Polynomial Data Structure Lower Bounds in the Group Model

Abstract

Proving superlogarithmic data structure lower bounds in the static group model has been a fundamental challenge in computational geometry since the early '80s. We prove a polynomial ($n^{\Omega(1)}$) lower bound for an explicit range counting problem of $n^3$ convex polygons in $\mathbb{R}^2$ (each with $n^{\tilde{O}(1)}$ facets/semialgebraic complexity), against linear storage arithmetic data structures in the group model. Our construction and analysis are based on a combination of techniques in Diophantine approximation, pseudorandomness, and compressed sensing---in particular, on the existence and partial derandomization of optimal binary compressed sensing matrices in the polynomial sparsity regime ($k = n^{1-\delta}$). As a byproduct, this establishes a (logarithmic) separation between compressed sensing matrices and the stronger RIP property.