Polynomial bound for the partition rank vs the analytic rank of tensors

Abstract

A tensor defined over a finite field $\mathbb{F}$ has low analytic rank if the distribution of its values differs significantly from the uniform distribution. An order $d$ tensor has partition rank 1 if it can be written as a product of two tensors of order less than $d$, and it has partition rank at most $k$ if it can be written as a sum of $k$ tensors of partition rank 1. In this paper, we prove that if the analytic rank of an order $d$ tensor is at most $r$, then its partition rank is at most $f(r,d,|\mathbb{F}|)$, where, for fixed $d$ and $\mathbb{F}$, $f$ is a polynomial in $r$. This is an improvement of a recent result of the author, where he obtained a tower-type bound. Prior to our work, the best known bound was an Ackermann-type function in $r$ and $d$, though it did not depend on $\mathbb{F}$. It follows from our results that a biased polynomial has low rank; there too we obtain a polynomial dependence improving the previously known Ackermann-type bound. A similar polynomial bound for the partition rank was obtained independently and simultaneously by Milićević.

18 pages; this paper is a significantly improved version of arXiv:1809.10931