arXiv subjects

Michael Levet

Publications and source records attributed to Michael Levet.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Group Isomorphism and the Polylogarithmic-Time Hierarchy: Depth-2$\frac{1}{2}$ Circuits and Lower Bounds

In this paper, we investigate the low-depth circuit complexity of Group Isomorphism in the multiplication (Cayley) table model. We prove the first circuit lower bounds for Group Isomorphism: namely, we show that every family of depth-$2$ Boolean circuits deciding Group Isomorphism requires quasipolynomial-size. We complement this with upper bounds of uniform depth-$2\frac{1}{2}$ circuits of quasipolynomial-size. A sequence of previous results from 1970-2025 progressively reduced the circuit depth from polynomial to $3\frac{1}{2}$; all of these results relied on the generator-enumerator strategy and, in fact, applied more generally to quasigroups. In contrast, our depth-$2\frac{1}{2}$ construction follows a fundamentally different strategy that exploits structure more specific to groups. We guess a composition series for each group, together with generators for its terms and the isomorphism types of its composition factors. We then inductively verify that the corresponding extensions at each level of the two composition series are compatible. A central part in this approach brings to bear the extensive work on the Short Presentation Conjecture, in tandem with the algorithmic theory of group extensions and cohomology.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2026

Parallel Algorithms for Group Isomorphism via Code Equivalence

In this paper, we exhibit $\textsf{AC}^{3}$ isomorphism tests for coprime extensions $H \ltimes N$ where $H$ is elementary Abelian and $N$ is Abelian; and groups where $\text{Rad}(G) = Z(G)$ is elementary Abelian and $G = \text{Soc}^{*}(G)$. The fact that isomorphism testing for these families is in $\textsf{P}$ was established respectively by Qiao, Sarma, and Tang (STACS 2011), and Grochow and Qiao (CCC 2014, SIAM J. Comput. 2017). The polynomial-time isomorphism tests for both of these families crucially leveraged small (size $O(\log |G|)$) instances of Linear Code Equivalence (Babai, SODA 2011). Here, we combine Luks' group-theoretic method for Graph Isomorphism (FOCS 1980, J. Comput. Syst. Sci. 1982) with the fact that $G$ is given by its multiplication table, to implement the corresponding instances of Linear Code Equivalence in $\textsf{AC}^{3}$. As a byproduct of our work, we show that isomorphism testing of arbitrary central-radical groups is decidable using $\textsf{AC}$ circuits of depth $O(\log^3 n)$ and size $n^{O(\log \log n)}$. This improves upon the previous bound of $n^{O(\log \log n)}$-time due to Grochow and Qiao (ibid.).

cs.CC↗

arXiv2025

On the Parallel Complexity of Identifying Groups and Quasigroups via Decompositions

In this paper, we investigate the computational complexity of isomorphism testing for finite groups and quasigroups, given by their multiplication tables. We crucially take advantage of their various decompositions to show the following: - We first consider the class of groups that admit direct product decompositions, where each indecompsable factor is $O(1)$-generated, and either perfect or centerless. We show any group in this class is identified by the $O(1)$-dimensional count-free Weisfeiler--Leman (WL) algorithm with $O(\log \log n)$ rounds, and the $O(1)$-dimensional counting WL algorithm with $O(1)$ rounds. Consequently, the isomorphism problem for this class is in $\textsf{L}$. This improves upon the previous upper bound of $\textsf{TC}^{1}$, which was obtained using $O(\log n)$ rounds of the $O(1)$-dimensional counting WL (Grochow and Levet; FCT 2023, \textit{J. Comput. Syst. Sci.} 2026). - We next consider more generally, the class of groups where each indecomposable factor is $O(1)$-generated. We exhibit an $\textsf{AC}^{3}$ canonical labeling procedure for this class. Here, we accomplish this by showing that in the multiplication table model, the direct product decomposition can be computed in $\textsf{AC}^{3}$, parallelizing the work of Kayal and Nezhmetdinov (ICALP 2009). - Isomorphism testing between a central quasigroup $G$ and an arbitrary quasigroup $H$ is in $\textsf{NC}$. Here, we take advantage of the fact that central quasigroups admit an affine decomposition in terms of an underlying Abelian group. Only the trivial bound of $n^{\log(n)+O(1)}$-time was previously known for isomorphism testing of central quasigroups.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2025

