The power symmetric polynomial on $n$ variables of degree $d$ is defined as
$p_d(x_1,\ldots, x_n) = x_{1}^{d}+\dots + x_{n}^{d}$. We study polynomials that are expressible as a sum of powers
of homogenous linear projections of power symmetric polynomials. These form a subclass of polynomials computed by
... more >>>

Contemplating the recently announced 1-local expanders of Viola and Wigderson (ECCC, TR16-129, 2016), one may observe that weaker constructs are well know. For example, one may easily obtain a 4-regular $N$-vertex graph with spectral gap that is $\Omega(1/\log^2 N)$, and similarly a $O(1)$-regular $N$-vertex graph with spectral gap $1/\tildeO(\log N)$.
more >>>

We prove an essentially sharp $\tilde\Omega(n/k)$ lower bound on the $k$-round distributional complexity of the $k$-step pointer chasing problem under the uniform distribution, when Bob speaks first. This is an improvement over Nisan and Wigderson's $\tilde \Omega(n/k^2)$ lower bound. A key part of the proof is using triangular discrimination instead ... more >>>