  The Ideal Proof System (IPS) of Grochow & Pitassi (FOCS 2014, J. ACM, 2018)
is an algebraic proof system that uses algebraic circuits to refute the
solvability of unsatisfiable systems of polynomial equations. One potential
drawback of IPS is that verifying an IPS proof is only known to be doable using
Polynomial Identity Testing (PIT), which is solvable by a randomized algorithm,
but whose derandomization, even into NSUBEXP, is equivalent to strong lower
bounds. However, the circuits that are used in IPS proofs are not arbitrary,
and it is conceivable that one could get around general PIT by leveraging some
structure in these circuits. This proposal may be even more tempting when IPS
is used as a proof system for Boolean Unsatisfiability, where the equations
themselves have additional structure.
  Our main result is that, on the contrary, one cannot get around PIT as above:
we show that IPS, even as a proof system for Boolean Unsatisfiability, can be
p-simulated by a deterministically verifiable (Cook-Reckhow) proof system if
and only if PIT is in NP. We use our main result to propose a potentially new
approach to derandomizing PIT into NP.
