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Documents authored by N. Rothblum, Guy

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Rothblum, Guy N.

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Complete Volume
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2024
LIPIcs, Volume 295, FORC 2024, Complete Volume

Authors: Guy N. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 295, 5th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2024)

Abstract
LIPIcs, Volume 295, FORC 2024, Complete Volume
Cite as

5th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 295, pp. 1-208, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@Proceedings{rothblum:LIPIcs.FORC.2024,
  title =	{{LIPIcs, Volume 295, FORC 2024, Complete Volume}},
  booktitle =	{5th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2024)},
  pages =	{1--208},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-319-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{295},
  editor =	{Rothblum, Guy N.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2024},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-200828},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2024},
  annote =	{Keywords: LIPIcs, Volume 295, FORC 2024, Complete Volume}
}
Document
Front Matter
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2024.0
Front Matter, Table of Contents, Preface, Conference Organization

Authors: Guy N. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 295, 5th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2024)

Abstract
Front Matter, Table of Contents, Preface, Conference Organization
Cite as

5th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 295, pp. 0:i-0:x, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{rothblum:LIPIcs.FORC.2024.0,
  author =	{Rothblum, Guy N.},
  title =	{{Front Matter, Table of Contents, Preface, Conference Organization}},
  booktitle =	{5th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2024)},
  pages =	{0:i--0:x},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-319-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{295},
  editor =	{Rothblum, Guy N.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2024.0},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-200830},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2024.0},
  annote =	{Keywords: Front Matter, Table of Contents, Preface, Conference Organization}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2023.1
From the Real Towards the Ideal: Risk Prediction in a Better World

Authors: Cynthia Dwork, Omer Reingold, and Guy N. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 256, 4th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2023)

Abstract
Prediction algorithms assign scores in [0,1] to individuals, often interpreted as "probabilities" of a positive outcome, for example, of repaying a loan or succeeding in a job. Success, however, rarely depends only on the individual: it is a function of the individual’s interaction with the environment, past and present. Environments do not treat all demographic groups equally. We initiate the study of corrective transformations τ that map predictors of success in the real world to predictors in a better world. In the language of algorithmic fairness, letting p^* denote the true probabilities of success in the real, unfair, world, we characterize the transformations τ for which it is feasible to find a predictor q̃ that is indistinguishable from τ(p^*). The problem is challenging because we do not have access to probabilities or even outcomes in a better world. Nor do we have access to probabilities p^* in the real world. The only data available for training are outcomes from the real world. We obtain a complete characterization of when it is possible to learn predictors that are indistinguishable from τ(p^*), in the form of a simple-to-state criterion describing necessary and sufficient conditions for doing so. This criterion is inextricably bound with the very existence of uncertainty.
Cite as

Cynthia Dwork, Omer Reingold, and Guy N. Rothblum. From the Real Towards the Ideal: Risk Prediction in a Better World. In 4th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 256, pp. 1:1-1:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{dwork_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2023.1,
  author =	{Dwork, Cynthia and Reingold, Omer and Rothblum, Guy N.},
  title =	{{From the Real Towards the Ideal: Risk Prediction in a Better World}},
  booktitle =	{4th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2023)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-272-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{256},
  editor =	{Talwar, Kunal},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2023.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-179224},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2023.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Algorithmic Fairness, Affirmative Action, Learning, Predictions, Multicalibration, Outcome Indistinguishability}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.59
On Interactive Proofs of Proximity with Proof-Oblivious Queries

Authors: Oded Goldreich, Guy N. Rothblum, and Tal Skverer

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 251, 14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023)

Abstract
Interactive proofs of proximity (IPPs) offer ultra-fast approximate verification of assertions regarding their input, where ultra-fast means that only a small portion of the input is read and approximate verification is analogous to the notion of approximate decision that underlies property testing. Specifically, in an IPP, the prover can make the verifier accept each input in the property, but cannot fool the verifier into accepting an input that is far from the property (except for with small probability). The verifier in an IPP system engages in two very different types of activities: interacting with an untrusted prover, and querying its input. The definition allows for arbitrary coordination between these two activities, but keeping them separate is both conceptually interesting and necessary for important applications such as addressing temporal considerations (i.e., at what time is each of the services available) and facilitating the construction of zero-knowledge schemes. In this work we embark on a systematic study of IPPs with proof-oblivious queries, where the queries should not be affected by the interaction with the prover. We assign the query and interaction activities to separate modules, and consider different limitations on their coordination. The most strict limitation requires these activities to be totally isolated from one another; they just feed their views to a separate deciding module. We show that such systems can be efficiently emulated by standard testers. Going to the other extreme, we only disallow information to flow from the interacting module to the querying module, but allow free information flow in the other direction. We show that extremely efficient one-round (i.e., two-message) systems of such type can be used to verify properties that are extremely hard to test (without the help of a prover). That is, the complexity of verifying can be polylogarithmic in the complexity of testing. This stands in contrast the MAPs (viewed as 1/2-round systems) in which proof-oblivious queries are as limited as our isolated model. Our focus is on an intermediate model that allows shared randomness between the querying and interacting modules but no information flow between them. In this case we show that 1-round systems are efficiently emulated by standard testers but 3/2-round systems of extremely low complexity exist for properties that are extremely hard to test. One additional result about this model is that it can efficiently emulate any IPP for any property of low-degree polynomials.
Cite as

Oded Goldreich, Guy N. Rothblum, and Tal Skverer. On Interactive Proofs of Proximity with Proof-Oblivious Queries. In 14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 251, pp. 59:1-59:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{goldreich_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.59,
  author =	{Goldreich, Oded and Rothblum, Guy N. and Skverer, Tal},
  title =	{{On Interactive Proofs of Proximity with Proof-Oblivious Queries}},
  booktitle =	{14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023)},
  pages =	{59:1--59:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-263-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{251},
  editor =	{Tauman Kalai, Yael},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.59},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-175625},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.59},
  annote =	{Keywords: Complexity Theory, Property Testing, Interactive Proofs, Interactive Proofs of Proximity, Proof-Oblivious Queries}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.92
Decision-Making Under Miscalibration

