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Documents authored by Williamson, Christopher

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2022.59
Sharp Indistinguishability Bounds from Non-Uniform Approximations

Authors: Christopher Williamson

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 219, 39th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2022)

Abstract
We study the basic problem of distinguishing between two symmetric probability distributions over n bits by observing k bits of a sample, subject to the constraint that all (k-1)-wise marginal distributions of the two distributions are identical to each other. Previous works of Bogdanov et al. [Bogdanov et al., 2019] and of Huang and Viola [Huang and Viola, 2019] have established approximately tight results on the maximal possible statistical distance between the k-wise marginals of such distributions when k is at most a small constant fraction of n. Naor and Shamir [Naor and Shamir, 1994] gave a tight bound for all k in the special case k = n and when distinguishing with the OR function; they also derived a non-tight result for general k and n. Krause and Simon [Krause and Simon, 2000] gave improved upper and lower bounds for general k and n when distinguishing with the OR function, but these bounds are exponentially far apart when k = Ω(n). In this work we provide sharp upper and lower bounds on the maximal statistical distance that hold for all k and n. Upper bounds on the statistical distance have typically been obtained by providing uniform low-degree polynomial approximations to certain higher-degree polynomials. This is the first work to construct suitable non-uniform approximations for this purpose; the sharpness and wider applicability of our result stems from this non-uniformity.
Cite as

Christopher Williamson. Sharp Indistinguishability Bounds from Non-Uniform Approximations. In 39th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 219, pp. 59:1-59:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{williamson:LIPIcs.STACS.2022.59,
  author =	{Williamson, Christopher},
  title =	{{Sharp Indistinguishability Bounds from Non-Uniform Approximations}},
  booktitle =	{39th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2022)},
  pages =	{59:1--59:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-222-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{219},
  editor =	{Berenbrink, Petra and Monmege, Benjamin},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2022.59},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-158692},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2022.59},
  annote =	{Keywords: bounded indistinguishability, randomness, secret sharing, polynomial approximation}
}
Document
RANDOM
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX-RANDOM.2019.71
Approximate Degree, Secret Sharing, and Concentration Phenomena

Authors: Andrej Bogdanov, Nikhil S. Mande, Justin Thaler, and Christopher Williamson

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 145, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2019)

Abstract
The epsilon-approximate degree deg~_epsilon(f) of a Boolean function f is the least degree of a real-valued polynomial that approximates f pointwise to within epsilon. A sound and complete certificate for approximate degree being at least k is a pair of probability distributions, also known as a dual polynomial, that are perfectly k-wise indistinguishable, but are distinguishable by f with advantage 1 - epsilon. Our contributions are: - We give a simple, explicit new construction of a dual polynomial for the AND function on n bits, certifying that its epsilon-approximate degree is Omega (sqrt{n log 1/epsilon}). This construction is the first to extend to the notion of weighted degree, and yields the first explicit certificate that the 1/3-approximate degree of any (possibly unbalanced) read-once DNF is Omega(sqrt{n}). It draws a novel connection between the approximate degree of AND and anti-concentration of the Binomial distribution. - We show that any pair of symmetric distributions on n-bit strings that are perfectly k-wise indistinguishable are also statistically K-wise indistinguishable with at most K^{3/2} * exp (-Omega (k^2/K)) error for all k < K <= n/64. This bound is essentially tight, and implies that any symmetric function f is a reconstruction function with constant advantage for a ramp secret sharing scheme that is secure against size-K coalitions with statistical error K^{3/2} * exp (-Omega (deg~_{1/3}(f)^2/K)) for all values of K up to n/64 simultaneously. Previous secret sharing schemes required that K be determined in advance, and only worked for f=AND. Our analysis draws another new connection between approximate degree and concentration phenomena. As a corollary of this result, we show that for any d <= n/64, any degree d polynomial approximating a symmetric function f to error 1/3 must have coefficients of l_1-norm at least K^{-3/2} * exp ({Omega (deg~_{1/3}(f)^2/d)}). We also show this bound is essentially tight for any d > deg~_{1/3}(f). These upper and lower bounds were also previously only known in the case f=AND.
Cite as

Andrej Bogdanov, Nikhil S. Mande, Justin Thaler, and Christopher Williamson. Approximate Degree, Secret Sharing, and Concentration Phenomena. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2019). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 145, pp. 71:1-71:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2019)

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@InProceedings{bogdanov_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX-RANDOM.2019.71,
  author =	{Bogdanov, Andrej and Mande, Nikhil S. and Thaler, Justin and Williamson, Christopher},
  title =	{{Approximate Degree, Secret Sharing, and Concentration Phenomena}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2019)},
  pages =	{71:1--71:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-125-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2019},
  volume =	{145},
  editor =	{Achlioptas, Dimitris and V\'{e}gh, L\'{a}szl\'{o} A.},
  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.2019.71},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-112869},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX-RANDOM.2019.71},
  annote =	{Keywords: approximate degree, dual polynomial, pseudorandomness, polynomial approximation, secret sharing}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2017.53
Approximate Bounded Indistinguishability

Authors: Andrej Bogdanov and Christopher Williamson

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 80, 44th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2017)

Abstract
Two distributions over n-bit strings are (k,delta)-wise indistinguishable if no statistical test that observes k of the n bits can tell the two distributions apart with advantage better than delta. Motivated by secret sharing and cryptographic leakage resilience, we study the existence of pairs of distributions that are (k, delta)-wise indistinguishable, but can be distinguished by some function f of suitably low complexity. We prove bounds tight up to constants when f is the OR function, and tight up to logarithmic factors when f is a read-once uniform AND \circ OR formula, extending previous works that address the perfect indistinguishability case delta = 0. We also give an elementary proof of the following result in approximation theory: If p is a univariate degree-k polynomial such that |p(x)| <= 1 for all |x| <= 1 and p(1) = 1, then l (p) >= 2^{Omega(p'(1)/k)}, where lˆ (p) is the sum of the absolute values of p’s coefficients. A more general 1 statement was proved by Servedio, Tan, and Thaler (2012) using complex-analytic methods. As a secondary contribution, we derive new threshold weight lower bounds for bounded depth AND-OR formulas.
Cite as

Andrej Bogdanov and Christopher Williamson. Approximate Bounded Indistinguishability. In 44th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 80, pp. 53:1-53:11, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)

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@InProceedings{bogdanov_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2017.53,
  author =	{Bogdanov, Andrej and Williamson, Christopher},
  title =	{{Approximate Bounded Indistinguishability}},
  booktitle =	{44th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2017)},
  pages =	{53:1--53:11},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-041-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{80},
  editor =	{Chatzigiannakis, Ioannis and Indyk, Piotr and Kuhn, Fabian and Muscholl, Anca},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2017.53},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-74671},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2017.53},
  annote =	{Keywords: pseudorandomness, polynomial approximation, secret sharing}
}
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