On the Power of Homogeneous Algebraic Formulas

Proving explicit lower bounds on the size of algebraic formulas is a long-standing open problem in the area of algebraic complexity theory. Recent results in the area (e.g. a lower bound against constant-depth algebraic formulas due to Limaye, Srinivasan, and Tavenas (FOCS 2021)) have indicated a way forward for attacking this question: show that we can convert a general algebraic formula to a homogeneous algebraic formula with moderate blow-up in size, and prove strong lower bounds against the latter model.

Here, a homogeneous algebraic formula F for a polynomial P is a formula in which all subformulas compute homogeneous polynomials. In particular, if P is homogeneous of degree d, F does not contain subformulas that compute polynomials of degree greater than d.

We investigate the feasibility of the above strategy and prove a number of positive and negative results in this direction.