Yao's XOR lemma states that for every function $f:\set{0,1}^k \ar \set{0,1}$, if $f$ has hardness $2/3$ for $P/poly$ (meaning that for every circuit $C$ in $P/poly$, $\Pr[C(X)=f(X)] \le 2/3$ on a uniform input $X$), then the task of computing $f(X_1) \oplus \ldots \oplus f(X_t)$ for sufficiently large $t$ has hardness ... more >>>

We reduce the problem of proving a "Boolean Unique Games Conjecture" (with gap $1-\delta$ vs. $1-C\delta$, for any $C> 1$, and sufficiently small $\delta>0$) to the problem of proving a PCP Theorem for a certain non-unique game.
In a previous work, Khot and Moshkovitz suggested an inefficient candidate reduction (i.e., ... more >>>

Igusa's local zeta function $Z_{f,p}(s)$ is the generating function that counts the number of integral roots, $N_{k}(f)$, of $f(\mathbf x) \bmod p^k$, for all $k$. It is a famous result, in analytic number theory, that $Z_{f,p}$ is a rational function in $\mathbb{Q}(p^s)$. We give an elementary proof of this fact ... more >>>