Boolean function F(x,y) for x,y ∈ {0,1}ⁿ is an XOR function if F(x,y) = f(x⊕ y) for some function f on n input bits, where ⊕ is a bit-wise XOR. XOR functions are relevant in communication complexity, partially for allowing the Fourier analytic technique. For total XOR functions, it is known that deterministic communication complexity of F is closely related to parity decision tree complexity of f. Montanaro and Osbourne (2009) observed that one-way communication complexity D_{cc}^{→}(F) of F is exactly equal to non-adaptive parity decision tree complexity NADT^{⊕}(f) of f. Hatami et al. (2018) showed that unrestricted communication complexity of F is polynomially related to parity decision tree complexity of f. We initiate the study of a similar connection for partial functions. We show that in the case of one-way communication complexity whether these measures are equal, depends on the number of undefined inputs of f. More precisely, if D_{cc}^{→}(F) = t and f is undefined on at most O((2^{n-t})/(√{n-t})) inputs, then NADT^{⊕}(f) = t. We also provide stronger bounds in extreme cases of small and large complexity. We show that the restriction on the number of undefined inputs in these results is unavoidable. That is, for a wide range of values of D_{cc}^{→}(F) and NADT^{⊕}(f) (from constant to n-2) we provide partial functions (with more than Ω((2^{n-t})/(√{n-t})) undefined inputs, where t = D_{cc}^{→}) for which D_{cc}^{→}(F) < NADT^{⊕}(f). In particular, we provide a function with an exponential gap between the two measures. Our separation results translate to the case of two-way communication complexity as well, in particular showing that the result of Hatami et al. (2018) cannot be generalized to partial functions. Previous results for total functions heavily rely on the Boolean Fourier analysis and thus, the technique does not translate to partial functions. For the proofs of our results we build a linear algebraic framework instead. Separation results are proved through the reduction to covering codes.
Boolean function F(x,y) for x,y ∈ {0,1}ⁿ is an XOR function if F(x,y) = f(x⊕ y) for some function f on n input bits, where ⊕ is a bit-wise XOR. XOR functions are relevant in communication complexity, partially for allowing the Fourier analytic technique. For total XOR functions, it is known that deterministic communication complexity of F is closely related to parity decision tree complexity of f. Montanaro and Osbourne (2009) observed that one-way communication complexity D_{cc}^{→}(F) of F is exactly equal to non-adaptive parity decision tree complexity NADT^{⊕}(f) of f. Hatami et al. (2018) showed that unrestricted communication complexity of F is polynomially related to parity decision tree complexity of f. We initiate the study of a similar connection for partial functions. We show that in the case of one-way communication complexity whether these measures are equal, depends on the number of undefined inputs of f. More precisely, if D_{cc}^{→}(F) = t and f is undefined on at most O((2^{n-t})/(√{n-t})) inputs, then NADT^{⊕}(f) = t. We also provide stronger bounds in extreme cases of small and large complexity. We show that the restriction on the number of undefined inputs in these results is unavoidable. That is, for a wide range of values of D_{cc}^{→}(F) and NADT^{⊕}(f) (from constant to n-2) we provide partial functions (with more than Ω((2^{n-t})/(√{n-t})) undefined inputs, where t = D_{cc}^{→}) for which D_{cc}^{→}(F) < NADT^{⊕}(f). In particular, we provide a function with an exponential gap between the two measures. Our separation results translate to the case of two-way communication complexity as well, in particular showing that the result of Hatami et al. (2018) cannot be generalized to partial functions. Previous results for total functions heavily rely on the Boolean Fourier analysis and thus, the technique does not translate to partial functions. For the proofs of our results we build a linear algebraic framework instead. Separation results are proved through the reduction to covering codes.
Boolean function F(x,y) for x,y∈{0,1}n is an XOR function if F(x,y)=f(x⊕y) for some function f on n input bits, where ⊕ is a bit-wise XOR. XOR functions are relevant in communication complexity, partially for allowing Fourier analytic technique. For total XOR functions it is known that deterministic communication complexity of F is closely related to parity decision tree complexity of f. Montanaro and Osbourne (2009) observed that one-sided communication complexity Dcc→(F) of F is exactly equal to nonadaptive parity decision tree complexity NADT⊕(f) of f. Hatami et al. (2018) showed that unrestricted communication complexity of F is polynomially related to parity decision tree complexity of f. We initiate the studies of a similar connection for partial functions. We show that in case of one-sided communication complexity whether these measures are equal, depends on the number of undefined inputs of f. On the one hand, if Dcc→(F)=t and f is undefined on at most O(n−t2n−t), then NADT⊕(f)=t. On the other hand, for a wide range of values of Dcc→(F) and NADT⊕(f) (from constant to n−2) we provide partial functions for which Dcc→(F)<NADT⊕(f). In particular, we provide a function with an exponential gap between the two measures. Our separation results translate to the case of two-sided communication complexity as well, in particular showing that the result of Hatami et al. (2018) cannot be generalized to partial functions. Previous results for total functions heavily rely on Boolean Fourier analysis and the technique does not translate to partial functions. For the proofs of our results we build a linear algebraic framework instead. Separation results are proved through the reduction to covering codes.
