32 Search Results for "Cohen, Avi"

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.28
Conditional Complexity Hardness: Monotone Circuit Size, Matrix Rigidity, and Tensor Rank

Authors: Nikolai Chukhin, Alexander S. Kulikov, Ivan Mihajlin, and Arina Smirnova

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 364, 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)

Abstract
Proving complexity lower bounds remains a challenging task: currently, we only know how to prove conditional uniform (algorithm) lower bounds and nonuniform (circuit) lower bounds in restricted circuit models. About a decade ago, Williams (STOC 2010) showed how to derive nonuniform lower bounds from uniform upper bounds: roughly, by designing a fast algorithm for checking satisfiability of circuits, one gets a lower bound for this circuit class. Since then, a number of results of this kind have been proved. For example, Jahanjou et al. (ICALP 2015) and Carmosino et al. (ITCS 2016) proved that if NSETH fails, then E^{NP} has series-parallel circuit size ω(n). One can also derive nonuniform lower bounds from nondeterministic uniform lower bounds. Perhaps the most well-known example is the Karp-Lipton theorem (STOC 1980): if Σ₂ ≠ Π₂, then NP ⊄ P/poly. Some recent examples include the following. Nederlof (STOC 2020) proved a lower bound on the matrix multiplication tensor rank under an assumption that TSP cannot be solved faster than in 2ⁿ time. Belova et al. (SODA 2024) proved that there exists an explicit polynomial family of arithmetic circuit size Ω(n^{δ}), for any δ > 0, assuming that MAX-3-SAT cannot be solved faster than in 2ⁿ nondeterministic time. Williams (FOCS 2024) proved an exponential lower bound for ETHR ∘ ETHR circuits under the Orthogonal Vectors conjecture. Whereas all the lower bounds above are proved under strong assumptions that might eventually be refuted, the revealed connections are of great interest and may still give further insights: one may be able to weaken the used assumptions or to construct generators from other fine-grained reductions. In this paper, we continue developing this line of research and show how uniform nondeterministic lower bounds can be used to construct generators of various types of combinatorial objects that are notoriously hard to analyze: Boolean functions of high circuit size, matrices of high rigidity, and tensors of high rank. Specifically, we prove the following. - If, for some ε and k, k-SAT cannot be solved in input-oblivious co-nondeterministic time O(2^{(1/2+ε)n}), then there exists a monotone Boolean function family in coNP of monotone circuit size 2^{Ω(n / log n)}. Combining this with the result above, we get win-win circuit lower bounds: either E^{NP{}} requires series-parallel circuits of size ω(n) or coNP requires monotone circuits of size 2^{Ω(n / log n)}. - If, for all ε > 0, MAX-3-SAT cannot be solved in co-nondeterministic time O(2^{(1 - ε)n}), then there exist small families of matrices with rigidity exceeding the best known constructions as well as small families of three-dimensional tensors of rank n^{1+Δ}, for some Δ > 0.
Cite as

Nikolai Chukhin, Alexander S. Kulikov, Ivan Mihajlin, and Arina Smirnova. Conditional Complexity Hardness: Monotone Circuit Size, Matrix Rigidity, and Tensor Rank. In 43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 364, pp. 28:1-28:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{chukhin_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2026.28,
  author =	{Chukhin, Nikolai and Kulikov, Alexander S. and Mihajlin, Ivan and Smirnova, Arina},
  title =	{{Conditional Complexity Hardness: Monotone Circuit Size, Matrix Rigidity, and Tensor Rank}},
  booktitle =	{43rd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2026)},
  pages =	{28:1--28:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-412-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{364},
  editor =	{Mahajan, Meena and Manea, Florin and McIver, Annabelle and Thắng, Nguy\~{ê}n Kim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.28},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255177},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2026.28},
  annote =	{Keywords: computational complexity, circuit complexity, lower bounds, conditional lower bounds, monotone circuits, matrix rigidity, tensor rank, arithmetic circuits, fine-grained complexity}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.79
Range Avoidance and Remote Point: New Algorithms and Hardness

