On reducing factorization to the discrete logarithm problem modulo a composite

The discrete logarithm problem modulo a composite??abbreviate it as DLPC??is the following: given a (possibly) composite integer n??? 1 and elements ${a, b \in \mathbb{Z}_n^*}$ , determine an ${x \in \mathbb{N}}$ satisfying a ^x ?=?b if one exists. The question whether integer factoring can be reduced in deterministic polynomial time to the DLPC remains open. In this paper we consider the problem ${{\rm DLPC}_\varepsilon}$ obtained by adding in the DLPC the constraint ${x\le (1-\varepsilon)n}$ , where ${\varepsilon}$ is an arbitrary fixed number, ${0 < \varepsilon\le\frac{1}{2}}$ . We prove that factoring n reduces in deterministic subexponential time to the ${{\rm DLPC}_\varepsilon}$ with ${O_\varepsilon((\ln n)^2)}$ queries for moduli less or equal to n.     

Numerical solutions of AXB = C for mirrorsymmetric matrix X under a specified submatrix constraint

Mirrorsymmetric matrices, which are the iteraction matrices of mirrorsymmetric structures, have important application in studying odd/even-mode decomposition of symmetric multiconductor transmission lines (MTL). In this paper we present an efficient algorithm for minimizing ${\|AXB-C\|}$ where ${\|\cdot\|}$ is the Frobenius norm, ${A\in \mathbb{R}^{m\times n}}$ , ${B\in \mathbb{R}^{n\times s}}$ , ${C\in \mathbb{R}^{m\times s}}$ and ${X\in \mathbb{R}^{n\times n}}$ is mirrorsymmetric with a specified central submatrix [x _ij ] _{r≤i, j≤n-r} . Our algorithm produces a suitable X such that AXB = C in finitely many steps, if such an X exists. We show that the algorithm is stable any case, and we give results of numerical experiments that support this claim.     

Pseudorandom generators for CC0[p] and the Fourier spectrum of low-degree polynomials over finite fields

In this paper, we give the first construction of a pseudorandom generator, with seed length O(log n), for CC⁰[p], the class of constant-depth circuits with unbounded fan-in MOD _p gates, for some prime p. More accurately, the seed length of our generator is O(log n) for any constant error ${\epsilon > 0}$ . In fact, we obtain our generator by fooling distributions generated by low-degree polynomials, over ${\mathbb{F}_p}$ , when evaluated on the Boolean cube. This result significantly extends previous constructions that either required a long seed (Luby et al. 1993) or could only fool the distribution generated by linear functions over ${\mathbb{F}_p}$ , when evaluated on the Boolean cube (Lovett et al. 2009; Meka & Zuckerman 2009). En route of constructing our PRG, we prove two structural results for low-degree polynomials over finite fields that can be of independent interest.

1. Let f be an n-variate degree d polynomial over ${\mathbb{F}_p}$ . Then, for every ${\epsilon > 0}$ , there exists a subset ${S \subset [n]}$ , whose size depends only on d and ${\epsilon}$ , such that ${\sum_{\alpha \in \mathbb{F}_p^n: \alpha \ne 0, \alpha_S=0}|\hat{f}(\alpha)|^2 \leq \epsilon}$ . Namely, there is a constant size subset S such that the total weight of the nonzero Fourier coefficients that do not involve any variable from S is small.
2. Let f be an n-variate degree d polynomial over ${\mathbb{F}_p}$ . If the distribution of f when applied to uniform zero–one bits is ${\epsilon}$ -far (in statistical distance) from its distribution when applied to biased bits, then for every ${\delta > 0}$ , f can be approximated over zero–one bits, up to error δ, by a function of a small number (depending only on ${\epsilon,\delta}$ and d) of lower degree polynomials.

