We introduce the concept of a randomness steward, a tool for saving random bits when executing a randomized estimation algorithm $\mathrm{Est}$ on many adaptively chosen inputs. For each execution, the chosen input to $\mathrm{Est}$ remains hidden from the steward, but the steward chooses the randomness of $\mathrm{Est}$ and, crucially, is ... more >>>

In this paper we study the identity testing problem of \emph{arithmetic read-once formulas} (ROF) and some related models. A read-once formula is formula (a circuit whose underlying graph is a tree) in which the
operations are $\set{+,\times}$ and such that every input variable labels at most one leaf. We obtain ... more >>>

We prove nearly matching upper and lower bounds on the randomized communication complexity of the following problem: Alice and Bob are each given a probability distribution over $n$ elements, and they wish to estimate within $\pm\epsilon$ the statistical (total variation) distance between their distributions. For some range of parameters, there ... more >>>