Authors: Shengtang Huang, Xin Li, and Yan Zhong

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract
The Range Avoidance (Avoid) problem C-Avoid[n,m(n)] asks that, given a circuit in a class C with input length n and output length m(n) > n, find a string not in the range of the circuit. This problem has been a central piece in several recent frameworks for proving circuit lower bounds and constructing explicit combinatorial objects. Previous work by Korten (FOCS' 21) and by Ren, Santhanam, and Wang (FOCS' 22) showed that algorithms for Avoid are closely related to circuit lower bounds. In particular, Korten’s work reinterpreted an earlier result from bounded arithmetic, originally proved by Jeřábek (Ann. Pure Appl. Log. 2004), as an equivalence in computational complexity between the existence of FP^NP algorithms for the general Avoid problem and 2^{Ω(n)} lower bounds against general Boolean circuits for the class 𝐄^NP. In this work, we significantly complement these works by generalizing the equivalence result to restricted circuit classes and obtain the following: - For any constant depth unbounded fan-in circuit class C ⊇ AC⁰, there is an FP^NP algorithm for C-Avoid[n,n^{1+ε}] (for any constant ε > 0) if and only if 𝐄^NP cannot be computed by C circuits of size 2^{o(n)}. This addresses an open problem by Korten (Bulletin of EATCS' 25). - If 𝐄^NP cannot be computed by o(2ⁿ/n) size formulas, then there is an FP^NP algorithm for NC⁰-Avoid[n,2n]. Note that by an extension of Ren, Santhanam, and Wang (FOCS' 22), an FP^NP algorithm for NC⁰₄-Avoid[n,n+n^δ] for any constant δ ∈ (0,1) implies 𝐄^NP cannot be computed by o(2ⁿ/n) size formulas. These results yield the first characterizations of FP^NP C-Avoid algorithms for low-complexity circuit classes such as AC⁰. We also consider the average-case analog of Avoid, the Remote Point (Remote-Point) problem, and establish: - For some suitable function c(n) and constant γ > 0, there is an FP^NP algorithm for Remote-Point[n,n^{6+γ},c(O_{γ}(log n))] if and only if 𝐄^NP cannot be (1/2-c(n))-approximated by circuits of size 2^{o(n)}. Finally, we also present two improved algorithms for NC⁰-Avoid: - A family of 2^{n^{1 - ε/(k-1) +o(1)}} time algorithms for NC⁰_k-Avoid[n,n^{1+ε}] for any ε > 0, exhibiting the first subexponential-time algorithm for any super-linear stretch. - Faster local algorithms for NC⁰_k-Avoid[n,n+1] running in time O(n2^{(k-2)/(k-1) n}), improving the naive 2ⁿ⋅ poly(n) bound.
Cite as

Shengtang Huang, Xin Li, and Yan Zhong. Range Avoidance and Remote Point: New Algorithms and Hardness. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 79:1-79:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{huang_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.79,
  author =	{Huang, Shengtang and Li, Xin and Zhong, Yan},
  title =	{{Range Avoidance and Remote Point: New Algorithms and Hardness}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{79:1--79:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.79},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253662},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.79},
  annote =	{Keywords: Circuit Lower Bounds, Range Avoidance Problem, Remote Point Problem}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.52
Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange from Commutativity to Group Laws

Authors: Dung Hoang Duong, Youming Qiao, and Chuanqi Zhang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract
In Diffie-Hellman key exchange, the commutativity of power operations is instrumental in the agreement of keys. Viewing commutativity as a law in abelian groups, we propose Diffie-Hellman key exchange in the group action framework (Brassard-Yung, Crypto'90; Ji-Qiao-Song-Yun, TCC'19), for actions of non-abelian groups with laws. The security of this protocol is shown, following Fischlin, Günther, Schmidt, and Warinschi (IEEE S&P'16), based on a pseudorandom group action assumption. A concrete instantiation is proposed based on the monomial code equivalence problem.
Cite as

Dung Hoang Duong, Youming Qiao, and Chuanqi Zhang. Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange from Commutativity to Group Laws. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 52:1-52:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{duong_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.52,
  author =	{Duong, Dung Hoang and Qiao, Youming and Zhang, Chuanqi},
  title =	{{Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange from Commutativity to Group Laws}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{52:1--52:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.52},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253396},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.52},
  annote =	{Keywords: Diffie-Hellman, Key Exchange, Group Laws, Group Actions, Code Equivalence}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.112
Lower Bounds Beyond DNF of Parities

Authors: Artur Riazanov, Anastasia Sofronova, and Dmitry Sokolov

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract
We consider a subclass of AC⁰[2] circuits that simultaneously captures DNF∘Xor and depth-3 AC⁰ circuits. For this class we show a technique for proving lower bounds inspired by the top-down approach. We give lower bounds for the middle slice function, inner product function, and affine dispersers.
Cite as

Artur Riazanov, Anastasia Sofronova, and Dmitry Sokolov. Lower Bounds Beyond DNF of Parities. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 112:1-112:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{riazanov_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.112,
  author =	{Riazanov, Artur and Sofronova, Anastasia and Sokolov, Dmitry},
  title =	{{Lower Bounds Beyond DNF of Parities}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{112:1--112:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.112},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253996},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.112},
  annote =	{Keywords: boolean circuits, top-down, unpredictability}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.15
Extending EFX Allocations to Further Multi-Graph Classes

