On TC0 Lower Bounds for the Permanent Jeff Kinne Indiana State University
[email protected] September 5, 2012 Abstract In this paper we consider the problem of proving lower bounds for the permanent. An ongoing line of research has shown super-polynomial lower bounds for slightly-non-uniform small-depth threshold and arithmetic circuits [All99, KP09, JS11, JS12]. We prove a new parameterized lower bound that includes each of the previous results as sub-cases. Our main result implies that the permanent does not have Boolean threshold circuits of the following kinds. 1. Depth O(1), poly-log(n) bits of non-uniformity, and size s(n) such that for all constants c, s(c)(n) < 2n. The size s must satisfy another technical condition that is true of functions normally dealt with (such as compositions of polynomials, logarithms, and exponentials). 2. Depth o(log log n), poly-log(n) bits of non-uniformity, and size nO(1). 3. Depth O(1), no(1) bits of non-uniformity, and size nO(1). Our proof yields a new “either or” hardness result. One instantiation is that either NP does not have polynomial-size constant-depth threshold circuits that use no(1) bits of non-uniformity, or the permanent does not have polynomial-size general circuits. 1 Introduction The Search for Hard Problems Computational complexity aims to determine the compu- tational costs of solving important problems, requiring both upper bounds and lower bounds. Though many types of lower bounds have been difficult to prove, conjectured lower bounds have become central across complexity theory.