We establish two results regarding the query complexity of bounded-error randomized algorithms.
* Bounded-error separation theorem. There exists a total function $f : \{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ whose $ε$-error randomized query complexity satisfies $\overline{\mathrm{R}}_ε(f) = Ω( \mathrm{R}(f) \cdot \log\frac1ε)$.
* Strong direct sum theorem. For every function $f$ and every $k \ge 2$, the randomized query complexity of computing $k$ instances of $f$ simultaneously satisfies $\overline{\mathrm{R}}_ε(f^k) = Θ(k \cdot \overline{\mathrm{R}}_{\fracεk}(f))$.
As a consequence of our two main results, we obtain an optimal superlinear direct-sum-type theorem for randomized query complexity: there exists a function $f$ for which $\mathrm{R}(f^k) = Θ( k \log k \cdot \mathrm{R}(f))$. This answers an open question of Drucker (2012). Combining this result with the query-to-communication complexity lifting theorem of Göös, Pitassi, and Watson (2017), this also shows that there is a total function whose public-coin randomized communication complexity satisfies $\mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{cc}} (f^k) = Θ( k \log k \cdot \mathrm{R}^{\mathrm{cc}}(f))$, answering a question of Feder, Kushilevitz, Naor, and Nisan (1995).
The pointer function of G{ö}{ö}s, Pitassi and Watson \cite{DBLP:journals/eccc/GoosP015a} and its variants have recently been used to prove separation results among various measures of complexity such as deterministic, randomized and quantum query complexities, exact and approximate polynomial degrees, etc. In particular, the widest possible (quadratic) separations between deterministic and zero-error randomized query complexity, as well as between bounded-error and zero-error randomized query complexity, have been obtained by considering {\em variants}~\cite{DBLP:journals/corr/AmbainisBBL15} o…
For any $n$-bit boolean function $f$, we show that the randomized communication complexity of the composed function $f\circ g^n$, where $g$ is an index gadget, is characterized by the randomized decision tree complexity of $f$. In particular, this means that many query complexity separations involving randomized models (e.g., classical vs. quantum) automatically imply analogous separations in communication complexity.
We give a strong direct sum theorem for computing $xor \circ g$. Specifically, we show that for every function g and every $k\geq 2$, the randomized query complexity of computing the xor of k instances of g satisfies $\overline{R}_\eps(xor\circ g) = Θ(k \overline{R}_{\eps/k}(g))$. This matches the naive success amplification upper bound and answers a conjecture of Blais and Brody (CCC19). As a consequence of our strong direct sum theorem, we give a total function g for which $R(xor \circ g) = Θ(k \log(k)\cdot R(g))$, answering an open question from Ben-David et al.(arxiv:2006.10957v1).
Suppose we have randomized decision trees for an outer function $f$ and an inner function $g$. The natural approach for obtaining a randomized decision tree for the composed function $(f\circ g^n)(x^1,\ldots,x^n)=f(g(x^1),\ldots,g(x^n))$ involves amplifying the success probability of the decision tree for $g$, so that a union bound can be used to bound the error probability over all the coordinates. The amplification introduces a logarithmic factor cost overhead. We study the question: When is this log factor necessary? We show that when the outer function is parity or majority, the log factor…
We show that there exists a Boolean function $F$ which observes the following separations among deterministic query complexity $(D(F))$, randomized zero error query complexity $(R_0(F))$ and randomized one-sided error query complexity $(R_1(F))$: $R_1(F) = \widetilde{O}(\sqrt{D(F)})$ and $R_0(F)=\widetilde{O}(D(F))^{3/4}$. This refutes the conjecture made by Saks and Wigderson that for any Boolean function $f$, $R_0(f)=Ω({D(f)})^{0.753..}$. This also shows widest separation between $R_1(f)$ and $D(f)$ for any Boolean function. The function $F$ was defined by G{ö}{ö}s, Pitassi and Watson who st…
Let the randomized query complexity of a relation for error probability $ε$ be denoted by $R_ε(\cdot)$. We prove that for any relation $f \subseteq \{0,1\}^n \times \mathcal{R}$ and Boolean function $g:\{0,1\}^m \rightarrow \{0,1\}$, $R_{1/3}(f\circ g^n) = Ω(R_{4/9}(f)\cdot R_{1/2-1/n^4}(g))$, where $f \circ g^n$ is the relation obtained by composing $f$ and $g$. We also show that $R_{1/3}\left(f \circ \left(g^\oplus_{O(\log n)}\right)^n\right)=Ω(\log n \cdot R_{4/9}(f) \cdot R_{1/3}(g))$, where $g^\oplus_{O(\log n)}$ is the function obtained by composing the xor function on $O(\log n)$ bits a…
We make two observations regarding a recent tight example for a composition theorem for randomized query complexity: (1) it implies general randomized query-to-communication lifting is not always true if one allows relations, (2) it is in a certain sense essential that a relation is used in constructing the example.
