We present an elementary, self-contained proof of the result of Goldwasser and Rothblum [GR07] that the existence of a (perfect) statistically secure obfuscator implies a collapse of the polynomial hierarchy. In fact, we show that an existence of a weaker object implies a somewhat stronger statement. In addition, we extend ... more >>>

We study close connections between Indistinguishability Obfuscation (IO) and the Minimum Circuit Size Problem (MCSP), and argue that algorithms for one of MCSP or IO would empower the other one. Some of our main results are:

\begin{itemize}
\item If there exists a perfect (imperfect) IO that is computationally secure ... more >>>

In this paper, we establish a novel connection between total variation (TV) distance estimation and probabilistic inference. In particular, we present an efficient, structure-preserving reduction from relative approximation of TV distance to probabilistic inference over directed graphical models. This reduction leads to a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme (FPRAS) for ... more >>>