24 Search Results for "Vadhan, Salil"


Document
Recursive Error Reduction for Regular Branching Programs

Authors: Eshan Chattopadhyay and Jyun-Jie Liao

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 287, 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)


Abstract
In a recent work, Chen, Hoza, Lyu, Tal and Wu (FOCS 2023) showed an improved error reduction framework for the derandomization of regular read-once branching programs (ROBPs). Their result is based on a clever modification to the inverse Laplacian perspective of space-bounded derandomization, which was originally introduced by Ahmadinejad, Kelner, Murtagh, Peebles, Sidford and Vadhan (FOCS 2020). In this work, we give an alternative error reduction framework for regular ROBPs. Our new framework is based on a binary recursive formula from the work of Chattopadhyay and Liao (CCC 2020), that they used to construct weighted pseudorandom generators (WPRGs) for general ROBPs. Based on our new error reduction framework, we give alternative proofs to the following results for regular ROBPs of length n and width w, both of which were proved in the work of Chen et al. using their error reduction: - There is a WPRG with error ε that has seed length Õ(log(n)(√{log(1/ε)}+log(w))+log(1/ε)). - There is a (non-black-box) deterministic algorithm which estimates the expectation of any such program within error ±ε with space complexity Õ(log(nw)⋅log log(1/ε)). This was first proved in the work of Ahmadinejad et al., but the proof by Chen et al. is simpler. Because of the binary recursive nature of our new framework, both of our proofs are based on a straightforward induction that is arguably simpler than the Laplacian-based proof in the work of Chen et al. In fact, because of its simplicity, our proof of the second result directly gives a slightly stronger claim: our algorithm computes a ε-singular value approximation (a notion of approximation introduced in a recent work by Ahmadinejad, Peebles, Pyne, Sidford and Vadhan (FOCS 2023)) of the random walk matrix of the given ROBP in space Õ(log(nw)⋅log log(1/ε)). It is not clear how to get this stronger result from the previous proofs.

Cite as

Eshan Chattopadhyay and Jyun-Jie Liao. Recursive Error Reduction for Regular Branching Programs. In 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 287, pp. 29:1-29:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)


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@InProceedings{chattopadhyay_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.29,
  author =	{Chattopadhyay, Eshan and Liao, Jyun-Jie},
  title =	{{Recursive Error Reduction for Regular Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)},
  pages =	{29:1--29:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-309-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{287},
  editor =	{Guruswami, Venkatesan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.29},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-195571},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.29},
  annote =	{Keywords: read-once branching program, regular branching program, weighted pseudorandom generator, derandomization}
}
Document
Pseudorandom Linear Codes Are List-Decodable to Capacity

Authors: Aaron (Louie) Putterman and Edward Pyne

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 287, 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)


Abstract
We introduce a novel family of expander-based error correcting codes. These codes can be sampled with randomness linear in the block-length, and achieve list decoding capacity (among other local properties). Our expander-based codes can be made starting from any family of sufficiently low-bias codes, and as a consequence, we give the first construction of a family of algebraic codes that can be sampled with linear randomness and achieve list-decoding capacity. We achieve this by introducing the notion of a pseudorandom puncturing of a code, where we select n indices of a base code C ⊂ 𝔽_q^m in a correlated fashion. Concretely, whereas a random linear code (i.e. a truly random puncturing of the Hadamard code) requires O(n log(m)) random bits to sample, we sample a pseudorandom linear code with O(n + log (m)) random bits by instantiating our pseudorandom puncturing as a length n random walk on an exapnder graph on [m]. In particular, we extend a result of Guruswami and Mosheiff (FOCS 2022) and show that a pseudorandom puncturing of a small-bias code satisfies the same local properties as a random linear code with high probability. As a further application of our techniques, we also show that pseudorandom puncturings of Reed-Solomon codes are list-recoverable beyond the Johnson bound, extending a result of Lund and Potukuchi (RANDOM 2020). We do this by instead analyzing properties of codes with large distance, and show that pseudorandom puncturings still work well in this regime.