We study the composition question for bounded-error randomized query complexity: Is R(f o g) = Omega(R(f) R(g)) for all Boolean functions f and g? We show that inserting a simple Boolean function h, whose query complexity is only Theta(log R(g)), in between f and g allows us to prove R(f o h o g) = Omega(R(f) R(h) R(g)). We prove this using a new lower bound measure for randomized query complexity we call randomized sabotage complexity, RS(f). Randomized sabotage complexity has several desirable properties, such as a perfect composition theorem, RS(f o g) >= RS(f) RS(g), and a composition theo…
In this work we introduce, both for classical communication complexity and query complexity, a modification of the 'partition bound' introduced by Jain and Klauck [2010]. We call it the 'public-coin partition bound'. We show that (the logarithm to the base two of) its communication complexity and query complexity versions form, for all relations, a quadratically tight lower bound on the public-coin randomized communication complexity and randomized query complexity respectively.
The direct product problem is a fundamental question in complexity theory which seeks to understand how the difficulty of computing a function on each of k independent inputs scales with k. We prove the following direct product theorem (DPT) for query complexity: if every T-query algorithm has success probability at most 1 - eps in computing the Boolean function f on input distribution Mu, then for alpha <= 1, every (alpha eps Tk)-query algorithm has success probability at most (2^{alpha eps}(1 - eps))^k in computing the k-fold direct product f^k correctly on k independent inputs from Mu. In l…
Let $f:\{0,1\}^n \rightarrow \{0,1\}$ be a Boolean function. The certificate complexity $C(f)$ is a complexity measure that is quadratically tight for the zero-error randomized query complexity $R_0(f)$: $C(f) \leq R_0(f) \leq C(f)^2$. In this paper we study a new complexity measure that we call expectational certificate complexity $EC(f)$, which is also a quadratically tight bound on $R_0(f)$: $EC(f) \leq R_0(f) = O(EC(f)^2)$. We prove that $EC(f) \leq C(f) \leq EC(f)^2$ and show that there is a quadratic separation between the two, thus $EC(f)$ gives a tighter upper bound for $R_0(f)$. The m…
Let $R_ε(\cdot)$ stand for the bounded-error randomized query complexity with error $ε> 0$. For any relation $f \subseteq \{0,1\}^n \times S$ and partial Boolean function $g \subseteq \{0,1\}^m \times \{0,1\}$, we show that $R_{1/3}(f \circ g^n) \in Ω(R_{4/9}(f) \cdot \sqrt{R_{1/3}(g)})$, where $f \circ g^n \subseteq (\{0,1\}^m)^n \times S$ is the composition of $f$ and $g$. We give an example of a relation $f$ and partial Boolean function $g$ for which this lower bound is tight. We prove our composition theorem by introducing a new complexity measure, the max conflict complexity $\bar χ(g)$ o…
The query model offers a concrete setting where quantum algorithms are provably superior to randomized algorithms. Beautiful results by Bernstein-Vazirani, Simon, Aaronson, and others presented partial Boolean functions that can be computed by quantum algorithms making much fewer queries compared to their randomized analogs. To date, separations of $O(1)$ vs. $\sqrt{N}$ between quantum and randomized query complexities remain the state-of-the-art (where $N$ is the input length), leaving open the question of whether $O(1)$ vs. $N^{1/2+Ω(1)}$ separations are possible? We answer this question in …
We construct a total Boolean function $f$ satisfying $R(f)=\tildeΩ(Q(f)^{5/2})$, refuting the long-standing conjecture that $R(f)=O(Q(f)^2)$ for all total Boolean functions. Assuming a conjecture of Aaronson and Ambainis about optimal quantum speedups for partial functions, we improve this to $R(f)=\tildeΩ(Q(f)^3)$. Our construction is motivated by the Göös-Pitassi-Watson function but does not use it.
