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We consider the problem of computing succinct encodings of lists of generators for invariant rings for group actions. Mulmuley conjectured that there are always polynomial sized such encodings for invariant rings of SL_n(C)-representations. We provide simple examples that disprove this conjecture (under standard complexity assumptions). We develop a general framework, denoted algebraic circuit search problems, that captures many important problems in algebraic complexity and computational invariant theory. This framework encompasses various proof systems in proof complexity and some of the central problems in invariant theory as exposed by the Geometric Complexity Theory (GCT) program, including the aforementioned problem of computing succinct encodings for generators for invariant rings. 

We show that Cutting Planes (CP) proofs are hard to find: Given an unsatisfiable formula F, It is -hard to find a CP refutation of F in time polynomial in the length of the shortest such refutation; and unless Gap-Hitting-Set admits a nontrivial algorithm, one cannot find a tree-like CP refutation of F in time polynomial in the length of the shortest such refutation. The first result extends the recent breakthrough of Atserias and M'uller (FOCS 2019) that established an analogous result for Resolution. Our proofs rely on two new lifting theorems: (1) Dag-like lifting for gadgets with many output bits. (2) Tree-like lifting that simulates an r-round protocol with gadgets of query complexity O(r). 

A function f∶{0,1}n→ {0,1} is called an approximate AND-homomorphism if choosing x,y∈n uniformly at random, we have that f(x∧ y) = f(x)∧ f(y) with probability at least 1−ε, where x∧ y = (x1∧ y1,…,xn∧ yn). We prove that if f∶ {0,1}n → {0,1} is an approximate AND-homomorphism, then f is δ-close to either a constant function or an AND function, where δ(ε) → 0 as ε→ 0. This improves on a result of Nehama, who proved a similar statement in which δ depends on n. Our theorem implies a strong result on judgement aggregation in computational social choice. In the language of social choice, our result shows that if f is ε-close to satisfying judgement aggregation, then it is δ(ε)-close to an oligarchy (the name for the AND function in social choice theory). This improves on Nehama’s result, in which δ decays polynomially with n. Our result follows from a more general one, in which we characterize approximate solutions to the eigenvalue equation f = λ g, where is the downwards noise operator f(x) = y[f(x ∧ y)], f is [0,1]-valued, and g is {0,1}-valued. We identify all exact solutions to this equation, and show that any approximate solution in which f and λ g are close is close to an exact solution. 

Motivated by problems in algebraic complexity theory (e.g., matrix multiplication) and extremal combinatorics (e.g., the cap set problem and the sunflower problem), we introduce the geometric rank as a new tool in the study of tensors and hypergraphs. We prove that the geometric rank is an upper bound on the subrank of tensors and the independence number of hypergraphs. We prove that the geometric rank is smaller than the slice rank of Tao, and relate geometric rank to the analytic rank of Gowers and Wolf in an asymptotic fashion. As a first application, we use geometric rank to prove a tight upper bound on the (border) subrank of the matrix multiplication tensors, matching Strassen's well-known lower bound from 1987.