A decade has passed since Alekhnovich and Razborov presented an algorithm that solves SAT on instances $\phi$ of size $n$ having tree-width $TW(\phi)$, using time (and space) bounded by $2^{O(TW(\phi))}n^{O(1)}$. Although there have been several papers over the ensuing years building on the work of Alekhnovich and Razborov there has ... more >>>

We prove that for every constant $k\ge 2$, every polynomial time bound $t$, and every polynomially small $\epsilon$, there exists a family of distributions on $k$ elements that can be sampled exactly in polynomial time but cannot be sampled within statistical distance $1-1/k-\epsilon$ in time $t$. Our proof involves reducing ... more >>>

We consider the problem of approximating the minmax value of a multiplayer game in strategic form. We argue that in 3-player games with 0-1 payoffs, approximating the minmax value within an additive constant smaller than $\xi/2$, where $\xi = \frac{3-\sqrt5}{2} \approx 0.382$, is not possible by a polynomial time algorithm. ... more >>>