We show that for a relation $f\subseteq \{0,1\}^n\times \mathcal{O}$ and a function $g:\{0,1\}^{m}\times \{0,1\}^{m} \rightarrow \{0,1\}$ (with $m= O(\log n)$), $$\mathrm{R}_{1/3}(f\circ g^n) = Ω\left(\mathrm{R}_{1/3}(f) \cdot \left(\log\frac{1}{\mathrm{disc}(M_g)} - O(\log n)\right)\right),$$ where $f\circ g^n$ represents the composition of $f$ and $g^n$, $M_g$ is the sign matrix for $g$, $\mathrm{disc}(M_g)$ is the discrepancy of $M_g$ under the uniform distribution and $\mathrm{R}_{1/3}(f)$ ($\mathrm{R}_{1/3}(f\circ g^n)$) denotes the randomized query complexity of $f$ (randomized communica…
We prove that for every decision tree, the absolute values of the Fourier coefficients of a given order $\ell\geq1$ sum to at most $c^{\ell}\sqrt{\binom{d}{\ell}(1+\log n)^{\ell-1}},$ where $n$ is the number of variables, $d$ is the tree depth, and $c>0$ is an absolute constant. This bound is essentially tight and settles a conjecture due to Tal (arxiv 2019; FOCS 2020). The bounds prior to our work degraded rapidly with $\ell,$ becoming trivial already at $\ell=\sqrt{d}.$ As an application, we obtain, for every integer $k\geq1,$ a partial Boolean function on $n$ bits that has bounded-error qua…
We prove two new results about the randomized query complexity of composed functions. First, we show that the randomized composition conjecture is false: there are families of partial Boolean functions $f$ and $g$ such that $R(f\circ g)\ll R(f) R(g)$. In fact, we show that the left hand side can be polynomially smaller than the right hand side (though in our construction, both sides are polylogarithmic in the input size of $f$). Second, we show that for all $f$ and $g$, $R(f\circ g)=Ω(\mathop{noisyR}(f)\cdot R(g))$, where $\mathop{noisyR}(f)$ is a measure describing the cost of computing $f$ o…
We show a nearly quadratic separation between deterministic communication complexity and the logarithm of the partition number, which is essentially optimal. This improves upon a recent power 1.5 separation of Göös, Pitassi, and Watson (FOCS 2015). In query complexity, we establish a nearly quadratic separation between deterministic (and even randomized) query complexity and subcube partition complexity, which is also essentially optimal. We also establish a nearly power 1.5 separation between quantum query complexity and subcube partition complexity, the first superlinear separation between t…
In 1986, Saks and Wigderson conjectured that the largest separation between deterministic and zero-error randomized query complexity for a total boolean function is given by the function $f$ on $n=2^k$ bits defined by a complete binary tree of NAND gates of depth $k$, which achieves $R_0(f) = O(D(f)^{0.7537\ldots})$. We show this is false by giving an example of a total boolean function $f$ on $n$ bits whose deterministic query complexity is $Ω(n/\log(n))$ while its zero-error randomized query complexity is $\tilde O(\sqrt{n})$. We further show that the quantum query complexity of the same fun…
While exponential separations are known between quantum and randomized communication complexity for partial functions (Raz, STOC 1999), the best known separation between these measures for a total function is quadratic, witnessed by the disjointness function. We give the first super-quadratic separation between quantum and randomized communication complexity for a total function, giving an example exhibiting a power 2.5 gap. We further present a 1.5 power separation between exact quantum and randomized communication complexity, improving on the previous ~1.15 separation by Ambainis (STOC 2013)…
We give a simpler proof, via query elimination, of a result due to O'Donnell, Saks, Schramm and Servedio, which shows a lower bound on the zero-error randomized query complexity of a function f in terms of the maximum influence of any variable of f. Our lower bound also applies to the two-sided error distributional query complexity of f, and it allows an immediate extension which can be used to prove stronger lower bounds for some functions.