     

On the Exact Complexity of Evaluating Quantified k -CNF

We relate the exponential complexities 2 ^s(k)n of $\textsc {$k$-sat}$ and the exponential complexity $2^{s(\textsc {eval}(\mathrm {\varPi }_{2} 3\textsc {-cnf}))n}$ of $\textsc {eval}(\mathrm {\varPi }_{2} 3\textsc {-cnf})$ (the problem of evaluating quantified formulas of the form $\forall\vec{x} \exists\vec{y} \textsc {F}(\vec {x},\vec{y})$ where F is a 3-cnf in $\vec{x}$ variables and $\vec{y}$ variables) and show that s(∞) (the limit of s(k) as k→∞) is at most $s(\textsc {eval}(\mathrm {\varPi }_{2} 3\textsc {-cnf}))$ . Therefore, if we assume the Strong Exponential-Time Hypothesis, then there is no algorithm for $\textsc {eval}(\mathrm {\varPi }_{2} 3\textsc {-cnf})$ running in time 2 ^cn with c<1. On the other hand, a nontrivial exponential-time algorithm for $\textsc {eval}(\mathrm {\varPi }_{2} 3\textsc {-cnf})$ would provide a $\textsc {$k$-sat}$ solver with better exponent than all current algorithms for sufficiently large k. We also show several syntactic restrictions of the evaluation problem $\textsc {eval}(\mathrm {\varPi }_{2} 3\textsc {-cnf})$ have nontrivial algorithms, and provide strong evidence that the hardest cases of $\textsc {eval}(\mathrm {\varPi }_{2} 3\textsc {-cnf})$ must have a mixture of clauses of two types: one universally quantified literal and two existentially quantified literals, or only existentially quantified literals. Moreover, the hardest cases must have at least n?o(n) universally quantified variables, and hence only o(n) existentially quantified variables. Our proofs involve the construction of efficient minimally unsatisfiable $\textsc {$k$-cnf}$ s and the application of the Sparsification lemma.     

Topology-Preserving Conditions for 2D Digital Images Under Rigid Transformations

In the continuous domain $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ , rigid transformations are topology-preserving operations. Due to digitization, this is not the case when considering digital images, i.e., images defined on $\mathbb{Z}^{n}$ . In this article, we begin to investigate this problem by studying conditions for digital images to preserve their topological properties under all rigid transformations on $\mathbb{Z}^{2}$ . Based on (i) the recently introduced notion of DRT graph, and (ii) the notion of simple point, we propose an algorithm for evaluating digital images topological invariance.     

Arithmetizing Classes Around \textsf{NC} 1 and \textsf{L}

The parallel complexity class $\textsf{NC}$ ¹ has many equivalent models such as polynomial size formulae and bounded width branching programs. Caussinus et al. (J. Comput. Syst. Sci. 57:200–212, 1992) considered arithmetizations of two of these classes, $\textsf{\#NC}$ ¹ and $\textsf{\#BWBP}$ . We further this study to include arithmetization of other classes. In particular, we show that counting paths in branching programs over visibly pushdown automata is in $\textsf{FLogDCFL}$ , while counting proof-trees in logarithmic width formulae has the same power as $\textsf{\#NC}$ ¹. We also consider polynomial-degree restrictions of $\textsf{SC}$ ⁱ , denoted $\textsf{sSC}$ ⁱ , and show that the Boolean class $\textsf{sSC}$ ¹ is sandwiched between $\textsf{NC}$ ¹ and $\textsf{L}$ , whereas $\textsf{sSC}$ ⁰ equals $\textsf{NC}$ ¹. On the other hand, the arithmetic class $\textsf{\#sSC}$ ⁰ contains $\textsf{\#BWBP}$ and is contained in $\textsf{FL}$ , and $\textsf{\#sSC}$ ¹ contains $\textsf{\#NC}$ ¹ and is in $\textsf{SC}$ ². We also investigate some closure properties of the newly defined arithmetic classes.     

