Michael Sipser’s research while affiliated with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other places

We present a new, combinatorial proof of the classical theorem that the analytic sets are not closed under complement. Possible connections with questions in complexity theory are discussed.

We study on-line strategies for solving problems with hybrid algorithms. There is a problem Q and w basic algorithms for solving Q. For some lambda <= w, we have a computer with lambda disjoint memory areas, each of which can be used to run a basic algorithm and store its intermediate results. In the worst case, only one basic algorithm can solve Q in finite time, and all the other basic algorithms run forever without solving Q. To solve Q with a hybrid algorithm constructed from the basic algorithms, we run a basic algorithm for some time, then switch to another, and continue this process until Q is solved. The goal is to solve Q in the least amount of time. Using competitive ratios to measure the efficiency of a hybrid algorithm, we construct an optimal deterministic hybrid algorithm and an efficient randomized hybrid algorithm. This resolves an open question on searching with multiple robots posed by Baeza-Yates, Culberson and Rawlins. We also prove that our randomized algorithm is optimal for lambda = 1, settling a conjecture of Kao, Reif and Tate.

this paper we show that monotone logarithmic depth circuits are strictly weaker than monotone polynomial size logarithmic width circuits, i.e. we prove that mNC

We give a general complexity classification scheme for monotone computation, including monotone space-bounded and Turing machine models not previously considered. We propose monotone complexity classes including mAC i , mNC i , mLOGCFL, mBWBP , mL, mNL, mP , mBPP and mNP . We define a simple notion of monotone reducibility and exhibit complete problems. This provides a framework for stating existing results and asking new questions. We show that mNL (monotone nondeterministic log-space) is not closed under complementation, in contrast to Immerman's and Szelepcs 'enyi's nonmonotone result [Imm88, Sze87] that NL = co-NL; this is a simple extension of the monotone circuit depth lower bound of Karchmer and Wigderson [KW90] for st-connectivity. We also consider mBWBP (monotone bounded width branching programs) and study the question of whether mBWBP is properly contained in mNC 1 , motivated by Barrington's result [Bar89] that BWBP = NC 1 . Although we cannot answer t...

We give a quantum algorithm for solving instances of the satisfiability problem, based on adiabatic evolution. The evolution of the quantum state is governed by a time-dependent Hamiltonian that interpolates between an initial Hamiltonian, whose ground state is easy to construct, and a final Hamiltonian, whose ground state encodes the satisfying assignment. To ensure that the system evolves to the desired final ground state, the evolution time must be big enough. The time required depends on the minimum energy difference between the two lowest states of the interpolating Hamiltonian. We are unable to estimate this gap in general. We give some special symmetric cases of the satisfiability problem where the symmetry allows us to estimate the gap and we show that, in these cases, our algorithm runs in polynomial time.

Suppose an oracle is known to hold one of a given set of D two-valued functions. To successfully identify which function the oracle holds with k classical queries, it must be the case that D is at most 2k. In this paper we derive a bound for how many functions can be distinguished with k quantum queries.

In this paper, we give an oracle under which BPP is equal to probabilistic linear time, an unusual collapse of a complexity time hierarchy. In addition, we also give oracles where &Dgr;P2 is contained in probabilistic linear time and where BPP has linear sized circuits, as well as oracles for the negation of these questions. This indicates that these questions will not be solved by techniques that relativize. Finally, we note that probabilistic linear time can not contain both NP and BPP, implying that there are languages solvable by interactive proof systems that can not be solved in probabilistic linear time.

this paper we consider a further generalization of the proof system model, due to Ben-Or, Goldwasser, Kilian and Wigderson [6], where instead of a single prover there may be many. This apparently gives the model additional power. The intuition for this may be seen by considering the case of two criminal suspects who are under interrogation to see if they are guilty of together robbing a bank. Of course they (the provers) are trying to convince Scotland Yard (the verifier) of their innocence. Assuming that they are in fact innocent, it is clear that their ability to convince the police of this is enhanced if they are questioned in separate rooms and can corroborate each other's stories without communicating. We shall see later in this paper that this sort of corroboration is the key to the additional power of multiple provers.

This paper instead exhibits an oracle such that relative to this oracle there exists a language in co-NP that does not have an interactive protocol. From this we get that techniques which relativize will not settle our conjecture.

We consider the problem of inserting one item into a list of N-1 ordered items. We previously showed that no quantum algorithm could solve this problem in fewer than log N/(2 log log N) queries, for N large. We transform the problem into a "translationally invariant" problem and restrict attention to invariant algorithms. We construct the "greedy" invariant algorithm and show numerically that it outperforms the best classical algorithm for various N. We also find invariant algorithms that succeed exactly in fewer queries than is classically possible, and iterating one of them shows that the insertion problem can be solved in fewer than 0.53 log N quantum queries for large N (where log N is the classical lower bound). We don't know whether a o(log N) algorithm exists.