We give efficient deterministic algorithms for converting randomized query algorithms into deterministic ones. We first give an algorithm that takes as input a randomized $q$-query algorithm $R$ with description length $N$ and a parameter $\varepsilon$, runs in time $\mathrm{poly}(N) \cdot 2^{O(q/\varepsilon)}$, and returns a deterministic $O(q/\varepsilon)$-query algorithm $D$ that $\varepsilon$-approximates the acceptance probabilities of $R$. These parameters are near-optimal: runtime $N + 2^{Ω(q/\varepsilon)}$ and query complexity $Ω(q/\varepsilon)$ are necessary. Next, we give algorithms …
We study the randomized query complexity of approximate Nash equilibria (ANE) in large games. We prove that, for some constant $ε>0$, any randomized oracle algorithm that computes an $ε$-ANE in a binary-action, $n$-player game must make $2^{Ω(n/\log n)}$ payoff queries. For the stronger solution concept of well-supported Nash equilibria (WSNE), Babichenko previously gave an exponential $2^{Ω(n)}$ lower bound for the randomized query complexity of $ε$-WSNE, for some constant $ε>0$; the same lower bound was shown to hold for $ε$-ANE, but only when $ε=O(1/n)$. Our result answers an open problem p…
Lifting theorems are theorems that relate the query complexity of a function $f:\{0,1\}^{n}\to\{0,1\}$ to the communication complexity of the composed function $f \circ g^{n}$, for some "gadget" $g:\{0,1\}^{b}\times\{0,1\}^{b}\to\{0,1\}$. Such theorems allow transferring lower bounds from query complexity to the communication complexity, and have seen numerous applications in the recent years. In addition, such theorems can be viewed as a strong generalization of a direct-sum theorem for the gadget $g$. We prove a new lifting theorem that works for all gadgets $g$ that have logarithmic length …
We study the query complexity of computing a function f:{0,1}^n-->R_+ in expectation. This requires the algorithm on input x to output a nonnegative random variable whose expectation equals f(x), using as few queries to the input x as possible. We exactly characterize both the randomized and the quantum query complexity by two polynomial degrees, the nonnegative literal degree and the sum-of-squares degree, respectively. We observe that the quantum complexity can be unboundedly smaller than the classical complexity for some functions, but can be at most polynomially smaller for functions with …
We show a power 2.5 separation between bounded-error randomized and quantum query complexity for a total Boolean function, refuting the widely believed conjecture that the best such separation could only be quadratic (from Grover's algorithm). We also present a total function with a power 4 separation between quantum query complexity and approximate polynomial degree, showing severe limitations on the power of the polynomial method. Finally, we exhibit a total function with a quadratic gap between quantum query complexity and certificate complexity, which is optimal (up to log factors). These …
We describe new lower bounds for randomized communication complexity and query complexity which we call the partition bounds. They are expressed as the optimum value of linear programs. For communication complexity we show that the partition bound is stronger than both the rectangle/corruption bound and the γ_2/generalized discrepancy bounds. In the model of query complexity we show that the partition bound is stronger than the approximate polynomial degree and classical adversary bounds. We also exhibit an example where the partition bound is quadratically larger than polynomial degree and cl…
We achieve essentially the largest possible separation between quantum and classical query complexities. We do so using a property-testing problem called Forrelation, where one needs to decide whether one Boolean function is highly correlated with the Fourier transform of a second function. This problem can be solved using 1 quantum query, yet we show that any randomized algorithm needs ~sqrt(N)/log(N) queries (improving an ~N^{1/4} lower bound of Aaronson). Conversely, we show that this 1 versus ~sqrt(N) separation is optimal: indeed, any t-query quantum algorithm whatsoever can be simulated …
Over the past 30 years numerous algorithms have been designed for symmetry breaking problems in the LOCAL model, such as maximal matching, MIS, vertex coloring, and edge-coloring. For most problems the best randomized algorithm is at least exponentially faster than the best deterministic algorithm. In this paper we prove that these exponential gaps are necessary and establish connections between the deterministic and randomized complexities in the LOCAL model. Each result has a very compelling take-away message: 1. Fast $Δ$-coloring of trees requires random bits: Building on the recent lower b…
We study a new type of separation between quantum and classical communication complexity which is obtained using quantum protocols where all parties are efficient, in the sense that they can be implemented by small quantum circuits with oracle access to their inputs. More precisely, we give an explicit partial Boolean function that can be computed in the quantum-simultaneous-with-entanglement model of communication, however, every interactive randomized protocol is of exponentially larger cost. Furthermore, all the parties in the quantum protocol can be implemented by quantum circuits of small…