Authors: Guy N. Rothblum and Gal Yona

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 251, 14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023)

Abstract
How should we use ML-based predictions (e.g., risk of heart attack) to inform downstream binary classification decisions (e.g., undergoing a medical procedure)? When the risk estimates are perfectly calibrated, the answer is well understood: a classification problem’s cost structure induces an optimal treatment threshold j^⋆. In practice, however, predictors are often miscalibrated, and this can lead to harmful decisions. This raises a fundamental question: how should one use potentially miscalibrated predictions to inform binary decisions? In this work, we study this question from the perspective of algorithmic fairness. Specifically, we focus on the impact of decisions on protected demographic subgroups, when we are only given a bound on the predictor’s anticipated degree of subgroup-miscalibration. We formalize a natural (distribution-free) solution concept for translating predictions into decisions: given anticipated miscalibration of α, we propose using the threshold j that minimizes the worst-case regret over all α-miscalibrated predictors, where the regret is the difference in clinical utility between using the threshold in question and using the optimal threshold in hindsight. We provide closed form expressions for j when miscalibration is measured using both expected and maximum calibration error which reveal that it indeed differs from j^⋆ (the optimal threshold under perfect calibration).
Cite as

Guy N. Rothblum and Gal Yona. Decision-Making Under Miscalibration. In 14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 251, pp. 92:1-92:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{rothblum_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.92,
  author =	{Rothblum, Guy N. and Yona, Gal},
  title =	{{Decision-Making Under Miscalibration}},
  booktitle =	{14th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2023)},
  pages =	{92:1--92:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-263-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{251},
  editor =	{Tauman Kalai, Yael},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.92},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-175951},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2023.92},
  annote =	{Keywords: risk prediction, calibration, algorithmic fairness, multi-group fairness}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.92
On Fairness and Stability in Two-Sided Matchings

Authors: Gili Karni, Guy N. Rothblum, and Gal Yona

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 215, 13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022)

Abstract
There are growing concerns that algorithms, which increasingly make or influence important decisions pertaining to individuals, might produce outcomes that discriminate against protected groups. We study such fairness concerns in the context of a two-sided market, where there are two sets of agents, and each agent has preferences over the other set. The goal is producing a matching between the sets. Throughout this work, we use the example of matching medical residents (who we call "doctors") to hospitals. This setting has been the focus of a rich body of work. The seminal work of Gale and Shapley formulated a stability desideratum, and showed that a stable matching always exists and can be found in polynomial time. With fairness concerns in mind, it is natural to ask: might a stable matching be discriminatory towards some of the doctors? How can we obtain a fair matching? The question is interesting both when hospital preferences might be discriminatory, and also when each hospital’s preferences are fair. We study this question through the lens of metric-based fairness notions (Dwork et al. [ITCS 2012] and Kim et al. [ITCS 2020]). We formulate appropriate definitions of fairness and stability in the presence of a similarity metric, and ask: does a fair and stable matching always exist? Can such a matching be found in polynomial time? Can classical Gale-Shapley algorithms find such a matching? Our contributions are as follows: - Composition failures for classical algorithms. We show that composing the Gale-Shapley algorithm with fair hospital preferences can produce blatantly unfair outcomes. - New algorithms for finding fair and stable matchings. Our main technical contributions are efficient new algorithms for finding fair and stable matchings when: (i) the hospitals' preferences are fair, and (ii) the fairness metric satisfies a strong "proto-metric" condition: the distance between every two doctors is either zero or one. In particular, these algorithms also show that, in this setting, fairness and stability are compatible. - Barriers for finding fair and stable matchings in the general case. We show that if the hospital preferences can be unfair, or if the metric fails to satisfy the proto-metric condition, then no algorithm in a natural class can find a fair and stable matching. The natural class includes the classical Gale-Shapley algorithms and our new algorithms.
Cite as

Gili Karni, Guy N. Rothblum, and Gal Yona. On Fairness and Stability in Two-Sided Matchings. In 13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 215, pp. 92:1-92:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{karni_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.92,
  author =	{Karni, Gili and Rothblum, Guy N. and Yona, Gal},
  title =	{{On Fairness and Stability in Two-Sided Matchings}},
  booktitle =	{13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022)},
  pages =	{92:1--92:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-217-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{215},
  editor =	{Braverman, Mark},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.92},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-156880},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.92},
  annote =	{Keywords: algorithmic fairness}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2021.3
On Prover-Efficient Public-Coin Emulation of Interactive Proofs

Authors: Gal Arnon and Guy N. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 199, 2nd Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2021)

Abstract
A central question in the study of interactive proofs is the relationship between private-coin proofs, where the verifier is allowed to hide its randomness from the prover, and public-coin proofs, where the verifier’s random coins are sent to the prover. The seminal work of Goldwasser and Sipser [STOC 1986] showed how to transform private-coin proofs into public-coin ones. However, their transformation incurs a super-polynomial blowup in the running time of the honest prover. In this work, we study transformations from private-coin proofs to public-coin proofs that preserve (up to polynomial factors) the running time of the prover. We re-consider this question in light of the emergence of doubly-efficient interactive proofs, where the honest prover is required to run in polynomial time and the verifier should run in near-linear time. Can every private-coin doubly-efficient interactive proof be transformed into a public-coin doubly-efficient proof? Adapting a result of Vadhan [STOC 2000], we show that, assuming one-way functions exist, there is no general-purpose black-box private-coin to public-coin transformation for doubly-efficient interactive proofs. Our main result is a loose converse: if (auxiliary-input infinitely-often) one-way functions do not exist, then there exists a general-purpose efficiency-preserving transformation. To prove this result, we show a general condition that suffices for transforming a doubly-efficient private coin protocol: every such protocol induces an efficiently computable function, such that if this function is efficiently invertible (in the sense of one-way functions), then the proof can be efficiently transformed into a public-coin proof system with a polynomial-time honest prover. This result motivates a study of other general conditions that allow for efficiency-preserving private to public coin transformations. We identify an additional (incomparable) condition to that used in our main result. This condition allows for transforming any private coin interactive proof where (roughly) it is possible to efficiently approximate the number of verifier coins consistent with a partial transcript. This allows for transforming any constant-round interactive proof that has this property (even if it is not doubly-efficient). We demonstrate the applicability of this final result by using it to transform a private-coin protocol of Rothblum, Vadhan and Wigderson [STOC 2013], obtaining a doubly-efficient public-coin protocol for verifying that a given graph is close to bipartite in a setting for which such a protocol was not previously known.
Cite as

