On Communication Complexity of Fixed Point Computation

Abstract

Brouwer's fixed point theorem states that any continuous function from a compact convex space to itself has a fixed point. Roughgarden and Weinstein (FOCS 2016) initiated the study of fixed point computation in the two-player communication model, where each player gets a function from $[0,1]^n$ to $[0,1]^n$, and their goal is to find an approximate fixed point of the composition of the two functions. They left it as an open question to show a lower bound of $2^{\Omega(n)}$ for the (randomized) communication complexity of this problem, in the range of parameters which make it a total search problem. We answer this question affirmatively. Additionally, we introduce two natural fixed point problems in the two-player communication model. $\bullet$ Each player is given a function from $[0,1]^n$ to $[0,1]^{n/2}$, and their goal is to find an approximate fixed point of the concatenation of the functions. $\bullet$ Each player is given a function from $[0,1]^n$ to $[0,1]^{n}$, and their goal is to find an approximate fixed point of the interpolation of the functions. We show a randomized communication complexity lower bound of $2^{\Omega(n)}$ for these problems (for some constant approximation factor). Finally, we initiate the study of finding a panchromatic simplex in a Sperner-coloring of a triangulation (guaranteed by Sperner's lemma) in the two-player communication model: A triangulation $T$ of the $d$-simplex is publicly known and one player is given a set $S_A\subset T$ and a coloring function from $S_A$ to $\{0,\ldots ,d/2\}$, and the other player is given a set $S_B\subset T$ and a coloring function from $S_B$ to $\{d/2+1,\ldots ,d\}$, such that $S_A\dot\cup S_B=T$, and their goal is to find a panchromatic simplex. We show a randomized communication complexity lower bound of $|T|^{\Omega(1)}$ for the aforementioned problem as well (when $d$ is large).