Cite as

Aaron (Louie) Putterman and Edward Pyne. Pseudorandom Linear Codes Are List-Decodable to Capacity. In 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 287, pp. 90:1-90:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)


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@InProceedings{putterman_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.90,
  author =	{Putterman, Aaron (Louie) and Pyne, Edward},
  title =	{{Pseudorandom Linear Codes Are List-Decodable to Capacity}},
  booktitle =	{15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)},
  pages =	{90:1--90:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-309-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{287},
  editor =	{Guruswami, Venkatesan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.90},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-196183},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.90},
  annote =	{Keywords: Derandomization, error-correcting codes}
}
Document
RANDOM
On the Power of Regular and Permutation Branching Programs

Authors: Chin Ho Lee, Edward Pyne, and Salil Vadhan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 275, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023)


Abstract
We give new upper and lower bounds on the power of several restricted classes of arbitrary-order read-once branching programs (ROBPs) and standard-order ROBPs (SOBPs) that have received significant attention in the literature on pseudorandomness for space-bounded computation. - Regular SOBPs of length n and width ⌊w(n+1)/2⌋ can exactly simulate general SOBPs of length n and width w, and moreover an n/2-o(n) blow-up in width is necessary for such a simulation. Our result extends and simplifies prior average-case simulations (Reingold, Trevisan, and Vadhan (STOC 2006), Bogdanov, Hoza, Prakriya, and Pyne (CCC 2022)), in particular implying that weighted pseudorandom generators (Braverman, Cohen, and Garg (SICOMP 2020)) for regular SOBPs of width poly(n) or larger automatically extend to general SOBPs. Furthermore, our simulation also extends to general (even read-many) oblivious branching programs. - There exist natural functions computable by regular SOBPs of constant width that are average-case hard for permutation SOBPs of exponential width. Indeed, we show that Inner-Product mod 2 is average-case hard for arbitrary-order permutation ROBPs of exponential width. - There exist functions computable by constant-width arbitrary-order permutation ROBPs that are worst-case hard for exponential-width SOBPs. - Read-twice permutation branching programs of subexponential width can simulate polynomial-width arbitrary-order ROBPs.

Cite as

Chin Ho Lee, Edward Pyne, and Salil Vadhan. On the Power of Regular and Permutation Branching Programs. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 275, pp. 44:1-44:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)


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@InProceedings{lee_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.44,
  author =	{Lee, Chin Ho and Pyne, Edward and Vadhan, Salil},
  title =	{{On the Power of Regular and Permutation Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023)},
  pages =	{44:1--44:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-296-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{275},
  editor =	{Megow, Nicole and Smith, Adam},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.44},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-188698},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.44},
  annote =	{Keywords: Pseudorandomness, Branching Programs}
}
Document
RANDOM
Fourier Growth of Regular Branching Programs

Authors: Chin Ho Lee, Edward Pyne, and Salil Vadhan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 245, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2022)


Abstract
We analyze the Fourier growth, i.e. the L₁ Fourier weight at level k (denoted L_{1,k}), of read-once regular branching programs. We prove that every read-once regular branching program B of width w ∈ [1,∞] with s accepting states on n-bit inputs must have its L_{1,k} bounded by min{Pr[B(U_n) = 1](w-1)^k, s ⋅ O((n log n)/k)^{(k-1)/2}}. For any constant k, our result is tight up to constant factors for the AND function on w-1 bits, and is tight up to polylogarithmic factors for unbounded width programs. In particular, for k = 1 we have L_{1,1}(B) ≤ s, with no dependence on the width w of the program. Our result gives new bounds on the coin problem and new pseudorandom generators (PRGs). Furthermore, we obtain an explicit generator for unordered permutation branching programs of unbounded width with a constant factor stretch, where no PRG was previously known. Applying a composition theorem of Błasiok, Ivanov, Jin, Lee, Servedio and Viola (RANDOM 2021), we extend our results to "generalized group products," a generalization of modular sums and product tests.