Authors: Umang Bhaskar and Yeshwant Pandit

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 360, 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)

Abstract
The existence of EFX allocations is one of the most significant open questions in fair division. Recent work by Christodoulou, Fiat, Koutsoupias, and Sgouritsa ("Fair allocation in graphs," EC 2023) establishes the existence of EFX allocations for graphical valuations, when agents are vertices in a graph, items are edges, and each item has zero value for all agents other than those at its endpoints. Thus, in this setting, each good has non-zero value for at most two agents, and there is at most one good valued by any pair of agents. This marks one of the few cases when an exact and complete EFX allocation is known to exist for more than three agents. In this work, we partially extend these results to multi-graphs, when each pair of vertices can have more than one edge between them. The existence of EFX allocations in multi-graphs is a natural open question given their existence in simple graphs. We show that EFX allocations exist, and can be computed in polynomial time, for agents with cancelable valuations in the following cases: (i) bipartite multi-graphs, (ii) multi-trees with monotone valuations, and (iii) multi-graphs with girth (2t-1), where t is the chromatic number of the multi-graph. The existence of EFX in cycle multi-graphs follows from (i), (iii), and the known existence of EFX for three agents.
Cite as

Umang Bhaskar and Yeshwant Pandit. Extending EFX Allocations to Further Multi-Graph Classes. In 45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 360, pp. 15:1-15:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bhaskar_et_al:LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.15,
  author =	{Bhaskar, Umang and Pandit, Yeshwant},
  title =	{{Extending EFX Allocations to Further Multi-Graph Classes}},
  booktitle =	{45th IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2025)},
  pages =	{15:1--15:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-406-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{360},
  editor =	{Aiswarya, C. and Mehta, Ruta and Roy, Subhajit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.15},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-250958},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FSTTCS.2025.15},
  annote =	{Keywords: Fair Division, EFX, Multi-graphs}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.43
New Approximate Distance Oracles and Their Applications

Authors: Avi Kadria and Liam Roditty

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 359, 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)

Abstract
Let G = (V, E) be an undirected graph with n vertices and m edges, and let μ = m/n. A distance oracle is a data structure designed to answer approximate distance queries, with the goal of achieving low stretch, efficient space usage, and fast query time. While much of the prior work focused on distance oracles with constant query time, this paper presents a comprehensive study of distance oracles with non-constant query time. We explore the tradeoffs between space, stretch, and query time of distance oracles in various regimes. Specifically, we consider both weighted and unweighted graphs in the regimes of stretch < 2 and stretch ≥ 2. In addition, we demonstrate several applications of our new distance oracles to the n-Pairs Shortest Paths (n-PSP) problem and the All Nodes Shortest Cycles (ANSC) problem. Our main contributions are: - Weighted graphs: We present a new three-way trade-off between stretch, space, and query time, offering a natural extension of the classical Thorup–Zwick distance oracle [STOC’01 and JACM’05] to regimes with larger query time. Specifically, for any 0 < r < 1/2 and integer k ≥ 1, we construct a (2k(1 - 2r) - 1)-stretch distance oracle with Õ(m + n^{1 + 1/k}) space and Õ(μ n^r) query time. This construction provides an asymptotic improvement over the classical (2k - 1)-stretch and O(n^{1 + 1/k})-space tradeoff of Thorup and Zwick in sparse graphs, at the cost of increased query time. We also improve upon a result of Dalirrooyfard et al. [FOCS’22], who presented a (2k - 2)-stretch distance oracle with O(m + n^{1 + 1/k}) space and O(μ n^{1/k}) query time. In our oracle we reduce the stretch from (2k - 2) to (2k - 5) while preserving the same space and query time. - Unweighted graphs: We present a (2k - 5, 4 + 2_{odd})-approximation distance oracle with O(n^{1 + 1/k}) space and O(n^{1/k}) query time. This improves upon a (2k - 2, 2_{odd})-approximation distance oracle of Dalirrooyfard et al. [FOCS’22] while maintaining the same space and query time. We also present a distance oracle that given u,v ∈ V returns an estimate d̂(u,v) ≤ d(u,v) + 2⌈ d(u,v) / 3 ⌉ + 2, using O(n^{4/3 + 2ε}) space and O(n^{1 - 3ε}) query time. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first distance oracle that simultaneously achieves a multiplicative stretch < 2, and a space complexity O(n^{1.5 - α}), for some α > 0. - Applications for n-PSP and ANSC: We present an Õ(m^{1 - 1/(k+1)} n)-time algorithm for the n-PSP problem, that for every input pair ⟨s_i,t_i⟩, where i ∈ [n], returns an estimate d̂(s_i, t_i) such that d̂(s_i,t_i) ≤ d(s_i,t_i) + 2⌈d(s_i,t_i)/2k⌉. By allowing a small additive error, this result circumvents the conditional running time lower bound of Ω(m^{2 - 2/(k+1)} ⋅ n^{1/(k+1) - o(1)}), established by Dalirrooyfard et al. [FOCS’22] for achieving (1 + 1/k)-stretch. Additionally, we present an Õ(mn^{1 - 1/k})-time algorithm for the ANSC problem that computes, for every u ∈ V, an estimate ĉ_u such that ĉ_u ≤ SC(u) + 2⌈SC(u)/2(k - 1)⌉, where SC(u) denotes the length of the shortest cycle containing u. This improves upon the Õ(m^{2 - 2/k}n^{1/k})-time algorithm of Dalirrooyfard et al. [FOCS'22], while achieving the same approximation guarantee. We obtain our results by developing several new techniques, among them are the borderline vertices technique and the middle vertex technique, which may be of independent interest.
Cite as

