Guessing with a Bit of Help

What is the value of a single bit to a guesser? We study this problem in a setup where Alice wishes to guess an i.i.d. random vector, and can procure one bit of information from Bob, who observes this vector through a memoryless channel. We are interested in the guessing efficiency, which we define as the best possible multiplicative reduction in Alice's guessing-moments obtainable by observing Bob's bit. For the case of a uniform binary vector observed through a binary symmetric channel, we provide two lower bounds on the guessing efficiency by analyzing the performance of the Dictator and Majority functions, and two upper bounds via maximum entropy and Fourier-analytic / hypercontractivity arguments. We then extend our maximum entropy argument to give a lower bound on the guessing efficiency for a general channel with a binary uniform input, via the strong data-processing inequality constant of the reverse channel. We compute this bound for the binary erasure channel, and conjecture that Greedy Dictator functions achieve the guessing efficiency

Secure Numerical and Logical Multi Party Operations

We derive algorithms for efficient secure numerical and logical operations using a recently introduced scheme for secure multi-party computation~\cite{sch15} in the semi-honest model ensuring statistical or perfect security. To derive our algorithms for trigonometric functions, we use basic mathematical laws in combination with properties of the additive encryption scheme in a novel way. For division and logarithm we use a new approach to compute a Taylor series at a fixed point for all numbers. All our logical operations such as comparisons and large fan-in AND gates are perfectly secure. Our empirical evaluation yields speed-ups of more than a factor of 100 for the evaluated operations compared to the state-of-the-art

Quantum-mechanical machinery for rational decision-making in classical guessing game

In quantum game theory, one of the most intriguing and important questions is, "Is it possible to get quantum advantages without any modification of the classical game?" The answer to this question so far has largely been negative. So far, it has usually been thought that a change of the classical game setting appears to be unavoidable for getting the quantum advantages. However, we give an affirmative answer here, focusing on the decision-making process (we call 'reasoning') to generate the best strategy, which may occur internally, e.g., in the player's brain. To show this, we consider a classical guessing game. We then define a one-player reasoning problem in the context of the decision-making theory, where the machinery processes are designed to simulate classical and quantum reasoning. In such settings, we present a scenario where a rational player is able to make better use of his/her weak preferences due to quantum reasoning, without any altering or resetting of the classically defined game. We also argue in further analysis that the quantum reasoning may make the player fail, and even make the situation worse, due to any inappropriate preferences.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, The scenario is more improve

A Casual Tour Around a Circuit Complexity Bound

I will discuss the recent proof that the complexity class NEXP (nondeterministic exponential time) lacks nonuniform ACC circuits of polynomial size. The proof will be described from the perspective of someone trying to discover it.Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures. An earlier version appeared in SIGACT News, September 201

Proof-Pattern Recognition and Lemma Discovery in ACL2

We present a novel technique for combining statistical machine learning for proof-pattern recognition with symbolic methods for lemma discovery. The resulting tool, ACL2(ml), gathers proof statistics and uses statistical pattern-recognition to pre-processes data from libraries, and then suggests auxiliary lemmas in new proofs by analogy with already seen examples. This paper presents the implementation of ACL2(ml) alongside theoretical descriptions of the proof-pattern recognition and lemma discovery methods involved in it