Explicit two-source extractors and resilient functions II

We explicitly construct an extractor for two independent sources on n bits, each with min-entropy at least logCn for a large enough constant C. Our extractor outputs one bit and has error nΩ(1). The best previous extractor, by Bourgain, required each source to have min-entropy .499n. A key ingredient in our construction is an explicit construction of a monotone, almost-balanced boolean function on n bits that is resilient to coalitions of size n1δ, for any δ>0. In fact, our construction is stronger in that it gives an explicit extractor for a generalization of non-oblivious bit-fixing sources on n bits, where some unknown nq bits are chosen almost polylog(n)-wise independently, and the remaining q=n1δ bits are chosen by an adversary as an arbitrary function of the nq bits. The best previous construction, by Viola, achieved q=n1/2δ. Our explicit two-source extractor directly implies an explicit construction of a 2(loglogN)O(1)-Ramsey graph over N vertices, improving bounds obtained by Barak et al. and matching independent work by Cohen. Joint work with David Zuckerman.

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University of Texas at Austin