We solve the derandomized direct product testing question in the low acceptance regime, by constructing new high dimensional expanders that have no small connected covers. We show that our complexes have swap cocycle expansion, which allows us to deduce the agreement theorem by relying on previous work.

Derandomized direct product ... more >>>

We introduce and study swap cosystolic expansion, a new expansion property of simplicial complexes. We prove lower bounds for swap coboundary expansion of spherical buildings and use them to lower bound swap cosystolic expansion of the LSV Ramanujan complexes. Our motivation is the recent work (in a companion paper) showing ... more >>>

We describe a new family of symmetric error-correcting codes with low-density parity-check matrices (LDPC).

Our codes can be described in two seemingly different ways. First, in relation to Reed-Muller codes: our codes are functions on a subset of $\mathbb{F}^n$ whose restrictions to a prescribed set of affine lines has low ... more >>>

Given a family X of subsets of [n] and an ensemble of local functions $\{f_s:s\to\Sigma \;|\; s\in X\}$, an agreement test is a randomized property tester that is supposed to test whether there is some global function $G:[n]\to\Sigma$ such that $f_s=G|_s$ for many sets $s$. For example, the V-test chooses ... more >>>

We give new bounds on the cosystolic expansion constants of several families of high dimensional expanders, and the known coboundary expansion constants of order complexes of homogeneous geometric lattices, including the spherical building of $SL_n(F_q)$. The improvement applies to the high dimensional expanders constructed by Lubotzky, Samuels and Vishne, and ... more >>>

A seminal result in learning theory characterizes the PAC learnability of binary classes through the Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension. Extending this characterization to the general multiclass setting has been open since the pioneering works on multiclass PAC learning in the late 1980s. This work resolves this problem: we characterize multiclass PAC learnability ... more >>>

A locally testable code (LTC) is an error correcting code that has a property-tester. The tester reads $q$ bits that are randomly chosen, and rejects words with probability proportional to their distance from the code. The parameter $q$ is called the locality of the tester.

LTCs were initially studied as ... more >>>

We construct an explicit family of 3XOR instances which is hard for Omega(sqrt(log n)) levels of the Sum-of-Squares hierarchy. In contrast to earlier constructions, which involve a random component, our systems can be constructed explicitly in deterministic polynomial time.
Our construction is based on the high-dimensional expanders devised by Lubotzky, ... more >>>

Locally testable codes (LTC) are error-correcting codes that have a local tester which can distinguish valid codewords from words that are far from all codewords, by probing a given word only at a very small (sublinear, typically constant) number of locations. Such codes form the combinatorial backbone of PCPs. ... more >>>

A function f:[n_1] x ... x [n_d]-->F is a direct sum if it is of the form f(a_1,...,a_d) = f_1(a_1) + ... + f_d (a_d) (mod 2) for some d functions f_i:[n_i]-->F_i for all i=1,...,d. We present a 4-query test which distinguishes between direct sums and functions that are ... more >>>

We study the stability of covers of simplicial complexes. Given a map f:Y?X that satisfies almost all of the local conditions of being a cover, is it close to being a genuine cover of X? Complexes X for which this holds are called cover-stable. We show that this is equivalent ... more >>>

We introduce a framework of layered subsets, and give a sufficient condition for when a set system supports an agreement test. Agreement testing is a certain type of property testing that generalizes PCP tests such as the plane vs. plane test.

Previous work has shown that high dimensional expansion ... more >>>

A local tester for an error-correcting code is a probabilistic procedure that queries a small subset of coordinates, accepts codewords with probability one, and rejects non-codewords with probability proportional to their distance from the code. The local tester is {\em robust} if for non-codewords it satisfies the stronger property that ... more >>>

We develop the notion of double samplers, first introduced by Dinur and Kaufman [Proc. 58th FOCS, 2017], which are samplers with additional combinatorial properties, and whose existence we prove using high dimensional expanders.

We show how double samplers give a generic way of amplifying distance in a way that enables ... more >>>

We study the 2-ary constraint satisfaction problems (2-CSPs), which can be stated as follows: given a constraint graph $G = (V, E)$, an alphabet set $\Sigma$ and, for each edge $\{u, v\} \in E$, a constraint $C_{uv} \subseteq \Sigma \times \Sigma$, the goal is to find an assignment $\sigma: V ... more >>>

We initiate the study of Boolean function analysis on high-dimensional expanders. We describe an analog of the Fourier expansion and of the Fourier levels on simplicial complexes, and generalize the FKN theorem to high-dimensional expanders.

