82 research outputs found
On Fortification of Projection Games
A recent result of Moshkovitz \cite{Moshkovitz14} presented an ingenious
method to provide a completely elementary proof of the Parallel Repetition
Theorem for certain projection games via a construction called fortification.
However, the construction used in \cite{Moshkovitz14} to fortify arbitrary
label cover instances using an arbitrary extractor is insufficient to prove
parallel repetition. In this paper, we provide a fix by using a stronger graph
that we call fortifiers. Fortifiers are graphs that have both and
guarantees on induced distributions from large subsets. We then show
that an expander with sufficient spectral gap, or a bi-regular extractor with
stronger parameters (the latter is also the construction used in an independent
update \cite{Moshkovitz15} of \cite{Moshkovitz14} with an alternate argument),
is a good fortifier. We also show that using a fortifier (in particular
guarantees) is necessary for obtaining the robustness required for
fortification.Comment: 19 page
Strong Parallel Repetition for Unique Games on Small Set Expanders
Strong Parallel Repetition for Unique Games on Small Set Expanders
The strong parallel repetition problem for unique games is to efficiently
reduce the 1-delta vs. 1-C*delta gap problem of Boolean unique games (where C>1
is a sufficiently large constant) to the 1-epsilon vs. epsilon gap problem of
unique games over large alphabet. Due to its importance to the Unique Games
Conjecture, this problem garnered a great deal of interest from the research
community. There are positive results for certain easy unique games (e.g.,
unique games on expanders), and an impossibility result for hard unique games.
In this paper we show how to bypass the impossibility result by enlarging the
alphabet sufficiently before repetition. We consider the case of unique games
on small set expanders for two setups: (i) Strong small set expanders that
yield easy unique games. (ii) Weaker small set expanders underlying possibly
hard unique games as long as the game is mildly fortified. We show how to
fortify unique games in both cases, i.e., how to transform the game so
sufficiently large induced sub-games have bounded value. We then prove strong
parallel repetition for the fortified games. Prior to this work fortification
was known for projection games but seemed hopeless for unique games
A No-Go Theorem for Derandomized Parallel Repetition: Beyond Feige-Kilian
In this work we show a barrier towards proving a randomness-efficient
parallel repetition, a promising avenue for achieving many tight
inapproximability results. Feige and Kilian (STOC'95) proved an impossibility
result for randomness-efficient parallel repetition for two prover games with
small degree, i.e., when each prover has only few possibilities for the
question of the other prover. In recent years, there have been indications that
randomness-efficient parallel repetition (also called derandomized parallel
repetition) might be possible for games with large degree, circumventing the
impossibility result of Feige and Kilian. In particular, Dinur and Meir
(CCC'11) construct games with large degree whose repetition can be derandomized
using a theorem of Impagliazzo, Kabanets and Wigderson (SICOMP'12). However,
obtaining derandomized parallel repetition theorems that would yield optimal
inapproximability results has remained elusive.
This paper presents an explanation for the current impasse in progress, by
proving a limitation on derandomized parallel repetition. We formalize two
properties which we call "fortification-friendliness" and "yields robust
embeddings." We show that any proof of derandomized parallel repetition
achieving almost-linear blow-up cannot both (a) be fortification-friendly and
(b) yield robust embeddings. Unlike Feige and Kilian, we do not require the
small degree assumption.