Gal Arnon and Guy N. Rothblum. On Prover-Efficient Public-Coin Emulation of Interactive Proofs. In 2nd Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 199, pp. 3:1-3:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

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@InProceedings{arnon_et_al:LIPIcs.ITC.2021.3,
  author =	{Arnon, Gal and Rothblum, Guy N.},
  title =	{{On Prover-Efficient Public-Coin Emulation of Interactive Proofs}},
  booktitle =	{2nd Conference on Information-Theoretic Cryptography (ITC 2021)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-197-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{199},
  editor =	{Tessaro, Stefano},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2021.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-143226},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITC.2021.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Interactive Proofs, Computational complexity, Cryptography}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2021.41
Interactive Proofs for Verifying Machine Learning

Authors: Shafi Goldwasser, Guy N. Rothblum, Jonathan Shafer, and Amir Yehudayoff

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

Abstract
We consider the following question: using a source of labeled data and interaction with an untrusted prover, what is the complexity of verifying that a given hypothesis is "approximately correct"? We study interactive proof systems for PAC verification, where a verifier that interacts with a prover is required to accept good hypotheses, and reject bad hypotheses. Both the verifier and the prover are efficient and have access to labeled data samples from an unknown distribution. We are interested in cases where the verifier can use significantly less data than is required for (agnostic) PAC learning, or use a substantially cheaper data source (e.g., using only random samples for verification, even though learning requires membership queries). We believe that today, when data and data-driven algorithms are quickly gaining prominence, the question of verifying purported outcomes of data analyses is very well-motivated. We show three main results. First, we prove that for a specific hypothesis class, verification is significantly cheaper than learning in terms of sample complexity, even if the verifier engages with the prover only in a single-round (NP-like) protocol. Moreover, for this class we prove that single-round verification is also significantly cheaper than testing closeness to the class. Second, for the broad class of Fourier-sparse boolean functions, we show a multi-round (IP-like) verification protocol, where the prover uses membership queries, and the verifier is able to assess the result while only using random samples. Third, we show that verification is not always more efficient. Namely, we show a class of functions where verification requires as many samples as learning does, up to a logarithmic factor.
Cite as

Shafi Goldwasser, Guy N. Rothblum, Jonathan Shafer, and Amir Yehudayoff. Interactive Proofs for Verifying Machine Learning. In 12th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 185, pp. 41:1-41:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

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@InProceedings{goldwasser_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2021.41,
  author =	{Goldwasser, Shafi and Rothblum, Guy N. and Shafer, Jonathan and Yehudayoff, Amir},
  title =	{{Interactive Proofs for Verifying Machine Learning}},
  booktitle =	{12th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2021)},
  pages =	{41:1--41:19},
  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.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2021.41},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-135806},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2021.41},
  annote =	{Keywords: PAC learning, Fourier analysis of boolean functions, Complexity gaps, Complexity lower bounds, Goldreich-Levin algorithm, Kushilevitz-Mansour algorithm, Distribution testing}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2020.8
Abstracting Fairness: Oracles, Metrics, and Interpretability

Authors: Cynthia Dwork, Christina Ilvento, Guy N. Rothblum, and Pragya Sur

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 156, 1st Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2020)

Abstract
It is well understood that classification algorithms, for example, for deciding on loan applications, cannot be evaluated for fairness without taking context into account. We examine what can be learned from a fairness oracle equipped with an underlying understanding of "true" fairness. The oracle takes as input a (context, classifier) pair satisfying an arbitrary fairness definition, and accepts or rejects the pair according to whether the classifier satisfies the underlying fairness truth. Our principal conceptual result is an extraction procedure that learns the underlying truth; moreover, the procedure can learn an approximation to this truth given access to a weak form of the oracle. Since every "truly fair" classifier induces a coarse metric, in which those receiving the same decision are at distance zero from one another and those receiving different decisions are at distance one, this extraction process provides the basis for ensuring a rough form of metric fairness, also known as individual fairness. Our principal technical result is a higher fidelity extractor under a mild technical constraint on the weak oracle’s conception of fairness. Our framework permits the scenario in which many classifiers, with differing outcomes, may all be considered fair. Our results have implications for interpretablity - a highly desired but poorly defined property of classification systems that endeavors to permit a human arbiter to reject classifiers deemed to be "unfair" or illegitimately derived.
Cite as

Cynthia Dwork, Christina Ilvento, Guy N. Rothblum, and Pragya Sur. Abstracting Fairness: Oracles, Metrics, and Interpretability. In 1st Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 156, pp. 8:1-8:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{dwork_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2020.8,
  author =	{Dwork, Cynthia and Ilvento, Christina and Rothblum, Guy N. and Sur, Pragya},
  title =	{{Abstracting Fairness: Oracles, Metrics, and Interpretability}},
  booktitle =	{1st Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2020)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-142-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{156},
  editor =	{Roth, Aaron},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2020.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-120247},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2020.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: Algorithmic fairness, fairness definitions, causality-based fairness, interpretability, individual fairness, metric fairness}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.16
Preference-Informed Fairness

Authors: Michael P. Kim, Aleksandra Korolova, Guy N. Rothblum, and Gal Yona

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 151, 11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020)

