The University of
Wanvi ck
|HEORY OF COMPUTATION
REPORT
NO. 16
NEltl BOIINI]S FOR FORMULA SIZE
II.
Department
of
University of
Computer Scjence
l^lan'.rick
COVENTRY CV4 7AL
ENGLAi'ID.
S. PATERSON
December 1976.
New
bounds on formula size*
11.
S. Paterson
University of
Abs
tract.
A
variety of
War:wick
theorems bounding the formula
size of rather
simple Boolean functions are described here for the first time.
The
principal results are irnproved lower
syme
tri c functions
and uPper
bounds
for
.
1. Introduction.
In preparing tny presentation to this
in nind the higir 1evel of
1977 GI-Conference
knowledge and expertise
I
have borne
in the audience at
such
a neeting. I resolved that it would be most appropriate to talk about
some
of the most recent research upon whiqh I
results ro be described
have been engaged. The
have been obtained by myself usually
in collaboration
wiEh others, notably Mike Fischer, Albert Meyer and Bill McColl, during the
past year or so.
appeared
One was completed
in published
BooLean
form.
function conplexity is a key area of theoretical conputer
science. Questions of actual
appear here
for
and
potential effieiency in computation
in their ultimately refined form. It is the sticking-place
many problems
automata
only a few days ago and none has yet
theory.
arising from circuit design, algorithmic analysis
The
principal
measures
of complexity for
and
Boolean functions
are circuit size, formula size and depth. Wtrile the first must be regarded
as the most fundament.al measure, it is an unhappy historical fact that no
lovrer bound non-linear
in the
nurnber
of
arguments has yet, been proved
the circuit size of an explicitly described function. This can be
juxtaposed
with the classical result that all but a vanishing fraction
* Invited lecture at
2nd GI Conference, Darnstadt 1977.
for
of
Boolean functions have exponential
circuit size. In contradistinction
several lower bound theorems have liberated formula size from this ttl-inear
strait-jacket", disclosing a richer structure of function complexities. It
is to be hoped that the present exploration into formula size will
overtaken
within the next
decade
be
by similar developrnents with respect to
circuit size.
The technical nature
to
assume
that the interested reader has some previous
definitions
explicitly,
of the results presented here makes it
and
knovrledge
reasonable
of
the
basic results, so for example I sha11 not define "formula"
For a brief survey of the field
may
I suggest [Pat 76]; for
a very ful1 accotrrt, [Sav 76] is to be recomxended.
2, Definitions.
Let B- {h : iort}n * [or1]] be the set of n-argument Boolean funcrions.
n
We
consider formulae for such functions conposed of argument variables
x1r...rXr,8rd arbitrary binary connectives from the full set 82.
We
find it
convenient to account the size of a formul-a as the nurnber of occurrences of
variables in it.
(The
alternative eount of the ntmber of connectives
result in a size of exactly one Less.)
The formula size F(h)
would
of a function
h e Bis defined to be the size of the shortest fornula representing t.
n
Our choice
of the whole of B, as the set of connectives is important
in that two kinds of
ones
and
for
distinguished. Str.o.Jrg.
contain either rOr (not-equivalence, sum modulo 2) or r=t (equivalence)
complete basis
glls ones contain neither.
are {Or+} and
{NAND}
Bn can be
Examples
of minimal strong and weak bases
respectively. Pratt [Pra 75] has demonstraEed that,
to within a constant factor in
formuLa
size, there are just two equivalence
classes of complete basesr the strong and the weak, and has quantified the
2
r
rnaximum
as
well
disparity
betvJeen
them. For the results presented here, we could
choose any strong complete basis.
The
set Sn of syryletriq ftmctions contains
those functions in
J
----- just
B
u
which depend only on the nrsrber of lfs among their arguments. Equivalently,
h e Bo is syuunetric if and only if there is a function q : {0r...1n} +'{011}1
the char:cteristic function of h, such'that for all. x,
h(x) = xn (xxr).
Hence we have
L
2t*1, as compared wirh lr-l
= z2n.
ltol
n' =
' ll'
To express lower and upper conplexity botnds trore succinctly the following
notation is convenient. Let f(n), g(n) be nonlregative-valued functions from
the natural nurnbers.
We
f(n) - O(g(n)) if
write
3a>0 such
that f(n)sa.g(n)
for alI sufficiently large n
f(n) - n(s(n)) if g(n) = o(f(n))
f(n) - O(g(n)) if f(n) = o(f(n))
3._S giporuk' s theo lsm
and
f(n)
= n(s(n)).
and_co r.o.{a_ries .
