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The problem of testing monotonicity for Boolean functions on the hypergrid, $$f:[n]^d \to \{0,1\}$$ is a classic topic in property testing. When $n=2$, the domain is the hypercube. For the hypercube case, a breakthrough result of Khot-Minzer-Safra (FOCS 2015) gave a non-adaptive, one-sided tester making $$\otilde(\eps^{-2}\sqrt{d})$$ queries. Up to polylog $$d$$ and $$\eps$$ factors, this bound matches the $$\widetilde{\Omega}(\sqrt{d})$$-query non-adaptive lower bound (Chen-De-Servedio-Tan (STOC 2015), Chen-Waingarten-Xie (STOC 2017)). For any $n > 2$, the optimal non-adaptive complexity was unknown. A previous result of the authors achieves a $$\otilde(d^{5/6})$$-query upper bound (SODA 2020), quite far from the $$\sqrt{d}$$ bound for the hypercube. In this paper, we resolve the non-adaptive complexity of monotonicity testing for all constant $$n$$, up to $$\poly(\eps^{-1}\log d)$$ factors. Specifically, we give a non-adaptive, one-sided monotonicity tester making $$\otilde(\eps^{-2}n\sqrt{d})$$ queries. From a technical standpoint, we prove new directed isoperimetric theorems over the hypergrid $[n]^d$. These results generalize the celebrated directed Talagrand inequalities that were only known for the hypercube.
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This content will become publicly available on January 1, 2026
Directed Hypercube Routing, a Generalized Lehman-Ron Theorem, and Monotonicity Testing
Motivated by applications to monotonicity testing, Lehman and Ron (JCTA, 2001) proved the existence of a collection of vertex disjoint paths between comparable sub-level sets in the directed hypercube. The main technical contribution of this paper is a new proof method that yields a generalization of their theorem: we prove the existence of two edge-disjoint collections of vertex disjoint paths. Our main conceptual contributions are conjectures on directed hypercube flows with simultaneous vertex and edge capacities of which our generalized Lehman-Ron theorem is a special case. We show that these conjectures imply directed isoperimetric theorems, and in particular, the robust directed Talagrand inequality due to Khot, Minzer, and Safra (SIAM J. on Comp, 2018). These isoperimetric inequalities, that relate the directed surface area (of a set in the hypercube) to its distance to monotonicity, have been crucial in obtaining the best monotonicity testers for Boolean functions. We believe our conjectures pave the way towards combinatorial proofs of these directed isoperimetry theorems.
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- PAR ID:
- 10579866
- Editor(s):
- Meka, Raghu
- Publisher / Repository:
- Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik
- Date Published:
- Volume:
- 325
- ISSN:
- 1868-8969
- ISBN:
- 978-3-95977-361-4
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 34:1-34:15
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Monotonicity testing isoperimetric inequalities hypercube routing Theory of computation → Streaming, sublinear and near linear time algorithms Theory of computation → Randomness, geometry and discrete structures
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: 15 pages; 977055 bytes Other: application/pdf
- Size(s):
- 15 pages 977055 bytes
- Right(s):
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license; info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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