Abstract
In this work, we study notions of fairness in decision-making systems when individuals have diverse preferences over the possible outcomes of the decisions. Our starting point is the seminal work of Dwork et al. [ITCS 2012] which introduced a notion of individual fairness (IF): given a task-specific similarity metric, every pair of individuals who are similarly qualified according to the metric should receive similar outcomes. We show that when individuals have diverse preferences over outcomes, requiring IF may unintentionally lead to less-preferred outcomes for the very individuals that IF aims to protect (e.g. a protected minority group). A natural alternative to IF is the classic notion of fair division, envy-freeness (EF): no individual should prefer another individual’s outcome over their own. Although EF allows for solutions where all individuals receive a highly-preferred outcome, EF may also be overly-restrictive for the decision-maker. For instance, if many individuals agree on the best outcome, then if any individual receives this outcome, they all must receive it, regardless of each individual’s underlying qualifications for the outcome. We introduce and study a new notion of preference-informed individual fairness (PIIF) that is a relaxation of both individual fairness and envy-freeness. At a high-level, PIIF requires that outcomes satisfy IF-style constraints, but allows for deviations provided they are in line with individuals' preferences. We show that PIIF can permit outcomes that are more favorable to individuals than any IF solution, while providing considerably more flexibility to the decision-maker than EF. In addition, we show how to efficiently optimize any convex objective over the outcomes subject to PIIF for a rich class of individual preferences. Finally, we demonstrate the broad applicability of the PIIF framework by extending our definitions and algorithms to the multiple-task targeted advertising setting introduced by Dwork and Ilvento [ITCS 2019].
Cite as

Michael P. Kim, Aleksandra Korolova, Guy N. Rothblum, and Gal Yona. Preference-Informed Fairness. In 11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 151, pp. 16:1-16:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{kim_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.16,
  author =	{Kim, Michael P. and Korolova, Aleksandra and Rothblum, Guy N. and Yona, Gal},
  title =	{{Preference-Informed Fairness}},
  booktitle =	{11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020)},
  pages =	{16:1--16:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-134-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{151},
  editor =	{Vidick, Thomas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.16},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-117010},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.16},
  annote =	{Keywords: algorithmic fairness}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2018.22
Efficient Batch Verification for UP

Authors: Omer Reingold, Guy N. Rothblum, and Ron D. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 102, 33rd Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2018)

Abstract
Consider a setting in which a prover wants to convince a verifier of the correctness of k NP statements. For example, the prover wants to convince the verifier that k given integers N_1,...,N_k are all RSA moduli (i.e., products of equal length primes). Clearly this problem can be solved by simply having the prover send the k NP witnesses, but this involves a lot of communication. Can interaction help? In particular, is it possible to construct interactive proofs for this task whose communication grows sub-linearly with k? Our main result is such an interactive proof for verifying the correctness of any k UP statements (i.e., NP statements that have a unique witness). The proof-system uses only a constant number of rounds and the communication complexity is k^delta * poly(m), where delta>0 is an arbitrarily small constant, m is the length of a single witness, and the poly term refers to a fixed polynomial that only depends on the language and not on delta. The (honest) prover strategy can be implemented in polynomial-time given access to the k (unique) witnesses. Our proof leverages "interactive witness verification" (IWV), a new type of proof-system that may be of independent interest. An IWV is a proof-system in which the verifier needs to verify the correctness of an NP statement using: (i) a sublinear number of queries to an alleged NP witness, and (ii) a short interaction with a powerful but untrusted prover. In contrast to the setting of PCPs and Interactive PCPs, here the verifier only has access to the raw NP witness, rather than some encoding thereof.
Cite as

Omer Reingold, Guy N. Rothblum, and Ron D. Rothblum. Efficient Batch Verification for UP. In 33rd Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2018). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 102, pp. 22:1-22:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2018)

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@InProceedings{reingold_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2018.22,
  author =	{Reingold, Omer and Rothblum, Guy N. and Rothblum, Ron D.},
  title =	{{Efficient Batch Verification for UP}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2018)},
  pages =	{22:1--22:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-069-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2018},
  volume =	{102},
  editor =	{Servedio, Rocco A.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2018.22},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-88681},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2018.22},
  annote =	{Keywords: Interactive Proof, Batch Verification, Unique Solution}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.18
Simple Doubly-Efficient Interactive Proof Systems for Locally-Characterizable Sets

Authors: Oded Goldreich and Guy N. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 94, 9th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2018)

Abstract
A proof system is called doubly-efficient if the prescribed prover strategy can be implemented in polynomial-time and the verifier's strategy can be implemented in almost-linear-time. We present direct constructions of doubly-efficient interactive proof systems for problems in P that are believed to have relatively high complexity. Specifically, such constructions are presented for t-CLIQUE and t-SUM. In addition, we present a generic construction of such proof systems for a natural class that contains both problems and is in NC (and also in SC). The proof systems presented by us are significantly simpler than the proof systems presented by Goldwasser, Kalai and Rothblum (JACM, 2015), let alone those presented by Reingold, Rothblum, and Rothblum (STOC, 2016), and can be implemented using a smaller number of rounds.
Cite as

Oded Goldreich and Guy N. Rothblum. Simple Doubly-Efficient Interactive Proof Systems for Locally-Characterizable Sets. In 9th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2018). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 94, pp. 18:1-18:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2018)

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@InProceedings{goldreich_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.18,
  author =	{Goldreich, Oded and Rothblum, Guy N.},
  title =	{{Simple Doubly-Efficient Interactive Proof Systems for Locally-Characterizable Sets}},
  booktitle =	{9th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2018)},
  pages =	{18:1--18:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-060-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2018},
  volume =	{94},
  editor =	{Karlin, Anna R.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.18},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-83279},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.18},
  annote =	{Keywords: Interactive proofs}
}

Rothblum, Ron D.