Given that virtually all existing proofs of parallel repetition, including
the derandomized parallel repetition result of Dinur and Meir, share these two
properties, our no-go theorem highlights a major barrier to achieving
almost-linear derandomized parallel repetition
Parallel repetition via fortification: analytic view and the quantum case
In a recent work, Moshkovitz [FOCS'14] presented a transformation n two-player games called "fortification", and gave an elementary proof of an (exponential decay) parallel repetition theorem for fortified two-player projection games. In this paper, we give an analytic reformulation of Moshkovitz's fortification framework, which was originally cast in combinatorial terms. This reformulation allows us to expand the scope of the fortification method to new settings. First, we show any game (not just projection games) can be fortified, and give a simple proof of parallel repetition for general fortified games. Then, we prove parallel repetition and fortification theorems for games with players sharing quantum entanglement, as well as games with more than two players. This gives a new gap amplification method for general games in the quantum and multiplayer settings, which has recently received much interest. An important component of our work is a variant of the fortification transformation, called "ordered fortification", that preserves the entangled value of a game. The original fortification of Moshkovitz does not in general preserve the entangled value of a game, and this was a barrier to extending the fortification framework to the quantum setting
Gap Amplification for Small-Set Expansion via Random Walks
In this work, we achieve gap amplification for the Small-Set Expansion
problem. Specifically, we show that an instance of the Small-Set Expansion
Problem with completeness and soundness is at least as
difficult as Small-Set Expansion with completeness and soundness
, for any function which grows faster than
. We achieve this amplification via random walks -- our gadget
is the graph with adjacency matrix corresponding to a random walk on the
original graph. An interesting feature of our reduction is that unlike gap
amplification via parallel repetition, the size of the instances (number of
vertices) produced by the reduction remains the same
Parallel Repetition From Fortification
The Parallel Repetition Theorem upper-bounds the value of a repeated (tensored) two prover game in terms of the value of the base game and the number of repetitions. In this work we give a simple transformation on games – “fortification” – and show that for fortified games, the value of the repeated game decreases perfectly exponentially with the number of repetitions, up to an arbitrarily small additive error. Our proof is combinatorial and short. As corollaries, we obtain: (1) Starting from a PCP Theorem with soundness error bounded away from 1, we get a PCP with arbitrarily small constant soundness error. In particular, starting with the combinatorial PCP of Dinur, we get a combinatorial PCP with low error. The latter can be used for hardness of approximation as in the work of Hastad. (2) Starting from the work of the author and Raz, we get a projection PCP theorem with the smallest soundness error known today. The theorem yields nearly a quadratic improvement in the size compared to previous work. We then discuss the problem of derandomizing parallel repetition, and the limitations of the fortification idea in this setting. We point out a connection between the problem of derandomizing parallel repetition and the problem of composition. This connection could shed light on the so-called Projection Games Conjecture, which asks for projection PCP with minimal error.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 1218547
The Quantum PCP Conjecture
The classical PCP theorem is arguably the most important achievement of
classical complexity theory in the past quarter century. In recent years,
researchers in quantum computational complexity have tried to identify
approaches and develop tools that address the question: does a quantum version
of the PCP theorem hold? The story of this study starts with classical
complexity and takes unexpected turns providing fascinating vistas on the
foundations of quantum mechanics, the global nature of entanglement and its
topological properties, quantum error correction, information theory, and much
more; it raises questions that touch upon some of the most fundamental issues
at the heart of our understanding of quantum mechanics. At this point, the jury
is still out as to whether or not such a theorem holds. This survey aims to
provide a snapshot of the status in this ongoing story, tailored to a general
theory-of-CS audience.Comment: 45 pages, 4 figures, an enhanced version of the SIGACT guest column
from Volume 44 Issue 2, June 201
Recommended from our members
Complexity Theory
Computational Complexity Theory is the mathematical study of the intrinsic power and limitations of computational resources like time, space, or randomness. The current workshop focused on recent developments in various sub-areas including arithmetic complexity, Boolean complexity, communication complexity, cryptography, probabilistic proof systems, pseudorandomness, and quantum computation. Many of the developments are related to diverse mathematical fields such as algebraic geometry, combinatorial number theory, probability theory, representation theory, and the theory of error-correcting codes
Characterizing Direct Product Testing via Coboundary Expansion
A -dimensional simplicial complex is said to support a direct product
tester if any locally consistent function defined on its -faces (where ) necessarily come from a function over its vertices. More precisely, a
direct product tester has a distribution over pairs of -faces
, and given query access to it samples
and checks that . The
tester should have (1) the ``completeness property'', meaning that any
assignment which is a direct product assignment passes the test with
probability , and (2) the ``soundness property'', meaning that if passes
the test with probability , then must be correlated with a direct
product function.
Dinur and Kaufman showed that a sufficiently good spectral expanding complex
admits a direct product tester in the ``high soundness'' regime where
is close to . They asked whether there are high dimensional expanders that
support direct product tests in the ``low soundness'', when is close to
.
We give a characterization of high-dimensional expanders that support a
direct product tester in the low soundness regime. We show that spectral
expansion is insufficient, and the complex must additionally satisfy a variant
of coboundary expansion, which we refer to as \emph{Unique-Games coboundary
expanders}. Conversely, we show that this property is also sufficient to get
direct product testers. This property can be seen as a high-dimensional
generalization of the standard notion of coboundary expansion over non-Abelian
groups for 2-dimensional complexes. It asserts that any locally consistent
Unique-Games instance obtained using the low-level faces of the complex, must
admit a good global solution
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