We give improved separations for the query complexity analogue of the log-approximate-rank conjecture i.e. we show that there are a plethora of total Boolean functions on n input bits, each of which has approximate Fourier sparsity at most O(n³) and randomized parity decision tree complexity Θ(n). This improves upon the recent work of Chattopadhyay, Mande and Sherif [Chattopadhyay et al., 2020] both qualitatively (in terms of designing a large number of examples) and quantitatively (shrinking the gap from quartic to cubic). We leave open the problem of proving a randomized communication complexity lower bound for XOR compositions of our examples. A linear lower bound would lead to new and improved refutations of the log-approximate-rank conjecture. Moreover, if any of these compositions had even a sub-linear cost randomized communication protocol, it would demonstrate that randomized parity decision tree complexity does not lift to randomized communication complexity in general (with the XOR gadget).
We give improved separations for the query complexity analogue of the log-approximate-rank conjecture i.e. we show that there are a plethora of total Boolean functions on n input bits, each of which has approximate Fourier sparsity at most O(n³) and randomized parity decision tree complexity Θ(n). This improves upon the recent work of Chattopadhyay, Mande and Sherif [Chattopadhyay et al., 2020] both qualitatively (in terms of designing a large number of examples) and quantitatively (shrinking the gap from quartic to cubic). We leave open the problem of proving a randomized communication complexity lower bound for XOR compositions of our examples. A linear lower bound would lead to new and improved refutations of the log-approximate-rank conjecture. Moreover, if any of these compositions had even a sub-linear cost randomized communication protocol, it would demonstrate that randomized parity decision tree complexity does not lift to randomized communication complexity in general (with the XOR gadget).
We give improved separations for the query complexity analogue of the log-approximate-rank conjecture i.e. we show that there are a plethora of total Boolean functions on n input bits, each of which has approximate Fourier sparsity at most O(n3) and randomized parity decision tree complexity Θ(n). This improves upon the recent work of Chattopadhyay, Mande and Sherif (JACM '20) both qualitatively (in terms of designing a large number of examples) and quantitatively (improving the gap from quartic to cubic). We leave open the problem of proving a randomized communication complexity lower bound for XOR compositions of our examples. A linear lower bound would lead to new and improved refutations of the log-approximate-rank conjecture. Moreover, if any of these compositions had even a sub-linear cost randomized communication protocol, it would demonstrate that randomized parity decision tree complexity does not lift to randomized communication complexity in general (with the XOR gadget).
We give improved separations for the query complexity analogue of the log-approximate-rank conjecture i.e. we show that there are a plethora of total Boolean functions on n input bits, each of which has approximate Fourier sparsity at most O(n3) and randomized parity decision tree complexity Θ(n). This improves upon the recent work of Chattopadhyay, Mande and Sherif (JACM '20) both qualitatively (in terms of designing a large number of examples) and quantitatively (improving the gap from quartic to cubic). We leave open the problem of proving a randomized communication complexity lower bound for XOR compositions of our examples. A linear lower bound would lead to new and improved refutations of the log-approximate-rank conjecture. Moreover, if any of these compositions had even a sub-linear cost randomized communication protocol, it would demonstrate that randomized parity decision tree complexity does not lift to randomized communication complexity in general (with the XOR gadget).
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 complexity lower bound using the information complexity approach. Using the intuition developed there, we derive a polynomially-related quantum communication complexity lower bound using the quantum information complexity approach, thus providing an exponential separation between the log approximate rank and quantum communication complexity of f. Previously, the best known separation between these two measures was (almost) quadratic, due to Anshu, Ben-David, Garg, Jain, Kothari and Lee [CCC, 2017]. This settles one of the main question left open by Chattopadhyay, Mande and Sherif, and refutes the quantum log approximate rank conjecture of Lee and Shraibman [2009]. Along the way, we develop a Shearer-type protocol embedding for product input distributions that might be of independent interest.
We construct a simple and total XOR function F on 2n variables that has only O(√n) spectral norm, O(n2) approximate rank and O(n2.5) approximate nonnegative rank. We show it has polynomially large randomized bounded-error communication complexity of Ω(√n). This yields the first exponential gap between the logarithm of the approximate rank and randomized communication complexity for total functions. Thus F witnesses a refutation of the Log-Approximate-Rank Conjecture (LARC) which was posed by Lee and Shraibman as a very natural analogue for randomized communication of the still unresolved Log-Rank Conjecture for deterministic communication. The best known previous gap for any total function between the two measures is a recent 4th-power separation by G'o'os, Jayram, Pitassi and Watson.
Can every n-bit boolean function with deterministic query complexity k≪ n be restricted to O(k) variables such that the query complexity remains Ω(k)? That is, can query complexity be condensed via restriction? We study such hardness condensation questions in both query and communication complexity, proving two main results. Negative: Query complexity cannot be condensed in general: There is a function f with query complexity k such that any restriction of f to O(k) variables has query complexity O(k3/4). Positive: Randomised communication complexity can be condensed for the sink-of-xor function. This yields a quantitatively improved counterexample to the log-approximate-rank conjecture, achieving parameters conjectured by Chattopadhyay, Garg, and Sherif (2021). Along the way we show the existence of Shearer extractors — a new type of seeded extractor whose output bits satisfy prescribed dependencies across distinct seeds.
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.