Can every $n$-bit boolean function with deterministic query complexity $k\ll n$ be restricted to $O(k)$ variables such that the query complexity remains $\Omega(k)$? 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.

$\bullet~$ $\mathbf{Negative}$: ... more >>>

A circuit $\mathcal{C}$ samples a distribution $\mathbf{X}$ with an error $\epsilon$ if the statistical distance between the output of $\mathcal{C}$ on the uniform input and $\mathbf{X}$ is $\epsilon$. We study the hardness of sampling a uniform distribution over the set of $n$-bit strings of Hamming weight $k$ denoted by $\mathbf{U}^n_k$ ... more >>>

We present a top-down lower-bound method for depth-$4$ boolean circuits. In particular, we give a new proof of the well-known result that the parity function requires depth-$4$ circuits of size exponential in $n^{1/3}$. Our proof is an application of robust sunflowers and block unpredictability.

Hitting formulas have been studied in many different contexts at least since [Iwama 1989]. A hitting formula is a set of Boolean clauses such that any two of the clauses cannot be simultaneously falsified. [Peitl and Szeider 2022] conjectured that the family of unsatisfiable hitting formulas should contain the hardest ... more >>>

We prove that the proof system OBDD(and, weakening) is not automatable unless P = NP. The proof is based upon the celebrated result of Atserias and Muller [FOCS 2019] about the hardness of automatability for resolution. The heart of the proof is lifting with a multi-output indexing gadget from resolution ... more >>>

A canonical communication problem ${\rm Search}(\phi)$ is defined for every unsatisfiable CNF $\phi$: an assignment to the variables of $\phi$ is distributed among the communicating parties, they are to find a clause of $\phi$ falsified by this assignment. Lower bounds on the randomized $k$-party communication complexity of ${\rm Search}(\phi)$ in ... more >>>

This paper is motivated by seeking lower bounds on OBDD($\land$, weakening, reordering) refutations, namely OBDD refutations that allow weakening and arbitrary reorderings. We first work with 1-NBP($\land$) refutations based on read-once nondeterministic branching programs. These generalize OBDD($\land$, reordering) refutations. There are polynomial size 1-NBP($\land$) refutations of the pigeonhole principle, hence ... more >>>

We show that the size of any regular resolution refutation of Tseitin formula $T(G,c)$ based on a graph $G$ is at least $2^{\Omega(tw(G)/\log n)}$, where $n$ is the number of vertices in $G$ and $tw(G)$ is the treewidth of $G$. For constant degree graphs there is known upper bound $2^{O(tw(G))}$ ... more >>>

We prove that there is a constant $K$ such that \emph{Tseitin} formulas for an undirected graph $G$ requires proofs of
size $2^{\mathrm{tw}(G)^{\Omega(1/d)}}$ in depth-$d$ Frege systems for $d<\frac{K \log n}{\log \log n}$, where $\tw(G)$ is the treewidth of $G$. This extends H{\aa}stad recent lower bound for the grid graph ... more >>>