Seminars

The discrete Fourier transform is a widely used tool in the analysis of Boolean functions. One can view the Fourier transform of a Boolean function $f:\{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ as a distribution over sets $S \subseteq [n]$. The Fourier-tail at level $k...

Reed-Muller codes encode an $m$-variate polynomial of degree $r$ by evaluating it on all points in $\{0,1\}^m$. Its distance is $2^{m-r}$ and so it cannot correct more than that many errors/erasures in the worst case. For random errors one may hope...

We characterize all complex-valued (Lebesgue) integrable functions $f$ on $[0,1]^m$ such that $f$ vanishes when integrated over the product of $m$ measurable sets which partition $[0,1]$ and have prescribed Lebesgue measures $\\alpha_1,\\ldots,\...

We prove an average-case depth hierarchy theorem for Boolean circuits over the standard basis of AND, OR, and NOT gates. Our hierarchy theorem says that for every $d \geq 2$, there is an explicit $n$-variable Boolean function $f$, computed by a...

We prove an average-case depth hierarchy theorem for Boolean circuits over the standard basis of AND, OR, and NOT gates. Our hierarchy theorem says that for every $d \\geq 2$, there is an explicit $n$-variable Boolean function $f$, computed by a...

What is the distribution of the number of triangles in the random graph $G(n, 1/2)$? It was known for a long time that this distribution obeys a central limit theorem: from the point of view of large intervals (~ standard-deviation length), the...

The Resolution proof system is perhaps the simplest and most universally used in verification system and automated theorem proving. It was introduced by Davis and Putnam in 1960. The study of its efficiency, both in terms of proof length of natural...

Tensor decompositions have been the key algorithmic components in provable learning of a wide range of hidden variable models such as topic models, Gaussian mixture models, independent component analysis, dictionary learning. Despite its success...

Proof systems pervade all areas of mathematics (often in disguise: e.g. Reidemeister moves is a sound and complete proof system for proving the equivalence of knots given by their diagrams). Proof complexity seeks to to understand the minimal...

The last few years have seen substantial progress on the question of proving lower bounds for homogeneous depth-4 arithmetic circuits. Even though these results seem to come close to resolving the VP vs VNP question, it seems likely that the...