Complexity Classes Arising from Circuits over Finite Algebraic Structures

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kawałek, Piotr, Krzaczkowski, Jacek
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Kawałek, Piotr
Krzaczkowski, Jacek
author_facet Kawałek, Piotr
Krzaczkowski, Jacek
contents Most classical results in circuit complexity theory concern circuits over the Boolean domain. Besides their simplicity and the ease of comparing different languages, the actual architecture of computers is also an important motivating factor. On the other hand, by restricting attention to Boolean circuits, we lose sight of the much richer landscape of circuits over larger domains. Our goal is to bridge these two worlds: to use deep algebraic tools to obtain results in computational complexity theory, including circuit complexity, and to apply results from computational complexity to gain a better understanding of the structure of finite algebras. In this paper, we propose a unifying algebraic framework which we believe will help achieve this goal. Our work is inspired by branching programs and nonuniform deterministic automata introduced by Barrington, as well as by their generalization proposed by Idziak et al. We begin our investigation by studying the languages recognized by natural classes of algebraic structures. In particular, we characterize language classes recognized by circuits over simple algebras and over algebras from congruence modular varieties.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_21831
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Complexity Classes Arising from Circuits over Finite Algebraic Structures
Kawałek, Piotr
Krzaczkowski, Jacek
Computational Complexity
F.1.3; F.4.3
Most classical results in circuit complexity theory concern circuits over the Boolean domain. Besides their simplicity and the ease of comparing different languages, the actual architecture of computers is also an important motivating factor. On the other hand, by restricting attention to Boolean circuits, we lose sight of the much richer landscape of circuits over larger domains. Our goal is to bridge these two worlds: to use deep algebraic tools to obtain results in computational complexity theory, including circuit complexity, and to apply results from computational complexity to gain a better understanding of the structure of finite algebras. In this paper, we propose a unifying algebraic framework which we believe will help achieve this goal. Our work is inspired by branching programs and nonuniform deterministic automata introduced by Barrington, as well as by their generalization proposed by Idziak et al. We begin our investigation by studying the languages recognized by natural classes of algebraic structures. In particular, we characterize language classes recognized by circuits over simple algebras and over algebras from congruence modular varieties.
title Complexity Classes Arising from Circuits over Finite Algebraic Structures
topic Computational Complexity
F.1.3; F.4.3
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.21831