On matrices, automata, and double counting in constraint programming

Matrix models are ubiquitous for constraint problems. Many such problems have a matrix of variables $\mathcal{M}$ , with the same constraint C defined by a finite-state automaton $\mathcal{A}$ on each row of $\mathcal{M}$ and a global cardinality constraint $\mathit{gcc}$ on each column of $\mathcal{M}$ . We give two methods for deriving, by double counting, necessary conditions on the cardinality variables of the $\mathit{gcc}$ constraints from the automaton $\mathcal{A}$ . The first method yields linear necessary conditions and simple arithmetic constraints. The second method introduces the cardinality automaton, which abstracts the overall behaviour of all the row automata and can be encoded by a set of linear constraints. We also provide a domain consistency filtering algorithm for the conjunction of lexicographic ordering constraints between adjacent rows of $\mathcal{M}$ and (possibly different) automaton constraints on the rows. We evaluate the impact of our methods in terms of runtime and search effort on a large set of nurse rostering problem instances.     

On the class of λ-statistically convergent difference sequences of fuzzy numbers

In this study, we introduce the sets $\left[ V,\lambda ,p\right] _{\Updelta }^{{\mathcal{F}}},\left[ C,1,p\right] _{\Updelta }^{{\mathcal{F}}}$ and examine their relations with the classes of $ S_{\lambda }\left( \Updelta ,{\mathcal{F}}\right)$ and $ S_{\mu }\left( \Updelta ,{\mathcal{F}}\right)$ of sequences for the sequences $\left( \lambda _{n}\right)$ and $\left( \mu _{n}\right) , 0<p<\infty $ and difference sequences of fuzzy numbers.     

Rounds in Combinatorial Search

A set system $\mathcal{H} \subseteq2^{[m]}$ is said to be separating if for every pair of distinct elements x,y∈[m] there exists a set $H\in\mathcal{H}$ such that H contains exactly one of them. The search complexity of a separating system $\mathcal{H} \subseteq 2^{[m]}$ is the minimum number of questions of type “x∈H?” (where $H \in\mathcal{H}$ ) needed in the worst case to determine a hidden element x∈[m]. If we receive the answer before asking a new question then we speak of the adaptive complexity, denoted by $\mathrm{c} (\mathcal{H})$ ; if the questions are all fixed beforehand then we speak of the non-adaptive complexity, denoted by $\mathrm{c}_{na} (\mathcal{H})$ . If we are allowed to ask the questions in at most k rounds then we speak of the k-round complexity of $\mathcal{H}$ , denoted by $\mathrm{c}_{k} (\mathcal{H})$ . It is clear that $|\mathcal{H}| \geq\mathrm{c}_{na} (\mathcal{H}) = \mathrm{c}_{1} (\mathcal{H}) \geq\mathrm{c}_{2} (\mathcal{H}) \geq\cdots\geq\mathrm{c}_{m} (\mathcal{H}) = \mathrm{c} (\mathcal{H})$ . A group of problems raised by G.O.H. Katona is to characterize those separating systems for which some of these inequalities are tight. In this paper we are discussing set systems $\mathcal{H}$ with the property $|\mathcal{H}| = \mathrm{c}_{k} (\mathcal{H}) $ for any k≥3. We give a necessary condition for this property by proving a theorem about traces of hypergraphs which also has its own interest.     