Avi Kadria and Liam Roditty. New Approximate Distance Oracles and Their Applications. In 36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 359, pp. 43:1-43:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{kadria_et_al:LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.43,
  author =	{Kadria, Avi and Roditty, Liam},
  title =	{{New Approximate Distance Oracles and Their Applications}},
  booktitle =	{36th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2025)},
  pages =	{43:1--43:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-408-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{359},
  editor =	{Chen, Ho-Lin and Hon, Wing-Kai and Tsai, Meng-Tsung},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.43},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-249514},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ISAAC.2025.43},
  annote =	{Keywords: Distance oracles, Fine-grained algorithms, Graph algorithms, Data structures}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.37
Towards Optimal Distributed Edge Coloring with Fewer Colors

Authors: Manuel Jakob, Yannic Maus, and Florian Schager

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 356, 39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025)

Abstract
There is a huge difference in techniques and runtimes of distributed algorithms for problems that can be solved by a sequential greedy algorithm and those that cannot. A prime example of this contrast appears in the edge coloring problem: while (2Δ-1)-edge coloring - where Δ is the maximum degree - can be solved in 𝒪(log^{∗}(n)) rounds on constant-degree graphs, the seemingly minor reduction to (2Δ-2) colors leads to an Ω(log n) lower bound [Chang, He, Li, Pettie & Uitto, SODA'18]. Understanding this sharp divide between very local problems and inherently more global ones remains a central open question in distributed computing and it is a core focus of this paper. As our main contribution we design a deterministic distributed 𝒪(log n)-round reduction from the (2Δ-2)-edge coloring problem to the much easier (2Δ-1)-edge coloring problem. This reduction is optimal, as the (2Δ-2)-edge coloring problem admits an Ω(log n) lower bound that even holds on the class of constant-degree graphs, whereas the 2Δ-1-edge coloring problem can be solved in 𝒪(log^{∗}n) rounds. By plugging in the (2Δ-1)-edge coloring algorithms from [Balliu, Brandt, Kuhn & Olivetti, PODC'22] running in 𝒪(log^{12}Δ + log^{∗} n) rounds, we obtain an optimal runtime of 𝒪(log n) rounds as long as Δ = 2^{𝒪(log^{1/12} n)}. Previously, such an optimal algorithm was only known for the class of constant-degree graphs [Brandt, Maus, Narayanan, Schager & Uitto, SODA'25]. Furthermore, on general graphs our reduction improves the runtime from 𝒪̃(log³ n) to 𝒪̃(log^{5/3} n). In addition, we also obtain an optimal 𝒪(log log n)-round randomized reduction of (2Δ - 2)-edge coloring to (2Δ - 1)-edge coloring. This leads to a 𝒪̃(log^{5/3} log n)-round (2Δ-2)-edge coloring algorithm, which beats the (very recent) previous state-of-the-art taking 𝒪̃(log^{8/3}log n) rounds from [Bourreau, Brandt & Nolin, STOC'25]. Lastly, we obtain an 𝒪(log_Δ n)-round reduction from the (2Δ-1)-edge coloring, albeit to the somewhat harder maximal independent set (MIS) problem.
Cite as

Manuel Jakob, Yannic Maus, and Florian Schager. Towards Optimal Distributed Edge Coloring with Fewer Colors. In 39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 356, pp. 37:1-37:26, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{jakob_et_al:LIPIcs.DISC.2025.37,
  author =	{Jakob, Manuel and Maus, Yannic and Schager, Florian},
  title =	{{Towards Optimal Distributed Edge Coloring with Fewer Colors}},
  booktitle =	{39th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2025)},
  pages =	{37:1--37:26},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-402-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{356},
  editor =	{Kowalski, Dariusz R.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.37},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-248547},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.DISC.2025.37},
  annote =	{Keywords: distributed graph algorithms, edge coloring, LOCAL model}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.5
Blockchain Governance via Sharp Anonymous Multisignatures

