A weak regularity lemma for polynomials

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Moshkovitz, Guy, Woodruff, Dora
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866914598471335936
author Moshkovitz, Guy
Woodruff, Dora
author_facet Moshkovitz, Guy
Woodruff, Dora
contents A regularity lemma for polynomials provides a decomposition in terms of a bounded number of approximately independent polynomials. Such regularity lemmas play an important role in numerous results, yet suffer from the familiar shortcoming of having tower-type bounds or worse. In this paper we design a new, weaker regularity lemma with strong bounds. The new regularity lemma in particular provides means for quantitatively studying the curves contained in the image of a polynomial map, which is beyond the reach of standard methods. The weak regularity lemma turns out to be powerful enough to yield results on arithmetic circuits and polynomial ranks that may be of independent interest: - A general upper bound on the arithmetic circuit size of low-degree polynomials based solely on their image. - An upper bound on the top fan-in of depth-4 arithmetic formulas under similar conditions. - A quantitative bound for the Green-Tao notion of rank for polynomials, significantly improving on a result of Karam.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_21536
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A weak regularity lemma for polynomials
Moshkovitz, Guy
Woodruff, Dora
Combinatorics
Computational Complexity
Commutative Algebra
11T06, 11B30, 68Q06
A regularity lemma for polynomials provides a decomposition in terms of a bounded number of approximately independent polynomials. Such regularity lemmas play an important role in numerous results, yet suffer from the familiar shortcoming of having tower-type bounds or worse. In this paper we design a new, weaker regularity lemma with strong bounds. The new regularity lemma in particular provides means for quantitatively studying the curves contained in the image of a polynomial map, which is beyond the reach of standard methods. The weak regularity lemma turns out to be powerful enough to yield results on arithmetic circuits and polynomial ranks that may be of independent interest: - A general upper bound on the arithmetic circuit size of low-degree polynomials based solely on their image. - An upper bound on the top fan-in of depth-4 arithmetic formulas under similar conditions. - A quantitative bound for the Green-Tao notion of rank for polynomials, significantly improving on a result of Karam.
title A weak regularity lemma for polynomials
topic Combinatorics
Computational Complexity
Commutative Algebra
11T06, 11B30, 68Q06
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.21536