We consider the problem of finding a $k$-vertex ($k$-edge)
connected spanning subgraph $K$ of a given $n$-vertex graph $G$
while minimizing the maximum degree $d$ in $K$. We give a
polynomial time algorithm for fixed $k$ that achieves an $O(\log
n)$-approximation. The only known previous polynomial algorithms
achieved degree $d+1$ ... more >>>

The problem of constructing explicit functions which cannot be approximated by low degree polynomials has been extensively studied in computational complexity, motivated by applications in circuit lower bounds, pseudo-randomness, constructions of Ramsey graphs and locally decodable codes. Still, most of the known lower bounds become trivial for polynomials of ... more >>>

We study approximation of Boolean functions by low-degree polynomials over the ring $\mathbb{Z}/2^k\mathbb{Z}$. More precisely, given a Boolean function F$:\{0,1\}^n \rightarrow \{0,1\}$, define its $k$-lift to be F$_k:\{0,1\}^n \rightarrow \{0,2^{k-1}\}$ by $F_k(x) = 2^{k-F(x)}$ (mod $2^k$). We consider the fractional agreement (which we refer to as $\gamma_{d,k}(F)$) of $F_k$ with ... more >>>

Time efficient decoding algorithms for error correcting codes often require linear space. However, locally decodable codes yield more efficient randomized decoders that run in time $n^{1+o(1)}$ and space $n^{o(1)}$. In this work we focus on deterministic decoding.
Gronemeier showed that any non-adaptive deterministic decoder for a good code running ... more >>>