License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY 3.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX-RANDOM.2018.46
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-94507
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2018/9450/
Go to the corresponding LIPIcs Volume Portal


Kabanets, Valentine ; Lu, Zhenjian

Satisfiability and Derandomization for Small Polynomial Threshold Circuits

pdf-format:
LIPIcs-APPROX-RANDOM-2018-46.pdf (0.5 MB)


Abstract

A polynomial threshold function (PTF) is defined as the sign of a polynomial p : {0,1}^n ->R. A PTF circuit is a Boolean circuit whose gates are PTFs. We study the problems of exact and (promise) approximate counting for PTF circuits of constant depth.
- Satisfiability (#SAT). We give the first zero-error randomized algorithm faster than exhaustive search that counts the number of satisfying assignments of a given constant-depth circuit with a super-linear number of wires whose gates are s-sparse PTFs, for s almost quadratic in the input size of the circuit; here a PTF is called s-sparse if its underlying polynomial has at most s monomials. More specifically, we show that, for any large enough constant c, given a depth-d circuit with (n^{2-1/c})-sparse PTF gates that has at most n^{1+epsilon_d} wires, where epsilon_d depends only on c and d, the number of satisfying assignments of the circuit can be computed in randomized time 2^{n-n^{epsilon_d}} with zero error. This generalizes the result by Chen, Santhanam and Srinivasan (CCC, 2016) who gave a SAT algorithm for constant-depth circuits of super-linear wire complexity with linear threshold function (LTF) gates only.
- Quantified derandomization. The quantified derandomization problem, introduced by Goldreich and Wigderson (STOC, 2014), asks to compute the majority value of a given Boolean circuit, under the promise that the minority-value inputs to the circuit are very few. We give a quantified derandomization algorithm for constant-depth PTF circuits with a super-linear number of wires that runs in quasi-polynomial time. More specifically, we show that for any sufficiently large constant c, there is an algorithm that, given a degree-Delta PTF circuit C of depth d with n^{1+1/c^d} wires such that C has at most 2^{n^{1-1/c}} minority-value inputs, runs in quasi-polynomial time exp ((log n)^{O (Delta^2)}) and determines the majority value of C. (We obtain a similar quantified derandomization result for PTF circuits with n^{Delta}-sparse PTF gates.) This extends the recent result of Tell (STOC, 2018) for constant-depth LTF circuits of super-linear wire complexity.
- Pseudorandom generators. We show how the classical Nisan-Wigderson (NW) generator (JCSS, 1994) yields a nontrivial pseudorandom generator for PTF circuits (of unrestricted depth) with sub-linearly many gates. As a corollary, we get a PRG for degree-Delta PTFs with the seed length exp (sqrt{Delta * log n})* log^2(1/epsilon).

BibTeX - Entry

@InProceedings{kabanets_et_al:LIPIcs:2018:9450,
  author =	{Valentine Kabanets and Zhenjian Lu},
  title =	{{Satisfiability and Derandomization for Small Polynomial Threshold Circuits}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial  Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2018)},
  pages =	{46:1--46:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-085-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2018},
  volume =	{116},
  editor =	{Eric Blais and Klaus Jansen and Jos{\'e} D. P. Rolim and David Steurer},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2018/9450},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-94507},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX-RANDOM.2018.46},
  annote =	{Keywords: constant-depth circuits, polynomial threshold functions, circuit analysis algorithms, SAT, derandomization, quantified derandomization, pseudorandom g}
}

Keywords: constant-depth circuits, polynomial threshold functions, circuit analysis algorithms, SAT, derandomization, quantified derandomization, pseudorandom g
Collection: Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2018)
Issue Date: 2018
Date of publication: 13.08.2018


DROPS-Home | Fulltext Search | Imprint | Privacy Published by LZI