Authors: Wonseok Choi, Xiangyu Liu, and Vassilis Zikas

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 354, 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)

Abstract
Electronic voting has occupied a large part of the cryptographic protocols literature. The recent reality of blockchains - in particular, their need for online governance mechanisms - has brought new parameters and requirements to the problem. We identify the key requirements of a blockchain governance mechanism, namely correctness (including eliminative double votes), voter anonymity, and traceability, and investigate mechanisms that can achieve them with minimal interaction and under assumptions that fit the blockchain setting. First, we define a signature-like primitive, which we term sharp anonymous multisignatures (in short, ♯AMS) that tightly meets the needs of blockchain governance. In a nutshell, ♯AMSs allow any set of parties to generate a signature, e.g., on a proposal to be voted upon, which, if posted on the blockchain, hides the identities of the signers/voters but reveals their number. This can be seen as a (strict) generalization of threshold ring signatures (TRS). We next turn to constructing such ♯AMSs and using them in various governance scenarios - e.g., single vote vs. multiple votes per voter. In this direction, although the definition of TRS does not imply ♯AMS, one can compile some existing TRS constructions into ♯AMS. This raises the question: What is the TRS structure that allows such a compilation? To answer the above, we devise templates for TRSs. Our templates encapsulate and abstract the structure that allows for the above compilation - most of the TRS schemes that can be compiled into ♯AMS are, in fact, instantiations of our template. This abstraction makes our template generic for instantiating TRSs and ♯AMSs from different cryptographic assumptions (e.g., DDH, LWE, etc.). One of our templates is based on chameleon hashes, and we explore a framework of lossy chameleon hashes to understand their nature fully. Finally, we turn to how ♯AMS schemes can be used in our applications. We provide fast (in some cases non-interactive) ♯AMS-based blockchain governance mechanisms for a wide spectrum of assumptions on the honesty (semi-honest vs malicious) and availability of voters and proposers.
Cite as

Wonseok Choi, Xiangyu Liu, and Vassilis Zikas. Blockchain Governance via Sharp Anonymous Multisignatures. In 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 354, pp. 5:1-5:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{choi_et_al:LIPIcs.AFT.2025.5,
  author =	{Choi, Wonseok and Liu, Xiangyu and Zikas, Vassilis},
  title =	{{Blockchain Governance via Sharp Anonymous Multisignatures}},
  booktitle =	{7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)},
  pages =	{5:1--5:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-400-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{354},
  editor =	{Avarikioti, Zeta and Christin, Nicolas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.5},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-247242},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.5},
  annote =	{Keywords: Blockchain, E-voting, Threshold Ring Signatures, Threshold Cryptography}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.13
Composable Byzantine Agreements with Reorder Attacks

Authors: Jing Chen, Jin Dong, Jichen Li, Xuanzhi Xia, and Wentao Zhou

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 354, 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)

Abstract
Byzantine agreement (BA) is a foundational building block in distributed systems that has been extensively studied for decades. With the growing demand for protocol composition in practice, the security analysis of BA protocols under multi-instance executions has attracted increasing attention. However, most existing adversary models focus solely on party corruption and neglect important threats posed by adversarial manipulations of communication channels in the network. Through channel attacks, messages can be reordered across multiple executions and lead to violations of the protocol’s security guarantees, without the participating parties being corrupted. In this work, we present the first adversary model that combines party corruption and channel attacks. Based on this model, we establish new security thresholds for Byzantine agreement under parallel and concurrent compositions, supported by complementary impossibility and possibility results that match each other to form a tight bound. For the impossibility result, we show that even authenticated Byzantine agreement protocols cannot be secure under parallel composition when n ≤ 3t or n ≤ 2c + 2t + 1, where t and c denote the number of corrupted parties and communication channels, respectively. For the possibility result, we prove the existence of secure protocols for unauthenticated Byzantine agreement under parallel and concurrent composition, when n > 3t and n > 2c+2t+1. More specifically, we provide a general black-box compiler that transforms any single-instance secure BA protocol into one that is secure under parallel executions, and we provide a non-black-box construction for concurrent compositions.
Cite as

Jing Chen, Jin Dong, Jichen Li, Xuanzhi Xia, and Wentao Zhou. Composable Byzantine Agreements with Reorder Attacks. In 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 354, pp. 13:1-13:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.AFT.2025.13,
  author =	{Chen, Jing and Dong, Jin and Li, Jichen and Xia, Xuanzhi and Zhou, Wentao},
  title =	{{Composable Byzantine Agreements with Reorder Attacks}},
  booktitle =	{7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)},
  pages =	{13:1--13:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-400-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{354},
  editor =	{Avarikioti, Zeta and Christin, Nicolas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.13},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-247321},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.13},
  annote =	{Keywords: Byzantine agreement, protocol composition, channel reorder attack, security threshold}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.SpaceCHI.2025.18
Advancing Intelligent Personal Assistants for Human Spaceflight

