We analyze the Fourier growth, i.e. the $L_1$ Fourier weight at level $k$ (denoted $L_{1,k}$), of various well-studied classes of "structured" $\mathbb{F}_2$-polynomials. This study is motivated by applications in pseudorandomness, in particular recent results and conjectures due to [CHHL19,CHLT19,CGLSS20] which show that upper bounds on Fourier growth (even at ... more >>>

We study the Fourier spectrum of functions $f\colon \{0,1\}^{mk} \to \{-1,0,1\}$ which can be written as a product of $k$ Boolean functions $f_i$ on disjoint $m$-bit inputs. We prove that for every positive integer $d$,
\[
\sum_{S \subseteq [mk]: |S|=d} |\hat{f_S}| = O(m)^d .
\]
Our upper bound ... more >>>

We construct pseudorandom generators with improved seed length for
several classes of tests. First we consider the class of read-once
polynomials over GF(2) in $m$ variables. For error $\e$ we obtain seed
length $\tilde O (\log(m/\e)) \log(1/\e)$, where $\tilde O$ hides lower-order
terms. This is optimal up to the factor ... more >>>

Let $X_{m, \eps}$ be the distribution over $m$ bits $(X_1, \ldots, X_m)$
where the $X_i$ are independent and each $X_i$ equals $1$ with
probability $(1+\eps)/2$ and $0$ with probability $(1-\eps)/2$. We
consider the smallest value $\eps^*$ of $\eps$ such that the distributions
$X_{m,\eps}$ and $X_{m,0}$ can be distinguished with constant
more >>>

Let $D$ be a $b$-wise independent distribution over
$\{0,1\}^m$. Let $E$ be the ``noise'' distribution over
$\{0,1\}^m$ where the bits are independent and each bit is 1
with probability $\eta/2$. We study which tests $f \colon
\{0,1\}^m \to [-1,1]$ are $\e$-fooled by $D+E$, i.e.,
$|\E[f(D+E)] - \E[f(U)]| \le \e$ where ... more >>>

Let $k=k(n)$ be the largest integer such that there
exists a $k$-wise uniform distribution over $\zo^n$ that
is supported on the set $S_m := \{x \in \zo^n : \sum_i
x_i \equiv 0 \bmod m\}$, where $m$ is any integer. We
show that $\Omega(n/m^2 \log m) \le k \le 2n/m + ... more >>>

We exhibit $\epsilon$-biased distributions $D$
on $n$ bits and functions $f\colon \{0,1\}^n
\to \{0,1\}$ such that the xor of two independent
copies ($D+D$) does not fool $f$, for any of the
following choices:

1. $\epsilon = 2^{-\Omega(n)}$ and $f$ is in P/poly;

2. $\epsilon = 2^{-\Omega(n/\log n)}$ and $f$ is ... more >>>

We show that secure homomorphic evaluation of any non-trivial functionality of sufficiently many inputs with respect to any CPA secure encryption scheme cannot be implemented by constant depth, polynomial size circuits, i.e. in the class AC0. In contrast, we observe that certain previously studied encryption schemes (with quasipolynomial security) can ... more >>>

We show that public-key bit encryption schemes which support weak homomorphic evaluation of parity or majority cannot be proved message indistinguishable beyond AM intersect coAM via general (adaptive) reductions, and beyond statistical zero-knowledge via reductions of constant query complexity.

Previous works on the limitation of reductions for proving security of ... more >>>