A sinple yer powerful theorem yielding Lol'er bornds of up to
g(nZ
on formula size is irnplicit in [Nec 66]. Suppose the argrnen,ts of
h e Br, to be partitioned into bloslg R1r...rRp.
arguments
Wtren
for
some
in all the block" *j, j f irare fixed to o or I in
result is a lej.qri.c-rion of h to Rrr
a.
i,
some
/tog
n)
some
the
way, the
function hr depending only on R..
Let mt--be the nurnber of different such hr for all possible fixations of
the other variables. In this notation the theorem is concisely expressed.
-r.h."olg
(Neciporuk) F(h) = ,(n,
rog
\i=1
r-).
7
This result establishes lower bounds for a variety of functions of interest.
Most applications have been
to functions with a rather combinatorial nature
such as rdeterrninantr [r1o 651, tmarriage problemt [HaS 72]
addressing schemes [Nec 66], [Pau 75J.
1\^ro
or indirect,
'corollaries of a
sonrewhat
different character have emerged recently.
rf we idenrify rhe n = rr cetts of a f:=
with the
arguments
array in r dirnensions
xlr...rxrrr then any predicate on patterns.of black and
white colourings of the cells corresponds with a function in 8.,. 0f
particular appeaI are.those predicates of a geometric or topologicaL natue.
'The predicate CONN!") e B- which
rn
is true if
and only
if the black cells of
the r-dimensional array are connected has been considered by Hodes [ttod 7O].
Thegrem (Paterson &
The
Eischer) f CCO,oU(l) = Q(n log n) fot r >.2.
proof uses Neciporukrs theorem applied with blocks of size 2s = O(.,l&t|.
By embedding
arbitrary pernutation connections
6elween
s of these ce1ls
and
the other s, we can show that at least s! restrictions are possible for
each
block. In the case r = 1, it is an easy observation that
r(coNNt:'r= tCtCtl")), where T, is the threshold fr:nction defined in
the next section.
With a sirnilar correspondence lre can identify 3 set of binary strings
*
of lengthnwitha function of Br,. For anyLS[, where X = t0r1], we
aefir,e e{n) e B' to be the function corresponding to the set L n In.
The
lower bounds on context-free language recognition proved by Hotz [t{ot 75]
and Mehlhorn [Meh
76] can be improved slightly as follows.
theorem There is a context-free
language
L such that
rCsf")) = n(nLllog n).
The l.anguage used
in the proof is defined
L = {o* 1w oo x* rR x* | w e l*1.
by
The stated bound results from Neciporukts theorem when we choose the
arguments
for
each block and
o* 1b,1b^...
LZ
where
set the other
arguments to impose a form
Lb 100x
brr...rb* are the block variables,
and m e2
logrn.
Each
block in
turn is thus forced into the r6le of rwt in the definition of L.
?
f-\
An upper bowrd of- O(n- 1og n) for F(t;"'), encouragingly close to
.lower bound proved,
O(n) formulae,
each
is
with a formula which is a disjunction of
corresponding to rfoldingt the string about some position.
demonstrable
string of L is detected by a formula where the fold is at the
of symmetry of w, w
Each
4._ Boglds. for.
Since
-sy.nu'negr_ic
ls-l
tm' -
when applied
f
,m+1, Neciporul<ts theorem produces only
to symnetric functions.
The
triwial
bor.mds
firsc non-linear lower bounds
are corollaries of the following general result.
for
",
)4|,
l.
and
sirnilarly for (E
Theorem (Hodes & Specker)
such
cencre
ulrsriots.
for any function in S' hrere proved by Hodes and Specker [HoS 68].
!'
the
There
that for all crm, if n
>t
We
Ihey
write
.
is a (very rapidly growing) function
G(rnrc) and
@
G
is any formula of size less
than el with argtrment set X = tx1 ,...rxrr), then there is a subset Y
g x
with lVl = m and constants bo, blr b, such that the restricted formula QY
of m argtrnents got by setting the variables of x\Y to 0 is equivalenr t.o
bo.@.bl
n-.!v.o.b2^e t
This theorem has been applied
for
[Hod 701
some geometric and topoLogical
also for
some symrnetric functions.
to prove non-linear
Lower bounds
predicates as considered earlier
The statement
of the theorem is
and
somewhat
comPlicated, but for application Eo S' orrly: a considerable simplificarion
is possible. The following corollary
appears
not to
have been stated
i
previous 1y.
l
Lheorep (Meyer & Paterson) For
aLl c ) or for n sufficiently large,
only 16 functions of S. have formula size less than
cn.
fhe sixteen ftrnctions are characterized by the property of the characteristic
-frnction that
X(r) = X(r+2) for 1 r< r < n-3.