Our results demonstrate that a high-dimensional expanding complex X can sometimes serve as a sparse ... more >>>

We show that every set in $\cal P$ is strongly testable under a suitable encoding. By ``strongly testable'' we mean having a (proximity oblivious) tester that makes a constant number of queries and rejects with probability that is proportional to the distance of the tested object from the property. By ... more >>>

Agreement tests are a generalization of low degree tests that capture a local-to-global phenomenon, which forms the combinatorial backbone of most PCP constructions. In an agreement test, a function is given by an ensemble of local restrictions. The agreement test checks that the restrictions agree when they overlap, and the ... more >>>

Nisan and Szegedy showed that low degree Boolean functions are juntas. Kindler and Safra showed that low degree functions which are *almost* Boolean are close to juntas. Their result holds with respect to $\mu_p$ for every *constant* $p$. When $p$ is allowed to be very small, new phenomena emerge. ... more >>>

Given a function $f:[N]^k\rightarrow[M]^k$, the Z-test is a three query test for checking if a function $f$ is a direct product, namely if there are functions $g_1,\dots g_k:[N]\to[M]$ such that $f(x_1,\ldots,x_k)=(g_1(x_1),\dots g_k(x_k))$ for every input $x\in [N]^k$.

This test was introduced by Impagliazzo et. al. (SICOMP 2012), who ... more >>>

The paper investigates expansion properties of the Grassmann graph,
motivated by recent results of [KMS, DKKMS] concerning hardness
of the Vertex-Cover and of the $2$-to-$1$ Games problems. Proving the
hypotheses put forward by these papers seems to first require a better
understanding of these expansion properties.

We consider the edge ... more >>>

We show that high dimensional expanders imply derandomized direct product tests, with a number of subsets that is *linear* in the size of the universe.

Direct product tests belong to a family of tests called agreement tests that are important components in PCP constructions and include, for example, low degree ... more >>>

We revisit the Raz-Safra plane-vs.-plane test and study the closely related cube vs. cube test. In this test the tester has access to a "cubes table" which assigns to every cube a low degree polynomial. The tester randomly selects two cubes (affine sub-spaces of dimension $3$) that intersect on a ... more >>>

We propose a combinatorial hypothesis regarding a subspace vs. subspace agreement test, and prove that if correct it leads to a proof of the 2-to-1 Games Conjecture, albeit with imperfect completeness.

We investigate the value of parallel repetition of one-round games with any number of players $k\ge 2$. It has been an open question whether an analogue of Raz's Parallel Repetition Theorem holds for games with more than two players, i.e., whether the value of the repeated game decays exponentially ... more >>>

We show that if gap-3SAT has no sub-exponential time algorithms then a weak form of the sliding scale conjecture holds. Namely, for every $\alpha>0$ any algorithm for $n^\alpha$-approximating the value of label cover must run in time at least $n^{\Omega(\exp(1/\alpha))}$, where $n$ is the size of the instance.

Put differently, ... more >>>

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 expected'' with respect to the composition of functions $f\circ g$. They showed that this conjecture, ... more >>>

We show that every language in NP has a PCP verifier that tosses $O(\log n)$ random coins, has perfect completeness, and a soundness error of at most $1/poly(n)$, while making at most $O(poly\log\log n)$ queries into a proof over an alphabet of size at most $n^{1/poly\log\log n}$. Previous constructions that ... more >>>

The starting point of this paper is that instances of computational problems often do not exist in isolation. Rather, multiple and correlated instances of the same problem arise naturally in the real world. The challenge is how to gain computationally from instance correlations when they exist. We will be interested ... more >>>

For a string $a \in \{0,1\}^n$ its $k$-fold direct sum encoding is a function $f_a$ that takes as input sets $S \subseteq [n]$ of
size $k$ and outputs $f_a(S) = \sum_{i \in S} a_i$.
In this paper we are interested in the Direct Sum Testing Problem,
where we are given ... more >>>

A direct product is a function of the form $g(x_1,\ldots,x_k)=(g_1(x_1),\ldots,g_k(x_k))$. We show that the direct product property is locally testable with $2$ queries, that is, a canonical two-query test distinguishes between direct products and functions that are from direct products with constant probability.

This local testing question comes up ... more >>>

For $3 \leq q < Q$ we consider the $\text{ApproxColoring}(q,Q)$ problem of deciding for a given graph $G$ whether $\chi(G) \leq q$ or $\chi(G) \geq Q$. It was show in [DMR06] that the problem $\text{ApproxColoring}(q,Q)$ is NP-hard for $q=3,4$ and arbitrary large constant $Q$ under variants of the Unique Games ... more >>>

We develop new techniques to incorporate the recently proposed ``short code" (a low-degree version of the long code) into the construction and analysis of PCPs in the classical ``Label Cover + Fourier Analysis'' framework. As a result, we obtain more size-efficient PCPs that yield improved hardness results for approximating CSPs ... more >>>

We consider the following clustering with outliers problem: Given a set of points $X \subset \{-1,1\}^n$, such that there is some point $z \in \{-1,1\}^n$ for which at least $\delta$ of the points are $\epsilon$-correlated with $z$, find $z$. We call such a point $z$ a $(\delta,\epsilon)$-center of X.

