Multiquadratic Sum-of-Squares Lower Bounds Imply VNC$^1$ $\neq$ VNP

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Rossman, Benjamin, Zhu, Davidson
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Rossman, Benjamin
Zhu, Davidson
author_facet Rossman, Benjamin
Zhu, Davidson
contents The \emph{sum-of-squares (SoS) complexity} of a $d$-multiquadratic polynomial $f$ (quadratic in each of $d$ blocks of $n$ variables) is the minimum $s$ such that $f = \sum_{i=1}^s g_i^2$ with each $g_i$ $d$-multilinear. In the case $d=2$, Hrubeš, Wigderson and Yehudayoff (2011) showed that an $n^{1+Ω(1)}$ lower bound on the SoS complexity of explicit biquadratic polynomials implies an exponential lower bound for non-commutative arithmetic circuits. In this paper, we establish an analogous connection between general \emph{multiquadratic sum-of-squares} and \emph{commutative arithmetic formulas}. Specifically, we show that an $n^{d-o(\log d)}$ lower bound on the SoS complexity of explicit $d$-multiquadratic polynomials, for any $d = d(n)$ with $ω(1) \le d(n) \le O(\frac{\log n}{\log\log n})$, would separate the algebraic complexity classes VNC$^1$ and VNP.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_01227
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multiquadratic Sum-of-Squares Lower Bounds Imply VNC$^1$ $\neq$ VNP
Rossman, Benjamin
Zhu, Davidson
Computational Complexity
The \emph{sum-of-squares (SoS) complexity} of a $d$-multiquadratic polynomial $f$ (quadratic in each of $d$ blocks of $n$ variables) is the minimum $s$ such that $f = \sum_{i=1}^s g_i^2$ with each $g_i$ $d$-multilinear. In the case $d=2$, Hrubeš, Wigderson and Yehudayoff (2011) showed that an $n^{1+Ω(1)}$ lower bound on the SoS complexity of explicit biquadratic polynomials implies an exponential lower bound for non-commutative arithmetic circuits. In this paper, we establish an analogous connection between general \emph{multiquadratic sum-of-squares} and \emph{commutative arithmetic formulas}. Specifically, we show that an $n^{d-o(\log d)}$ lower bound on the SoS complexity of explicit $d$-multiquadratic polynomials, for any $d = d(n)$ with $ω(1) \le d(n) \le O(\frac{\log n}{\log\log n})$, would separate the algebraic complexity classes VNC$^1$ and VNP.
title Multiquadratic Sum-of-Squares Lower Bounds Imply VNC$^1$ $\neq$ VNP
topic Computational Complexity
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.01227