Self-Referential Justifications in Epistemic Logic

This paper is devoted to the study of self-referential proofs and/or justifications, i.e., valid proofs that prove statements about these same proofs. The goal is to investigate whether such self-referential justifications are present in the reasoning described by standard modal epistemic logics such as  $\mathsf{S4}$ . We argue that the modal language by itself is too coarse to capture this concept of self-referentiality and that the language of justification logic can serve as an adequate refinement. We consider well-known modal logics of knowledge/belief and show, using explicit justifications, that $\mathsf{S4}$ , $\mathsf{D4}$ , $\mathsf{K4}$ , and  $\mathsf{T}$ with their respective justification counterparts  $\mathsf{LP}$ , $\mathsf{JD4}$ , $\mathsf{J4}$ , and  $\mathsf{JT}$ describe knowledge that is self-referential in some strong sense. We also demonstrate that self-referentiality can be avoided for  $\mathsf{K}$ and  $\mathsf{D}$ . In order to prove the former result, we develop a machinery of minimal evidence functions used to effectively build models for justification logics. We observe that the calculus used to construct the minimal functions axiomatizes the reflected fragments of justification logics. We also discuss difficulties that result from an introduction of negative introspection.     

2–2 composites based on [011]-poled relaxor-ferroelectric single crystals: analysis of the piezoelectric anisotropy and squared figures of merit for energy harvesting applications

In this paper we explore the effect of the orientation of the main crystallographic axes in relaxor-ferroelectric single crystals (SCs) on the piezoelectric anisotropy and squared figures of merit of 2–2 parallel-connected SC/auxetic polymer composites. The single-crystal component for the composite is chosen from the perovskite-type solid solutions with compositions near the morphotropic phase boundary and poled along the perovskite unit-cell [011] direction (mm ² symmetry of domain-engineered SCs). The orientation of the main crystallographic axes in the single-crystal component is observed to strongly influence the piezoelectric coefficients $d_{3j}^{*}$ , squared figures of merit $d_{3j}^{*}$ $g_{3j}^{*}$ , electromechanical coupling factors $k_{3j}^{*}$ , and hydrostatic analogs of these parameters of the 2–2 composite. Inequalities $| {d_{33}^{*} /d_{3f}^{*} } | > 5$ and $| {k_{33}^{*} /k_{3f}^{*} } | > 5$ (f = 1 and 2) are achieved at specific orientations of the main crystallographic axes due to the significant anisotropy of the elastic and piezoelectric properties of the single-crystal component. The use of an auxetic polyethylene (a polymer component with a negative Poisson’s ratio) leads to a significant increase in the hydrostatic parameters. Particular advantages of such composites over conventional ceramic/polymer composites are taken into account for transducer, hydroacoustic, energy harvesting, and other applications.     

A new PAC bound for intersection-closed concept classes

For hyper-rectangles in $\mathbb{R}^{d}$ Auer (1997) proved a PAC bound of $O(\frac{1}{\varepsilon}(d+\log \frac{1}{\delta}))$ , where $\varepsilon$ and $\delta$ are the accuracy and confidence parameters. It is still an open question whether one can obtain the same bound for intersection-closed concept classes of VC-dimension $d$ in general. We present a step towards a solution of this problem showing on one hand a new PAC bound of $O(\frac{1}{\varepsilon}(d\log d + \log \frac{1}{\delta}))$ for arbitrary intersection-closed concept classes, complementing the well-known bounds $O(\frac{1}{\varepsilon}(\log \frac{1}{\delta}+d\log \frac{1}{\varepsilon}))$ and $O(\frac{d}{\varepsilon}\log \frac{1}{\delta})$ of Blumer et al. and (1989) and Haussler, Littlestone and Warmuth (1994). Our bound is established using the closure algorithm, that generates as its hypothesis the intersection of all concepts that are consistent with the positive training examples. On the other hand, we show that many intersection-closed concept classes including e.g. maximum intersection-closed classes satisfy an additional combinatorial property that allows a proof of the optimal bound of $O(\frac{1}{\varepsilon}(d+\log \frac{1}{\delta}))$ . For such improved bounds the choice of the learning algorithm is crucial, as there are consistent learning algorithms that need $\Omega(\frac{1}{\varepsilon}(d\log\frac{1}{\varepsilon} +\log\frac{1}{\delta}))$ examples to learn some particular maximum intersection-closed concept classes.     

