Combinatorial property testing deals with the following relaxation of
decision problems: Given a fixed property and an input $f$, one wants
to decide whether $f$ satisfies the property or is `far' from satisfying
the property.
It has been shown that regular languages are testable,
and that there exist context free ... more >>>

In this paper we examine the importance of the choice of metric in path coupling, and the relationship of this to \emph{stopping time analysis}. We give strong evidence that stopping time analysis is no more powerful than standard path coupling. In particular, we prove a stronger theorem for path coupling ... more >>>

We study the identity testing problem for depth $3$ arithmetic circuits ($\Sigma\Pi\Sigma$ circuits). We give the first deterministic polynomial time identity test for $\Sigma\Pi\Sigma$ circuits with bounded top fanin. We also show that the {\em rank} of a minimal and simple $\Sigma\Pi\Sigma$ circuit with bounded top fanin, computing zero, can ... more >>>