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.24
Distribution-Free Proofs of Proximity

Authors: Hugo Aaronson, Tom Gur, Ninad Rajgopal, and Ron D. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract
Motivated by the fact that input distributions are often unknown in advance, distribution-free property testing considers a setting in which the algorithmic task is to accept functions f: [n] → {0,1} having a certain property Π and reject functions that are ε-far from Π, where the distance is measured according to an arbitrary and unknown input distribution 𝒟 ∼ [n]. As usual in property testing, the tester is required to do so while making only a sublinear number of input queries, but as the distribution is unknown, we also allow a sublinear number of samples from the distribution 𝒟. In this work we initiate the study of distribution-free interactive proofs of proximity (df-IPPs) in which the distribution-free testing algorithm is assisted by an all powerful but untrusted prover. Our main result is that for any problem Π ∈ NC, any proximity parameter ε > 0, and any (trade-off) parameter τ ≤ √n, we construct a df-IPP for Π with respect to ε, that has query and sample complexities τ+O(1/ε), and communication complexity Õ(n/τ + 1/ε). For τ as above and sufficiently large ε (namely, when ε > τ/n), this result matches the parameters of the best-known general purpose IPPs in the standard uniform setting. Moreover, for such τ, its parameters are optimal up to poly-logarithmic factors under reasonable cryptographic assumptions for the same regime of ε as the uniform setting, i.e., when ε ≥ 1/τ. For smaller values of ε (i.e., when ε < τ/n), our protocol has communication complexity Ω(1/ε), which is worse than the Õ(n/τ) communication complexity of the uniform IPPs (with the same query complexity). With the aim of improving on this gap, we further show that for IPPs over specialised, but large distribution families, such as sufficiently smooth distributions and product distributions, the communication complexity can be reduced to Õ(n/τ^{1-o(1)}). In addition, we show that for certain natural families of languages, such as symmetric and (relaxed) self-correctable languages, it is possible to further improve the efficiency of distribution-free IPPs.
Cite as

Hugo Aaronson, Tom Gur, Ninad Rajgopal, and Ron D. Rothblum. Distribution-Free Proofs of Proximity. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 24:1-24:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{aaronson_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.24,
  author =	{Aaronson, Hugo and Gur, Tom and Rajgopal, Ninad and Rothblum, Ron D.},
  title =	{{Distribution-Free Proofs of Proximity}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{24:1--24:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.24},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-204204},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.24},
  annote =	{Keywords: Property Testing, Interactive Proofs, Distribution-Free Property Testing}
}
Document
RANDOM
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.47
Efficient Interactive Proofs for Non-Deterministic Bounded Space

Authors: Joshua Cook and Ron D. Rothblum

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

Abstract
The celebrated IP = PSPACE Theorem gives an efficient interactive proof for any bounded-space algorithm. In this work we study interactive proofs for non-deterministic bounded space computations. While Savitch’s Theorem shows that nondeterministic bounded-space algorithms can be simulated by deterministic bounded-space algorithms, this simulation has a quadratic overhead. We give interactive protocols for nondeterministic algorithms directly to get faster verifiers. More specifically, for any non-deterministic space S algorithm, we construct an interactive proof in which the verifier runs in time Õ(n+S²). This improves on the best previous bound of Õ(n+S³) and matches the result for deterministic space bounded algorithms, up to polylog(S) factors. We further generalize to alternating bounded space algorithms. For any language L decided by a time T, space S algorithm that uses d alternations, we construct an interactive proof in which the verifier runs in time Õ(n + S log(T) + S d) and the prover runs in time 2^O(S). For d = O(log(T)), this matches the best known interactive proofs for deterministic algorithms, up to polylog(S) factors, and improves on the previous best verifier time for nondeterministic algorithms by a factor of log(T). We also improve the best prior verifier time for unbounded alternations by a factor of S. Using known connections of bounded alternation algorithms to bounded depth circuits, we also obtain faster verifiers for bounded depth circuits with unbounded fan-in.
Cite as

Joshua Cook and Ron D. Rothblum. Efficient Interactive Proofs for Non-Deterministic Bounded Space. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 275, pp. 47:1-47:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{cook_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.47,
  author =	{Cook, Joshua and Rothblum, Ron D.},
  title =	{{Efficient Interactive Proofs for Non-Deterministic Bounded Space}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023)},
  pages =	{47:1--47:22},
  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.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.47},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-188727},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.47},
  annote =	{Keywords: Interactive Proofs, Alternating Algorithms, AC0\lbrack2\rbrack, Doubly Efficient Proofs}
}
Document
Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.73
Delegation for Search Problems

Authors: Justin Holmgren, Andrea Lincoln, and Ron D. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 229, 49th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2022)

Abstract
The theory of proof systems in general, and interactive proofs in particular, has been immensely influential. Such proof systems allow a prover to convince a verifier whether a given statement is true or not - namely to solve a decision problem. In this work we initiate a study of interactive proofs for search problems. More precisely, we consider a setting in which a client C, given an input x, would like to find a solution y satisfying (x,y) ∈ R, for a given relation R. The client wishes to delegate this work to an (untrusted) advisor A, who has more resources than C. We seek solutions in which the communication from A is short, and, in particular, shorter than the length of the output y. (In particular, this precludes the trivial solution of the advisor sending y and then proving that (x,y) ∈ R using a standard interactive proof.) We show that such search delegation schemes exist for several problems of interest including (1) longest common subsequence (LCS) and edit distance, (2) parsing context-free grammars and (3) k-SAT.
Cite as

Justin Holmgren, Andrea Lincoln, and Ron D. Rothblum. Delegation for Search Problems. In 49th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 229, pp. 73:1-73:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{holmgren_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.73,
  author =	{Holmgren, Justin and Lincoln, Andrea and Rothblum, Ron D.},
  title =	{{Delegation for Search Problems}},
  booktitle =	{49th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2022)},
  pages =	{73:1--73:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-235-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{229},
  editor =	{Boja\'{n}czyk, Miko{\l}aj and Merelli, Emanuela and Woodruff, David P.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.73},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-164146},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2022.73},
  annote =	{Keywords: Interactive Proofs, Fine-Grained Complexity, Delegation}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.30
PCPs and Instance Compression from a Cryptographic Lens

Authors: Liron Bronfman and Ron D. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 215, 13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022)