Cite as

Chin Ho Lee, Edward Pyne, and Salil Vadhan. Fourier Growth of Regular Branching Programs. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 245, pp. 2:1-2:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)


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@InProceedings{lee_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2022.2,
  author =	{Lee, Chin Ho and Pyne, Edward and Vadhan, Salil},
  title =	{{Fourier Growth of Regular Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2022)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-249-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{245},
  editor =	{Chakrabarti, Amit and Swamy, Chaitanya},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2022.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-171247},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2022.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: pseudorandomness, fourier analysis}
}
Document
Hitting Sets for Regular Branching Programs

Authors: Andrej Bogdanov, William M. Hoza, Gautam Prakriya, and Edward Pyne

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 234, 37th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2022)


Abstract
We construct improved hitting set generators (HSGs) for ordered (read-once) regular branching programs in two parameter regimes. First, we construct an explicit ε-HSG for unbounded-width regular branching programs with a single accept state with seed length Õ(log n ⋅ log(1/ε)), where n is the length of the program. Second, we construct an explicit ε-HSG for width-w length-n regular branching programs with seed length Õ(log n ⋅ (√{log(1/ε)} + log w) + log(1/ε)). For context, the "baseline" in this area is the pseudorandom generator (PRG) by Nisan (Combinatorica 1992), which fools ordered (possibly non-regular) branching programs with seed length O(log(wn/ε) ⋅ log n). For regular programs, the state-of-the-art PRG, by Braverman, Rao, Raz, and Yehudayoff (FOCS 2010, SICOMP 2014), has seed length Õ(log(w/ε) ⋅ log n), which beats Nisan’s seed length when log(w/ε) = o(log n). Taken together, our two new constructions beat Nisan’s seed length in all parameter regimes except when log w and log(1/ε) are both Ω(log n) (for the construction of HSGs for regular branching programs with a single accept vertex). Extending work by Reingold, Trevisan, and Vadhan (STOC 2006), we furthermore show that an explicit HSG for regular branching programs with a single accept vertex with seed length o(log² n) in the regime log w = Θ(log(1/ε)) = Θ(log n) would imply improved HSGs for general ordered branching programs, which would be a major breakthrough in derandomization. Pyne and Vadhan (CCC 2021) recently obtained such parameters for the special case of permutation branching programs.

Cite as

Andrej Bogdanov, William M. Hoza, Gautam Prakriya, and Edward Pyne. Hitting Sets for Regular Branching Programs. In 37th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 234, pp. 3:1-3:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)


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@InProceedings{bogdanov_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2022.3,
  author =	{Bogdanov, Andrej and Hoza, William M. and Prakriya, Gautam and Pyne, Edward},
  title =	{{Hitting Sets for Regular Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{37th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2022)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-241-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{234},
  editor =	{Lovett, Shachar},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2022.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-165658},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2022.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Pseudorandomness, hitting set generators, space-bounded computation}
}
Document
Pseudorandomness of Expander Random Walks for Symmetric Functions and Permutation Branching Programs

Authors: Louis Golowich and Salil Vadhan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 234, 37th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2022)


Abstract
We study the pseudorandomness of random walks on expander graphs against tests computed by symmetric functions and permutation branching programs. These questions are motivated by applications of expander walks in the coding theory and derandomization literatures. A line of prior work has shown that random walks on expanders with second largest eigenvalue λ fool symmetric functions up to a O(λ) error in total variation distance, but only for the case where the vertices are labeled with symbols from a binary alphabet, and with a suboptimal dependence on the bias of the labeling. We generalize these results to labelings with an arbitrary alphabet, and for the case of binary labelings we achieve an optimal dependence on the labeling bias. We extend our analysis to unify it with and strengthen the expander-walk Chernoff bound. We then show that expander walks fool permutation branching programs up to a O(λ) error in 𝓁₂-distance, and we prove that much stronger bounds hold for programs with a certain structure. We also prove lower bounds to show that our results are tight. To prove our results for symmetric functions, we analyze the Fourier coefficients of the relevant distributions using linear-algebraic techniques. Our analysis for permutation branching programs is likewise linear-algebraic in nature, but also makes use of the recently introduced singular-value approximation notion for matrices (Ahmadinejad et al. 2021).

