arXiv subjects

Noah Stephens-Davidowitz

Publications and source records attributed to Noah Stephens-Davidowitz.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Search-to-Decision Reductions for Lattice Problems with Approximation Factors (Slightly) Greater Than One

We show the first dimension-preserving search-to-decision reductions for approximate SVP and CVP. In particular, for any $γ\leq 1 + O(\log n/n)$, we obtain an efficient dimension-preserving reduction from $γ^{O(n/\log n)}$-SVP to $γ$-GapSVP and an efficient dimension-preserving reduction from $γ^{O(n)}$-CVP to $γ$-GapCVP. These results generalize the known equivalences of the search and decision versions of these problems in the exact case when $γ= 1$. For SVP, we actually obtain something slightly stronger than a search-to-decision reduction---we reduce $γ^{O(n/\log n)}$-SVP to $γ$-unique SVP, a potentially easier problem than $γ$-GapSVP.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2016

An Inequality for Gaussians on Lattices

$ \newcommand{\R}{\ensuremath{\mathbb{R}}} \newcommand{\lat}{\mathcal{L}} \newcommand{\ensuremath}[1]{#1} $We show that for any lattice $\lat \subseteq \R^n$ and vectors $\vec{x}, \vec{y} \in \R^n$, \[ ρ(\lat + \vec{x})^2 ρ(\lat + \vec{y})^2 \leq ρ(\lat)^2 ρ(\lat + \vec{x} + \vec{y}) ρ(\lat + \vec{x} - \vec{y}) \; , \] where $ρ$ is the Gaussian measure $ρ(A) := \sum_{\vec{w} \in A} \exp(-π\| \vec{w} \|^2)$. We show a number of applications, including bounds on the moments of the discrete Gaussian distribution, various monotonicity properties of the heat kernel on flat tori, and a positive correlation inequality for Gaussian measures on lattices.

math.PR↗

arXiv2016

On the Lattice Distortion Problem

We introduce and study the \emph{Lattice Distortion Problem} (LDP). LDP asks how "similar" two lattices are. I.e., what is the minimal distortion of a linear bijection between the two lattices? LDP generalizes the Lattice Isomorphism Problem (the lattice analogue of Graph Isomorphism), which simply asks whether the minimal distortion is one. As our first contribution, we show that the distortion between any two lattices is approximated up to a $n^{O(\log n)}$ factor by a simple function of their successive minima. Our methods are constructive, allowing us to compute low-distortion mappings that are within a $2^{O(n \log \log n/\log n)}$ factor of optimal in polynomial time and within a $n^{O(\log n)}$ factor of optimal in singly exponential time. Our algorithms rely on a notion of basis reduction introduced by Seysen (Combinatorica 1993), which we show is intimately related to lattice distortion. Lastly, we show that LDP is NP-hard to approximate to within any constant factor (under randomized reductions), by a reduction from the Shortest Vector Problem.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2016

Discrete Gaussian Sampling Reduces to CVP and SVP

The discrete Gaussian $D_{L- t, s}$ is the distribution that assigns to each vector $x$ in a shifted lattice $L - t$ probability proportional to $e^{-π\|x\|^2/s^2}$. It has long been an important tool in the study of lattices. More recently, algorithms for discrete Gaussian sampling (DGS) have found many applications in computer science. In particular, polynomial-time algorithms for DGS with very high parameters $s$ have found many uses in cryptography and in reductions between lattice problems. And, in the past year, Aggarwal, Dadush, Regev, and Stephens-Davidowitz showed $2^{n+o(n)}$-time algorithms for DGS with a much wider range of parameters and used them to obtain the current fastest known algorithms for the two most important lattice problems, the Shortest Vector Problem (SVP) and the Closest Vector Problem (CVP). Motivated by its increasing importance, we investigate the complexity of DGS itself and its relationship to CVP and SVP. Our first result is a polynomial-time dimension-preserving reduction from DGS to CVP. There is a simple reduction from CVP to DGS, so this shows that DGS is equivalent to CVP. Our second result, which we find to be more surprising, is a polynomial-time dimension-preserving reduction from centered DGS (the important special case when $ t = 0$) to SVP. In the other direction, there is a simple reduction from $γ$-approximate SVP for any $γ= Ω(\sqrt{n/\log n})$, and we present some (relatively weak) evidence to suggest that this might be the best achievable approximation factor. We also show that our CVP result extends to a much wider class of distributions and even to other norms.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2015

Solving the Closest Vector Problem in $2^n$ Time--- The Discrete Gaussian Strikes Again!

