arXiv subjects

Alexander Russell

Publications and source records attributed to Alexander Russell.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Codes, Lower Bounds, and Phase Transitions in the Symmetric Rendezvous Problem

In the rendezvous problem, two parties with different labelings of the vertices of a complete graph are trying to meet at some vertex at the same time. It is well-known that if the parties have predetermined roles, then the strategy where one of them waits at one vertex, while the other visits all $n$ vertices in random order is optimal, taking at most $n$ steps and averaging about $n/2$. Anderson and Weber considered the symmetric rendezvous problem, where both parties must use the same randomized strategy. They analyzed strategies where the parties repeatedly play the optimal asymmetric strategy, determining their role independently each time by a biased coin-flip. By tuning the bias, Anderson and Weber achieved an expected meeting time of about $0.829 n$, which they conjectured to be asymptotically optimal. We change perspective slightly: instead of minimizing the expected meeting time, we seek to maximize the probability of meeting within a specified time $T$. The Anderson-Weber strategy, which fails with constant probability when $T= Θ(n)$, is not asymptotically optimal for large $T$ in this setting. Specifically, we exhibit a symmetric strategy that succeeds with probability $1-o(1)$ in $T=4n$ steps. This is tight: for any $α< 4$, any symmetric strategy with $T = αn$ fails with constant probability. Our strategy uses a new combinatorial object that we dub a "rendezvous code," which may be of independent interest. When $T \le n$, we show that the probability of meeting within $T$ steps is indeed asymptotically maximized by the Anderson-Weber strategy. Our results imply new lower bounds, showing that the best symmetric strategy takes at least $0.638 n$ steps in expectation. We also present some partial results for the symmetric rendezvous problem on other vertex-transitive graphs.

math.CO↗

arXiv2014

Bounds on the quantum satisfiability threshold

Quantum k-SAT is the problem of deciding whether there is a n-qubit state which is perpendicular to a set of vectors, each of which lies in the Hilbert space of k qubits. Equivalently, the problem is to decide whether a particular type of local Hamiltonian has a ground state with zero energy. We consider random quantum k-SAT formulas with n variables and m = αn clauses, and ask at what value of αthese formulas cease to be satisfiable. We show that the threshold for random quantum 3-SAT is at most 3.594. For comparison, convincing arguments from statistical physics suggest that the classical 3-SAT threshold is α\approx 4.267. For larger k, we show that the quantum threshold is a constant factor smaller than the classical one. Our bounds work by determining the generic rank of the satisfying subspace for certain gadgets, and then using the technique of differential equations to analyze various algorithms that partition the hypergraph into a collection of these gadgets. Our use of differential equation to establish upper bounds on a satisfiability threshold appears to be novel, and our techniques may apply to various classical problems as well.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

Heat and Noise on Cubes and Spheres: The Sensitivity of Randomly Rotated Polynomial Threshold Functions

We establish a precise relationship between spherical harmonics and Fourier basis functions over a hypercube randomly embedded in the sphere. In particular, we give a bound on the expected Boolean noise sensitivity of a randomly rotated function in terms of its "spherical sensitivity," which we define according to its evolution under the spherical heat equation. As an application, we prove an average case of the Gotsman-Linial conjecture, bounding the sensitivity of polynomial threshold functions subjected to a random rotation.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2014

Technical Report: Dealing with Undependable Workers in Decentralized Network Supercomputing

Internet supercomputing is an approach to solving partitionable, computation-intensive problems by harnessing the power of a vast number of interconnected computers. This paper presents a new algorithm for the problem of using network supercomputing to perform a large collection of independent tasks, while dealing with undependable processors. The adversary may cause the processors to return bogus results for tasks with certain probabilities, and may cause a subset $F$ of the initial set of processors $P$ to crash. The adversary is constrained in two ways. First, for the set of non-crashed processors $P-F$, the \emph{average} probability of a processor returning a bogus result is inferior to $\frac{1}{2}$. Second, the adversary may crash a subset of processors $F$, provided the size of $P-F$ is bounded from below. We consider two models: the first bounds the size of $P-F$ by a fractional polynomial, the second bounds this size by a poly-logarithm. Both models yield adversaries that are much stronger than previously studied. Our randomized synchronous algorithm is formulated for $n$ processors and $t$ tasks, with $n\le t$, where depending on the number of crashes each live processor is able to terminate dynamically with the knowledge that the problem is solved with high probability. For the adversary constrained by a fractional polynomial, the round complexity of the algorithm is $O(\frac{t}{n^\varepsilon}\log{n}\log{\log{n}})$, its work is $O(t\log{n} \log{\log{n}})$ and message complexity is $O(n\log{n}\log{\log{n}})$. For the poly-log constrained adversary, the round complexity is $O(t)$, work is $O(t n^{\varepsilon})$, %$O(t \, poly \log{n})$, and message complexity is $O(n^{1+\varepsilon})$ %$O(n \, poly \log{n})$. All bounds are shown to hold with high probability.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2014

