We study the complexity of approximating Boolean functions with DNFs and other depth-2 circuits, exploring two main directions: universal bounds on the approximability of all Boolean functions, and the approximability of the parity function.
In the first direction, our main positive results are the first non-trivial universal upper bounds on ... more >>>

We prove that, for all binary-input symmetric memoryless channels, polar codes enable reliable communication at rates within $\epsilon > 0$ of the Shannon capacity with a block length, construction complexity, and decoding complexity all bounded by a *polynomial* in $1/\epsilon$. Polar coding gives the *first known explicit construction* with rigorous ... more >>>

In this paper we prove results regarding Boolean functions with small spectral norm (the spectral norm of $f$ is $\|\hat{f}\|_1=\sum_{\alpha}|\hat{f}(\alpha)|$). Specifically, we prove the following results for functions $f:\{0,1\}^n\to \{0,1\}$ with $\|\hat{f}\|_1=A$.

1. There is a subspace $V$ of co-dimension at most $A^2$ such that $f|_V$ is constant.

2. ... more >>>