Abstract

In this paper we consider the problem of determining whether an unknown arithmetic circuit, for which we have oracle access, computes the identically zero polynomial. This problem is known as the black-box polynomial identity testing (PIT) problem. Our focus is on polynomials that can be written in the form f(¯x) = ∑ k i=1 hi(¯x) · gi(¯x), where each hi is a polynomial that depends on only ρ linear functions, and each gi is a product of linear functions (when hi = 1, for each i, then we get the class of depth-3 circuits with k multiplication gates, also known as ΣΠΣ(k) circuits, but the general case is much richer). When maxi(deg(hi · gi)) = d we say that f is computable by a ΣΠΣ(k, d, ρ) circuit. We obtain the following results. 1. A deterministic black-box identity testing algorithm for ΣΠΣ(k, d, ρ) circuits that runs in quasi-polynomial time (for ρ = polylog(n + d)). In particular this gives the first black-box quasi-polynomial time PIT algorithm for depth-3 circuits with k multiplication gates. 2. A deterministic black-box identity testing algorithm for read-k ΣΠΣ circuits (depth-3 circuits where each variable appears at most k times) that runs in time n 2O(k2). In particular

Citations