Complexity of Robust Orbit Problems for Torus Actions and the abc-conjecture

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Main Authors: Bürgisser, Peter, Doğan, Mahmut Levent, Makam, Visu, Walter, Michael, Wigderson, Avi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Bürgisser, Peter
Doğan, Mahmut Levent
Makam, Visu
Walter, Michael
Wigderson, Avi
author_facet Bürgisser, Peter
Doğan, Mahmut Levent
Makam, Visu
Walter, Michael
Wigderson, Avi
contents When a group acts on a set, it naturally partitions it into orbits, giving rise to orbit problems. These are natural algorithmic problems, as symmetries are central in numerous questions and structures in physics, mathematics, computer science, optimization, and more. Accordingly, it is of high interest to understand their computational complexity. Recently, Bürgisser et al. gave the first polynomial-time algorithms for orbit problems of torus actions, that is, actions of commutative continuous groups on Euclidean space. In this work, motivated by theoretical and practical applications, we study the computational complexity of robust generalizations of these orbit problems, which amount to approximating the distance of orbits in $\mathbb{C}^n$ up to a factor $γ>1$. In particular, this allows deciding whether two inputs are approximately in the same orbit or far from being so. On the one hand, we prove the NP-hardness of this problem for $γ= n^{Ω(1/\log\log n)}$ by reducing the closest vector problem for lattices to it. On the other hand, we describe algorithms for solving this problem for an approximation factor $γ= \exp(\mathrm{poly}(n))$. Our algorithms combine tools from invariant theory and algorithmic lattice theory, and they also provide group elements witnessing the proximity of the given orbits (in contrast to the algebraic algorithms of prior work). We prove that they run in polynomial time if and only if a version of the famous number-theoretic $abc$-conjecture holds -- establishing a new and surprising connection between computational complexity and number theory.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_15368
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Complexity of Robust Orbit Problems for Torus Actions and the abc-conjecture
Bürgisser, Peter
Doğan, Mahmut Levent
Makam, Visu
Walter, Michael
Wigderson, Avi
Computational Complexity
Data Structures and Algorithms
Algebraic Geometry
Representation Theory
When a group acts on a set, it naturally partitions it into orbits, giving rise to orbit problems. These are natural algorithmic problems, as symmetries are central in numerous questions and structures in physics, mathematics, computer science, optimization, and more. Accordingly, it is of high interest to understand their computational complexity. Recently, Bürgisser et al. gave the first polynomial-time algorithms for orbit problems of torus actions, that is, actions of commutative continuous groups on Euclidean space. In this work, motivated by theoretical and practical applications, we study the computational complexity of robust generalizations of these orbit problems, which amount to approximating the distance of orbits in $\mathbb{C}^n$ up to a factor $γ>1$. In particular, this allows deciding whether two inputs are approximately in the same orbit or far from being so. On the one hand, we prove the NP-hardness of this problem for $γ= n^{Ω(1/\log\log n)}$ by reducing the closest vector problem for lattices to it. On the other hand, we describe algorithms for solving this problem for an approximation factor $γ= \exp(\mathrm{poly}(n))$. Our algorithms combine tools from invariant theory and algorithmic lattice theory, and they also provide group elements witnessing the proximity of the given orbits (in contrast to the algebraic algorithms of prior work). We prove that they run in polynomial time if and only if a version of the famous number-theoretic $abc$-conjecture holds -- establishing a new and surprising connection between computational complexity and number theory.
title Complexity of Robust Orbit Problems for Torus Actions and the abc-conjecture
topic Computational Complexity
Data Structures and Algorithms
Algebraic Geometry
Representation Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.15368