Abstract
Modern cryptography fundamentally relies on the assumption that the adversary trying to break the scheme is computationally bounded. This assumption lets us construct cryptographic protocols and primitives that are known to be impossible otherwise. In this work we explore the effect of bounding the adversary’s power in other information theoretic proof-systems and show how to use this assumption to bypass impossibility results. We first consider the question of constructing succinct PCPs. These are PCPs whose length is polynomial only in the length of the original NP witness (in contrast to standard PCPs whose length is proportional to the non-deterministic verification time). Unfortunately, succinct PCPs are known to be impossible to construct under standard complexity assumptions. Assuming the sub-exponential hardness of the learning with errors (LWE) problem, we construct succinct probabilistically checkable arguments or PCAs (Kalai and Raz 2009), which are PCPs in which soundness is guaranteed against efficiently generated false proofs. Our PCA construction is for every NP relation that can be verified by a small-depth circuit (e.g., SAT, clique, TSP, etc.) and in contrast to prior work is publicly verifiable and has constant query complexity. Curiously, we also show, as a proof-of-concept, that such publicly-verifiable PCAs can be used to derive hardness of approximation results. Second, we consider the notion of Instance Compression (Harnik and Naor, 2006). An instance compression scheme lets one compress, for example, a CNF formula φ on m variables and n ≫ m clauses to a new formula φ' with only poly(m) clauses, so that φ is satisfiable if and only if φ' is satisfiable. Instance compression has been shown to be closely related to succinct PCPs and is similarly highly unlikely to exist. We introduce a computational analog of instance compression in which we require that if φ is unsatisfiable then φ' is effectively unsatisfiable, in the sense that it is computationally infeasible to find a satisfying assignment for φ' (although such an assignment may exist). Assuming the same sub-exponential LWE assumption, we construct such computational instance compression schemes for every bounded-depth NP relation. As an application, this lets one compress k formulas ϕ₁,… ,ϕ_k into a single short formula ϕ that is effectively satisfiable if and only if at least one of the original formulas was satisfiable.
Cite as

Liron Bronfman and Ron D. Rothblum. PCPs and Instance Compression from a Cryptographic Lens. In 13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 215, pp. 30:1-30:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{bronfman_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.30,
  author =	{Bronfman, Liron and Rothblum, Ron D.},
  title =	{{PCPs and Instance Compression from a Cryptographic Lens}},
  booktitle =	{13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022)},
  pages =	{30:1--30:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-217-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{215},
  editor =	{Braverman, Mark},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.30},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-156269},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.30},
  annote =	{Keywords: PCP, Succinct Arguments, Instance Compression}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.67
Small Circuits Imply Efficient Arthur-Merlin Protocols

Authors: Michael Ezra and Ron D. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 215, 13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022)

Abstract
The inner product function ⟨ x,y ⟩ = ∑_i x_i y_i mod 2 can be easily computed by a (linear-size) AC⁰(⊕) circuit: that is, a constant depth circuit with AND, OR and parity (XOR) gates. But what if we impose the restriction that the parity gates can only be on the bottom most layer (closest to the input)? Namely, can the inner product function be computed by an AC⁰ circuit composed with a single layer of parity gates? This seemingly simple question is an important open question at the frontier of circuit lower bound research. In this work, we focus on a minimalistic version of the above question. Namely, whether the inner product function cannot be approximated by a small DNF augmented with a single layer of parity gates. Our main result shows that the existence of such a circuit would have unexpected implications for interactive proofs, or more specifically, for interactive variants of the Data Streaming and Communication Complexity models. In particular, we show that the existence of such a small (i.e., polynomial-size) circuit yields: 1) An O(d)-message protocol in the Arthur-Merlin Data Streaming model for every n-variate, degree d polynomial (over GF(2)), using only Õ(d) ⋅log(n) communication and space complexity. In particular, this gives an AM[2] Data Streaming protocol for a variant of the well-studied triangle counting problem, with poly-logarithmic communication and space complexities. 2) A 2-message communication complexity protocol for any sparse (or low degree) polynomial, and for any function computable by an AC⁰(⊕) circuit. Specifically, for the latter, we obtain a protocol with communication complexity that is poly-logarithmic in the size of the AC⁰(⊕) circuit.
Cite as

Michael Ezra and Ron D. Rothblum. Small Circuits Imply Efficient Arthur-Merlin Protocols. In 13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 215, pp. 67:1-67:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{ezra_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.67,
  author =	{Ezra, Michael and Rothblum, Ron D.},
  title =	{{Small Circuits Imply Efficient Arthur-Merlin Protocols}},
  booktitle =	{13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022)},
  pages =	{67:1--67:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-217-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{215},
  editor =	{Braverman, Mark},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.67},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-156635},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.67},
  annote =	{Keywords: Circuits Complexity, Circuit Lower Bounds, Communication Complexity, Data Streaming, Arthur-Merlin games, Interactive Proofs}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.9
Hard Properties with (Very) Short PCPPs and Their Applications

Authors: Omri Ben-Eliezer, Eldar Fischer, Amit Levi, and Ron D. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 151, 11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020)

Abstract
We show that there exist properties that are maximally hard for testing, while still admitting PCPPs with a proof size very close to linear. Specifically, for every fixed ℓ, we construct a property P^(ℓ)⊆ {0,1}^n satisfying the following: Any testing algorithm for P^(ℓ) requires Ω(n) many queries, and yet P^(ℓ) has a constant query PCPP whose proof size is O(n⋅log^(ℓ)n), where log^(ℓ) denotes the ℓ times iterated log function (e.g., log^(2)n = log log n). The best previously known upper bound on the PCPP proof size for a maximally hard to test property was O(n⋅polylog(n)). As an immediate application, we obtain stronger separations between the standard testing model and both the tolerant testing model and the erasure-resilient testing model: for every fixed ℓ, we construct a property that has a constant-query tester, but requires Ω(n/log^(ℓ)(n)) queries for every tolerant or erasure-resilient tester.
Cite as

