It is well-known that randomized communication protocols are more powerful than deterministic protocols. In particular the Equality function requires $\Omega(n)$ deterministic communication complexity but has efficient randomized protocols. Previous work of Chattopadhyay, Lovett and Vinyals shows that randomized communication is strictly stronger than what can be solved by deterministic protocols ... more >>>

Several theorems and conjectures in communication complexity state or speculate that the complexity of a matrix in a given communication model is controlled by a related analytic or algebraic matrix parameter, e.g., rank, sign-rank, discrepancy, etc. The forward direction is typically easy as the structural implications of small complexity often ... more >>>

We introduce spiky rank, a new matrix parameter that enhances blocky rank by combining the combinatorial structure of the latter with linear-algebraic flexibility. A spiky matrix is block-structured with diagonal blocks that are arbitrary rank-one matrices, and the spiky rank of a matrix is the minimum number of such matrices ... more >>>