In ... more >>>

We study the covering complexity of constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs). The covering number of a CSP instance C, denoted $\nu(C)$, is the smallest number of assignments to the variables, such that each constraint is satisfied by at least one of the assignments. This covering notion describes situations in which we ... more >>>

A q-query locally testable code (LTC) is an error correcting code that can be tested by a randomized algorithm that reads at most q symbols from the given word.
An important question is whether there exist LTCs that have the ccc property: {c}onstant relative rate, {c}onstant relative distance, and that ... more >>>

A PCP is a proof system for NP in which the proof can be checked by a probabilistic verifier. The verifier is only allowed to read a very small portion of the proof, and in return is allowed to err with some bounded probability. The probability that the verifier accepts ... more >>>

The main result of this paper is a simple, yet generic, composition theorem for low error two-query probabilistically checkable proofs (PCPs). Prior to this work, composition of PCPs was well-understood only in the constant error regime. Existing composition methods in the low error regime were non-modular (i.e., very much tailored ... more >>>

Given a pair of finite groups $G$ and $H$, the set of homomorphisms from $G$ to $H$ form an error-correcting code where codewords differ in at least $1/2$ the coordinates. We show that for every pair of {\em abelian} groups $G$ and $H$, the resulting code is (locally) list-decodable from ... more >>>

Given two binary linear codes R and C, their tensor product R \otimes C consists of all matrices with rows in R and columns in C. We analyze the "robustness" of the following test for this code (suggested by Ben-Sasson and Sudan~\cite{BenSasson-Sudan04}): Pick a random row (or column) and check ... more >>>

Let C={c_1,...,c_n} be a set of constraints over a set of
variables. The {\em satisfiability-gap} of C is the smallest
fraction of unsatisfied constraints, ranging over all possible
assignments for the variables.

We prove a new combinatorial amplification lemma that doubles the
satisfiability-gap of a constraint-system, with only a linear ... more >>>

We study the approximate-coloring(q,Q) problem: Given a graph G, decide
whether \chi(G) \le q or \chi(G)\ge Q. We derive conditional
hardness for this problem for any constant 3\le q < Q. For q \ge
4, our result is based on Khot's 2-to-1 conjecture [Khot'02].
For q=3, we base our hardness ... more >>>

Given a $k$-uniform hypergraph, the E$k$-Vertex-Cover problem is
to find a minimum subset of vertices that ``hits'' every edge. We
show that for every integer $k \geq 5$, E$k$-Vertex-Cover is
NP-hard to approximate within a factor of $(k-3-\epsilon)$, for
an arbitrarily small constant $\epsilon > 0$.

This almost matches the ... more >>>

We show Minimum Vertex Cover NP-hard to approximate to within a factor
of 1.3606. This improves on the previously known factor of 7/6.

This paper shows SVP_\infty and CVP_\infty to be NP-hard to approximate
to within any factor up to $n^{1/\log\log n}$. This improves on the
best previous result \cite{ABSS} that showed quasi-NP-hardness for
smaller factors, namely $2^{\log^{1-\epsilon}n}$ for any constant
$\epsilon>0$. We show a direct reduction from SAT to these
problems, that ... more >>>

The label-cover problem was introduced in \cite{ABSS} and shown
there to be quasi-NP-hard to approximate to within a factor of
$2^{\log^{1-\delta}n}$ for any {\em constant} $\delta>0$. This
combinatorial graph problem has been utilized \cite{ABSS,GM,ABMP}
for showing hardness-of-approximation of numerous problems. We
present a direct combinatorial reduction from low
error-probability PCP ... more >>>

This paper strengthens the low-error PCP characterization of NP, coming
closer to the ultimate BGLR conjecture. Namely, we prove that witnesses for
membership in any NP language can be verified with a constant
number of accesses, and with an error probability exponentially
small in the ... more >>>

This paper shows finding the closest vector in a lattice
to be NP-hard to approximate to within any factor up to
$2^{(\log{n})^{1-\epsilon}}$ where
$\epsilon = (\log\log{n})^{-\alpha}$
and $\alpha$ is any positive constant $<{1\over 2}$.