2008-2009 Seminars

Mar
10
2009

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

Affine Extractors Over Prime Fields
10:30am|S-101

Affine extractors are maps over F^n that are balanced on every affine subspace of large enough dimension. A random map is, with high probability, a good affine extractor. However so far we do not know how to build explicit affine extractors that are...

Mar
09
2009

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

NP and MA Do Not Contain coNP in Multiparty Communication Complexity
Dmitry Gavinsky
11:15am|S-101

We prove that NP is different from coNP and coNP is not a subset of MA in the number-on-forehead model of multiparty communication complexity for up to k=(1 - e)log(n) players, where e>0 is any constant. Prior to our work, the problem was open even...

Mar
02
2009

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

Finding Sparse Cuts Locally Using Evolving Sets
Yuval Peres
11:15am|S-101

A local graph partitioning algorithm finds a set of vertices with small conductance (i.e. a sparse cut) by adaptively exploring part of a large graph $G$, starting from a specified vertex. For the algorithm to be local, its complexity must be...

Feb
24
2009

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

Algorithmic Versions of Dense Model Theorems
10:30am|West Bldg. Lecture Hall

Green and Tao used the existence of a dense subset indistinguishable from the primes under certain tests from a certain class to prove the existence of arbitrarily long prime arithmetic progressions. Tao and Ziegler showed some general conditions...

Feb
23
2009

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

The Convergence of Bird Flocking
11:15am|West Bldg. Lecture Hall

We bound the time it takes for a group of birds to reach steady state in a standard flocking model. We prove that (i) within single exponential time fragmentation ceases and each bird settles on a fixed flying direction; (ii) the flocking network...

Feb
17
2009

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

Algorithmic Versions of Dense Model Theorems
10:30am|S-101

Green and Tao used the existence of a dense subset indistinguishable from the primes under certain tests from a certain class to prove the existence of arbitrarily long prime arithmetic progressions. Tao and Ziegler showed some general conditions...

Feb
16
2009

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

Approximating Submodular Functions Everywhere
Nick Harvey
11:15am|S-101

Submodular functions are a key concept in combinatorial optimization. Algorithms that involve submodular functions usually assume that they are given by a (value) oracle. Many interesting problems involving submodular functions can be solved using...