We give a $2^{n+o(n)}$-time and space randomized algorithm for solving the exact Closest Vector Problem (CVP) on $n$-dimensional Euclidean lattices. This improves on the previous fastest algorithm, the deterministic $\widetilde{O}(4^{n})$-time and $\widetilde{O}(2^{n})$-space algorithm of Micciancio and Voulgaris. We achieve our main result in three steps. First, we show how to modify the sampling algorithm from [ADRS15] to solve the problem of discrete Gaussian sampling over lattice shifts, $L- t$, with very low parameters. While the actual algorithm is a natural generalization of [ADRS15], the analysis uses substantial new ideas. This yields a $2^{n+o(n)}$-time algorithm for approximate CVP for any approximation factor $γ= 1+2^{-o(n/\log n)}$. Second, we show that the approximate closest vectors to a target vector $t$ can be grouped into "lower-dimensional clusters," and we use this to obtain a recursive reduction from exact CVP to a variant of approximate CVP that "behaves well with these clusters." Third, we show that our discrete Gaussian sampling algorithm can be used to solve this variant of approximate CVP. The analysis depends crucially on some new properties of the discrete Gaussian distribution and approximate closest vectors, which might be of independent interest.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2015

Solving the Shortest Vector Problem in $2^n$ Time via Discrete Gaussian Sampling

We give a randomized $2^{n+o(n)}$-time and space algorithm for solving the Shortest Vector Problem (SVP) on n-dimensional Euclidean lattices. This improves on the previous fastest algorithm: the deterministic $\widetilde{O}(4^n)$-time and $\widetilde{O}(2^n)$-space algorithm of Micciancio and Voulgaris (STOC 2010, SIAM J. Comp. 2013). In fact, we give a conceptually simple algorithm that solves the (in our opinion, even more interesting) problem of discrete Gaussian sampling (DGS). More specifically, we show how to sample $2^{n/2}$ vectors from the discrete Gaussian distribution at any parameter in $2^{n+o(n)}$ time and space. (Prior work only solved DGS for very large parameters.) Our SVP result then follows from a natural reduction from SVP to DGS. We also show that our DGS algorithm implies a $2^{n + o(n)}$-time algorithm that approximates the Closest Vector Problem to within a factor of $1.97$. In addition, we give a more refined algorithm for DGS above the so-called smoothing parameter of the lattice, which can generate $2^{n/2}$ discrete Gaussian samples in just $2^{n/2+o(n)}$ time and space. Among other things, this implies a $2^{n/2+o(n)}$-time and space algorithm for $1.93$-approximate decision SVP.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2014

On the Closest Vector Problem with a Distance Guarantee

We present a substantially more efficient variant, both in terms of running time and size of preprocessing advice, of the algorithm by Liu, Lyubashevsky, and Micciancio for solving CVPP (the preprocessing version of the Closest Vector Problem, CVP) with a distance guarantee. For instance, for any $α< 1/2$, our algorithm finds the (unique) closest lattice point for any target point whose distance from the lattice is at most $α$ times the length of the shortest nonzero lattice vector, requires as preprocessing advice only $N \approx \widetilde{O}(n \exp(α^2 n /(1-2α)^2))$ vectors, and runs in time $\widetilde{O}(nN)$. As our second main contribution, we present reductions showing that it suffices to solve CVP, both in its plain and preprocessing versions, when the input target point is within some bounded distance of the lattice. The reductions are based on ideas due to Kannan and a recent sparsification technique due to Dadush and Kun. Combining our reductions with the LLM algorithm gives an approximation factor of $O(n/\sqrt{\log n})$ for search CVPP, improving on the previous best of $O(n^{1.5})$ due to Lagarias, Lenstra, and Schnorr. When combined with our improved algorithm we obtain, somewhat surprisingly, that only O(n) vectors of preprocessing advice are sufficient to solve CVPP with (the only slightly worse) approximation factor of O(n).

cs.DS↗