Omri Ben-Eliezer, Eldar Fischer, Amit Levi, and Ron D. Rothblum. Hard Properties with (Very) Short PCPPs and Their Applications. In 11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 151, pp. 9:1-9:27, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{beneliezer_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.9,
  author =	{Ben-Eliezer, Omri and Fischer, Eldar and Levi, Amit and Rothblum, Ron D.},
  title =	{{Hard Properties with (Very) Short PCPPs and Their Applications}},
  booktitle =	{11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:27},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-134-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{151},
  editor =	{Vidick, Thomas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-116949},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: PCPP, Property testing, Tolerant testing, Erasure resilient testing, Randomized encoding, Coding theory}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2018.73
An Exponential Separation Between MA and AM Proofs of Proximity

Authors: Tom Gur, Yang P. Liu, and Ron D. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 107, 45th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2018)

Abstract
Interactive proofs of proximity allow a sublinear-time verifier to check that a given input is close to the language, using a small amount of communication with a powerful (but untrusted) prover. In this work we consider two natural minimally interactive variants of such proofs systems, in which the prover only sends a single message, referred to as the proof. The first variant, known as MA-proofs of Proximity (MAP), is fully non-interactive, meaning that the proof is a function of the input only. The second variant, known as AM-proofs of Proximity (AMP), allows the proof to additionally depend on the verifier's (entire) random string. The complexity of both MAPs and AMPs is the total number of bits that the verifier observes - namely, the sum of the proof length and query complexity. Our main result is an exponential separation between the power of MAPs and AMPs. Specifically, we exhibit an explicit and natural property Pi that admits an AMP with complexity O(log n), whereas any MAP for Pi has complexity Omega~(n^{1/4}), where n denotes the length of the input in bits. Our MAP lower bound also yields an alternate proof, which is more general and arguably much simpler, for a recent result of Fischer et al. (ITCS, 2014). Lastly, we also consider the notion of oblivious proofs of proximity, in which the verifier's queries are oblivious to the proof. In this setting we show that AMPs can only be quadratically stronger than MAPs. As an application of this result, we show an exponential separation between the power of public and private coin for oblivious interactive proofs of proximity.
Cite as

Tom Gur, Yang P. Liu, and Ron D. Rothblum. An Exponential Separation Between MA and AM Proofs of Proximity. In 45th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2018). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 107, pp. 73:1-73:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2018)

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@InProceedings{gur_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2018.73,
  author =	{Gur, Tom and Liu, Yang P. and Rothblum, Ron D.},
  title =	{{An Exponential Separation Between MA and AM Proofs of Proximity}},
  booktitle =	{45th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2018)},
  pages =	{73:1--73:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-076-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2018},
  volume =	{107},
  editor =	{Chatzigiannakis, Ioannis and Kaklamanis, Christos and Marx, D\'{a}niel and Sannella, Donald},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2018.73},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-90772},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2018.73},
  annote =	{Keywords: Property testing, Probabilistic proof systems, Proofs of proximity}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2018.22
Efficient Batch Verification for UP

Authors: Omer Reingold, Guy N. Rothblum, and Ron D. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 102, 33rd Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2018)

Abstract
Consider a setting in which a prover wants to convince a verifier of the correctness of k NP statements. For example, the prover wants to convince the verifier that k given integers N_1,...,N_k are all RSA moduli (i.e., products of equal length primes). Clearly this problem can be solved by simply having the prover send the k NP witnesses, but this involves a lot of communication. Can interaction help? In particular, is it possible to construct interactive proofs for this task whose communication grows sub-linearly with k? Our main result is such an interactive proof for verifying the correctness of any k UP statements (i.e., NP statements that have a unique witness). The proof-system uses only a constant number of rounds and the communication complexity is k^delta * poly(m), where delta>0 is an arbitrarily small constant, m is the length of a single witness, and the poly term refers to a fixed polynomial that only depends on the language and not on delta. The (honest) prover strategy can be implemented in polynomial-time given access to the k (unique) witnesses. Our proof leverages "interactive witness verification" (IWV), a new type of proof-system that may be of independent interest. An IWV is a proof-system in which the verifier needs to verify the correctness of an NP statement using: (i) a sublinear number of queries to an alleged NP witness, and (ii) a short interaction with a powerful but untrusted prover. In contrast to the setting of PCPs and Interactive PCPs, here the verifier only has access to the raw NP witness, rather than some encoding thereof.
Cite as

Omer Reingold, Guy N. Rothblum, and Ron D. Rothblum. Efficient Batch Verification for UP. In 33rd Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2018). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 102, pp. 22:1-22:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2018)

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@InProceedings{reingold_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2018.22,
  author =	{Reingold, Omer and Rothblum, Guy N. and Rothblum, Ron D.},
  title =	{{Efficient Batch Verification for UP}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2018)},
  pages =	{22:1--22:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-069-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2018},
  volume =	{102},
  editor =	{Servedio, Rocco A.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2018.22},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-88681},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2018.22},
  annote =	{Keywords: Interactive Proof, Batch Verification, Unique Solution}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.19
Zero-Knowledge Proofs of Proximity

Authors: Itay Berman, Ron D. Rothblum, and Vinod Vaikuntanathan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 94, 9th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2018)

Abstract
Interactive proofs of proximity (IPPs) are interactive proofs in which the verifier runs in time sub-linear in the input length. Since the verifier cannot even read the entire input, following the property testing literature, we only require that the verifier reject inputs that are far from the language (and, as usual, accept inputs that are in the language). In this work, we initiate the study of zero-knowledge proofs of proximity (ZKPP). A ZKPP convinces a sub-linear time verifier that the input is close to the language (similarly to an IPP) while simultaneously guaranteeing a natural zero-knowledge property. Specifically, the verifier learns nothing beyond (1) the fact that the input is in the language, and (2) what it could additionally infer by reading a few bits of the input. Our main focus is the setting of statistical zero-knowledge where we show that the following hold unconditionally (where N denotes the input length): - Statistical ZKPPs can be sub-exponentially more efficient than property testers (or even non-interactive IPPs): We show a natural property which has a statistical ZKPP with a polylog(N) time verifier, but requires Omega(sqrt(N)) queries (and hence also runtime) for every property tester. - Statistical ZKPPs can be sub-exponentially less efficient than IPPs: We show a property which has an IPP with a polylog(N) time verifier, but cannot have a statistical ZKPP with even an N^(o(1)) time verifier. - Statistical ZKPPs for some graph-based properties such as promise versions of expansion and bipartiteness, in the bounded degree graph model, with polylog(N) time verifiers exist. Lastly, we also consider the computational setting where we show that: - Assuming the existence of one-way functions, every language computable either in (logspace uniform) NC or in SC, has a computational ZKPP with a (roughly) sqrt(N) time verifier. - Assuming the existence of collision-resistant hash functions, every language in NP has a statistical zero-knowledge argument of proximity with a polylog(N) time verifier.
Cite as

