Common information was introduced by Wyner as a measure of dependence of two
random variables. This measure has been recently resurrected as a lower bound on the logarithm of the nonnegative rank of a nonnegative matrix. Lower bounds on nonnegative rank have important applications to several areas such
as communication ... more >>>

We prove that any extended formulation that approximates the matching polytope on $n$-vertex graphs up to a factor of $(1+\varepsilon)$ for any $\frac2n \le \varepsilon \le 1$ must have at least ${n}\choose{{\alpha}/{\varepsilon}}$ defining inequalities where $0<\alpha<1$ is an absolute constant. This is tight as exhibited by the $(1+\varepsilon)$ approximating linear ... more >>>