We would like to argue for a compressed version of $\poly(\vct{w})$, in general $\expct_{\vct{w}}\pbox{\poly(\vct{w})}$ cannot be computed in linear time.
Given a positive integer $k$ and an undirected graph $G$ with no self-loops or parallel edges, counting the number of $k$-matchings in $G$ is \sharpwonehard.
The above result means that we cannot hope to count the number of $k$-matchings in $G=(V,E)$ in time $f(k)\cdot |V|^{O(1)}$ for any function $f$. In fact, all known algorithms to solve this problem take time $|V|^{\Omega(k)}$.
\AR{need discussion on the `tightness' of various params. First, this is for degree 6 poly-- while things are easy for say deg 2. Second this is for any fixed p. Finally, we only need porject-join queries to get the hardness results. Also need to compare this with the generality of the approx upper bound results.}
Let $\prob_0,\ldots, \prob_{2\kElem}$ be distinct values in $(0, 1]$. Then given the values $\rpoly_{G}^\kElem(\prob_i,\ldots, \prob_i)$ for $0\leq i\leq2\kElem$, the number of $\kElem$-matchings in $G$ can be computed in $poly(\kElem)$ time.
%It is trivial to see that one can readily expand the exponential expression by performing the $n^\kElem$ product operations, yielding the polynomial in the sum of products form of the lemma statement. By definition $\rpoly_{G}^\kElem$ reduces all variable exponents greater than $1$ to $1$. Thus, a monomial such as $X_i^\kElem X_j^\kElem$ is $X_iX_j$ in $\rpoly_{G}^\kElem$, and the value after substitution is $p_i\cdot p_j = p^2$. Further, that the number of terms in the sum is no greater than $2\kElem + 1$, can be easily justified by the fact that each edge has two endpoints, and the most endpoints occur when we have $\kElem$ distinct edges (such a subgraph is also known as a $\kElem$-matching), with non-intersecting points, a case equivalent to $p^{2\kElem}$.
We will show that $\rpoly_{G}^\kElem(\prob,\ldots, \prob)=\sum\limits_{i =0}^{2\kElem} c_i \cdot\prob^i$. First, since $\poly_G^\kElem(\vct{X})$ has $\kElem$ products of monomials of degree $2$, it follows that $\poly_G^\kElem(\vct{X})$ has degree $2\kElem$. We can further write $\poly_{G}^{\kElem}(\vct{X})$ in its expanded SOP form,
Since each of $(i_1, j_1),\ldots, (i_\kElem, j_\kElem)$ are from $E$, it follows that the set of $\kElem!$ permutations of the $\kElem$$X_iX_j$ pairs which form the monomial products are of degree $2\kElem$ with the number of distinct variables in an arbitrary monomial $\leq2\kElem$. By definition, $\rpoly_{G}^{\kElem}(\vct{X})$ sets every exponent $e > 1$ to $e =1$, thereby shrinking the degree a monomial product term in the SOP form of $\poly_{G}^{\kElem}(\vct{X})$ to the exact number of distinct variables the monomial contains. This implies that $\rpoly_{G}^\kElem$ is a polynomial of degree $2\kElem$ and hence $\rpoly_{G}^\kElem(\prob,\ldots, \prob)$ is a polynomial in $\prob$ of degree $2\kElem$. Then it is the case that
where $c_i$ denotes all monomials in the expansion of $\poly_{G}^{\kElem}(\vct{X})$ composed of $i$ distinct variables, with $\prob$ substituted for each distinct variable\footnote{Since $\rpoly_G^\kElem(\vct{X})$ does not have any monomial with degree $< 2$, it is the case that $c_0= c_1=1$.}.
