and ap-
proximation. Our goal is to simulate known randomized algorithms in these settings ... more >>>

The Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP) asks for the size of the smallest boolean circuit that computes a given truth table. It is a prominent problem in NP that is believed to be hard, but for which no proof of NP-hardness has been found. A significant number of works have ... more >>>

In a seminal work, Williams [Wil14] showed that NEXP (non-deterministic exponential time) does not have polynomial-size ACC^0 circuits. Williams' technique inherently gives a worst-case lower bound, and until now, no average-case version of his result was known.

We show that there is a language L in NEXP (resp. EXP^NP) ... more >>>

We prove several results giving new and stronger connections between learning theory, circuit complexity and pseudorandomness. Let C be any typical class of Boolean circuits, and C[s(n)] denote n-variable C-circuits of size at most s(n). We show:

Learning Speedups: If C[$n^{O(1)}$] admits a randomized weak learning algorithm under the uniform ... more >>>

We study {\it pseudodeterministic constructions}, i.e., randomized algorithms which output the {\it same solution} on most computation paths. We establish unconditionally that there is an infinite sequence $\{p_n\}_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ of increasing primes and a randomized algorithm $A$ running in expected sub-exponential time such that for each $n$, on input ... more >>>

The study of the worst-case complexity of the Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) problem has seen considerable progress in recent years, for various types of instances including CNFs \cite{PPZ99, PPSZ05, Sch99, Sch05}, Boolean formulas \cite{San10} and constant-depth circuits \cite{IMP12}. We systematically investigate the complexity of solving {\it mixed} instances, where different parts ... more >>>

We show average-case lower bounds for explicit Boolean functions against bounded-depth threshold circuits with a superlinear number of wires. We show that for each integer d > 1, there is \epsilon_d > 0 such that Parity has correlation at most 1/n^{\Omega(1)} with depth-d threshold circuits which have at most
n^{1+\epsilon_d} ... more >>>

We give improved deterministic algorithms solving sparse instances of MAX-SAT and MAX-$k$-CSP. For instances with $n$ variables and $cn$ clauses (constraints), we give algorithms running in time $\poly(n)\cdot 2^{n(1-\mu)}$ for
\begin{itemize}
\item $\mu = \Omega(\frac{1}{c} )$ and polynomial space solving MAX-SAT and MAX-$k$-SAT,
\item $\mu = \Omega(\frac{1}{\sqrt{c}} )$ and ... more >>>

We consider $\cal C$-compression games, a hybrid model between computational and communication complexity. A $\cal C$-compression game for a function $f \colon \{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ is a two-party communication game, where the first party Alice knows the entire input $x$ but is restricted to use strategies computed by $\cal C$-circuits, ... more >>>

We strengthen the non-deterministic time hierarchy theorem of
\cite{Cook72, Seiferas-Fischer-Meyer78, Zak83} to show that the lower bound
holds against sublinear advice. More formally, we show that for any constants
$c$ and $d$ such that $1 \leq c < d$, there is a language in $\NTIME(n^d)$
which is not in $\NTIME(n^c)/n^{1/d}$. ... more >>>

We revisit the complexity of the satisfiability problem for quantified Boolean formulas. We show that satisfiability
of quantified CNFs of size $\poly(n)$ on $n$ variables with $O(1)$
quantifier blocks can be solved in time $2^{n-n^{\Omega(1)}}$ by zero-error
randomized algorithms. This is the first known improvement over brute force search in ... more >>>

We formulate a new connection between instance compressibility \cite{Harnik-Naor10}), where the compressor uses circuits from a class $\C$, and correlation with
circuits in $\C$. We use this connection to prove the first lower bounds
on general probabilistic multi-round instance compression. We show that there
is no
probabilistic multi-round ... more >>>

I discuss recent progress in developing and exploiting connections between
SAT algorithms and circuit lower bounds. The centrepiece of the article is
Williams' proof that $NEXP \not \subseteq ACC^0$, which proceeds via a new
algorithm for $ACC^0$-SAT beating brute-force search. His result exploits
a formal connection from non-trivial SAT algorithms ... more >>>

We define instance compressibility for parametric problems in PH and PSPACE. We observe that

the problem \Sigma_{i}CircuitSAT of deciding satisfiability of a quantified Boolean circuit with i-1 alternations of quantifiers starting with an existential uantifier is complete for parametric problems in \Sigma_{i}^{p} with respect to W-reductions, and that analogously ... more >>>