On the Complexity of Identifying Groups without Abelian Normal Subgroups: Parallel, First Order, and GI-Hardness

In this paper, we exhibit an $\textsf{AC}^{3}$ isomorphism test for groups without Abelian normal subgroups (a.k.a. Fitting-free groups), a class for which isomorphism testing was previously known to be in $\mathsf{P}$ (Babai, Codenotti, and Qiao; ICALP '12). Here, we leverage the fact that $G/\text{PKer}(G)$ can be viewed as permutation group of degree $O(\log |G|)$. As $G$ is given by its multiplication table, we are able to implement the solution for the corresponding instance of Twisted Code Equivalence in $\textsf{AC}^{3}$. In sharp contrast, we show that when our groups are specified by a generating set of permutations, isomorphism testing of Fitting-free groups is at least as hard as Graph Isomorphism and Linear Code Equivalence (the latter being $\textsf{GI}$-hard and having no known subexponential-time algorithm). Lastly, we show that any Fitting-free group of order $n$ is identified by $\textsf{FO}$ formulas (without counting) using only $O(\log \log n)$ variables. This is in contrast to the fact that there are infinite families of Abelian groups that are not identified by $\textsf{FO}$ formulas with $o(\log n)$ variables (Grochow & Levet, FCT '23).

cs.CC↗

arXiv2025

Complexity of Constructing Minimal Faithful Permutation Representations for Fitting-free Groups

In this paper, we investigate the complexity of computing minimal faithful permutation representations for groups without abelian normal subgroups (a.k.a. Fitting-free groups). When our groups are given as quotients of permutation groups, we exhibit a polynomial-time algorithm for constructing such representations. Furthermore, in the setting of permutation groups, we obtain an $\textsf{NC}$ procedure for computing the minimal faithful permutation degree, and a randomized $\textsf{NC}$ ($\textsf{RNC}$) algorithm for computing a minimal faithful permutation representation. This improves upon the work of Das and Thakkar (STOC 2024, SIAM J. Comput. 2026), who established a Las Vegas polynomial-time algorithm for computing the minimal faithful permutation degree for this class in the setting of permutation groups.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2024

Logarithmic Weisfeiler--Leman and Treewidth

In this paper, we show that the $(3k+4)$-dimensional Weisfeiler--Leman algorithm can identify graphs of treewidth $k$ in $O(\log n)$ rounds. This improves the result of Grohe & Verbitsky (ICALP 2006), who previously established the analogous result for $(4k+3)$-dimensional Weisfeiler--Leman. In light of the equivalence between Weisfeiler--Leman and the logic $\textsf{FO} + \textsf{C}$ (Cai, Fürer, & Immerman, Combinatorica 1992), we obtain an improvement in the descriptive complexity for graphs of treewidth $k$. Precisely, if $G$ is a graph of treewidth $k$, then there exists a $(3k+5)$-variable formula $φ$ in $\textsf{FO} + \textsf{C}$ with quantifier depth $O(\log n)$ that identifies $G$ up to isomorphism.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2024

Canonizing Graphs of Bounded Rank-Width in Parallel via Weisfeiler--Leman

In this paper, we show that computing canonical labelings of graphs of bounded rank-width is in $\textsf{TC}^{2}$. Our approach builds on the framework of Köbler & Verbitsky (CSR 2008), who established the analogous result for graphs of bounded treewidth. Here, we use the framework of Grohe & Neuen (ACM Trans. Comput. Log., 2023) to enumerate separators via split-pairs and flip functions. In order to control the depth of our circuit, we leverage the fact that any graph of rank-width $k$ admits a rank decomposition of width $\leq 2k$ and height $O(\log n)$ (Courcelle & Kanté, WG 2007). This allows us to utilize an idea from Wagner (CSR 2011) of tracking the depth of the recursion in our computation. Furthermore, after splitting the graph into connected components, it is necessary to decide isomorphism of said components in $\textsf{TC}^{1}$. To this end, we extend the work of Grohe & Neuen (ibid.) to show that the $(6k+3)$-dimensional Weisfeiler--Leman (WL) algorithm can identify graphs of rank-width $k$ using only $O(\log n)$ rounds. As a consequence, we obtain that graphs of bounded rank-width are identified by $\textsf{FO} + \textsf{C}$ formulas with $6k+4$ variables and quantifier depth $O(\log n)$. Prior to this paper, isomorphism testing for graphs of bounded rank-width was not known to be in $\textsf{NC}$.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2024

