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Ori Gurel-Gurevich

Publications and source records attributed to Ori Gurel-Gurevich.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2012

On K-wise Independent Distributions and Boolean Functions

We pursue a systematic study of the following problem. Let f:{0,1}^n -> {0,1} be a (usually monotone) Boolean function whose behaviour is well understood when the input bits are identically independently distributed. What can be said about the behaviour of the function when the input bits are not completely independent, but only k-wise independent, i.e. every subset of k bits is independent? more precisely, how high should k be so that any k-wise independent distribution "fools" the function, i.e. causes it to behave nearly the same as when the bits are completely independent? We analyze several well known Boolean functions (including AND, Majority, Tribes and Percolation among others), some of which turn out to have surprising properties. In some of our results we use tools from the theory of the classical moment problem, seemingly for the first time in this subject, to shed light on these questions.

math.PR↗
arXiv2011

Cutpoints and resistance of random walk paths

We construct a bounded degree graph $G$, such that a simple random walk on it is transient but the random walk path (i.e., the subgraph of all the edges the random walk has crossed) has only finitely many cutpoints, almost surely. We also prove that the expected number of cutpoints of any transient Markov chain is infinite. This answers two questions of James, Lyons and Peres [A Transient Markov Chain With Finitely Many Cutpoints (2007) Festschrift for David Freedman]. Additionally, we consider a simple random walk on a finite connected graph $G$ that starts at some fixed vertex $x$ and is stopped when it first visits some other fixed vertex $y$. We provide a lower bound on the expected effective resistance between $x$ and $y$ in the path of the walk, giving a partial answer to a question raised in [Ann. Probab. 35 (2007) 732--738].

math.PR↗
arXiv2010

Linear Cover Time is Exponentially Unlikely

We show that the probability that a simple random walk covers a finite, bounded degree graph in linear time is exponentially small. More precisely, for every D and C, there exists a=a(D,C)>0 such that for any graph G, with n vertices and maximal degree D, the probability that a simple random walk, started anywhere in G, will visit every vertex of G in its first Cn steps is at most exp(-an). We conjecture that the same holds for a=a(C)>0 that does not depend on D, provided that the graph G is simple.

math.PR↗
arXiv2010

Choice-memory tradeoff in allocations

In the classical balls-and-bins paradigm, where $n$ balls are placed independently and uniformly in $n$ bins, typically the number of bins with at least two balls in them is $Θ(n)$ and the maximum number of balls in a bin is $Θ(\frac{\log n}{\log \log n})$. It is well known that when each round offers $k$ independent uniform options for bins, it is possible to typically achieve a constant maximal load if and only if $k=Ω(\log n)$. Moreover, it is possible w.h.p. to avoid any collisions between $n/2$ balls if $k>\log_2n$. In this work, we extend this into the setting where only $m$ bits of memory are available. We establish a tradeoff between the number of choices $k$ and the memory $m$, dictated by the quantity $km/n$. Roughly put, we show that for $km\gg n$ one can achieve a constant maximal load, while for $km\ll n$ no substantial improvement can be gained over the case $k=1$ (i.e., a random allocation). For any $k=Ω(\log n)$ and $m=Ω(\log^2n)$, one can achieve a constant load w.h.p. if $km=Ω(n)$, yet the load is unbounded if $km=o(n)$. Similarly, if $km>Cn$ then $n/2$ balls can be allocated without any collisions w.h.p., whereas for $km<εn$ there are typically $Ω(n)$ collisions. Furthermore, we show that the load is w.h.p. at least $\frac{\log(n/m)}{\log k+\log\log(n/m)}$. In particular, for $k\leq\operatorname {polylog}(n)$, if $m=n^{1-δ}$ the optimal maximal load is $Θ(\frac{\log n}{\log\log n})$ (the same as in the case $k=1$), while $m=2n$ suffices to ensure a constant load. Finally, we analyze nonadaptive allocation algorithms and give tight upper and lower bounds for their performance.

math.CO↗
arXiv2010

Finding Hidden Cliques in Linear Time with High Probability

We are given a graph $G$ with $n$ vertices, where a random subset of $k$ vertices has been made into a clique, and the remaining edges are chosen independently with probability $\tfrac12$. This random graph model is denoted $G(n,\tfrac12,k)$. The hidden clique problem is to design an algorithm that finds the $k$-clique in polynomial time with high probability. An algorithm due to Alon, Krivelevich and Sudakov uses spectral techniques to find the hidden clique with high probability when $k = c \sqrt{n}$ for a sufficiently large constant $c > 0$. Recently, an algorithm that solves the same problem was proposed by Feige and Ron. It has the advantages of being simpler and more intuitive, and of an improved running time of $O(n^2)$. However, the analysis in the paper gives success probability of only $2/3$. In this paper we present a new algorithm for finding hidden cliques that both runs in time $O(n^2)$, and has a failure probability that is less than polynomially small.

