Sharp decay for the sign-ensemble Fourier coefficients

Prove the conjectured low-degree decay bound for the Fourier coefficients \(\Gamma(X,Y)=\widehat{g_Y}(X)\) of products of threshold functions of Hadamard transforms: for every constant \(\alpha>0\), show that there is a constant \(C(\alpha)\) such that, whenever \(Y\neq\varnothing\) and \(|X|+|Y|\le n^{\alpha}\), one has \(|\Gamma(X,Y)|\le (|X|+|Y|)^{C(|X|+|Y|)}N^{-(\max\{|X|,|Y|\}+|X|)/4}\).

Background

The appendix proposes an explicit sign ensemble intended to replace the paper's non-explicit Gaussian-rounded hard distribution for separating FH_2 from FH_3. The lower-bound analysis reduces to bounding a single Fourier coefficient of a product of threshold functions applied to pairwise orthogonal Hadamard forms. The paper proves the predicted exponent in part of the parameter range, but the complementary range—especially correlations with |X|<|Y|—remains unresolved. Establishing the conjecture would yield an explicitly defined hard distribution for the oracle separation.

References

We conjecture the rate that this count predicts.

Oracle Separations in the Fourier Hierarchy  (2609.11830 - Mantri, 10 Sep 2026) in Conjecture 7.1, Appendix, Section "The conjectured decay rate and its consequences"