Group representations that resist random sampling

We show that there exists a family of groups $G_n$ and nontrivial irreducible representations $ρ_n$ such that, for any constant $t$, the average of $ρ_n$ over $t$ uniformly random elements $g_1, \ldots, g_t \in G_n$ has operator norm $1$ with probability approaching 1 as $n \rightarrow \infty$. More quantitatively, we show that there exist families of finite groups for which $Ω(\log \log |G|)$ random elements are required to bound the norm of a typical representation below $1$. This settles a conjecture of A. Wigderson.

math.CO↗

arXiv2014

Deterministic Blind Rendezvous in Cognitive Radio Networks

Blind rendezvous is a fundamental problem in cognitive radio networks. The problem involves a collection of agents (radios) that wish to discover each other in the blind setting where there is no shared infrastructure and they initially have no knowledge of each other. Time is divided into discrete slots; spectrum is divided into discrete channels, $\{1,2,..., n\}$. Each agent may access a single channel in a single time slot and we say that two agents rendezvous when they access the same channel in the same time slot. The model is asymmetric: each agent $A_i$ may only use a particular subset $S_i$ of the channels and different agents may have access to different subsets of channels. The goal is to design deterministic channel hopping schedules for each agent so as to guarantee rendezvous between any pair of agents with overlapping channel sets. Two independent sets of authors, Shin et al. and Lin et al., gave the first constructions guaranteeing asynchronous blind rendezvous in $O(n^2)$ and $O(n^3)$ time, respectively. We present a substantially improved construction guaranteeing that any two agents, $A_i$, $A_j$, will rendezvous in $O(|S_i| |S_j| \log\log n)$ time. Our results are the first that achieve nontrivial dependence on $|S_i|$, the size of the set of available channels. This allows us, for example, to save roughly a quadratic factor over the best previous results in the important case when channel subsets have constant size. We also achieve the best possible bound of $O(1)$ time for the symmetric situation; previous works could do no better than $O(n)$. Using the probabilistic method and Ramsey theory we provide evidence in support of our suspicion that our construction is asymptotically optimal for small size channel subsets: we show both a $c |S_i||S_j|$ lower bound and a $c \log\log n$ lower bound when $|S_i|, |S_j| \leq n/2$.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2013

Quantum Fourier Transforms and the Complexity of Link Invariants for Quantum Doubles of Finite Groups

Knot and link invariants naturally arise from any braided Hopf algebra. We consider the computational complexity of the invariants arising from an elementary family of finite-dimensional Hopf algebras: quantum doubles of finite groups (denoted D(G), for a group G). Regarding algorithms for these invariants, we develop quantum circuits for the quantum Fourier transform over D(G); in general, we show that when one can uniformly and efficiently carry out the quantum Fourier transform over the centralizers Z(g) of the elements of G, one can efficiently carry out the quantum Fourier transform over D(G). We apply these results to the symmetric groups to yield efficient circuits for the quantum Fourier transform over D(S_n). With such a Fourier transform, it is straightforward to obtain additive approximation algorithms for the related link invariant. Additionally, we show that certain D(G) invariants (such as D(A_n) invariants) are BPP-hard to additively approximate, SBP-hard to multiplicatively approximate, and #P-hard to exactly evaluate. Finally, we make partial progress on the question of simulating anyonic computation in groups uniformly as a function of the group size. In this direction, we provide efficient quantum circuits for the Clebsch-Gordan transform over D(G) for "fluxon" irreps, i.e., irreps of D(G) characterized by a conjugacy class of G. For general irreps, i.e., those which are associated with a conjugacy class of G and an irrep of a centralizer, we present an efficient implementation under certain conditions such as when there is an efficient Clebsch-Gordan transform over the centralizers. We remark that this also provides a simulation of certain anyonic models of quantum computation, even in circumstances where the group may have size exponential in the size of the circuit.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2013