The threshold ftmctions
rf")
"r"
defined by
xT(r)=l<..+r>k
-k
so r{rf"))
is cerrainly nonlinear in n for any fixed k >.2.
It ls
t(tl"))
shown
by Ktrasin [IQa 69] and Pippenger [Pip 75] thar
= O(n 1og n) for all fixed k, but only existence proofs are given.
Elernentary recursion using dichotomy generates
explicit forrnulae with sizes
which are g(n6fog ,,)k-1) for fixed k. McCoLl and Paterson have deferred
this growth rate initially
{heo-rgm For 2{k(
Our nethod
by using increasingly tortuous identities[t"tcC 76].
6, tCtrl")) =O(n.logn (loglogo)k-2).
is to partition the n
arguments
ir,to rrl blocks of si"e ol.
The predicace
that ar Least I
Tr(Ts).
for example, our recursi.ve construction for Ta uses the
Then
blocks
satisfy Ts(ttl) i" abbreviated
as
identity.
r (n) - ,r, rr
^rtr1)
^3 -
v T1(T3) v (Tr(Tr) n rr(Tr)).
With the aim of raising the very
s1-ow1y
increasing lor'rer bounds of
llodesf and Speckerrs theorem; Fischer, l,Ieyer and Paterson weakened
5
somewhat
the conclusion of the theorem and proved lower bounds of Q(n.1og n/log1og
n)
tfMP 751. Recent improvements in both the scope of functions covered and
the bound attained provide a theorem analogous to Hodesr and Speckerrs, with
the follorving corollary for syrrnetric functions.
ThugtgL For any h e Srrr if Xnft) * Xn(t+Z) for
f(h) = 0(n.J.og k).
some
k = k(n),
rhen
For example, Lovrer bounds of Q(n.log n) are established for threshold.
functions T^(t) rhure 0 is constant, o < 0 < l, and for the congruence
v ll
/n\
functions Q"',
k fixed, k > 2,
where Cn
is
defined by
X,. (r) = 1 if and only if r is a multiple of k.
t,
Our especial favourite
t (al")
The upper bound
.f")
=
is
)is
CO
since we now have
e(n. log n)
shown
.
using the identity
. Df') ,u -oj")
where Dor DL, DZ,
. . . represent successive digits (lowest first) of
the binary representation of the sum of the arguments. The Drs are
e:gressed recursively by constructing the Dts.for each of two equal halves
of the argunent set and perforrning a binary addition on the results.
p(l)r*l
-r \"'
'
o(zn1
f-\
r(DJ ) = n,
An
if r = o
=0ifr>0
=x
(5, 1) = oj") (1) o oj") t1l
of'") (r,
Since
Thus
D = of") (1) o of") c1l o (oj"'(3) n oj") cr)
we have
lt-\
t{ol"") = 0(n.1og n).
arbitrary function of
Sr,
is representable as
some
function of
Do, Dlr...rDm where m = [.og(n+11'l -1, and.may be expressed in a forraula
using just one occurrence of Dr, two of Drnl, four of Dm-2, et cetera.
T
Sma1l formulae
for the Dts yield therefore
Using approximately
this
F(Sn) .=- r"*
def
nrethod Pippenger
{FCh)
sma11 forrnulae
tPip
for all
S.r.
741 has determined that
ltr . srr} = o(na)
where a=Lo8r(6+4'fZ1 * 3.54.
rn his binary adder Pippenger uses "fu11 adders' to
digic d of the
sumurands
carry digit c from two digits dt,
sum and new
and the previous
compute each new
carry ct.
dr
r, of
the
t{e employs the formula pair
d = dr O drt O ct
c = (ct ^ (dt v drr)) v (dt A dtt).
A small refinement
in the construction is to replace the latter formula
by
I = dr
and
spl-it the
@
argument
((ct O dt) ,r (dti e
df
))
set into two unequal parts at
each
stage.
,
Optinization of the ratio of this split (with the help of Colin lJhitby-Strevens
and the warwick
university
Burroughs 67oo cornputer) decreases the exponent.
O(nB) where B < 3.41866 705572.
!Lqo.1e+. r(S-)
n =
5.
Conclusion.
