SearcharxivSearch

arXiv subjects

Yuval Filmus

Publications and source records attributed to Yuval Filmus.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

FKN theorem for the multislice, with applications

The Friedgut-Kalai-Naor (FKN) theorem states that if $f$ is a Boolean function on the Boolean cube which is close to degree 1, then $f$ is close to a dictator, a function depending on a single coordinate. The author has extended the theorem to the slice, the subset of the Boolean cube consisting of all vectors with fixed Hamming weight. We extend the theorem further, to the multislice, a multicoloured version of the slice. As an application, we prove a stability version of the edge-isoperimetric inequality for settings of parameters in which the optimal set is a dictator.

math.CO

Boolean constant degree functions on the slice are juntas

We show that a Boolean degree $d$ function on the slice $\binom{[n]}{k} = \{ (x_1,\ldots,x_n) \in \{0,1\} : \sum_{i=1}^n x_i = k \}$ is a junta, assuming that $k,n-k$ are large enough. This generalizes a classical result of Nisan and Szegedy on the hypercube. Moreover, we show that the maximum number of coordinates that a Boolean degree $d$ function can depend on is the same on the slice and the hypercube.

math.CO

A quasi-stability result for dictatorships in $S_{n}$

We prove that Boolean functions on $S_{n}$ whose Fourier transform is highly concentrated on the first two irreducible representations of $S_n$, are close to being unions of cosets of point-stabilizers. We use this to give a natural proof of a stability result on intersecting families of permutations, originally conjectured by Cameron and Ku, and first proved by the first author. We also use it to prove a `quasi-stability' result for an edge-isoperimetric inequality in the transposition graph on $S_n$, namely that subsets of $S_n$ with small edge-boundary in the transposition graph are close to being unions of cosets of point-stabilizers.

math.CO

A stability result for balanced dictatorships in $S_{n}$

We prove that a balanced Boolean function on $S_{n}$ whose Fourier transform is highly concentrated on the first two irreducible representations of $S_{n}$, is close in structure to a dictatorship, a function which is determined by the image or pre-image of a single element. As a corollary, we obtain a stability result concerning extremal isoperimetric sets in the Cayley graph on $S_{n}$ generated by the transpositions. Our proof works in the case where the expectation of the function is bounded away from $0$ and $1$. In contrast, [Ellis, D., Filmus, Y., Friedgut, E., A quasi-stability result for dictatorships in $S_{n}$, Combinatorica 35 (2015), pp. 573-618] deals with Boolean functions of expectation O(1/n) whose Fourier transform is highly concentrated on the first two irreducible representations of $S_{n}$. These need not be close to dictatorships; rather, they must be close to a union of a constant number of cosets of point-stabilizers.

math.CO

A comment on Intersecting Families of Permutations

Ellis, Friedgut and Pilpel proved that for large enough $n$, a $t$-intersecting family of permutations contains at most $(n-t)!$ permutations. Their main theorem also states that equality holds only for $t$-cosets. We show that their proof of the characterization of extremal families is wrong. However, the characterization follows from a paper of Ellis, as mentioned already by Ellis, Friedgut and Pilpel.

math.CO

Low-degree Boolean functions on $S_n$, with an application to isoperimetry

We prove that Boolean functions on $S_n$, whose Fourier transform is highly concentrated on irreducible representations indexed by partitions of $n$ whose largest part has size at least $n-t$, are close to being unions of cosets of stabilizers of $t$-tuples. We also obtain an edge-isoperimetric inequality for the transposition graph on $S_n$ which is asymptotically sharp for subsets of $S_n$ of size $n!/\textrm{poly}(n)$, using eigenvalue techniques. We then combine these two results to obtain a sharp edge-isoperimetric inequality for subsets of $S_n$ of size $(n-t)!$, where $n$ is large compared to $t$, confirming a conjecture of Ben Efraim in these cases.

math.CO

Twenty (simple) questions

A basic combinatorial interpretation of Shannon's entropy function is via the "20 questions" game. This cooperative game is played by two players, Alice and Bob: Alice picks a distribution $π$ over the numbers $\{1,\ldots,n\}$, and announces it to Bob. She then chooses a number $x$ according to $π$, and Bob attempts to identify $x$ using as few Yes/No queries as possible, on average. An optimal strategy for the "20 questions" game is given by a Huffman code for $π$: Bob's questions reveal the codeword for $x$ bit by bit. This strategy finds $x$ using fewer than $H(π)+1$ questions on average. However, the questions asked by Bob could be arbitrary. In this paper, we investigate the following question: Are there restricted sets of questions that match the performance of Huffman codes, either exactly or approximately? Our first main result shows that for every distribution $π$, Bob has a strategy that uses only questions of the form "$x < c$?" and "$x = c$?", and uncovers $x$ using at most $H(π)+1$ questions on average, matching the performance of Huffman codes in this sense. We also give a natural set of $O(rn^{1/r})$ questions that achieve a performance of at most $H(π)+r$, and show that $Ω(rn^{1/r})$ questions are required to achieve such a guarantee. Our second main result gives a set $\mathcal{Q}$ of $1.25^{n+o(n)}$ questions such that for every distribution $π$, Bob can implement an optimal strategy for $π$ using only questions from $\mathcal{Q}$. We also show that $1.25^{n-o(n)}$ questions are needed, for infinitely many $n$. If we allow a small slack of $r$ over the optimal strategy, then roughly $(rn)^{Θ(1/r)}$ questions are necessary and sufficient.

