Testing Sumsets is Hard

Abstract: A subset $S$ of the Boolean hypercube $\mathbb{F}_2^n$ is a sumset if $S = {a + b : a, b\in A}$ for some $A \subseteq \mathbb{F}_2^n$. Sumsets are central objects of study in additive combinatorics, featuring in several influential results. We prove a lower bound of $\Omega(2^{n/2})$ for the number of queries needed to test whether a Boolean function $f:\mathbb{F}_2^n \to {0,1}$ is the indicator function of a sumset. Our lower bound for testing sumsets follows from sharp bounds on the related problem of shift testing, which may be of independent interest. We also give a near-optimal $2^{n/2} \cdot \mathrm{poly}(n)$-query algorithm for a smoothed analysis formulation of the sumset refutation problem.