PIT for depth-$4$ circuits and Sylvester-Gallai conjecture for polynomials

Abstract

This text is a development of a preprint of Ankit Gupta. We present an approach for devising a deterministic polynomial time blackbox identity testing (PIT) algorithm for depth-$4$ circuits with bounded top fanin. This approach is similar to Kayal-Shubhangi approach for depth-$3$ circuits. Kayal and Shubhangi based their algorithm on Sylvester-Gallai-type theorem about linear polynomials. We show how it is possible to generalize this approach to depth-$4$ circuits. However we failed to implement this plan completely. We succeeded to construct a polynomial time deterministic algorithm for depth-$4$ circuits with bounded top fanin and its correctness requires a hypothesis. Also we present a polynomial-time (unconditional) algorithm for some subclass of depth-$4$ circuits with bounded top fanin.

12 pages