cs.DM

Information complexity of the AND function in the two-Party, and multiparty settings

In a recent breakthrough paper [M. Braverman, A. Garg, D. Pankratov, and O. Weinstein, From information to exact communication, STOC'13] Braverman et al. developed a local characterization for the zero-error information complexity in the two party model, and used it to compute the exact internal and external information complexity of the 2-bit AND function, which was then applied to determine the exact asymptotic of randomized communication complexity of the set disjointness problem. In this article, we extend their results on AND function to the multi-party number-in-hand model by proving that the generalization of their protocol has optimal internal and external information cost for certain distributions. Our proof has new components, and in particular it fixes some minor gaps in the proof of Braverman et al.

cs.CC

Trading information complexity for error

We consider the standard two-party communication model. The central problem studied in this article is how much one can save in information complexity by allowing an error of $ε$. For arbitrary functions, we obtain lower bounds and upper bounds indicating a gain that is of order $Ω(h(ε))$ and $O(h(\sqrtε))$. Here $h$ denotes the binary entropy function. We analyze the case of the two-bit AND function in detail to show that for this function the gain is $Θ(h(ε))$. This answers a question of [M. Braverman, A. Garg, D. Pankratov, and O. Weinstein, From information to exact communication (extended abstract), STOC'13]. We obtain sharp bounds for the set disjointness function of order $n$. For the case of the distributional error, we introduce a new protocol that achieves a gain of $Θ(\sqrt{h(ε)})$ provided that $n$ is sufficiently large. We apply these results to answer another of question of Braverman et al. regarding the randomized communication complexity of the set disjointness function. Answering a question of [Mark Braverman, Interactive information complexity, STOC'12], we apply our analysis of the set disjointness function to establish a gap between the two different notions of the prior-free information cost. This implies that amortized randomized communication complexity is not necessarily equal to the amortized distributional communication complexity with respect to the hardest distribution.

cs.CC

Ahlswede-Khachatrian Theorems: Weighted, Infinite, and Hamming

The seminal complete intersection theorem of Ahlswede and Khachatrian gives the maximum cardinality of a $k$-uniform $t$-intersecting family on $n$ points, and describes all optimal families. We extend this theorem to several other settings: the weighted case, the case of infinitely many points, and the Hamming scheme. The weighted Ahlswede-Khachatrian theorem gives the maximal $μ_p$ measure of a $t$-intersecting family on $n$ points, where $μ_p(A) = p^{|A|} (1-p)^{n-|A|}$. As has been observed by Ahlswede and Khachatrian and by Dinur and Safra, this theorem can be derived from the classical one by a simple reduction. However, this reduction fails to identify the optimal families, and only works for $p < 1/2$. We translate the two original proofs of Ahlswede and Khachatrian to the weighted case, thus identifying the optimal families in all cases. We also extend the theorem to the case $p > 1/2$, using a different technique of Ahlswede and Khachatrian (the case $p = 1/2$ is Katona's intersection theorem). We then extend the weighted Ahlswede-Khachatrian theorem to the case of infinitely many points. The Ahlswede-Khachatrian theorem on the Hamming scheme gives the maximum cardinality of a subset of $\mathbb{Z}_m^n$ in which any two elements $x,y$ have $t$ positions $i_1,\ldots,i_t$ such that $x_{i_j} - y_{i_j} \in \{-(s-1),\ldots,s-1\}$. We show that this case corresponds to $μ_p$ with $p = s/m$, extending work of Ahlswede and Khachatrian, who considered the case $s = 1$. We also determine the maximum cardinality families. We obtain similar results for subsets of $[0,1]^n$, though in this case we are not able to identify all maximum cardinality families.

math.CO

Friedgut--Kalai--Naor theorem for slices of the Boolean cube

The Friedgut--Kalai--Naor theorem states that if a Boolean function $f\colon \{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ is close (in $L^2$-distance) to an affine function $\ell(x_1,...,x_n) = c_0 + \sum_i c_i x_i$, then $f$ is close to a Boolean affine function (which necessarily depends on at most one coordinate). We prove a similar theorem for functions defined over $\binom{[n]}{k} = \{(x_1,...,x_n) \in \{0,1\}^n : \sum_i x_i = k \}$.