Cite as

Louis Golowich and Salil Vadhan. Pseudorandomness of Expander Random Walks for Symmetric Functions and Permutation Branching Programs. In 37th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 234, pp. 27:1-27:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)


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@InProceedings{golowich_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2022.27,
  author =	{Golowich, Louis and Vadhan, Salil},
  title =	{{Pseudorandomness of Expander Random Walks for Symmetric Functions and Permutation Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{37th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2022)},
  pages =	{27:1--27:13},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-241-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{234},
  editor =	{Lovett, Shachar},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2022.27},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-165893},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2022.27},
  annote =	{Keywords: Expander graph, Random walk, Pseudorandomness}
}
Document
Cryptographic Hardness Under Projections for Time-Bounded Kolmogorov Complexity

Authors: Eric Allender, John Gouwar, Shuichi Hirahara, and Caleb Robelle

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 212, 32nd International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2021)


Abstract
A version of time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity, denoted KT, has received attention in the past several years, due to its close connection to circuit complexity and to the Minimum Circuit Size Problem MCSP. Essentially all results about the complexity of MCSP hold also for MKTP (the problem of computing the KT complexity of a string). Both MKTP and MCSP are hard for SZK (Statistical Zero Knowledge) under BPP-Turing reductions; neither is known to be NP-complete. Recently, some hardness results for MKTP were proved that are not (yet) known to hold for MCSP. In particular, MKTP is hard for DET (a subclass of P) under nonuniform ≤^{NC^0}_m reductions. In this paper, we improve this, to show that the complement of MKTP is hard for the (apparently larger) class NISZK_L under not only ≤^{NC^0}_m reductions but even under projections. Also, the complement of MKTP is hard for NISZK under ≤^{P/poly}_m reductions. Here, NISZK is the class of problems with non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs, and NISZK_L is the non-interactive version of the class SZK_L that was studied by Dvir et al. As an application, we provide several improved worst-case to average-case reductions to problems in NP, and we obtain a new lower bound on MKTP (which is currently not known to hold for MCSP).

Cite as

Eric Allender, John Gouwar, Shuichi Hirahara, and Caleb Robelle. Cryptographic Hardness Under Projections for Time-Bounded Kolmogorov Complexity. In 32nd International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 212, pp. 54:1-54:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)


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@InProceedings{allender_et_al:LIPIcs.ISAAC.2021.54,
  author =	{Allender, Eric and Gouwar, John and Hirahara, Shuichi and Robelle, Caleb},
  title =	{{Cryptographic Hardness Under Projections for Time-Bounded Kolmogorov Complexity}},
  booktitle =	{32nd International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2021)},
  pages =	{54:1--54:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-214-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{212},
  editor =	{Ahn, Hee-Kap and Sadakane, Kunihiko},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2021.54},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-154875},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2021.54},
  annote =	{Keywords: Kolmogorov Complexity, Interactive Proofs, Minimum Circuit Size Problem, Worst-case to Average-case Reductions}
}
Document
RANDOM
Improved Product-Based High-Dimensional Expanders

Authors: Louis Golowich

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 207, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2021)


Abstract
High-dimensional expanders generalize the notion of expander graphs to higher-dimensional simplicial complexes. In contrast to expander graphs, only a handful of high-dimensional expander constructions have been proposed, and no elementary combinatorial construction with near-optimal expansion is known. In this paper, we introduce an improved combinatorial high-dimensional expander construction, by modifying a previous construction of Liu, Mohanty, and Yang (ITCS 2020), which is based on a high-dimensional variant of a tensor product. Our construction achieves a spectral gap of Ω(1/(k²)) for random walks on the k-dimensional faces, which is only quadratically worse than the optimal bound of Θ(1/k). Previous combinatorial constructions, including that of Liu, Mohanty, and Yang, only achieved a spectral gap that is exponentially small in k. We also present reasoning that suggests our construction is optimal among similar product-based constructions.