Authors: Leonie Bensch, Oliver Bensch, and Tommy Nilsson

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 130, Advancing Human-Computer Interaction for Space Exploration (SpaceCHI 2025)

Abstract
The Artemis program and upcoming missions to Mars mark a new era of human space exploration that will require new tools to support astronaut autonomy in the absence of real-time communication with Earth. This paper investigates the role of voice-based intelligent personal assistants (IPAs) in future crewed space missions. Through semi-structured interviews with astronauts (n=3) and spaceflight experts (n=12), we identify key user-centered design requirements for IPAs in this uniquely constrained and safety-critical environment. Our thematic analysis reveals core requirements for flexibility, reliability, offline capability, and multimodal interaction. Drawing on these findings, we outline design guidelines for next-generation IPAs and discuss how technologies such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), knowledge graphs, and augmented reality should be combined to support flexible, reliable, and multimodal IPAs for future human spaceflight missions.
Cite as

Leonie Bensch, Oliver Bensch, and Tommy Nilsson. Advancing Intelligent Personal Assistants for Human Spaceflight. In Advancing Human-Computer Interaction for Space Exploration (SpaceCHI 2025). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 130, pp. 18:1-18:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bensch_et_al:OASIcs.SpaceCHI.2025.18,
  author =	{Bensch, Leonie and Bensch, Oliver and Nilsson, Tommy},
  title =	{{Advancing Intelligent Personal Assistants for Human Spaceflight}},
  booktitle =	{Advancing Human-Computer Interaction for Space Exploration (SpaceCHI 2025)},
  pages =	{18:1--18:18},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-384-3},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{130},
  editor =	{Bensch, Leonie and Nilsson, Tommy and Nisser, Martin and Pataranutaporn, Pat and Schmidt, Albrecht and Sumini, Valentina},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.SpaceCHI.2025.18},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-240082},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.SpaceCHI.2025.18},
  annote =	{Keywords: Conversational Assistant, Intelligent Personal Assistant, Artificial Intelligence, Astronaut, Human Spaceflight, Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT), Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), Knowledge Graphs, Augmented Reality, Voice Assistant, Long Duration Spaceflight}
}
Document
RANDOM
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.36
Simplifying Armoni’s PRG

Authors: Ben Chen and Amnon Ta-Shma

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 353, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)

Abstract
We propose a simple variant of the INW pseudo-random generator, where blocks have varying lengths, and prove it gives the same parameters as the more complicated construction of Armoni’s PRG. This shows there is no need for the specialized PRGs of Nisan and Zuckerman and Armoni, and they can be obtained as simple variants of INW. For the construction to work we need space-efficient extractors with tiny entropy loss. We use the extractors from [Chattopadhyay and Liao, 2020] instead of [Guruswami et al., 2009] taking advantage of the very high min-entropy regime we work with. We remark that using these extractors has the additional benefit of making the dependence on the branching program alphabet Σ correct.
Cite as

Ben Chen and Amnon Ta-Shma. Simplifying Armoni’s PRG. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 36:1-36:8, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.36,
  author =	{Chen, Ben and Ta-Shma, Amnon},
  title =	{{Simplifying Armoni’s PRG}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{36:1--36:8},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-397-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{353},
  editor =	{Ene, Alina and Chattopadhyay, Eshan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.36},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-244024},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.36},
  annote =	{Keywords: PRG, ROBP, read-once, random, psuedorandom, armoni, derandomization}
}
Document
RANDOM
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.28
Implications of Better PRGs for Permutation Branching Programs

Authors: Dean Doron and William M. Hoza

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 353, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)