Pairwise Rearrangement is Fixed-Parameter Tractable in the Single Cut-and-Join Model

Genome rearrangement is a common model for molecular evolution. In this paper, we consider the Pairwise Rearrangement problem, which takes as input two genomes and asks for the number of minimum-length sequences of permissible operations transforming the first genome into the second. In the Single Cut-and-Join model (Bergeron, Medvedev, & Stoye, J. Comput. Biol. 2010), Pairwise Rearrangement is $\#\textsf{P}$-complete (Bailey, et. al., COCOON 2023), which implies that exact sampling is intractable. In order to cope with this intractability, we investigate the parameterized complexity of this problem. We exhibit a fixed-parameter tractable algorithm with respect to the number of components in the adjacency graph that are not cycles of length $2$ or paths of length $1$. As a consequence, we obtain that Pairwise Rearrangement in the Single Cut-and-Join model is fixed-parameter tractable by distance. Our results suggest that the number of nontrivial components in the adjacency graph serves as the key obstacle for efficient sampling.

q-bio.GN↗

arXiv2024

On the Constant-Depth Circuit Complexity of Generating Quasigroups

We investigate the constant-depth circuit complexity of the Isomorphism Problem, Minimum Generating Set Problem (MGS), and Sub(quasi)group Membership Problem (Membership) for groups and quasigroups (=Latin squares), given as input in terms of their multiplication (Cayley) tables. Despite decades of research on these problems, lower bounds for these problems even against depth-$2$ AC circuits remain unknown. Perhaps surprisingly, Chattopadhyay, Tor\'an, and Wagner (FSTTCS 2010; ACM Trans. Comput. Theory, 2013) showed that Quasigroup Isomorphism could be solved by AC circuits of depth $O(\log \log n)$ using $O(\log^2 n)$ nondeterministic bits, a class we denote $\exists^{\log^2(n)}FOLL$. We narrow this gap by improving the upper bound for many of these problems to $quasiAC^0$, thus decreasing the depth to constant. In particular, we show: - MGS for quasigroups is in $\exists^{\log^2(n)}\forall^{\log n}NTIME(\mathrm{polylog}(n))\subseteq quasiAC^0$. Papadimitriou and Yannakakis (J. Comput. Syst. Sci., 1996) conjectured that this problem was $\exists^{\log^2(n)}P$-complete; our results refute a version of that conjecture for completeness under $quasiAC^0$ reductions unconditionally, and under polylog-space reductions assuming EXP $\neq$ PSPACE. - MGS for groups is in $AC^{1}(L)$, improving on the previous upper bound of $P$ (Lucchini & Thakkar, J. Algebra, 2024). - Quasigroup Isomorphism belongs to $\exists^{\log^2(n)}AC^0(DTISP(\mathrm{polylog},\log)\subseteq quasiAC^0$, improving on the previous bound of $\exists^{\log^2(n)}L\cap\exists^{\log^2(n)}FOLL\subseteq quasiFOLL$ (Chattopadhyay, Tor\'an, & Wagner, ibid.; Levet, Australas. J. Combin., 2023). Our results suggest that understanding the constant-depth circuit complexity may be key to resolving the complexity of problems concerning (quasi)groups in the multiplication table model.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2024

Count-Free Weisfeiler--Leman and Group Isomorphism

We investigate the power of counting in Group Isomorphism. We first leverage the count-free variant of the Weisfeiler--Leman Version I algorithm for groups (Brachter & Schweitzer, LICS 2020) in tandem with limited non-determinism and limited counting to improve the parallel complexity of isomorphism testing for several families of groups. These families include: - Direct products of non-Abelian simple groups. - Coprime extensions, where the normal Hall subgroup is Abelian and the complement is an $O(1)$-generated solvable group with solvability class $\text{poly} \log \log n$. This notably includes instances where the complement is an $O(1)$-generated nilpotent group. This problem was previously known to be in $\textsf{P}$ (Qiao, Sarma, & Tang, STACS 2011), and the complexity was recently improved to $\textsf{L}$ (Grochow & Levet, FCT 2023). - Graphical groups of class $2$ and exponent $p > 2$ (Mekler, J. Symb. Log., 1981) arising from the CFI and twisted CFI graphs (Cai, Fürer, & Immerman, Combinatorica 1992) respectively. In particular, our work improves upon previous results of Brachter & Schweitzer (LICS 2020). We finally show that the $q$-ary count-free pebble game is unable to distinguish even Abelian groups. This extends the result of Grochow & Levet (ibid), who established the result in the case of $q = 1$. The general theme is that some counting appears necessary to place Group Isomorphism into $\textsf{P}$.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2023