Cite as

Louis Golowich. Improved Product-Based High-Dimensional Expanders. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 207, pp. 38:1-38:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)


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@InProceedings{golowich:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2021.38,
  author =	{Golowich, Louis},
  title =	{{Improved Product-Based High-Dimensional Expanders}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2021)},
  pages =	{38:1--38:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-207-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{207},
  editor =	{Wootters, Mary and Sanit\`{a}, Laura},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2021.38},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-147319},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2021.38},
  annote =	{Keywords: High-Dimensional Expander, Expander Graph, Random Walk}
}
Document
RANDOM
Pseudorandom Generators for Read-Once Monotone Branching Programs

Authors: Dean Doron, Raghu Meka, Omer Reingold, Avishay Tal, and Salil Vadhan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 207, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2021)


Abstract
Motivated by the derandomization of space-bounded computation, there has been a long line of work on constructing pseudorandom generators (PRGs) against various forms of read-once branching programs (ROBPs), with a goal of improving the O(log² n) seed length of Nisan’s classic construction [Noam Nisan, 1992] to the optimal O(log n). In this work, we construct an explicit PRG with seed length Õ(log n) for constant-width ROBPs that are monotone, meaning that the states at each time step can be ordered so that edges with the same labels never cross each other. Equivalently, for each fixed input, the transition functions are a monotone function of the state. This result is complementary to a line of work that gave PRGs with seed length O(log n) for (ordered) permutation ROBPs of constant width [Braverman et al., 2014; Koucký et al., 2011; De, 2011; Thomas Steinke, 2012], since the monotonicity constraint can be seen as the "opposite" of the permutation constraint. Our PRG also works for monotone ROBPs that can read the input bits in any order, which are strictly more powerful than read-once AC⁰. Our PRG achieves better parameters (in terms of the dependence on the depth of the circuit) than the best previous pseudorandom generator for read-once AC⁰, due to Doron, Hatami, and Hoza [Doron et al., 2019]. Our pseudorandom generator construction follows Ajtai and Wigderson’s approach of iterated pseudorandom restrictions [Ajtai and Wigderson, 1989; Gopalan et al., 2012]. We give a randomness-efficient width-reduction process which proves that the branching program simplifies to an O(log n)-junta after only O(log log n) independent applications of the Forbes-Kelley pseudorandom restrictions [Michael A. Forbes and Zander Kelley, 2018].

Cite as

Dean Doron, Raghu Meka, Omer Reingold, Avishay Tal, and Salil Vadhan. Pseudorandom Generators for Read-Once Monotone Branching Programs. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 207, pp. 58:1-58:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)


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@InProceedings{doron_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2021.58,
  author =	{Doron, Dean and Meka, Raghu and Reingold, Omer and Tal, Avishay and Vadhan, Salil},
  title =	{{Pseudorandom Generators for Read-Once Monotone Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2021)},
  pages =	{58:1--58:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-207-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{207},
  editor =	{Wootters, Mary and Sanit\`{a}, Laura},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2021.58},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-147513},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2021.58},
  annote =	{Keywords: Branching programs, pseudorandom generators, constant depth circuits}
}
Document
Pseudodistributions That Beat All Pseudorandom Generators (Extended Abstract)

Authors: Edward Pyne and Salil Vadhan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 200, 36th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2021)