Abstract
We study the challenge of derandomizing constant-width standard-order read-once branching programs (ROBPs). Let c ∈ [1, 2) be any constant. We prove that if there are explicit pseudorandom generators (PRGs) for width-6 length-n permutation ROBPs with error 1/n and seed length Õ(log^c n), then there are explicit hitting set generators (HSGs) for width-4 length-n ROBPs with threshold 1/polylog(n) and seed length Õ(log^c n). For context, there are known explicit PRGs that fool constant-width permutation ROBPs with error ε and seed length O(log(n)⋅log(1/ε)) (Koucký, Nimbhorkar, and Pudlák STOC 2011; De CCC 2011; Steinke ECCC 2012). When ε = 1/n, there are known constructions of weighted pseudorandom generators (WPRGs) that fool polynomial-width permutation ROBPs with seed length Õ(log^{3/2} n) (Pyne and Vadhan CCC 2021; Chen, Hoza, Lyu, Tal, and Wu FOCS 2023; Chattopadhyay and Liao ITCS 2024), but unweighted PRGs with seed length o(log² n) remain elusive. Meanwhile, for width-4 ROBPs, there are no known explicit PRGs, WPRGs, or HSGs with seed length o(log²n). Our reduction can be divided into two parts. First, we show that explicit low-error PRGs for width-6 permutation ROBPs with seed length Õ(log^c n) would imply explicit low-error PRGs for width-3 ROBPs with seed length Õ(log^c n). This would improve Meka, Reingold, and Tal’s PRG (STOC 2019), which has seed length o(log²n) only when the error parameter is relatively large. Second, we show that for any w, n, s, and ε, an explicit PRG for width-w ROBPs with error 0.01/n and seed length s would imply an explicit ε-HSG for width-(w + 1) ROBPs with seed length O(s + log(n)⋅log(1/ε)).
Cite as

Dean Doron and William M. Hoza. Implications of Better PRGs for Permutation Branching Programs. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 28:1-28:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{doron_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.28,
  author =	{Doron, Dean and Hoza, William M.},
  title =	{{Implications of Better PRGs for Permutation Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{28:1--28:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-397-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{353},
  editor =	{Ene, Alina and Chattopadhyay, Eshan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.28},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-243946},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.28},
  annote =	{Keywords: hitting set generators, pseudorandom generators, read-once branching programs}
}
Document
RANDOM
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.67
On Sums of INW Pseudorandom Generators

Authors: William M. Hoza and Zelin Lv

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 353, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)

Abstract
We study a new approach for constructing pseudorandom generators (PRGs) that fool constant-width standard-order read-once branching programs (ROBPs). Let X be the n-bit output distribution of the INW PRG (Impagliazzo, Nisan, and Wigderson, STOC 1994), instantiated using expansion parameter λ. We prove that the bitwise XOR of t independent copies of X fools width-w programs with error n^{log(w + 1)} ⋅ (λ⋅log n)^t. Notably, this error bound is meaningful even for relatively large values of λ such as λ = 1/O(log n). Admittedly, our analysis does not yet imply any improvement in the bottom-line overall seed length required for fooling such programs - it just gives a new way of re-proving the well-known O(log² n) bound. Furthermore, we prove that this shortcoming is not an artifact of our analysis, but rather is an intrinsic limitation of our "XOR of INW" approach. That is, no matter how many copies of the INW generator we XOR together, and no matter how we set the expansion parameters, if the generator fools width-3 programs and the proof of correctness does not use any properties of the expander graphs except their spectral expansion, then we prove that the seed length of the generator is inevitably Ω(log² n). Still, we hope that our work might be a step toward constructing near-optimal PRGs fooling constant-width ROBPs. We suggest that one could try running the INW PRG on t correlated seeds, sampled via another PRG, and taking the bitwise XOR of the outputs.
Cite as

William M. Hoza and Zelin Lv. On Sums of INW Pseudorandom Generators. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 67:1-67:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{hoza_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.67,
  author =	{Hoza, William M. and Lv, Zelin},
  title =	{{On Sums of INW Pseudorandom Generators}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{67:1--67:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-397-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{353},
  editor =	{Ene, Alina and Chattopadhyay, Eshan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.67},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-244330},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.67},
  annote =	{Keywords: INW generator, pseudorandomness, space-bounded computation, XOR Lemmas}
}
Document
RANDOM
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.49
Pseudorandomness of Expander Walks via Fourier Analysis on Groups

Authors: Fernando Granha Jeronimo, Tushant Mittal, and Sourya Roy

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 353, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)

Abstract
A long line of work has studied the pseudorandomness properties of walks on expander graphs. A central goal is to measure how closely the distribution over n-length walks on an expander approximates the uniform distribution of n-independent elements. One approach to do so is to label the vertices of an expander with elements from an alphabet Σ, and study closeness of the mean of functions over Σⁿ, under these two distributions. We say expander walks ε-fool a function if the expander walk mean is ε-close to the true mean. There has been a sequence of works studying this question for various functions, such as the XOR function, the AND function, etc. We show that: - The class of symmetric functions is O(|Σ|λ)-fooled by expander walks over any generic λ-expander, and any alphabet Σ . This generalizes the result of Cohen, Peri, Ta-Shma [STOC'21] which analyzes it for |Σ| = 2, and exponentially improves the previous bound of O(|Σ|^O(|Σ|) λ), by Golowich and Vadhan [CCC'22]. Moreover, if the expander is a Cayley graph over ℤ_|Σ|, we get a further improved bound of O(√{|Σ|} λ). Morever, when Σ is a finite group G, we show the following for functions over Gⁿ: - The class of symmetric class functions is O({√|G|}/D λ}-fooled by expander walks over "structured" λ-expanders, if G is D-quasirandom. - We show a lower bound of Ω(λ) for symmetric functions for any finite group G (even for "structured" λ-expanders). - We study the Fourier spectrum of a class of non-symmetric functions arising from word maps, and show that they are exponentially fooled by expander walks. Our proof employs Fourier analysis over general groups, which contrasts with earlier works that have studied either the case of ℤ₂ or ℤ. This enables us to get quantitatively better bounds even for unstructured sets.
Cite as