A number
of
new bounds
for symmetric, or otherwise fairly sirnple,
functions are sketched here in a prelirninary form. f hope that by the
time of the Gr neeting at least
some rnay
be available in a more polished
and complete version.
I should like to
ackncrwledge
the cooperation and encouragement derived
from many other people than those. named
explicitly,
and
the valuable
stimulation provided by such international meetings as this.
8
References
IFUP
75]
M.J. Fischer, A.R. Msysl and M.S. paterson. t'Lower bounds on
the size of Boolean formulas: preliminary reportr', !roc. Ttlr Ann.
AW S/ne. or.r-Jh. of .CoJnp-qting (L975), Lffi.
7'i-vt*
[HaS
72]
L.H. Harper and J.E. Savage. "on the gomplexity of the marriage
problem'r, Advjr,nge: ijl.Matlr.egarics 9, 3 (L972), Zgg-3LZ.
[uoa ZO]
[I{oS
68]
L. Hodes. "The logical complexity of geometric properties in
the plane"r. !_3s 17, 2 (1970) , 339-347,
L. Hodes and E. Specker. "Lengths of formulas and elimination
gi quantif iers I", in Contributions- to }{athsp-a-tigal L-ogig,
K. Schutte, ed., North Holland Pub1. Co., (1968), 175-188.
[ttot 75]
G. ]lotz. ttUntere Schranken fiir das AnalyseprobLem kontext-freier
Sprachen", Techn. Berichtr Univ. des Saarlandes, L9j6.
[xtra 0g]
L.S. Khasin. "Complexity bounds for the realization of monotone
symmetrical functions by means of formulas in the basis vr &, -.tt,
Eng. trans. in Soviet_P.hysics D_ok1. r 14 LZ (1970),1149-1151;
orig. 9o51, .Akad. Nauk_SSSR, 19, 4 (t969), 752-755
B.M. Kloss. "Estimates of the complexity of solutions of systems
of linear equations", Eng. trans. in sgviet.Math Dpkf, Z,6 (1966),
1537-1540; orig. D_ok1.. Aka-d..-Nguk SSS3., !L, 4 (t96b), 781-783.
[rto 66]
[UcC
76]
W.F. McCol1. t'Some resuLts on circuit depth", Ph.D. dissertation,
Computer Science Dept., Wanuick University, 1976.
[t'tetr
76]
K. Mehlhorn. "An improved bound on the formula complexity of
context-free recognition". Unpublished report, I976.
[Nec
66]
E.I. Neciporuk. "A Boolean function"r sov-iet Ygrh..]>kJ. ]r
4 (1966), 999-1000, orig. pokl. Aka.d. Nqujc SS.SB 1_69, 4 (t966),
lPat 76]
[Pau
75]
M.S. Paterson. rrAn introduction to Boolean furction complexity".
Stanford Computer Science Report STAN-CS-76-557 Stanford University,
1976; to appear in Ast6risque.
W.
Paul.
nA 2.5 N lower bound
for the combinational complexity
of
Boolean functionsrr, 3ro,c._7-th Ann.
Albuquerque (1975), 27-36.
tPip 74i
765-766.
.A-C4 Symp....on Th_. of._g_ojng.
N. Pippenger. rrshort formulae for syrmrstric functionsrr,
Research Report RC-5143, Yorktciwn
9
Hts.,
L974.
IBM
tPip 75J N. Pippenger. "Short
IBII Research
[Pra 75]
for thieshold functionstt.
Report RC 54.05, Yorktown Hts.r 1975.
monotone formulae
V.R. Pratt. 'rThe effect of basis on size of Boolean expressionstt.
Proc. 16tI, l\rua.1 rEEE_s.y*po:iy* on l.g-rndari.o.n-s qI cpmqq,r_er gqience,
119- l_21.
[Sav
76
]
J.E. Savage.
New
ISha
49]
.
York,
T.Lre
.Co,Ip]Srxi.ty
of
gomp-y-tgrg, Wiley-Inrers cience,
1976
c.E. Shannon. "T'l-re synthesis of two-terrninal switching circuits",
Bell 9Jjten Le.ch€c.al Jgu.rnal Ag (1949), 59-98.
{fhis is the full text of an invited l-ecture at the 3rd
GI Conference on Theoretical Conrputsr Science, March I977,
Darmstadt, Germany. 1
Decernber
,Department
19 76
of
University of
COVENTRY
ENGI-A,ND"
10
Computer Science
Warwick
CV4 7AL