Abstract
A recent paper of Braverman, Cohen, and Garg (STOC 2018) introduced the concept of a weighted pseudorandom generator (WPRG), which amounts to a pseudorandom generator (PRG) whose outputs are accompanied with real coefficients that scale the acceptance probabilities of any potential distinguisher. They gave an explicit construction of WPRGs for ordered branching programs whose seed length has a better dependence on the error parameter ε than the classic PRG construction of Nisan (STOC 1990 and Combinatorica 1992). In this work, we give an explicit construction of WPRGs that achieve parameters that are impossible to achieve by a PRG. In particular, we construct a WPRG for ordered permutation branching programs of unbounded width with a single accept state that has seed length Õ(log^{3/2} n) for error parameter ε = 1/poly(n), where n is the input length. In contrast, recent work of Hoza et al. (ITCS 2021) shows that any PRG for this model requires seed length Ω(log² n) to achieve error ε = 1/poly(n). As a corollary, we obtain explicit WPRGs with seed length Õ(log^{3/2} n) and error ε = 1/poly(n) for ordered permutation branching programs of width w = poly(n) with an arbitrary number of accept states. Previously, seed length o(log² n) was only known when both the width and the reciprocal of the error are subpolynomial, i.e. w = n^{o(1)} and ε = 1/n^{o(1)} (Braverman, Rao, Raz, Yehudayoff, FOCS 2010 and SICOMP 2014). The starting point for our results are the recent space-efficient algorithms for estimating random-walk probabilities in directed graphs by Ahmadenijad, Kelner, Murtagh, Peebles, Sidford, and Vadhan (FOCS 2020), which are based on spectral graph theory and space-efficient Laplacian solvers. We interpret these algorithms as giving WPRGs with large seed length, which we then derandomize to obtain our results. We also note that this approach gives a simpler proof of the original result of Braverman, Cohen, and Garg, as independently discovered by Cohen, Doron, Renard, Sberlo, and Ta-Shma (these proceedings).

Cite as

Edward Pyne and Salil Vadhan. Pseudodistributions That Beat All Pseudorandom Generators (Extended Abstract). In 36th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 200, pp. 33:1-33:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)


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@InProceedings{pyne_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2021.33,
  author =	{Pyne, Edward and Vadhan, Salil},
  title =	{{Pseudodistributions That Beat All Pseudorandom Generators (Extended Abstract)}},
  booktitle =	{36th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2021)},
  pages =	{33:1--33:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-193-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{200},
  editor =	{Kabanets, Valentine},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2021.33},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-143070},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2021.33},
  annote =	{Keywords: pseudorandomness, space-bounded computation, spectral graph theory}
}
Document
Pseudorandom Generators for Unbounded-Width Permutation Branching Programs

Authors: William M. Hoza, Edward Pyne, and Salil Vadhan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 185, 12th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2021)


Abstract
We prove that the Impagliazzo-Nisan-Wigderson [Impagliazzo et al., 1994] pseudorandom generator (PRG) fools ordered (read-once) permutation branching programs of unbounded width with a seed length of Õ(log d + log n ⋅ log(1/ε)), assuming the program has only one accepting vertex in the final layer. Here, n is the length of the program, d is the degree (equivalently, the alphabet size), and ε is the error of the PRG. In contrast, we show that a randomly chosen generator requires seed length Ω(n log d) to fool such unbounded-width programs. Thus, this is an unusual case where an explicit construction is "better than random." Except when the program’s width w is very small, this is an improvement over prior work. For example, when w = poly(n) and d = 2, the best prior PRG for permutation branching programs was simply Nisan’s PRG [Nisan, 1992], which fools general ordered branching programs with seed length O(log(wn/ε) log n). We prove a seed length lower bound of Ω̃(log d + log n ⋅ log(1/ε)) for fooling these unbounded-width programs, showing that our seed length is near-optimal. In fact, when ε ≤ 1/log n, our seed length is within a constant factor of optimal. Our analysis of the INW generator uses the connection between the PRG and the derandomized square of Rozenman and Vadhan [Rozenman and Vadhan, 2005] and the recent analysis of the latter in terms of unit-circle approximation by Ahmadinejad et al. [Ahmadinejad et al., 2020].