Polyadic tense \theta-valued \Lukasiewicz–Moisil algebras

In this paper we introduce the polyadic tense $\theta$ -valued $\L$ ukasiewicz–Moisil algebras (=polyadic tense $\hbox{LM}_{\theta}$ -algebras), as a common generalization of polyadic tense Boolean algebras and polyadic $\hbox{LM}_{\theta}$ -algebras. Our main result is a representation theorem for polyadic tense $\hbox{LM}_{\theta}$ -algebras.     

A complexity perspective on entailment of parameterized linear constraints

Extending linear constraints by admitting parameters allows for more abstract problem modeling and reasoning. A lot of focus has been given to conducting research that demonstrates the usefulness of parameterized linear constraints and implementing tools that utilize their modeling strength. However, there is no approach that considers basic theoretical tools related to such constraints that allow for reasoning over them. Hence, in this paper we introduce satisfiability with respect to polyhedral sets and entailment for the class of parameterized linear constraints. In order to study the computational complexities of these problems, we relate them to classes of quantified linear implications. The problem of satisfiability with respect to polyhedral sets is then shown to be co- $\mathbb{NP}$ hard. The entailment problem is also shown to be co- $\mathbb{NP}$ hard in its general form. Nevertheless, we characterize some subclasses for which this problem is in ?. Furthermore, we examine a weakening and a strengthening extension of the entailment problem. The weak entailment problem is proved to be $\mathbb{NP}$ complete. On the other hand, the strong entailment problem is shown to be co- $\mathbb{NP}$ hard.     

Delayed theory combination vs. Nelson-Oppen for satisfiability modulo theories: a comparative analysis

Most state-of-the-art approaches for Satisfiability Modulo Theories $(SMT(\mathcal{T}))$ rely on the integration between a SAT solver and a decision procedure for sets of literals in the background theory $\mathcal{T} (\mathcal{T}{\text {-}}solver)$ . Often $\mathcal{T}$ is the combination $\mathcal{T}_1 \cup \mathcal{T}_2$ of two (or more) simpler theories $(SMT(\mathcal{T}_1 \cup \mathcal{T}_2))$ , s.t. the specific ${\mathcal{T}_i}{\text {-}}solvers$ must be combined. Up to a few years ago, the standard approach to $SMT(\mathcal{T}_1 \cup \mathcal{T}_2)$ was to integrate the SAT solver with one combined $\mathcal{T}_1 \cup \mathcal{T}_2{\text {-}}solver$ , obtained from two distinct ${\mathcal{T}_i}{\text {-}}solvers$ by means of evolutions of Nelson and Oppen’s (NO) combination procedure, in which the ${\mathcal{T}_i}{\text {-}}solvers$ deduce and exchange interface equalities. Nowadays many state-of-the-art SMT solvers use evolutions of a more recent $SMT(\mathcal{T}_1 \cup \mathcal{T}_2)$ procedure called Delayed Theory Combination (DTC), in which each ${\mathcal{T}_i}{\text {-}}solver$ interacts directly and only with the SAT solver, in such a way that part or all of the (possibly very expensive) reasoning effort on interface equalities is delegated to the SAT solver itself. In this paper we present a comparative analysis of DTC vs. NO for $SMT(\mathcal{T}_1 \cup \mathcal{T}_2)$ . On the one hand, we explain the advantages of DTC in exploiting the power of modern SAT solvers to reduce the search. On the other hand, we show that the extra amount of Boolean search required to the SAT solver can be controlled. In fact, we prove two novel theoretical results, for both convex and non-convex theories and for different deduction capabilities of the ${\mathcal{T}_i}{\text {-}}solvers$ , which relate the amount of extra Boolean search required to the SAT solver by DTC with the number of deductions and case-splits required to the ${\mathcal{T}_i}{\text {-}}solvers$ by NO in order to perform the same tasks: (i) under the same hypotheses of deduction capabilities of the ${\mathcal{T}_i}{\text {-}}solvers$ required by NO, DTC causes no extra Boolean search; (ii) using ${\mathcal{T}_i}{\text {-}}solvers$ with limited or no deduction capabilities, the extra Boolean search required can be reduced down to a negligible amount by controlling the quality of the $\mathcal{T}$ -conflict sets returned by the ${\mathcal{T}_i}{\text {-}}solvers$ .     