Itay Berman, Ron D. Rothblum, and Vinod Vaikuntanathan. Zero-Knowledge Proofs of Proximity. In 9th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2018). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 94, pp. 19:1-19:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2018)

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@InProceedings{berman_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.19,
  author =	{Berman, Itay and Rothblum, Ron D. and Vaikuntanathan, Vinod},
  title =	{{Zero-Knowledge Proofs of Proximity}},
  booktitle =	{9th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2018)},
  pages =	{19:1--19:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-060-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2018},
  volume =	{94},
  editor =	{Karlin, Anna R.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.19},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-83575},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.19},
  annote =	{Keywords: Property Testing, Interactive Proofs, Zero-Knowledge}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.27
Relaxed Locally Correctable Codes

Authors: Tom Gur, Govind Ramnarayan, and Ron D. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 94, 9th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2018)

Abstract
Locally decodable codes (LDCs) and locally correctable codes (LCCs) are error-correcting codes in which individual bits of the message and codeword, respectively, can be recovered by querying only few bits from a noisy codeword. These codes have found numerous applications both in theory and in practice. A natural relaxation of LDCs, introduced by Ben-Sasson et al. (SICOMP, 2006), allows the decoder to reject (i.e., refuse to answer) in case it detects that the codeword is corrupt. They call such a decoder a relaxed decoder and construct a constant-query relaxed LDC with almost-linear blocklength, which is sub-exponentially better than what is known for (full-fledged) LDCs in the constant-query regime. We consider an analogous relaxation for local correction. Thus, a relaxed local corrector reads only few bits from a (possibly) corrupt codeword and either recovers the desired bit of the codeword, or rejects in case it detects a corruption. We give two constructions of relaxed LCCs in two regimes, where the first optimizes the query complexity and the second optimizes the rate: 1. Constant Query Complexity: A relaxed LCC with polynomial blocklength whose corrector only reads a constant number of bits of the codeword. This is a sub-exponential improvement over the best constant query (full-fledged) LCCs that are known. 2. Constant Rate: A relaxed LCC with constant rate (i.e., linear blocklength) with quasi-polylogarithmic query complexity. This is a nearly sub-exponential improvement over the query complexity of a recent (full-fledged) constant-rate LCC of Kopparty et al. (STOC, 2016).
Cite as

Tom Gur, Govind Ramnarayan, and Ron D. Rothblum. Relaxed Locally Correctable Codes. In 9th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2018). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 94, pp. 27:1-27:11, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2018)

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@InProceedings{gur_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.27,
  author =	{Gur, Tom and Ramnarayan, Govind and Rothblum, Ron D.},
  title =	{{Relaxed Locally Correctable Codes}},
  booktitle =	{9th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2018)},
  pages =	{27:1--27:11},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-060-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2018},
  volume =	{94},
  editor =	{Karlin, Anna R.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.27},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-83154},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.27},
  annote =	{Keywords: Keywords and phrases Coding Theory, Locally Correctable Codes, Probabilistically Checkable Proofs}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2017.39
A Hierarchy Theorem for Interactive Proofs of Proximity

Authors: Tom Gur and Ron D. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 67, 8th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2017)

Abstract
The number of rounds, or round complexity, used in an interactive protocol is a fundamental resource. In this work we consider the significance of round complexity in the context of Interactive Proofs of Proximity (IPPs). Roughly speaking, IPPs are interactive proofs in which the verifier runs in sublinear time and is only required to reject inputs that are far from the language. Our main result is a round hierarchy theorem for IPPs, showing that the power of IPPs grows with the number of rounds. More specifically, we show that there exists a gap function g(r) = Theta(r^2) such that for every constant r \geq 1 there exists a language that (1) has a g(r)-round IPP with verification time t=t(n,r) but (2) does not have an r-round IPP with verification time t (or even verification time t'=\poly(t)). In fact, we prove a stronger result by exhibiting a single language L such that, for every constant r \geq 1, there is an O(r^2)-round IPP for L with t=n^{O(1/r)} verification time, whereas the verifier in any r-round IPP for L must run in time at least t^{100}. Moreover, we show an IPP for L with a poly-logarithmic number of rounds and only poly-logarithmic erification time, yielding a sub-exponential separation between the power of constant-round IPPs versus general (unbounded round) IPPs. From our hierarchy theorem we also derive implications to standard interactive proofs (in which the verifier can run in polynomial time). Specifically, we show that the round reduction technique of Babai and Moran (JCSS, 1988) is (almost) optimal among all blackbox transformations, and we show a connection to the algebrization framework of Aaronson and Wigderson (TOCT, 2009).
Cite as

Tom Gur and Ron D. Rothblum. A Hierarchy Theorem for Interactive Proofs of Proximity. In 8th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 67, pp. 39:1-39:43, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)

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@InProceedings{gur_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2017.39,
  author =	{Gur, Tom and Rothblum, Ron D.},
  title =	{{A Hierarchy Theorem for Interactive Proofs of Proximity}},
  booktitle =	{8th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2017)},
  pages =	{39:1--39:43},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-029-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{67},
  editor =	{Papadimitriou, Christos H.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2017.39},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-81536},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2017.39},
  annote =	{Keywords: Complexity Theory, Property Testing, Interactive Proofs}
}
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