Toward a KKL Theorem for any HDX

2026-06-28

AI Summary

This work extends the classical KKL theorem to the setting of high-dimensional expanders (HDX), circumventing the strong expansion assumptions required by prior results. By introducing a general local-to-global analytic framework that integrates the link structure of simplicial complexes with spectral techniques, the authors establish the first dimension-dependent global KKL theorem on non-trivial two-sided expanding complexes under merely local KKL-type conditions. This approach dispenses with strong expansion hypotheses and applies broadly to dense clique complexes and Ramanujan complexes. As corollaries, the paper derives the first KKL-type inequality for combinatorial HDX and a Kruskal–Katona-type small-set expansion result in this context.

Abstract

The KKL Theorem, a seminal result in boolean function analysis, characterizes the structure of low-influence (non-expanding) functions on the hypercube. While recent years have seen breakthrough results across a variety of areas relying on analogs of the KKL Theorem beyond the cube (e.g., on product spaces, Grassmann graphs), further progress has been inhibited by our poor understanding of the phenomenon across more general domains. Motivated in this context, Bafna, Hopkins, Kaufman, and Lovett (STOC 2022) and Gur, Lifshitz, and Liu (STOC 2022) proved a generalized KKL-type Theorem for spectral high dimensional expanders (HDX). Their results, however, remain highly restricted due to strong quantitative expansion requirements on the underlying complex. In this work, we introduce a simple local-to-global method for analyzing low influence functions on simplicial complexes. Using this method we prove a local-to-global KKL-type Theorem: any simplicial complex whose links satisfy a KKL-Theorem also satisfies such a result globally. Building on Gotlib and Kaufman (RANDOM 2023), we also prove a weaker dimension-dependent KKL-type Theorem for simplicial complexes with any non-trivial (two-sided) expansion. As concrete applications of our framework, we give the first characterization of non-expanding functions on `combinatorial' HDX such as dense clique complexes and a corresponding Kruskal-Katona Theorem, as well as a small-set expansion theorem for the Ramanujan Complexes of Lubotzky, Samuels, and Vishne (EJC '05).

Problem

• KKL Theorem
• High Dimensional Expanders
• Low-influence Functions
• Simplicial Complexes
• Non-expanding Functions

Innovation

• local-to-global
• KKL Theorem
• high dimensional expanders
• simplicial complexes
• small-set expansion