Given that we then have $2\kElem+1$ distinct values of $\rpoly_{G}^\kElem(\prob,\ldots, \prob)$ for $0\leq i\leq2\kElem$, it follows that we then have $2\kElem+1$ distinct rows of the form $\prob_i^0\ldots\prob_i^{2\kElem}$ which form a matrix $M$. We have then a linear system of the form $M \cdot\vct{c}=\vct{b}$ where $\vct{c}$ is the coefficient vector ($c_0,\ldots, c_{2\kElem}$), and $\vct{b}$ is the vector such that $\vct{b}[i]=\rpoly_{G}^\kElem(\prob_i,\ldots, \prob_i)$. By construction of the summation, matrix $M$ is the Vandermonde matrix, from which it follows that we have a matrix with full rank, and we can solve the linear system in $O(k^3)$ time to determine $\vct{c}$ exactly.
Denote the number of $\kElem$-matchings in $G$ as $\numocc{G}{\kmatch}$. Note that $c_{2\kElem}$ is $\kElem!\cdot\numocc{G}{\kmatch}$. This can be seen intuitively by looking at the original factorized representation $\poly_{G}^\kElem(\vct{X})$, where, across each of the $\kElem$ products, an arbitrary $\kElem$-matching can be selected $\prod_{i =1}^\kElem\kElem=\kElem!$ times. Note that each $\kElem$-matching $(i_1, j_1)\ldots$$(i_k, j_k)$ in $G$ corresponds to the unique monomial $\prod_{\ell=1}^\kElem X_{i_\ell}X_{j_\ell}$ in $\poly_{G}^\kElem(\vct{X})$, where each index is distinct. Since each index is distinct, then each variable has an exponent $e =1$ and this monomial survives in $\rpoly_{G}^{\kElem}(\vct{X})$ Since $\rpoly$ contains only exponents $e \leq1$, the only degree $2\kElem$ terms that can exist in $\rpoly_{G}^\kElem$ are $\kElem$-matchings since every other monomial in $\poly_{G}^\kElem(\vct{X})$ has strictly less than $2\kElem$ distinct variables, which, as stated earlier implies that every other non-$\kElem$-matching monomial in $\rpoly_{G}^\kElem(\vct{X})$ has degree $< 2\kElem$.
%It has already been established above that a $\kElem$-matching ($\kmatch$) has coefficient $c_{2\kElem}$. As noted, a $\kElem$-matching occurs when there are $\kElem$ edges, $e_1, e_2,\ldots, e_\kElem$, such that all of them are disjoint, i.e., $e_1 \neq e_2 \neq \cdots \neq e_\kElem$. In all $\kElem$ factors of $\poly_{G}^\kElem(\vct{X})$ there are $k$ choices from the first factor to select an edge for a given $\kElem$ matching, $\kElem - 1$ choices in the second factor, and so on throughout all the factors, yielding $\kElem!$ duplicate terms for each $\kElem$ matching in the expansion of $\poly_{G}^\kElem(\vct{X})$.
Then, since we have $\kElem!$ duplicates of each distinct $\kElem$-matching, and the fact that $c_{2\kElem}$ contains all monomials with degree $2\kElem$, it follows that $c_{2\kElem}=\kElem!\cdot\numocc{G}{\kmatch}$. This allows us to solve for $\numocc{G}{\kmatch}$ by simply dividing $c_{2\kElem}$ by $\kElem!$.
%One can compute $\numocc{G}{\kmatch}$ in $\query_{G}^\kElem(\vct{X})$ exactly.
%\end{Corollary}
%
%\begin{proof}[Proof for Corollary ~\ref{cor:lem-qEk}]
%By ~\cref{lem:qEk-multi-p}, the term $c_{2\kElem}$ can be exactly computed. Additionally we know that $c_{2\kElem}$ can be broken into two factors, and by dividing $c_{2\kElem}$ by the factor $\kElem!$, it follows that the resulting value is indeed $\numocc{G}{\kmatch}$.
%\end{proof}
%
%\qed
%\begin{Corollary}\label{cor:tilde-q-hard}
%Computing $\rpoly(\vct{X})$ is $\#W[1]$-hard.
%\end{Corollary}
%
%\begin{proof}[Proof of Corollary ~\ref{cor:tilde-q-hard}]
%The proof follows by ~\cref{thm:k-match-hard}, ~\cref{lem:qEk-multi-p} and ~\cref{cor:lem-qEk}.
