The Nearest Codeword Problem (NCP) is a basic algorithmic question in the theory of error-correcting codes. Given a point v in F_2^n and a linear space L in F_2^n of dimension k NCP asks to find a point l in L that minimizes the (Hamming) distance from v. It is well-known that the nearest codeword problem is NP-hard. Therefore approximation algorithms are of interest. The best effcient approximation algorithms for the NCP to date are due to Berman and Karpinski. They are a deterministic algorithm that achieves an approximation ratio of O(k/c) for an arbitrary constant c; and a randomized algorithm that achieves an approximation ratio of O(k/ log n). In this paper we present new deterministic algorithms for approximating the NCP that improve substantially upon the earlier work, (almost) de-randomizing the randomized algorithm of Berman and Karpinski. We also initiate a study of the following Remote Point Problem (RPP). Given a linear space L in F_2^n of dimension k RPP asks to find a point v in F_2^n that is far from L. We say that an algorithm achieves a remoteness of r for the RPP if it always outputs a point v that is at least r-far from L. In this paper we present a deterministic polynomial time algorithm that achieves a remoteness of Omega(n log k / k) for all k < n/2. We motivate the remote point problem by relating it to both the nearest codeword problem and the matrix rigidity approach to circuit lower bounds in computational complexity theory.
The Nearest Codeword Problem (NCP) is a basic algorithmic question in the theory of error-correcting codes. Given a point v in F_2^n and a linear space L in F_2^n of dimension k NCP asks to find a point l in L that minimizes the (Hamming) distance from v. It is well-known that the nearest codeword problem is NP-hard. Therefore approximation algorithms are of interest. The best effcient approximation algorithms for the NCP to date are due to Berman and Karpinski. They are a deterministic algorithm that achieves an approximation ratio of O(k/c) for an arbitrary constant c; and a randomized algorithm that achieves an approximation ratio of O(k/ log n). In this paper we present new deterministic algorithms for approximating the NCP that improve substantially upon the earlier work, (almost) de-randomizing the randomized algorithm of Berman and Karpinski. We also initiate a study of the following Remote Point Problem (RPP). Given a linear space L in F_2^n of dimension k RPP asks to find a point v in F_2^n that is far from L. We say that an algorithm achieves a remoteness of r for the RPP if it always outputs a point v that is at least r-far from L. In this paper we present a deterministic polynomial time algorithm that achieves a remoteness of Omega(n log k / k) for all k < n/2. We motivate the remote point problem by relating it to both the nearest codeword problem and the matrix rigidity approach to circuit lower bounds in computational complexity theory.
We show that the minimum distance of a linear code (or equivalently, the weight of the lightest codeword) is not approximable to within any constant factor in random polynomial time (RP), unless NP equals RP. Under the stronger assumption that NP is not contained in RQP (random quasi-polynomial time), we show that the minimum distance is not approximable to within the factor 2/sup log(1-/spl epsiv/)n/, for any /spl epsiv/>0, where n denotes the block length of the code. Our results hold for codes over every finite field, including the special case of binary codes. In the process we show that the nearest codeword problem is hard to solve even under the promise that the number of errors is (a constant factor) smaller than the distance of the code. This is a particularly meaningful version of the nearest codeword problem. Our results strengthen (though using stronger assumptions) a previous result of A. Vardy (1997) who showed that the minimum distance is NP-hard to compute exactly. Our results are obtained by adapting proofs of analogous results for integer lattices due to M. Ajtai (1998) and D. Micciancio (1998). A critical component in the adaptation is our use of linear codes that perform better than random (linear) codes.
We give simple deterministic reductions demonstrating the NP-hardness of approximating the nearest codeword problem and minimum distance problem within arbitrary constant factors (and almost-polynomial factors assuming NP cannot be solved in quasipolynomial time). The starting point is a simple NP-hardness result without a gap, and is thus "PCP-free." Our approach is inspired by that of Bhattiprolu and Lee [BL24] who give a PCP-free randomized reduction for similar problems over the integers and the reals. We leverage the existence of ε-balanced codes to derandomize and further simplify their reduction for the case of finite fields.
We prove the following about the Nearest Lattice Vector Problem (in any l/sub p/ norm), the Nearest Code-word Problem for binary codes, the problem of learning a halfspace in the presence of errors, and some other problems. 1. Approximating the optimum within any constant factor is NP-hard. 2. If for some /spl epsiv/>0 there exists a polynomial time algorithm that approximates the optimum within a factor of 2/sup log(0.5-/spl epsiv/)/ /sup n/ then NP is in quasi-polynomial deterministic time: NP/spl sube/DTIME(n/sup poly(log/ /sup n)/). Moreover, we show that result 2 also holds for the Shortest Lattice Vector Problem in the l/sub /spl infin// norm. Improving the factor 2/sup log(0.5-/spl epsiv/)/ /sup n/ to /spl radic/(dim) for either of the lattice problems would imply the hardness of the Shortest Vector Problem in l/sub 2/ norm; an old open problem. Our proofs use reductions from few-prover, one-round interactive proof systems, either directly, or through a set-cover problem.>
Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes in their broader-sense definition are linear codes whose parity-check matrices have fewer 1s than 0s. Finding their minimum distance is therefore in general an NP-hard problem. We propose a randomized algorithm called nearest nonzero codeword search (NNCS) approach to tackle this problem for iteratively decodable LDPC codes. The principle of the NNCS approach is to search codewords locally around the all-zero codeword perturbed by minimal noise, anticipating that the resultant nearest nonzero codewords will most likely contain the minimum-Hamming- weight codeword whose Hamming weight is equal to the minimum distance of the linear code. This approach has its roots in Berrou et al.'s error-impulse method and a form of Fossorier's list decoding for LDPC codes.
Hardness of Approximating Quantum Code Distance Beyond N
We study the computational complexity of approximating the minimum distance of a stabilizer code. Classically, the minimum distance problem is NP-hard to approximate even to within an additive gap linear in the block length. For quantum codes, however, the reductions of Kapshikar and Kundu and of Grigorescu, Jha and Samperton reach only an additive O(N) gap in the block length N. We close this gap and, in a separate direction, initiate the fine-grained study of the problem.
We show that no randomized algorithm approximates the distance to within an additive αN, for a constant α>0, unless NP⊆coRP. In the fine-grained setting, for every ε>0, no randomized 2(1−ε)κpoly(N)-time algorithm computes the distance of a code with κ logical qubits unless SETH falls; and no randomized 2o(N)-time algorithm approximates the distance to within a linear additive gap, on instances where block length, number of logical qubits, and gap are simultaneously linear, unless non-uniform Gap-ETH falls.
Let p > 1 be any fixed real. We show that assuming NP ⊈ RP, there is no polynomial time algorithm that approximates the Shortest Vector Problem (SVP) in ℓ p norm within a constant factor. Under the stronger assumption NP ⊈ RTIME(2 poly (log n ) ), we show that there is no polynomial-time algorithm with approximation ratio 2 (log n ) 1/2−ϵ where n is the dimension of the lattice and ϵ > 0 is an arbitrarily small constant.We first give a new (randomized) reduction from Closest Vector Problem (CVP) to SVP that achieves some constant factor hardness. The reduction is based on BCH Codes. Its advantage is that the SVP instances produced by the reduction behave well under the augmented tensor product , a new variant of tensor product that we introduce. This enables us to boost the hardness factor to 2 (log n ) 1/2-ϵ .