Cite as

William M. Hoza, Edward Pyne, and Salil Vadhan. Pseudorandom Generators for Unbounded-Width Permutation Branching Programs. In 12th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 185, pp. 7:1-7:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)


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@InProceedings{hoza_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2021.7,
  author =	{Hoza, William M. and Pyne, Edward and Vadhan, Salil},
  title =	{{Pseudorandom Generators for Unbounded-Width Permutation Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{12th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2021)},
  pages =	{7:1--7:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-177-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{185},
  editor =	{Lee, James R.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2021.7},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-135464},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2021.7},
  annote =	{Keywords: Pseudorandom generators, permutation branching programs}
}
Document
Pseudobinomiality of the Sticky Random Walk

Authors: Venkatesan Guruswami and Vinayak M. Kumar

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 185, 12th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2021)


Abstract
Random walks on expanders are a central and versatile tool in pseudorandomness. If an arbitrary half of the vertices of an expander graph are marked, known Chernoff bounds for expander walks imply that the number M of marked vertices visited in a long n-step random walk strongly concentrates around the expected n/2 value. Surprisingly, it was recently shown that the parity of M also has exponentially small bias. Is there a common unification of these results? What other statistics about M resemble the binomial distribution (the Hamming weight of a random n-bit string)? To gain insight into such questions, we analyze a simpler model called the sticky random walk. This model is a natural stepping stone towards understanding expander random walks, and we also show that it is a necessary step. The sticky random walk starts with a random bit and then each subsequent bit independently equals the previous bit with probability (1+λ)/2. Here λ is the proxy for the expander’s (second largest) eigenvalue. Using Krawtchouk expansion of functions, we derive several probabilistic results about the sticky random walk. We show an asymptotically tight Θ(λ) bound on the total variation distance between the (Hamming weight of the) sticky walk and the binomial distribution. We prove that the correlation between the majority and parity bit of the sticky walk is bounded by O(n^{-1/4}). This lends hope to unifying Chernoff bounds and parity concentration, as well as establishing other interesting statistical properties, of expander random walks.

Cite as

Venkatesan Guruswami and Vinayak M. Kumar. Pseudobinomiality of the Sticky Random Walk. In 12th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 185, pp. 48:1-48:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)


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@InProceedings{guruswami_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2021.48,
  author =	{Guruswami, Venkatesan and Kumar, Vinayak M.},
  title =	{{Pseudobinomiality of the Sticky Random Walk}},
  booktitle =	{12th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2021)},
  pages =	{48:1--48:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-177-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{185},
  editor =	{Lee, James R.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2021.48},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-135870},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2021.48},
  annote =	{Keywords: Expander Graphs, Fourier analysis, Markov Chains, Pseudorandomness, Random Walks}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
Spectral Sparsification via Bounded-Independence Sampling

Authors: Dean Doron, Jack Murtagh, Salil Vadhan, and David Zuckerman

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 168, 47th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2020)


Abstract
We give a deterministic, nearly logarithmic-space algorithm for mild spectral sparsification of undirected graphs. Given a weighted, undirected graph G on n vertices described by a binary string of length N, an integer k ≤ log n and an error parameter ε > 0, our algorithm runs in space Õ(k log(N w_max/w_min)) where w_max and w_min are the maximum and minimum edge weights in G, and produces a weighted graph H with Õ(n^(1+2/k)/ε²) edges that spectrally approximates G, in the sense of Spielmen and Teng [Spielman and Teng, 2004], up to an error of ε. Our algorithm is based on a new bounded-independence analysis of Spielman and Srivastava’s effective resistance based edge sampling algorithm [Spielman and Srivastava, 2011] and uses results from recent work on space-bounded Laplacian solvers [Jack Murtagh et al., 2017]. In particular, we demonstrate an inherent tradeoff (via upper and lower bounds) between the amount of (bounded) independence used in the edge sampling algorithm, denoted by k above, and the resulting sparsity that can be achieved.

