Seminars

Feb
01
2016

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

Constant-round interactive-proofs for delegating computations
Ron Rothblum
11:15am|S-101

Interactive proofs have had a dramatic impact on Complexity Theory and Cryptography. In particular, the celebrated IP=PSPACE Theorem [LFKN92,Shamir92] allows an all-powerful but untrusted prover to convince a polynomial-time verifier of the validity...

Jan
19
2016

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

Proof Complexity Lower Bounds from Algebraic Circuit Complexity
10:30am|S-101

Proof complexity studies the complexity of mathematical proofs, with the aim of exhibiting (true) statements whose proofs are always necessarily long. One well-known proof system is Hilbert's Nullstellensatz, which shows that if the family $F=\{f_1...

Jan
12
2016

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

Anti-concentration: results and applications
Hoi Nguyen
10:30am|S-101

I will survey some characterization results on random walks which stick to a small region unusually long. In application we give a description of unitary matrices of large permanent.

Dec
14
2015

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

Toward the KRW conjecture: cubic lower bounds via communication complexity
11:15am|S-101

One of the major challenges of the research in circuit complexity is proving super-polynomial lower bounds for de-Morgan formulas. Karchmer, Raz, and Wigderson suggested to approach this problem by proving that formula complexity behaves "as...

Dec
08
2015

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

Ramanujan coverings of graphs
10:30am|West Bldg. Lect. Hall

Ramanujan graphs are optimal expander graphs, and their existence and construction have been the focus of much research during the last three decades. We prove that every bipartite Ramanujan graph has a $d$-covering which is also Ramanujan. This...

Dec
07
2015

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

Bias vs low rank of polynomials with applications to list decoding and effective algebraic geometry
Abhishek Bhowmick
11:15am|West Bldg. Lect. Hall

Let $f$ be a polynomial of degree $d$ in $n$ variables over a finite field $\mathbb{F}$. The polynomial is said to be unbiased if the distribution of $f(x)$ for a uniform input $x \in \mathbb{F}^n$ is close to the uniform distribution over $\mathbb...

Dec
01
2015

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

Rigidity of random Toeplitz matrices with an application to depth three circuits
10:30am|S-101

Joint work with Oded Goldreich. We prove that random $n$-by-$n$ Toeplitz matrices over $GF(2)$ have rigidity $\Omega(n^3/(r^2 \log n))$ for rank $r > \sqrt{n}$, with high probability. This improves, for $r = o(n / \log n \log\log n)$, over the $...

Nov
30
2015

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

Lower bounds on the size of semidefinite programming relaxations
11:15am|S-101

We introduce a method for proving lower bounds on the efficacy of semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxations for combinatorial problems. In particular, we show that the cut, TSP, and stable set polytopes on $n$-vertex graphs are not the linear image...