Small-Bias Sets for Nonabelian Groups: Derandomizing the Alon-Roichman Theorem

In analogy with epsilon-biased sets over Z_2^n, we construct explicit epsilon-biased sets over nonabelian finite groups G. That is, we find sets S subset G such that | Exp_{x in S} rho(x)| <= epsilon for any nontrivial irreducible representation rho. Equivalently, such sets make G's Cayley graph an expander with eigenvalue |lambda| <= epsilon. The Alon-Roichman theorem shows that random sets of size O(log |G| / epsilon^2) suffice. For groups of the form G = G_1 x ... x G_n, our construction has size poly(max_i |G_i|, n, epsilon^{-1}), and we show that a set S \subset G^n considered by Meka and Zuckerman that fools read-once branching programs over G is also epsilon-biased in this sense. For solvable groups whose abelian quotients have constant exponent, we obtain epsilon-biased sets of size (log |G|)^{1+o(1)} poly(epsilon^{-1}). Our techniques include derandomized squaring (in both the matrix product and tensor product senses) and a Chernoff-like bound on the expected norm of the product of independently random operators that may be of independent interest.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2013

Optimal epsilon-biased sets with just a little randomness

Subsets of F_2^n that are eps-biased, meaning that the parity of any set of bits is even or odd with probability eps close to 1/2, are powerful tools for derandomization. A simple randomized construction shows that such sets exist of size O(n/eps^2), and known deterministic constructions achieve sets of size O(n/eps^3), O(n^2/eps^2), and O((n/eps^2)^{5/4}). Rather than derandomizing these sets completely in exchange for making them larger, we attempt a partial derandomization while keeping them small, constructing sets of size O(n/eps^2) with as few random bits as possible. The naive randomized construction requires O(n^2/eps^2) random bits. We give two constructions. The first uses Nisan's space-bounded pseudorandom generator to partly derandomize a folklore probabilistic construction of an error-correcting code, and requires O(n log (1/eps)) bits. Our second construction requires O(n log (n/eps)) bits, but is more elementary; it adds randomness to a Legendre symbol construction on Alon, Goldreich, Håstad, and Peralta, and uses Weil sums to bound high moments of the bias.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2012

An Entropic Proof of Chang's Inequality

Chang's lemma is a useful tool in additive combinatorics and the analysis of Boolean functions. Here we give an elementary proof using entropy. The constant we obtain is tight, and we give a slight improvement in the case where the variables are highly biased.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2012

Randomized Work-Competitive Scheduling for Cooperative Computing on $k$-partite Task Graphs

A fundamental problem in distributed computing is the task of cooperatively executing a given set of $t$ tasks by $p$ processors where the communication medium is dynamic and subject to failures. The dynamics of the communication medium lead to groups of processors being disconnected and possibly reconnected during the entire course of the computation furthermore tasks can have dependencies among them. In this paper, we present a randomized algorithm whose competitive ratio is dependent on the dynamics of the communication medium and also on the nature of the dependencies among the tasks.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2012

Randomness Efficient Steganography

Steganographic protocols enable one to embed covert messages into inconspicuous data over a public communication channel in such a way that no one, aside from the sender and the intended receiver, can even detect the presence of the secret message. In this paper, we provide a new provably-secure, private-key steganographic encryption protocol secure in the framework of Hopper et al. We first present a "one-time stegosystem" that allows two parties to transmit messages of length at most that of the shared key with information-theoretic security guarantees. The employment of a pseudorandom generator (PRG) permits secure transmission of longer messages in the same way that such a generator allows the use of one-time pad encryption for messages longer than the key in symmetric encryption. The advantage of our construction, compared to all previous work is randomness efficiency: in the information theoretic setting our protocol embeds a message of length n bits using a shared secret key of length (1+o(1))n bits while achieving security 2^{-n/log^{O(1)}n}; simply put this gives a rate of key over message that is 1 as n tends to infinity (the previous best result achieved a constant rate greater than 1 regardless of the security offered). In this sense, our protocol is the first truly randomness efficient steganographic system. Furthermore, in our protocol, we can permit a portion of the shared secret key to be public while retaining precisely n private key bits. In this setting, by separating the public and the private randomness of the shared key, we achieve security of 2^{-n}. Our result comes as an effect of the application of randomness extractors to stegosystem design. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time extractors have been applied in steganography.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2011

Quantum Fourier sampling, Code Equivalence, and the quantum security of the McEliece and Sidelnikov cryptosystems

