Some Results on Uniform Arithmetic Circuit Complexity

Abstract

We introduce a natural set of arithmetic expressions and define the complexity class AE to consist of all those arithmetic functions (over the fields F_(2)n) that are described by these expressions. We show that AE coincides with the class of functions that are computable with constant depth and polynomial size unbounded fan-in arithmetic circuits satisfying a natural uniformity constraint (DLOGTIME-uniformity). A 1-input and 1-output arithmetic function over the fields F_(2)n may be identified with an n-input and an n-output Boolean function when field elements are represented as bit strings. We prove that if some such representation is X-uniform (where X is P or DLOGTIME) then the arithmetic complexity of a function (measured with X-uniform unbounded fan-in arithmetic circuits) is identical to the Boolean complexity of this function (measured with X-uniform threshold circuits). We show the existence of a P-uniform representation and we give partial results concerning the existence of representations with more restrictive uniformity properties.