Simon's problem is one of the most important problems demonstrating the power of quantum computers, which achieves a large separation between quantum and classical query complexities. However, Simon's discussion on his problem was limited to bounded-error setting, which means his algorithm can not always get the correct answer. Exact quantum algorithms for Simon's problem have also been proposed, which deterministically solve the problem with O(n) queries. Also the quantum lower bound Ω(n) for Simon's problem is known. Although these algorithms are either complicated or specialized, their resu…
This paper considers the query complexity of the functions in the family F_{N,M} of N-variable Boolean functions with onset size M, i.e., the number of inputs for which the function value is 1, where 1<= M <= 2^{N}/2 is assumed without loss of generality because of the symmetry of function values, 0 and 1. Our main results are as follows: (1) There is a super-linear gap between the average-case and worst-case quantum query complexities over F_{N,M} for a certain range of M. (2) There is no super-linear gap between the average-case and worst-case randomized query complexities over F_{N,M} for e…
We show nearly quadratic separations between two pairs of complexity measures: 1. We show that there is a Boolean function $f$ with $D(f)=Ω((D^{sc}(f))^{2-o(1)})$ where $D(f)$ is the deterministic query complexity of $f$ and $D^{sc}$ is the subcube partition complexity of $f$; 2. As a consequence, we obtain that there is a communication task $f(x, y)$ such that $D^{cc}(f)=Ω(\log^{2-o(1)}χ(f))$ where $D^{cc}(f)$ is the deterministic 2-party communication complexity of $f$ (in the standard 2-party model of communication) and $χ(f)$ is the partition number of $f$. Both of those separations are ne…
Let $H$ be a fixed graph on $n$ vertices. Let $f_H(G) = 1$ iff the input graph $G$ on $n$ vertices contains $H$ as a (not necessarily induced) subgraph. Let $α_H$ denote the cardinality of a maximum independent set of $H$. In this paper we show: \[Q(f_H) = Ω\left(\sqrt{α_H \cdot n}\right),\] where $Q(f_H)$ denotes the quantum query complexity of $f_H$. As a consequence we obtain a lower bounds for $Q(f_H)$ in terms of several other parameters of $H$ such as the average degree, minimum vertex cover, chromatic number, and the critical probability. We also use the above bound to show that $Q(f_H)…
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 $O(n^3)$ 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 …
The randomized query complexity $R(f)$ of a boolean function $f\colon\{0,1\}^n\to\{0,1\}$ is famously characterized (via Yao's minimax) by the least number of queries needed to distinguish a distribution $D_0$ over $0$-inputs from a distribution $D_1$ over $1$-inputs, maximized over all pairs $(D_0,D_1)$. We ask: Does this task become easier if we allow query access to infinitely many samples from either $D_0$ or $D_1$? We show the answer is no: There exists a hard pair $(D_0,D_1)$ such that distinguishing $D_0^\infty$ from $D_1^\infty$ requires $Θ(R(f))$ many queries. As an application, we sh…
In this paper we study the separation between the deterministic (classical) query complexity ($D$) and the exact quantum query complexity ($Q_E$) of several Boolean function classes using the parity decision tree method. We first define the Query Friendly (QF) functions on $n$ variables as the ones with minimum deterministic query complexity $(D(f))$. We observe that for each $n$, there exists a non-separable class of QF functions such that $D(f)=Q_E(f)$. Further, we show that for some values of $n$, all the QF functions are non-separable. Then we present QF functions for certain other values …
The subcube partition model of computation is at least as powerful as decision trees but no separation between these models was known. We show that there exists a function whose deterministic subcube partition complexity is asymptotically smaller than its randomized decision tree complexity, resolving an open problem of Friedgut, Kahn, and Wigderson (2002). Our lower bound is based on the information-theoretic techniques first introduced to lower bound the randomized decision tree complexity of the recursive majority function. We also show that the public-coin partition bound, the best known l…
We study the complexity of determining the edge connectivity of a simple graph with cut queries. We show that (i) there is a bounded-error randomized algorithm that computes edge connectivity with $O(n)$ cut queries, and (ii) there is a bounded-error quantum algorithm that computes edge connectivity with $Õ(\sqrt{n})$ cut queries. We prove these results using a new technique called "star contraction" to randomly contract edges of a graph while preserving non-trivial minimum cuts. In star contraction vertices randomly contract an edge incident on a small set of randomly chosen vertices. In cont…
Chattopadhyay, Mande and Sherif (ECCC 2018) recently exhibited a total Boolean function, the sink function, that has polynomial approximate rank and polynomial randomized communication complexity. This gives an exponential separation between randomized communication complexity and logarithm of the approximate rank, refuting the log-approximate-rank conjecture. We show that even the quantum communication complexity of the sink function is polynomial, thus also refuting the quantum log-approximate-rank conjecture. Our lower bound is based on the fooling distribution method introduced by Rao and …
