Lower bounds for planar Arithmetic Circuits (2509.11322v1)

Abstract: Arithmetic circuits are a natural well-studied model for computing multivariate polynomials over a field. In this paper, we study planar arithmetic circuits. These are circuits whose underlying graph is planar. In particular, we prove an $\Omega(n\log n)$ lower bound on the size of planar arithmetic circuits computing explicit bilinear forms on $2n$ variables. As a consequence, we get an $\Omega(n\log n)$ lower bound on the size of arithmetic formulas and planar algebraic branching programs computing explicit bilinear forms on $2n$ variables. This is the first such lower bound on the formula complexity of an explicit bilinear form. In the case of read-once planar circuits, we show $\Omega(n^2)$ size lower bounds for computing explicit bilinear forms on $2n$ variables. Furthermore, we prove fine separations between the various planar models of computations mentioned above. In addition to this, we look at multi-output planar circuits and show $\Omega(n^{4/3})$ size lower bound for computing an explicit linear transformation on $n$-variables. For a suitable definition of multi-output formulas, we extend the above result to get an $\Omega(n^2/\log n)$ size lower bound. As a consequence, we demonstrate that there exists an $n$-variate polynomial computable by an $n^{1 + o(1)}$-sized formula such that any multi-output planar circuit (resp., multi-output formula) simultaneously computing all its first-order partial derivatives requires size $\Omega(n^{4/3})$ (resp., $\Omega(n^2/\log n)$). This shows that a statement analogous to that of Baur, Strassen (1983) does not hold in the case of planar circuits and formulas.