Cite as

Dean Doron, Jack Murtagh, Salil Vadhan, and David Zuckerman. Spectral Sparsification via Bounded-Independence Sampling. In 47th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 168, pp. 39:1-39:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)


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@InProceedings{doron_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2020.39,
  author =	{Doron, Dean and Murtagh, Jack and Vadhan, Salil and Zuckerman, David},
  title =	{{Spectral Sparsification via Bounded-Independence Sampling}},
  booktitle =	{47th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2020)},
  pages =	{39:1--39:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-138-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{168},
  editor =	{Czumaj, Artur and Dawar, Anuj and Merelli, Emanuela},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2020.39},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-124462},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2020.39},
  annote =	{Keywords: Spectral sparsification, Derandomization, Space complexity}
}
Document
Track B: Automata, Logic, Semantics, and Theory of Programming
The Complexity of Verifying Loop-Free Programs as Differentially Private

Authors: Marco Gaboardi, Kobbi Nissim, and David Purser

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 168, 47th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2020)


Abstract
We study the problem of verifying differential privacy for loop-free programs with probabilistic choice. Programs in this class can be seen as randomized Boolean circuits, which we will use as a formal model to answer two different questions: first, deciding whether a program satisfies a prescribed level of privacy; second, approximating the privacy parameters a program realizes. We show that the problem of deciding whether a program satisfies ε-differential privacy is coNP^#P-complete. In fact, this is the case when either the input domain or the output range of the program is large. Further, we show that deciding whether a program is (ε,δ)-differentially private is coNP^#P-hard, and in coNP^#P for small output domains, but always in coNP^{#P^#P}. Finally, we show that the problem of approximating the level of differential privacy is both NP-hard and coNP-hard. These results complement previous results by Murtagh and Vadhan [Jack Murtagh and Salil P. Vadhan, 2016] showing that deciding the optimal composition of differentially private components is #P-complete, and that approximating the optimal composition of differentially private components is in P.

Cite as

Marco Gaboardi, Kobbi Nissim, and David Purser. The Complexity of Verifying Loop-Free Programs as Differentially Private. In 47th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 168, pp. 129:1-129:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)


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@InProceedings{gaboardi_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2020.129,
  author =	{Gaboardi, Marco and Nissim, Kobbi and Purser, David},
  title =	{{The Complexity of Verifying Loop-Free Programs as Differentially Private}},
  booktitle =	{47th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2020)},
  pages =	{129:1--129:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-138-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{168},
  editor =	{Czumaj, Artur and Dawar, Anuj and Merelli, Emanuela},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2020.129},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-125362},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2020.129},
  annote =	{Keywords: differential privacy, program verification, probabilistic programs}
}
Document
Separating Local & Shuffled Differential Privacy via Histograms

Authors: Victor Balcer and Albert Cheu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 163, 1st Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2020)


Abstract
Recent work in differential privacy has highlighted the shuffled model as a promising avenue to compute accurate statistics while keeping raw data in users' hands. We present a protocol in this model that estimates histograms with error independent of the domain size. This implies an arbitrarily large gap in sample complexity between the shuffled and local models. On the other hand, we show that the models are equivalent when we impose the constraints of pure differential privacy and single-message randomizers.

Cite as

Victor Balcer and Albert Cheu. Separating Local & Shuffled Differential Privacy via Histograms. In 1st Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 163, pp. 1:1-1:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)


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@InProceedings{balcer_et_al:LIPIcs.ITC.2020.1,
  author =	{Balcer, Victor and Cheu, Albert},
  title =	{{Separating Local \& Shuffled Differential Privacy via Histograms}},
  booktitle =	{1st Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2020)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-151-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{163},
  editor =	{Tauman Kalai, Yael and Smith, Adam D. and Wichs, Daniel},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2020.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-121068},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2020.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Differential Privacy, Distributed Protocols, Histograms}
}
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