Polynomially low error PCPs with polyloglog n queries via modular composition

We show that every language in NP has a PCP verifier that tosses O(log n) random coins, has perfect completeness, and a soundness error of at most 1/poly(n), while making O(poly log log n) queries into a proof over an alphabet of size at most n^{1/poly log log n}. Previous constructions that obtain 1/poly(n) soundness error used either poly log n queries or an exponential alphabet, i.e. of size 2^nc for some c > 0. Our result is an exponential improvement in both parameters simultaneously. Our result can be phrased as polynomial-gap hardness for approximate CSPs with arity poly log log n and alphabet size n^{1/poly log log n}. The ultimate goal, in this direction, would be to prove polynomial hardness for CSPs with constant arity and polynomial alphabet size (aka the sliding scale conjecture for inverse polynomial soundness error). Our construction is based on a modular generalization of previous PCP constructions in this parameter regime, which involves a composition theorem that uses an extra 'consistency' query but maintains the inverse polynomial relation between the soundness error and the alphabet size. Our main technical/conceptual contribution is a new notion of soundness, which we refer to as distributional soundness, that replaces the previous notion of "list decoding soundness", and allows us to invoke composition a super-constant number of times without incurring a blow-up in the soundness error.