math.CO↗
arXiv2010

Optimal whitespace synchronization strategies

The whitespace-discovery problem describes two parties, Alice and Bob, trying to establish a communication channel over one of a given large segment of whitespace channels. Subsets of the channels are occupied in each of the local environments surrounding Alice and Bob, as well as in the global environment between them (Eve). In the absence of a common clock for the two parties, the goal is to devise time-invariant (stationary) strategies minimizing the synchronization time. This emerged from recent applications in discovery of wireless devices. We model the problem as follows. There are $N$ channels, each of which is open (unoccupied) with probability $p_1,p_2,q$ independently for Alice, Bob and Eve respectively. Further assume that $N \gg 1/(p_1 p_2 q)$ to allow for sufficiently many open channels. Both Alice and Bob can detect which channels are locally open and every time-slot each of them chooses one such channel for an attempted sync. One aims for strategies that, with high probability over the environments, guarantee a shortest possible expected sync time depending only on the $p_i$'s and $q$. Here we provide a stationary strategy for Alice and Bob with a guaranteed expected sync time of $O(1 / (p_1 p_2 q^2))$ given that each party also has knowledge of $p_1,p_2,q$. When the parties are oblivious of these probabilities, analogous strategies incur a cost of a poly-log factor, i.e.\ $\tilde{O}(1 / (p_1 p_2 q^2))$. Furthermore, this performance guarantee is essentially optimal as we show that any stationary strategies of Alice and Bob have an expected sync time of at least $Ω(1/(p_1 p_2 q^2))$.

cs.GT↗
arXiv2009

On Fixation of Activated Random Walks

We prove that for the Activated Random Walks model on transitive unimodular graphs, if there is fixation, then every particle eventually fixates, almost surely. We deduce that the critical density is at most 1. Our methods apply for much more general processes on unimodular graphs. Roughly put, our result apply whenever the path of each particle has an automorphism invariant distribution and is independent of other particles' paths, and the interaction between particles is automorphism invariant and local. This allows us to answer a question of Rolla and Sidoravicius, in a more general setting then had been previously known (by Shellef).

math.PR↗
arXiv2009

The diameter of a random Cayley graph of Z_q

Consider the Cayley graph of the cyclic group of prime order q with k uniformly chosen generators. For fixed k, we prove that the diameter of said graph is asymptotically (in q) of order q^(1/k). The same also holds when the generating set is taken to be a symmetric set of size 2k.

math.PR↗
arXiv2009

Stationary map coloring

We consider a planar Poisson process and its associated Voronoi map. We show that there is a proper coloring with 6 colors of the map which is a deterministic isometry-equivariant function of the Poisson process. As part of the proof we show that the 6-core of the corresponding Delaunay triangulation is empty. Generalizations, extensions and some open questions are discussed.

math.PR↗
arXiv2008

Giant Components in Biased Graph Processes

A random graph process, $\Gorg[1](n)$, is a sequence of graphs on $n$ vertices which begins with the edgeless graph, and where at each step a single edge is added according to a uniform distribution on the missing edges. It is well known that in such a process a giant component (of linear size) typically emerges after $(1+o(1))\frac{n}{2}$ edges (a phenomenon known as ``the double jump''), i.e., at time $t=1$ when using a timescale of $n/2$ edges in each step. We consider a generalization of this process, $\Gorg[K](n)$, which gives a weight of size 1 to missing edges between pairs of isolated vertices, and a weight of size $K \in [0,\infty)$ otherwise. This corresponds to a case where links are added between $n$ initially isolated settlements, where the probability of a new link in each step is biased according to whether or not its two endpoint settlements are still isolated. Combining methods of \cite{SpencerWormald} with analytical techniques, we describe the typical emerging time of a giant component in this process, $t_c(K)$, as the singularity point of a solution to a set of differential equations. We proceed to analyze these differential equations and obtain properties of $\Gorg$, and in particular, we show that $t_c(K)$ strictly decreases from 3/2 to 0 as $K$ increases from 0 to $\infty$, and that $t_c(K) = \frac{4}{\sqrt{3K}}(1 + o(1))$. Numerical approximations of the differential equations agree both with computer simulations of the process $\Gorg(n)$ and with the analytical results.

math.PR↗
arXiv2007

The Biham-Middleton-Levine traffic model for a single junction

In the Biham-Middleton-Levine traffic model cars are placed with some density p on a two dimensional torus, and move according to a (simple) set of predefined rules. Computer simulations show this system exhibits many interesting phenomena: for low densities the system self organizes such that cars flow freely while for densities higher than some critical density the system gets stuck in an endless traffic jam. However, apart from the simulation results very few properties of the system were proven rigorously to date. We introduce a simplified version of this model in which cars are placed in a single row and column (a junction) and show that similar phenomena of self-organization of the system and phase transition still occur.

math.PR↗
arXiv2007

Pursuit-Evasion Games with Incomplete Information in Discrete Time

Pursuit-Evasion Games (in discrete time) are stochastic games with nonnegative daily payoffs, with the final payoff being the cumulative sum of payoffs during the game. We show that such games admit a value even in the presence of incomplete information and that this value is uniform, i.e. there are epsilon-optimal strategies for both players that are epsilon-optimal in any long enough prefix of the game. We give an example to demonstrate that nonnegativity is essential and expand the results to leavable games.

math.PR↗
arXiv2007

Recurrence of random walk traces

We show that the edges crossed by a random walk in a network form a recurrent graph a.s. In fact, the same is true when those edges are weighted by the number of crossings.

math.PR↗
arXiv2007

Branching random walk with exponentially decreasing steps, and stochastically self-similar measures

We consider a Branching Random Walk on $\R$ whose step size decreases by a fixed factor, $0 1/2$ the limit measure is almost surely (a.s.) absolutely continuous with respect to the Lebesgue measure, but for Pisot $1/b$ it is a.s. singular; (2) for all $b > (\sqrt{5}-1)/2$ the support of the measure is a.s. the closure of its interior; (3) for Pisot $1/b$ the support of the measure is ``fractured'': it is a.s. disconnected and the components of the complement are not isolated on both sides.

math.PR↗