Digital Imaging: A Unified Topological Framework

In this article, a tractable modus operandi is proposed to model a (binary) digital image (i.e., an image defined on ? ⁿ and equipped with a standard pair of adjacencies) as an image defined in the space ( $\mathbb{F}^{n}$ ) of cubical complexes. In particular, it is shown that all the standard pairs of adjacencies (namely the (4,8) and (8,4)-adjacencies in ?², the (6,18), (18,6), (6,26), and (26,6)-adjacencies in ?³, and more generally the (2n,3 ⁿ ?1) and (3 ⁿ ?1,2n)-adjacencies in ? ⁿ ) can then be correctly modelled in $\mathbb{F}^{n}$ . Moreover, it is established that the digital fundamental group of a digital image in ? ⁿ is isomorphic to the fundamental group of its corresponding image in $\mathbb{F}^{n}$ , thus proving the topological correctness of the proposed approach. From these results, it becomes possible to establish links between topology-oriented methods developed either in classical digital spaces (? ⁿ ) or cubical complexes ( $\mathbb{F}^{n}$ ), and to potentially unify some of them.     

Quantum discord in spin systems with dipole–dipole interaction

The behavior of total quantum correlations (discord) in dimers consisting of dipolar-coupled spins 1/2 are studied. We found that the discord $Q=0$ at absolute zero temperature. As the temperature $T$ increases, the quantum correlations in the system increase at first from zero to its maximum and then decrease to zero according to the asymptotic law $T^{-2}$ . It is also shown that in absence of external magnetic field $B$ , the classical correlations $C$ at $T\rightarrow 0$ are, vice versa, maximal. Our calculations predict that in crystalline gypsum $\hbox {CaSO}_{4}\cdot \hbox {2H}_{2}{\hbox {O}}$ the value of natural $(B=0)$ quantum discord between nuclear spins of hydrogen atoms is maximal at the temperature of 0.644  $\upmu $ K, and for 1,2-dichloroethane $\hbox {H}_{2}$ ClC– $\hbox {CH}_{2}{\hbox {Cl}}$ the discord achieves the largest value at $T=0.517~\upmu $ K. In both cases, the discord equals $Q\approx 0.083$  bit/dimer what is $8.3\,\%$ of its upper limit in two-qubit systems. We estimate also that for gypsum at room temperature $Q\sim 10^{-18}$  bit/dimer, and for 1,2-dichloroethane at $T=90$  K the discord is $Q\sim 10^{-17}$  bit per a dimer.     

A note on reverse scheduling with maximum lateness objective

The inverse and reverse counterparts of the single-machine scheduling problem $1||L_{\max }$ are studied in [2], in which the complexity classification is provided for various combinations of adjustable parameters (due dates and processing times) and for five different types of norm: $\ell _{1},\ell _{2},\ell _{\infty },\ell _{H}^{\Sigma } $ , and $\ell _{H}^{\max }$ . It appears that the $O(n^{2})$ -time algorithm for the reverse problem with adjustable due dates contains a flaw. In this note, we present the structural properties of the reverse model, establishing a link with the forward scheduling problem with due dates and deadlines. For the four norms $\ell _{1},\ell _{\infty },\ell _{H}^{\Sigma }$ , and $ \ell _{H}^{\max }$ , the complexity results are derived based on the properties of the corresponding forward problems, while the case of the norm $\ell _{2}$ is treated separately. As a by-product, we resolve an open question on the complexity of problem $1||\sum \alpha _{j}T_{j}^{2}$ .