math.CO

Invariance principle on the slice

We prove an invariance principle for functions on a slice of the Boolean cube, which is the set of all vectors {0,1}^n with Hamming weight k. Our invariance principle shows that a low-degree, low-influence function has similar distributions on the slice, on the entire Boolean cube, and on Gaussian space. Our proof relies on a combination of ideas from analysis and probability, algebra and combinatorics. Our result imply a version of majority is stablest for functions on the slice, a version of Bourgain's tail bound, and a version of the Kindler-Safra theorem. As a corollary of the Kindler-Safra theorem, we prove a stability result of Wilson's theorem for t-intersecting families of sets, improving on a result of Friedgut.

math.PR

Shapley Values in Weighted Voting Games with Random Weights

We investigate the distribution of the well-studied Shapley--Shubik values in weighted voting games where the agents are stochastically determined. The Shapley--Shubik value measures the voting power of an agent, in typical collective decision making systems. While easy to estimate empirically given the parameters of a weighted voting game, the Shapley values are notoriously hard to reason about analytically. We propose a probabilistic approach in which the agent weights are drawn i.i.d. from some known exponentially decaying distribution. We provide a general closed-form characterization of the highest and lowest expected Shapley values in such a game, as a function of the parameters of the underlying distribution. To do so, we give a novel reinterpretation of the stochastic process that generates the Shapley variables as a renewal process. We demonstrate the use of our results on the uniform and exponential distributions. Furthermore, we show the strength of our theoretical predictions on several synthetic datasets.

cs.GT

On the sum of the L1 influences of bounded functions

Let $f\colon \{-1,1\}^n \to [-1,1]$ have degree $d$ as a multilinear polynomial. It is well-known that the total influence of $f$ is at most $d$. Aaronson and Ambainis asked whether the total $L_1$ influence of $f$ can also be bounded as a function of $d$. Bačkurs and Bavarian answered this question in the affirmative, providing a bound of $O(d^3)$ for general functions and $O(d^2)$ for homogeneous functions. We improve on their results by providing a bound of $d^2$ for general functions and $O(d\log d)$ for homogeneous functions. In addition, we prove a bound of $d/(2 π)+o(d)$ for monotone functions, and provide a matching example.

cs.CC

Fast Matrix Multiplication: Limitations of the Laser Method

Until a few years ago, the fastest known matrix multiplication algorithm, due to Coppersmith and Winograd (1990), ran in time $O(n^{2.3755})$. Recently, a surge of activity by Stothers, Vassilevska-Williams, and Le Gall has led to an improved algorithm running in time $O(n^{2.3729})$. These algorithms are obtained by analyzing higher and higher tensor powers of a certain identity of Coppersmith and Winograd. We show that this exact approach cannot result in an algorithm with running time $O(n^{2.3725})$, and identify a wide class of variants of this approach which cannot result in an algorithm with running time $O(n^{2.3078})$; in particular, this approach cannot prove the conjecture that for every $ε> 0$, two $n\times n$ matrices can be multiplied in time $O(n^{2+ε})$. We describe a new framework extending the original laser method, which is the method underlying the previously mentioned algorithms. Our framework accommodates the algorithms by Coppersmith and Winograd, Stothers, Vassilevska-Williams and Le Gall. We obtain our main result by analyzing this framework. The framework is also the first to explain why taking tensor powers of the Coppersmith-Winograd identity results in faster algorithms.

cs.CC

From Small Space to Small Width in Resolution

In 2003, Atserias and Dalmau resolved a major open question about the resolution proof system by establishing that the space complexity of CNF formulas is always an upper bound on the width needed to refute them. Their proof is beautiful but somewhat mysterious in that it relies heavily on tools from finite model theory. We give an alternative, completely elementary proof that works by simple syntactic manipulations of resolution refutations. As a by-product, we develop a "black-box" technique for proving space lower bounds via a "static" complexity measure that works against any resolution refutation---previous techniques have been inherently adaptive. We conclude by showing that the related question for polynomial calculus (i.e., whether space is an upper bound on degree) seems unlikely to be resolvable by similar methods.

cs.CC

Power Distribution in Randomized Weighted Voting: the Effects of the Quota

We study the Shapley value in weighted voting games. The Shapley value has been used as an index for measuring the power of individual agents in decision-making bodies and political organizations, where decisions are made by a majority vote process. We characterize the impact of changing the quota (i.e., the minimum number of seats in the parliament that are required to form a coalition) on the Shapley values of the agents. Contrary to previous studies, which assumed that the agent weights (corresponding to the size of a caucus or a political party) are fixed, we analyze new domains in which the weights are stochastically generated, modelling, for example, elections processes. We examine a natural weight generation process: the Balls and Bins model, with uniform as well as exponentially decaying probabilities. We also analyze weights that admit a super-increasing sequence, answering several open questions pertaining to the Shapley values in such games.

cs.GT