For a linear code $C\subseteq\mathbb{F}_q^n$, we say that $C$ satisfies the \emph{proximity-gaps property} up to distance $\delta_1$ if, for every $\delta_2>\delta_1$ and every $f,g\in\mathbb{F}_q^n$, at least one of which is $\delta_2$-far from $C$ in relative Hamming distance, there are only a small fraction (typically at most $\operatorname{poly}(n)/q$) of \emph{exceptional coefficients} ... more >>>

We show that the nearest-codeword and minimum-distance problems for linear codes over every fixed finite field are W[1]-hard to approximate within any constant factor under deterministic fixed-parameter many-one reductions. This gives unconditional deterministic parameterized inapproximability for minimum distance, including the binary problem usually called Even Set. The reduction starts from ... more >>>

In a recent breakthrough, Williams (STOC 2025) showed that any decision problem solvable in time $t$ by a multitape Turing machine can be solved in space $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{t})$ and time $2^{\tilde{O}(\sqrt{t})}$. The immediate question is whether this result is an anomaly, or an inherent feature of computation more generally.

In this ... more >>>