The real tau-conjecture is true on average
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Koiran's real τ-conjecture claims that the number of real zeros of a structured polynomial given as a sum of m products of k real sparse polynomials, each with at most t monomials, is bounded by a polynomial in m,k,t. This conjecture has a major consequence in complexity theory since it would lead to superpolynomial bounds for the arithmetic circuit size of the permanent. We confirm the conjecture in a probabilistic sense by proving that if the coefficients involved in the description of f are independent standard Gaussian random variables, then the expected number of real zeros of f is O(mkt), which is linear in the number of parameters.
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