On the Descriptive Complexity of Groups without Abelian Normal Subgroups (Extended Abstract)

In this paper, we explore the descriptive complexity theory of finite groups by examining the power of the second Ehrenfeucht-Fraisse bijective pebble game in Hella's (Ann. Pure Appl. Log., 1989) hierarchy. This is a Spoiler-Duplicator game in which Spoiler can place up to two pebbles each round. While it trivially solves graph isomorphism, it may be nontrivial for finite groups, and other ternary relational structures. We first provide a novel generalization of Weisfeiler-Leman (WL) coloring, which we call 2-ary WL. We then show that the 2-ary WL is equivalent to the second Ehrenfeucht-Fraisse bijective pebble game in Hella's hierarchy. Our main result is that, in the pebble game characterization, only O(1) pebbles and O(1) rounds are sufficient to identify all groups without Abelian normal subgroups (a class of groups for which isomorphism testing is known to be in P; Babai, Codenotti, & Qiao, ICALP 2012). In particular, we show that within the first few rounds, Spoiler can force Duplicator to select an isomorphism between two such groups at each subsequent round. By Hella's results (ibid.), this is equivalent to saying that these groups are identified by formulas in first-order logic with generalized 2-ary quantifiers, using only O(1) variables and O(1) quantifier depth.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2023

Directed Ramsey and Anti-Ramsey Schemes and the Flexible Atom Conjecture

In this paper, we shed new light on the Flexible Atom Conjecture. We first give finite representation results for relation algebras $33_{37}, 35_{37}$, $77_{83}$, $78_{83}$, $80_{83}$, $82_{83}$, $83_{83}$, $1310_{1316}$, $1313_{1316}$, $1315_{1316}$, and $1316_{1316}$. Prior to our paper, only $83_{83}$ and $1316_{1316}$ were known to be finitely representable. We accomplish this by generalizing the notion of a relation algebra generated by a Ramsey scheme to the directed (antisymmetric) setting, and then showing that each of these algebras embeds into a finite directed (anti-)Ramsey scheme. The notion of a directed (anti-)Ramsey scheme may be of independent interest. We complement our upper bounds with some lower bounds. Namely, we show that any square representation of $31_{37}$ requires at least $14$ points, any square representation of $33_{37}$ requires at least $11$ points, and any square representation of $35_{37}$ requires at least $12$ points. Our technique adapts previous work of Alm, et. al. (Algebra Universalis 2022), in that we examine the combinatorial structure induced by the flexible atom.

math.LO↗

arXiv2023

Moments of Colored Permutation Statistics on Conjugacy Classes

In this paper, we consider the moments of statistics on conjugacy classes of the colored permutation groups $\mathfrak{S}_{n,r}=\mathbb{Z}_r\wr \mathfrak{S}_n$. We first show that any fixed moment coincides on all conjugacy classes where all cycles have sufficiently long length. Additionally, for permutation statistics that can be realized via a process we call symmetric extensions, these moments are polynomials in $n$. Finally, for the descent statistic on the hyperoctahedral group $B_n\cong \mathfrak{S}_{n,2}$, we show that its distribution on conjugacy classes without short cycles satisfies a central limit theorem. Our results build on and generalize previous work of Fulman (\textit{J. Comb. Theory Ser. A.}, 1998), Hamaker and Rhoades (arXiv, 2022), and Campion Loth, Levet, Liu, Stucky, Sundaram, and Yin (arXiv, 2023). In particular, our techniques utilize the combinatorial framework introduced by Campion Loth, Levet, Liu, Stucky, Sundaram, and Yin.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

