Related papers: Average sensitivity and noise sensitivity of polyn…
Hardness results for maximum agreement problems have close connections to hardness results for proper learning in computational learning theory. In this paper we prove two hardness results for the problem of finding a low degree polynomial…
We design new polynomials for representing threshold functions in three different regimes: probabilistic polynomials of low degree, which need far less randomness than previous constructions, polynomial threshold functions (PTFs) with…
Developing explicit pseudorandom generators (PRGs) for prominent categories of Boolean functions is a key focus in computational complexity theory. In this paper, we investigate the PRGs against the functions of degree-$d$ polynomial…
The approximate degree of a Boolean function $f(x_{1},x_{2},\ldots,x_{n})$ is the minimum degree of a real polynomial that approximates $f$ pointwise within $1/3$. Upper bounds on approximate degree have a variety of applications in…
Let $\mathsf{TH}_k$ denote the $k$-out-of-$n$ threshold function: given $n$ input Boolean variables, the output is $1$ if and only if at least $k$ of the inputs are $1$. We consider the problem of computing the $\mathsf{TH}_k$ function…
We show that there is a randomized algorithm that, when given a small constant-depth Boolean circuit $C$ made up of gates that compute constant-degree Polynomial Threshold functions or PTFs (i.e., Boolean functions that compute signs of…
In the noisy query model, the (binary) return value of every query (possibly repeated) is independently flipped with some fixed probability $p \in (0, 1/2)$. In this paper, we obtain tight bounds on the noisy query complexity of several…
We prove an average-case depth hierarchy theorem for Boolean circuits over the standard basis of $\mathsf{AND}$, $\mathsf{OR}$, and $\mathsf{NOT}$ gates. Our hierarchy theorem says that for every $d \geq 2$, there is an explicit…
We develop a method for training neural networks on Boolean data in which the values at all nodes are strictly $\pm 1$, and the resulting models are typically equivalent to networks whose nonzero weights are also $\pm 1$. The method…
The approximate degree of a Boolean function $f \colon \{-1, 1\}^n \rightarrow \{-1, 1\}$ is the least degree of a real polynomial that approximates $f$ pointwise to error at most $1/3$. We introduce a generic method for increasing the…
We prove a structural result for degree-$d$ polynomials. In particular, we show that any degree-$d$ polynomial, $p$ can be approximated by another polynomial, $p_0$, which can be decomposed as some function of polynomials $q_1,...,q_m$ with…
We give the first agnostic, efficient, proper learning algorithm for monotone Boolean functions. Given $2^{\tilde{O}(\sqrt{n}/\varepsilon)}$ uniformly random examples of an unknown function $f:\{\pm 1\}^n \rightarrow \{\pm 1\}$, our…
The noise sensitivity of a Boolean function describes its likelihood to flip under small perturbations of its input. Introduced in the seminal work of Benjamini, Kalai and Schramm [Inst. Hautes \'{E}tudes Sci. Publ. Math. 90 (1999) 5-43],…
Consider estimating a structured signal $\mathbf{x}_0$ from linear, underdetermined and noisy measurements $\mathbf{y}=\mathbf{A}\mathbf{x}_0+\mathbf{z}$, via solving a variant of the lasso algorithm: $\hat{\mathbf{x}}=\arg\min_\mathbf{x}\{…
Since its introduction by Valiant in 1984, PAC learning of DNF expressions remains one of the central problems in learning theory. We consider this problem in the setting where the underlying distribution is uniform, or more generally, a…
We study when low coordinate degree functions (LCDF) -- linear combinations of functions depending on small subsets of entries of a vector -- can hypothesis test between high-dimensional probability measures. These functions are a…
In this paper we study noise sensitivity and threshold phenomena for Poisson Voronoi percolation on $\mathbb{R}^2$. In the setting of Boolean functions, both threshold phenomena and noise sensitivity can be understood via the study of…
The study of random Fourier series, linear combinations of trigonometric functions whose coefficients are independent (in our case Gaussian) random variables with polynomially bounded means and standard deviations, dates back to Norbert…
We show that sharp thresholds for Boolean functions directly imply average-case circuit lower bounds. More formally we show that any Boolean function exhibiting a sharp enough threshold at \emph{arbitrary} critical density cannot be…
We prove that, to compute a Boolean function $f$ on $N$ variables with error probability $\epsilon$, any quantum black-box algorithm has to query at least $\frac{1 - 2\sqrt{\epsilon}}{2} \rho_f N = \frac{1 - 2\sqrt{\epsilon}}{2} \bar{S}_f$…