We explore the relationships between circuit complexity, the complexity of generating circuits, and circuit-analysis algorithms. Our results can be roughly divided into three parts:

1. Lower Bounds Against Medium-Uniform Circuits. Informally, a circuit class is ``medium uniform'' if it can be generated by an algorithmic process that is somewhat complex ... more >>>

We associate to each Boolean language complexity class $\mathcal{C}$ the algebraic class $a\cdot\mathcal{C}$ consisting of families of polynomials $\{f_n\}$ for which the evaluation problem over the integers is in $\mathcal{C}$. We prove the following lower bound and randomness-to-hardness results:

1. If polynomial identity testing (PIT) is in $NSUBEXP$ then $a\cdot ... more >>>

Suppose $f$ is a univariate polynomial of degree $r=r(n)$ that is computed by a size $n$ arithmetic circuit.
It is a basic fact of algebra that a nonzero univariate polynomial of degree $r$ can vanish on at most $r$ points. This implies that for checking whether $f$ is identically zero, ... more >>>

Impagliazzo, Paturi and Zane (JCSS 2001) proved a sparsification lemma for $k$-CNFs:
every k-CNF is a sub-exponential size disjunction of $k$-CNFs with a linear
number of clauses. This lemma has subsequently played a key role in the study
of the exact complexity of the satisfiability problem. A natural question is
more >>>

We show several unconditional lower bounds for exponential time classes
against polynomial time classes with advice, including:
\begin{enumerate}
\item For any constant $c$, $\NEXP \not \subseteq \P^{\NP[n^c]}/n^c$
\item For any constant $c$, $\MAEXP \not \subseteq \MA/n^c$
\item $\BPEXP \not \subseteq \BPP/n^{o(1)}$
\end{enumerate}

It was previously unknown even whether $\NEXP \subseteq ... more >>>

We study the notion of "instance compressibility" of NP problems [Harnik-Naor06], closely related to the notion of kernelization in parameterized complexity theory [Downey-Fellows99, Flum-Grohe06, Niedermeier06]. A language $L$ in NP is instance compressible if there
is a polynomial-time computable function $f$ and a set $A$ such that
for each instance ... more >>>

We show that for each k > 0, MA/1 (MA with 1 bit of advice) does not have circuits of size n^k. This implies the first superlinear circuit lower bounds for the promise versions of the classes MA, AM and ZPP_{||}^{NP}.

We extend our main result in several ways. For ... more >>>

We survey time hierarchies, with an emphasis on recent attempts to prove hierarchies for semantic classes.

We explore whether various complexity classes can have linear or
more generally $n^k$-sized circuit families for some fixed $k$. We
show

1) The following are equivalent,
- NP is in SIZE(n^k) (has O(n^k)-size circuit families) for some k
- P^NP|| is in SIZE(n^k) for some k
- ONP/1 is in ... more >>>

We consider the problem of amplifying uniform average-case hardness
of languages in $\NP$, where hardness is with respect to $\BPP$
algorithms. We introduce the notion of \emph{monotone}
error-correcting codes, and show that hardness amplification for
$\NP$ is essentially equivalent to constructing efficiently
\emph{locally} encodable and \emph{locally} list-decodable monotone
codes. The ... more >>>

We consider a general approach to the hoary problem of (im)proving circuit lower bounds. We define notions of hardness condensing and hardness extraction, in analogy to the corresponding notions from the computational theory of randomness. A hardness condenser is a procedure that takes in a Boolean function as input, as ... more >>>

We show that for any constant a, ZPP/b(n) strictly contains
ZPTIME(n^a)/b(n) for some b(n) = O(log n log log n). Our techniques
are very general and give the same hierarchy for all the common
promise time classes including RTIME, NTIME \cap coNTIME, UTIME,
MATIME, AMTIME and BQTIME.

We show a ... more >>>

We consider uniform assumptions for derandomization. We provide
intuitive evidence that BPP can be simulated non-trivially in
deterministic time by showing that (1) P \not \subseteq i.o.i.PLOYLOGSPACE
implies BPP \subseteq SUBEXP (2) P \not \subseteq SUBPSPACE implies BPP
= P. These results extend and complement earlier work of ... more >>>

We give the first extension of the result due to Paul, Pippenger,
Szemeredi and Trotter that deterministic linear time is distinct from
nondeterministic linear time. We show that DTIME(n \sqrt(log^{*}(n)))
\neq NTIME(n \sqrt(log^{*}(n))). We show that atleast one of the
following statements holds: (1) P \neq L ... more >>>