Near-Optimal Space Lower Bounds for Streaming CSPs

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Fei, Yumou, Minzer, Dor, Wang, Shuo
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Fei, Yumou
Minzer, Dor
Wang, Shuo
author_facet Fei, Yumou
Minzer, Dor
Wang, Shuo
contents In a streaming constraint satisfaction problem (streaming CSP), a $p$-pass algorithm receives the constraints of an instance sequentially, making $p$ passes over the input in a fixed order, with the goal of approximating the maximum fraction of satisfiable constraints. We show near optimal space lower bounds for streaming CSPs, improving upon prior works. (1) Fei, Minzer and Wang (\textit{STOC 2026}) showed that for any CSP, the basic linear program defines a threshold $α_{\mathrm{LP}}\in [0,1]$ such that, for any $\varepsilon > 0$, an $(α_{\mathrm{LP}} - \varepsilon)$-approximation can be achieved using constant passes and polylogarithmic space, whereas achieving $(α_{\mathrm{LP}} + \varepsilon)$-approximation requires $Ω(n^{1/3}/p)$ space. We improve this lower bound to $Ω(\sqrt{n}/p)$, which is nearly tight for a gap version of the problem. (2) For $p=o(\log n)$, we further strengthen the lower bound to $Ω(n\cdot2^{-O_{\varepsilon}(p)})$. Combined with existing algorithmic results, this shows that $α_{\mathrm{LP}}$ is not only the limit of multi-pass polylogarithmic-space algorithms, but also the limit of single-pass sublinear-space algorithms on bounded-degree instances. (3) For certain CSPs, we show that there exists $α< 1$ such that achieving an $α$-approximation requires $Ω(n/p)$ space. Our proofs are Fourier analytic, building on the techniques of Fei, Minzer and Wang (\textit{STOC 2026}) and the Fourier-$\ell_1$-based lower bound method of Kapralov and Krachun (\textit{STOC 2019}).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_01400
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Near-Optimal Space Lower Bounds for Streaming CSPs
Fei, Yumou
Minzer, Dor
Wang, Shuo
Computational Complexity
Data Structures and Algorithms
In a streaming constraint satisfaction problem (streaming CSP), a $p$-pass algorithm receives the constraints of an instance sequentially, making $p$ passes over the input in a fixed order, with the goal of approximating the maximum fraction of satisfiable constraints. We show near optimal space lower bounds for streaming CSPs, improving upon prior works. (1) Fei, Minzer and Wang (\textit{STOC 2026}) showed that for any CSP, the basic linear program defines a threshold $α_{\mathrm{LP}}\in [0,1]$ such that, for any $\varepsilon > 0$, an $(α_{\mathrm{LP}} - \varepsilon)$-approximation can be achieved using constant passes and polylogarithmic space, whereas achieving $(α_{\mathrm{LP}} + \varepsilon)$-approximation requires $Ω(n^{1/3}/p)$ space. We improve this lower bound to $Ω(\sqrt{n}/p)$, which is nearly tight for a gap version of the problem. (2) For $p=o(\log n)$, we further strengthen the lower bound to $Ω(n\cdot2^{-O_{\varepsilon}(p)})$. Combined with existing algorithmic results, this shows that $α_{\mathrm{LP}}$ is not only the limit of multi-pass polylogarithmic-space algorithms, but also the limit of single-pass sublinear-space algorithms on bounded-degree instances. (3) For certain CSPs, we show that there exists $α< 1$ such that achieving an $α$-approximation requires $Ω(n/p)$ space. Our proofs are Fourier analytic, building on the techniques of Fei, Minzer and Wang (\textit{STOC 2026}) and the Fourier-$\ell_1$-based lower bound method of Kapralov and Krachun (\textit{STOC 2019}).
title Near-Optimal Space Lower Bounds for Streaming CSPs
topic Computational Complexity
Data Structures and Algorithms
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.01400