arXiv subjects

Amir Yehudayoff

Publications and source records attributed to Amir Yehudayoff.

66 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Grounded Lipschitz functions on trees are typically flat

A grounded M-Lipschitz function on a rooted d-ary tree is an integer-valued map on the vertices that changes by at most along edges and attains the value zero on the leaves. We study the behavior of such functions, specifically, their typical value at the root v_0 of the tree. We prove that the probability that the value of a uniformly chosen random function at v_0 is more than M+t is doubly-exponentially small in t. We also show a similar bound for continuous (real-valued) grounded Lipschitz functions.

math.PR↗

arXiv2012

Loop-erased random walk and Poisson kernel on planar graphs

Lawler, Schramm and Werner showed that the scaling limit of the loop-erased random walk on $\mathbb{Z}^2$ is $\mathrm{SLE}_2$. We consider scaling limits of the loop-erasure of random walks on other planar graphs (graphs embedded into $\mathbb{C}$ so that edges do not cross one another). We show that if the scaling limit of the random walk is planar Brownian motion, then the scaling limit of its loop-erasure is $\mathrm{SLE}_2$. Our main contribution is showing that for such graphs, the discrete Poisson kernel can be approximated by the continuous one. One example is the infinite component of super-critical percolation on $\mathbb{Z}^2$. Berger and Biskup showed that the scaling limit of the random walk on this graph is planar Brownian motion. Our results imply that the scaling limit of the loop-erased random walk on the super-critical percolation cluster is $\mathrm{SLE}_2$.

math.PR↗

arXiv2012

Lipschitz Functions on Expanders are Typically Flat

This work studies the typical behavior of random integer-valued Lipschitz functions on expander graphs with sufficiently good expansion. We consider two families of functions: M-Lipschitz functions (functions that change by at most M along edges) and integer-homomorphisms (functions that change by exactly 1 along edges). We prove that such functions typically exhibit very small fluctuations. For instance, we show that a uniformly chosen M-Lipschitz function takes only M+1 values on most of the graph, with a double exponential decay for the probability to take other values.

math.PR↗

arXiv2011

Containing Internal Diffusion Limited Aggregation

Internal Diffusion Limited Aggregation (IDLA) is a model that describes the growth of a random aggregate of particles from the inside out. Shellef proved that IDLA processes on supercritical percolation clusters of integer-lattices fill Euclidean balls, with high probability. In this article, we complete the picture and prove a limit-shape theorem for IDLA on such percolation clusters, by providing the corresponding upper bound. The technique to prove upper bounds is new and robust: it only requires the existence of a "good" lower bound. Specifically, this way of proving upper bounds on IDLA clusters is more suitable for random environments than previous ways, since it does not harness harmonic measure estimates.

math.PR↗

arXiv2011

Monotone expansion

This work, following the outline set in [B2], presents an explicit construction of a family of monotone expanders. The family is essentially defined by the Mobius action of SL_2(R) on the real line. For the proof, we show a product-growth theorem for SL_2(R).

math.CO↗

arXiv2011

The Maximal Probability that k-wise Independent Bits are All 1

A k-wise independent distribution on n bits is a joint distribution of the bits such that each k of them are independent. In this paper we consider k-wise independent distributions with identical marginals, each bit has probability p to be 1. We address the following question: how high can the probability that all the bits are 1 be, for such a distribution? For a wide range of the parameters n,k and p we find an explicit lower bound for this probability which matches an upper bound given by Benjamini et al., up to multiplicative factors of lower order. The question we investigate can be seen as a relaxation of a major open problem in error-correcting codes theory, namely, how large can a linear error correcting code with given parameters be? The question is a type of discrete moment problem, and our approach is based on showing that bounds obtained from the theory of the classical moment problem provide good approximations for it. The main tool we use is a bound controlling the change in the expectation of a polynomial after small perturbation of its zeros.

math.PR↗

arXiv2011

Rank Bounds for Design Matrices with Applications to Combinatorial Geometry and Locally Correctable Codes

