Sensitivity and Query Complexity under Uncertainty

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Benson, Deepu, Komarath, Balagopal, Mande, Nikhil, Nalli, Sai Soumya, Sarma, Jayalal, Sreenivasaiah, Karteek
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915366489292800
author Benson, Deepu
Komarath, Balagopal
Mande, Nikhil
Nalli, Sai Soumya
Sarma, Jayalal
Sreenivasaiah, Karteek
author_facet Benson, Deepu
Komarath, Balagopal
Mande, Nikhil
Nalli, Sai Soumya
Sarma, Jayalal
Sreenivasaiah, Karteek
contents In this paper, we study the query complexity of Boolean functions in the presence of uncertainty, motivated by parallel computation with an unlimited number of processors where inputs are allowed to be unknown. We allow each query to produce three results: zero, one, or unknown. The output could also be: zero, one, or unknown, with the constraint that we should output ''unknown'' only when we cannot determine the answer from the revealed input bits. Such an extension of a Boolean function is called its hazard-free extension. - We prove an analogue of Huang's celebrated sensitivity theorem [Annals of Mathematics, 2019] in our model of query complexity with uncertainty. - We show that the deterministic query complexity of the hazard-free extension of a Boolean function is at most quadratic in its randomized query complexity and quartic in its quantum query complexity, improving upon the best-known bounds in the Boolean world. - We exhibit an exponential gap between the smallest depth (size) of decision trees computing a Boolean function, and those computing its hazard-free extension. - We present general methods to convert decision trees for Boolean functions to those for their hazard-free counterparts, and show optimality of this construction. We also parameterize this result by the maximum number of unknown values in the input. - We show lower bounds on size complexity of decision trees for hazard-free extensions of Boolean functions in terms of the number of prime implicants and prime implicates of the underlying Boolean function.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_00148
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Sensitivity and Query Complexity under Uncertainty
Benson, Deepu
Komarath, Balagopal
Mande, Nikhil
Nalli, Sai Soumya
Sarma, Jayalal
Sreenivasaiah, Karteek
Computational Complexity
In this paper, we study the query complexity of Boolean functions in the presence of uncertainty, motivated by parallel computation with an unlimited number of processors where inputs are allowed to be unknown. We allow each query to produce three results: zero, one, or unknown. The output could also be: zero, one, or unknown, with the constraint that we should output ''unknown'' only when we cannot determine the answer from the revealed input bits. Such an extension of a Boolean function is called its hazard-free extension. - We prove an analogue of Huang's celebrated sensitivity theorem [Annals of Mathematics, 2019] in our model of query complexity with uncertainty. - We show that the deterministic query complexity of the hazard-free extension of a Boolean function is at most quadratic in its randomized query complexity and quartic in its quantum query complexity, improving upon the best-known bounds in the Boolean world. - We exhibit an exponential gap between the smallest depth (size) of decision trees computing a Boolean function, and those computing its hazard-free extension. - We present general methods to convert decision trees for Boolean functions to those for their hazard-free counterparts, and show optimality of this construction. We also parameterize this result by the maximum number of unknown values in the input. - We show lower bounds on size complexity of decision trees for hazard-free extensions of Boolean functions in terms of the number of prime implicants and prime implicates of the underlying Boolean function.
title Sensitivity and Query Complexity under Uncertainty
topic Computational Complexity
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.00148