The Code Equivalence problem is that of determining whether two given linear codes are equivalent to each other up to a permutation of the coordinates. This problem has a direct reduction to a nonabelian hidden subgroup problem (HSP), suggesting a possible quantum algorithm analogous to Shor's algorithms for factoring or discrete log. However, we recently showed that in many cases of interest---including Goppa codes---solving this case of the HSP requires rich, entangled measurements. Thus, solving these cases of Code Equivalence via Fourier sampling appears to be out of reach of current families of quantum algorithms. Code equivalence is directly related to the security of McEliece-type cryptosystems in the case where the private code is known to the adversary. However, for many codes the support splitting algorithm of Sendrier provides a classical attack in this case. We revisit the claims of our previous article in the light of these classical attacks, and discuss the particular case of the Sidelnikov cryptosystem, which is based on Reed-Muller codes.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2011

Mutually unbiased bases for quantum states defined over p-adic numbers

We describe sets of mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) for quantum states defined over the p-adic numbers Q_p, i.e. the states that can be described as elements of the (rigged) Hilbert space L2(Q_p). We find that for every prime p>2 there are at least p+1 MUBs, which is in contrast with the situation for quantum states defined over the real line R for which only 3 MUBs are known. We comment on the possible reason for the difference regarding MUBs between these two infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2010

The McEliece Cryptosystem Resists Quantum Fourier Sampling Attacks

Quantum computers can break the RSA and El Gamal public-key cryptosystems, since they can factor integers and extract discrete logarithms. If we believe that quantum computers will someday become a reality, we would like to have \emph{post-quantum} cryptosystems which can be implemented today with classical computers, but which will remain secure even in the presence of quantum attacks. In this article we show that the McEliece cryptosystem over \emph{well-permuted, well-scrambled} linear codes resists precisely the attacks to which the RSA and El Gamal cryptosystems are vulnerable---namely, those based on generating and measuring coset states. This eliminates the approach of strong Fourier sampling on which almost all known exponential speedups by quantum algorithms are based. Specifically, we show that the natural case of the Hidden Subgroup Problem to which the McEliece cryptosystem reduces cannot be solved by strong Fourier sampling, or by any measurement of a coset state. We start with recent negative results on quantum algorithms for Graph Isomorphism, which are based on particular subgroups of size two, and extend them to subgroups of arbitrary structure, including the automorphism groups of linear codes. This allows us to obtain the first rigorous results on the security of the McEliece cryptosystem in the face of quantum adversaries, strengthening its candidacy for post-quantum cryptography.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2010

Approximate Representations and Approximate Homomorphisms

Approximate algebraic structures play a defining role in arithmetic combinatorics and have found remarkable applications to basic questions in number theory and pseudorandomness. Here we study approximate representations of finite groups: functions f:G -> U_d such that Pr[f(xy) = f(x) f(y)] is large, or more generally Exp_{x,y} ||f(xy) - f(x)f(y)||^2$ is small, where x and y are uniformly random elements of the group G and U_d denotes the unitary group of degree d. We bound these quantities in terms of the ratio d / d_min where d_min is the dimension of the smallest nontrivial representation of G. As an application, we bound the extent to which a function f : G -> H can be an approximate homomorphism where H is another finite group. We show that if H's representations are significantly smaller than G's, no such f can be much more homomorphic than a random function. We interpret these results as showing that if G is quasirandom, that is, if d_min is large, then G cannot be embedded in a small number of dimensions, or in a less-quasirandom group, without significant distortion of G's multiplicative structure. We also prove that our bounds are tight by showing that minors of genuine representations and their polar decompositions are essentially optimal approximate representations.

math.RT↗

arXiv2010

Regarding a Representation-Theoretic Conjecture of Wigderson

We show that there exists a family of irreducible representations R_i (of finite groups G_i) such that, for any constant t, the average of R_i over t uniformly random elements g_1, ..., g_t of G_i has operator norm 1 with probability approaching 1 as i limits to infinity. This settles a conjecture of Wigderson in the negative.

math.GR↗

arXiv2010

How close can we come to a parity function when there isn't one?

Consider a group G such that there is no homomorphism f:G to {+1,-1}. In that case, how close can we come to such a homomorphism? We show that if f has zero expectation, then the probability that f(xy) = f(x) f(y), where x, y are chosen uniformly and independently from G, is at most 1/2(1+1/sqrt{d}), where d is the dimension of G's smallest nontrivial irreducible representation. For the alternating group A_n, for instance, d=n-1. On the other hand, A_n contains a subgroup isomorphic to S_{n-2}, whose parity function we can extend to obtain an f for which this probability is 1/2(1+1/{n \choose 2}). Thus the extent to which f can be "more homomorphic" than a random function from A_n to {+1,-1} lies between O(n^{-1/2}) and Omega(n^{-2}).

math.CO↗