Fernando Granha Jeronimo, Tushant Mittal, and Sourya Roy. Pseudorandomness of Expander Walks via Fourier Analysis on Groups. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 353, pp. 49:1-49:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{jeronimo_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.49,
  author =	{Jeronimo, Fernando Granha and Mittal, Tushant and Roy, Sourya},
  title =	{{Pseudorandomness of Expander Walks via Fourier Analysis on Groups}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2025)},
  pages =	{49:1--49:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-397-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{353},
  editor =	{Ene, Alina and Chattopadhyay, Eshan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.49},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-244157},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2025.49},
  annote =	{Keywords: Expander graphs, pseudorandomness}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.30
Online Condensing of Unpredictable Sources via Random Walks

Authors: Dean Doron, Dana Moshkovitz, Justin Oh, and David Zuckerman

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 339, 40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025)

Abstract
A natural model of a source of randomness consists of a long stream of symbols X = X_1∘…∘X_t, with some guarantee on the entropy of X_i conditioned on the outcome of the prefix x_1,… ,x_{i-1}. We study unpredictable sources, a generalization of the almost Chor-Goldreich (CG) sources considered in [Doron et al., 2023]. In an unpredictable source X, for a typical draw of x ∼ X, for most i-s, the element x_i has a low probability of occurring given x_1,… ,x_{i-1}. Such a model relaxes the often unrealistic assumption of a CG source that for every i, and every x_1,… ,x_{i-1}, the next symbol X_i has sufficiently large entropy. Unpredictable sources subsume all previously considered notions of almost CG sources, including notions that [Doron et al., 2023] failed to analyze, and including those that are equivalent to general sources with high min entropy. For a lossless expander G = (V,E) with m = log |V|, we consider a random walk V_0,V_1,…,V_t on G using unpredictable instructions that have sufficient entropy with respect to m. Our main theorem is that for almost all the steps t/2 ≤ i ≤ t in the walk, the vertex V_i is close to a distribution with min-entropy at least m-O(1). As a result, we obtain seeded online condensers with constant entropy gap, and seedless (deterministic) condensers outputting a constant fraction of the entropy. In particular, our condensers run in space comparable to the output entropy, as opposed to the size of the stream, and even when the length t of the stream is not known ahead of time. As another corollary, we obtain a new extractor based on expander random walks handling lower entropy than the classic expander based construction relying on spectral techniques [Gillman, 1998]. As our main technical tool, we provide a novel analysis covering a key case of adversarial random walks on lossless expanders that [Doron et al., 2023] fails to address. As part of the analysis, we provide a "chain rule for vertex probabilities". The standard chain rule states that for every x ∼ X and i, Pr(x_1,… ,x_i) = Pr[X_i = x_i|X_[1,i-1] = x_1,… ,x_{i-1}] ⋅ Pr(x_1,… ,x_{i-1}). If W(x₁,… ,x_i) is the vertex reached using x₁,… ,x_i, then the chain rule for vertex probabilities essentially states that the same phenomena occurs for a typical x: Pr [V_i = W(x_1,… ,x_i)] ≲ Pr[X_i = x_i|X_[1,i-1] = x_1,… ,x_{i-1}] ⋅ Pr[V_{i-1} = W(x_1,… ,x_{i-1})], where V_i is the vertex distribution of the random walk at step i using X.
Cite as

Dean Doron, Dana Moshkovitz, Justin Oh, and David Zuckerman. Online Condensing of Unpredictable Sources via Random Walks. In 40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 339, pp. 30:1-30:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{doron_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2025.30,
  author =	{Doron, Dean and Moshkovitz, Dana and Oh, Justin and Zuckerman, David},
  title =	{{Online Condensing of Unpredictable Sources via Random Walks}},
  booktitle =	{40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025)},
  pages =	{30:1--30:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-379-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{339},
  editor =	{Srinivasan, Srikanth},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.30},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-237243},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.30},
  annote =	{Keywords: Randomness Extractors, Expander Graphs}
}
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