A (q,k,t)-design matrix is an m x n matrix whose pattern of zeros/non-zeros satisfies the following design-like condition: each row has at most q non-zeros, each column has at least k non-zeros and the supports of every two columns intersect in at most t rows. We prove that the rank of any (q,k,t)-design matrix over a field of characteristic zero (or sufficiently large finite characteristic) is at least n - (qtn/2k)^2 . Using this result we derive the following applications: (1) Impossibility results for 2-query LCCs over the complex numbers: A 2-query locally correctable code (LCC) is an error correcting code in which every codeword coordinate can be recovered, probabilistically, by reading at most two other code positions. Such codes have numerous applications and constructions (with exponential encoding length) are known over finite fields of small characteristic. We show that infinite families of such linear 2-query LCCs do not exist over the complex numbers. (2) Generalization of results in combinatorial geometry: We prove a quantitative analog of the Sylvester-Gallai theorem: Let $v_1,...,v_m$ be a set of points in $\C^d$ such that for every $i \in [m]$ there exists at least $δm$ values of $j \in [m]$ such that the line through $v_i,v_j$ contains a third point in the set. We show that the dimension of $\{v_1,...,v_m \}$ is at most $O(1/δ^2)$. Our results generalize to the high dimensional case (replacing lines with planes, etc.) and to the case where the points are colored (as in the Motzkin-Rabin Theorem).

math.CO↗

arXiv2009

Homogeneous formulas and symmetric polynomials

We investigate the arithmetic formula complexity of the elementary symmetric polynomials S(k,n). We show that every multilinear homogeneous formula computing S(k,n) has size at least k^(Omega(log k))n, and that product-depth d multilinear homogeneous formulas for S(k,n) have size at least 2^(Omega(k^{1/d}))n. Since S(n,2n) has a multilinear formula of size O(n^2), we obtain a superpolynomial separation between multilinear and multilinear homogeneous formulas. We also show that S(k,n) can be computed by homogeneous formulas of size k^(O(log k))n, answering a question of Nisan and Wigderson. Finally, we present a superpolynomial separation between monotone and non-monotone formulas in the noncommutative setting, answering a question of Nisan.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2009

Entropy of Random Walk Range

We study the entropy of the set traced by an $n$-step random walk on $\Z^d$. We show that for $d \geq 3$, the entropy is of order $n$. For $d = 2$, the entropy is of order $n/\log^2 n$. These values are essentially governed by the size of the boundary of the trace.

math.PR↗

arXiv2008

The Player's Effect

In a function that takes its inputs from various players, the effect of a player measures the variation he can cause in the expectation of that function. In this paper we prove a tight upper bound on the number of players with large effect, a bound that holds even when the players' inputs are only known to be pairwise independent. We also study the effect of a set of players, and show that there always exists a "small" set that, when eliminated, leaves every set with little effect. Finally, we ask whether there always exists a player with positive effect. We answer this question differently in various scenarios, depending on the properties of the function and the distribution of players' inputs. More specifically, we show that if the function is non-monotone or the distribution is only known to be pairwise independent, then it is possible that all players have 0 effect. If the distribution is pairwise independent with minimal support, on the other hand, then there must exist a player with "large" effect.

math.PR↗

arXiv2007

Random Graph-Homomorphisms and Logarithmic Degree

A graph homomorphism between two graphs is a map from the vertex set of one graph to the vertex set of the other graph, that maps edges to edges. In this note we study the range of a uniformly chosen homomorphism from a graph G to the infinite line Z. It is shown that if the maximal degree of G is `sub-logarithmic', then the range of such a homomorphism is super-constant. Furthermore, some examples are provided, suggesting that perhaps for graphs with super-logarithmic degree, the range of a typical homomorphism is bounded. In particular, a sharp transition is shown for a specific family of graphs C_{n,k} (which is the tensor product of the n-cycle and a complete graph, with self-loops, of size k). That is, given any function psi(n) tending to infinity, the range of a typical homomorphism of C_{n,k} is super-constant for k = 2 log(n) - psi(n), and is 3 for k = 2 log(n) + psi(n).

math.PR↗

arXiv2007

t-Wise Independence with Local Dependencies

In this note we prove a large deviation bound on the sum of random variables with the following dependency structure: there is a dependency graph $G$ with a bounded chromatic number, in which each vertex represents a random variable. Variables that are represented by neighboring vertices may be arbitrarily dependent, but collections of variables that form an independent set in $G$ are $t$-wise independent.

math.PR↗