We study the relationship between various one-way communication complexity measures of a composed function with the analogous decision tree complexity of the outer function. We consider two gadgets: the AND function on 2 inputs, and the Inner Product on a constant number of inputs. More generally, we show the following when the gadget is Inner Product on 2b input bits for all b ≥ 2, denoted IP. - If f is a total Boolean function that depends on all of its n input bits, then the bounded-error one-way quantum communication complexity of f∘IP equals Ω(n(b-1)). - If f is a partial Boolean function, then the deterministic one-way communication complexity of f∘IP is at least Ω(b ⋅ 𝖣_{dt}^ → (f)), where 𝖣_{dt}^ → (f) denotes non-adaptive decision tree complexity of f. To prove our quantum lower bound, we first show a lower bound on the VC-dimension of f∘IP. We then appeal to a result of Klauck [STOC'00], which immediately yields our quantum lower bound. Our deterministic lower bound relies on a combinatorial result independently proven by Ahlswede and Khachatrian [Adv. Appl. Math.'98], and Frankl and Tokushige [Comb.'99]. It is known due to a result of Montanaro and Osborne [arXiv'09] that the deterministic one-way communication complexity of f∘XOR equals the non-adaptive parity decision tree complexity of f. In contrast, we show the following when the inner gadget is the AND function on 2 input bits. - There exists a function for which even the quantum non-adaptive AND decision tree complexity of f is exponentially large in the deterministic one-way communication complexity of f∘AND. - However, for symmetric functions f, the non-adaptive AND decision tree complexity of f is at most quadratic in the (even two-way) communication complexity of f∘AND. In view of the first bullet, a lower bound on non-adaptive AND decision tree complexity of f does not lift to a lower bound on one-way communication complexity of f∘AND. The proof of the first bullet above uses the well-studied Odd-Max-Bit function. For the second bullet, we first observe a connection between the one-way communication complexity of f and the Möbius sparsity of f, and then give a lower bound on the Möbius sparsity of symmetric functions. An upper bound on the non-adaptive AND decision tree complexity of symmetric functions follows implicitly from prior work on combinatorial group testing; for the sake of completeness, we include a proof of this result. It is well known that the rank of the communication matrix of a function F is an upper bound on its deterministic one-way communication complexity. This bound is known to be tight for some F. However, in our final result we show that this is not the case when F = f∘AND. More precisely we show that for all f, the deterministic one-way communication complexity of F = f∘AND is at most (rank(M_{F}))(1 - Ω(1)), where M_{F} denotes the communication matrix of F.
We exhibit an n-bit partial function with randomized communication complexity O(logn) but such that any completion of this function into a total one requires randomized communication complexity nΩ(1). In particular, this shows an exponential separation between randomized and \emph{pseudodeterministic} communication protocols. Previously, Gavinsky (2025) showed an analogous separation in the weaker model of parity decision trees. We use lifting techniques to extend his proof idea to communication complexity.
The level-k ℓ1-Fourier weight of a Boolean function refers to the sum of absolute values of its level-k Fourier coefficients. Fourier growth refers to the growth of these weights as k grows. It has been extensively studied for various computational models, and bounds on the Fourier growth, even for the first few levels, have proven useful in learning theory, circuit lower bounds, pseudorandomness, and quantum-classical separations.In this work, we investigate the Fourier growth of certain functions that naturally arise from communication protocols for XOR functions (partial functions evaluated on the bitwise XOR of the inputs x and y to Alice and Bob). If a protocol C computes an XOR function, then C(x,y) is a function of the parity x⊕y. This motivates us to analyze the XOR-fiber of the communication protocol C, defined as h(z):=Ex,y[C(x,y)∣x⊕y=z].We present improved Fourier growth bounds for the XOR-fibers of randomized protocols that communicate d bits. For the first level, we show a tight O(d) bound and obtain a new coin theorem, as well as an alternative proof for the tight randomized communication lower bound for the Gap-Hamming problem. For the second level, we show an d3/2⋅polylog(n) bound, which improves the previous O(d2) bound by Girish, Raz, and Tal (ITCS 2021) and implies a polynomial improvement on the randomized communication lower bound for the XOR-lift of the Forrelation problem, which extends the quantum-classical gap for this problem.Our analysis is based on a new way of adaptively partitioning a relatively large set in Gaussian space to control its moments in all directions. We achieve this via martingale arguments and allowing protocols to transmit real values. We also show a connection between Fourier growth and lifting theorems with constant-sized gadgets as a potential approach to prove optimal bounds for the second level and beyond.
A longstanding question in quantum communication complexity is whether some task can be accomplished with a small amount of communication in the presence of entanglement, yet require much more quantum communication in the absence of entanglement. Separations of this nature were previously known for relational problems and, in the simultaneous message passing model, for partial functions. But it has remained unresolved whether any such separation exists for a total Boolean function. We resolve this question with an exponential separation in the one-way setting: we exhibit a family of total Boolean functions fn:{0,1}n×{0,1}n→{0,1} that can be computed with O(logn) bits of one-way classical communication given prior entanglement, but that require Ω(n1/3) qubits of one-way quantum communication without entanglement. Our function is a special case of the subgroup membership problem, first studied in the communication setting by Aaronson, Le Gall, Russell, and Tani.
We exhibit an n-bit partial function with randomized communication complexity O(logn) but such that any completion of this function into a total one requires randomized communication complexity nΩ(1). In particular, this shows an exponential separation between randomized and pseudodeterministic communication protocols. Previously, Gavinsky (2025) showed an analogous separation in the weaker model of parity decision trees. We use lifting techniques to extend his proof idea to communication complexity.