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The Arithmetic Circuit Combinatorial Nullstellensatz is NP-hard
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Announce Type: new Abstract: A multivariate polynomial on $n$ variables $x_1,\ldots,x_n$ of total degree $n$ over $\mathbf{Z}_2$ containing the multilinear monomial $\prod_{i=1}^n x_i$ is by the combinatorial nullstellensatz Comput., 1999] known to always have a nonroot. We show that there cannot be a randomised polynomial time algorithm that given an arithmetic circuit of polynomial size formally computing such a polynomial, locates a nonroot with constant nonzero probability unless RP=NP.
arXiv:2606.08646v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: A multivariate polynomial on $n$ variables $x_1,\ldots,x_n$ of total degree $n$ over $\mathbf{Z}_2$ containing the multilinear monomial $\prod_{i=1}^n x_i$ is by the combinatorial nullstellensatz [Alon, Comb. Probab. Comput., 1999] known to always have a nonroot. We show that there cannot be a randomised polynomial time algorithm that given an arithmetic circuit of polynomial size formally computing such a polynomial, locates a nonroot with constant nonzero probability unless RP=NP. The result holds even when the individual degree of every variable in the input polynomial is at most two.