Permutation Statistics in Conjugacy Classes of the Symmetric Group

We introduce the notion of a weighted inversion statistic on the symmetric group, and examine its distribution on each conjugacy class. Our work generalizes the study of several common permutation statistics, including the number of inversions, the number of descents, the major index, and the number of excedances. As a consequence, we obtain explicit formulas for the first moments of several statistics by conjugacy class. We also show that when the cycle lengths are sufficiently large, the higher moments of arbitrary permutation statistics are independent of the conjugacy class. Fulman (J. Comb. Theory Ser. A., 1998) previously established this result for major index and descents. We obtain these results, in part, by generalizing the techniques of Fulman (ibid.), and introducing the notion of permutation constraints. For permutation statistics that can be realized via symmetric constraints, we show that each moment is a polynomial in the degree of the symmetric group.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

Complexity and Enumeration in Models of Genome Rearrangement

In this paper, we examine the computational complexity of enumeration in certain genome rearrangement models. We first show that the Pairwise Rearrangement problem in the Single Cut-and-Join model (Bergeron, Medvedev, & Stoye, J. Comput. Biol. 2010) is $\#\textsf{P}$-complete under polynomial-time Turing reductions. Next, we show that in the Single Cut or Join model (Feijao & Meidanis, IEEE ACM Trans. Comp. Biol. Bioinf. 2011), the problem of enumerating all medians ($\#$Median) is logspace-computable ($\textsf{FL}$), improving upon the previous polynomial-time ($\textsf{FP}$) bound of Mikl\'os & Smith (RECOMB 2015).

q-bio.GN↗

arXiv2023

On the Complexity of Identifying Strongly Regular Graphs

In this paper, we show that Graph Isomorphism (GI) is not $\textsf{AC}^{0}$-reducible to several problems, including the Latin Square Isotopy problem, isomorphism testing of several families of Steiner designs, and isomorphism testing of conference graphs. As a corollary, we obtain that GI is not $\textsf{AC}^{0}$-reducible to isomorphism testing of Latin square graphs and strongly regular graphs arising from special cases of Steiner $2$-designs. We accomplish this by showing that the generator-enumeration technique for each of these problems can be implemented in $β_{2}\textsf{FOLL}$, which cannot compute Parity (Chattopadhyay, Torán, & Wagner, ACM Trans. Comp. Theory, 2013).

cs.CC↗

arXiv2022

On the Descriptive Complexity of Groups without Abelian Normal Subgroups

In this paper, we explore the descriptive complexity theory of finite groups by examining the power of the second Ehrenfeucht--Fra\"iss\'e bijective pebble game in Hella's (Ann. Pure Appl. Log., 1989) hierarchy. This is a Spoiler--Duplicator game in which Spoiler can place up to two pebbles each round. While it trivially solves graph isomorphism, it may be nontrivial for finite groups, and other ternary relational structures. We first provide a novel generalization of Weisfeiler--Leman (WL) coloring, which we call 2-ary WL. We then show that 2-ary WL is equivalent to the second Ehrenfeucht--Fra\"iss\'e bijective pebble game in Hella's hierarchy. Our main result is that, in the pebble game characterization, only $O(1)$ pebbles and $O(1)$ rounds are sufficient to identify all groups without Abelian normal subgroups (a class of groups for which isomorphism testing is known to be in $\mathsf{P}$; Babai, Codenotti, & Qiao, ICALP 2012). We actually show that $7$ pebbles and $7$ rounds suffice. In particular, we show that within the first few rounds, Spoiler can force Duplicator to select an isomorphism between two such groups at each subsequent round. By Hella's results (ibid.), this is equivalent to saying that these groups are identified by formulas in first-order logic with generalized 2-ary quantifiers, using only $7$ variables and $7$ quantifier depth.

cs.LO↗

arXiv2022

Experience Report: Standards-Based Grading at Scale in Algorithms

We report our experiences implementing standards-based grading at scale in an Algorithms course, which serves as the terminal required CS Theory course in our department's undergraduate curriculum. The course had 200-400 students, taught by two instructors, eight graduate teaching assistants, and supported by two additional graders and several undergraduate course assistants. We highlight the role of standards-based grading in supporting our students during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conclude by detailing the successes and adjustments we would make to the course structure.

cs.CY↗