Questions tagged [derandomization]

Every randomized algorithm can be simulated by a deterministic algorithm, at the expense of an exponential increase in running time. Derandomization is about converting randomized algorithms into efficient deterministic algorithms.

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More on PH in PP?

A recent question by Huck Bennett asking whether the class PH was contained in the class PP, received somewhat contradictory answers (all true, it seems). On one hand, several oracle results were ...
Noam's user avatar
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39 votes
9 answers
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Efficient and simple randomized algorithms where determinism is difficult

I often hear that for many problems we know very elegant randomized algorithms, but no, or only more complicated, deterministic solutions. However, I only know a few examples for this. Most ...
adrianN's user avatar
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3 answers
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Why does randomness have stronger effect on reductions than on algorithms?

It is conjectured that randomness does not extend the power of polynomial time algorithms, that is, ${\bf P}={\bf BPP}$ is conjectured to hold. On the other hand, randomness seems to have a quite ...
Andras Farago's user avatar
33 votes
0 answers
1k views

Is BPP= P known for ANY uniform model of computation?

Many believe that BPP $=$ P "should" hold for Turing machines. We even have some "witnesses" for this: otherwise some "strange" things would happen; see e.g. this paper by Implagliazzo and Wigderson. ...
Stasys's user avatar
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31 votes
2 answers
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Derandomizing Valiant-Vazirani?

The Valiant-Vazirani theorem says that if there is a polynomial time algorithm (deterministic or randomized) for distinguishing between a SAT formula that has exactly one satisfying assignment, and an ...
Henry Yuen's user avatar
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31 votes
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Hierarchy for BPP vs derandomization

In one sentence: would the existence of a hierarchy for $\mathsf{BPTIME}$ imply any derandomization results? A related but vaguer question is: does the existence of a hierarchy for $\mathsf{BPTIME}$ ...
Sasho Nikolov's user avatar
28 votes
3 answers
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Problems in $\mathsf{BPP}$ not known to be in $\mathsf P$?

What problems are known to belong to $\mathsf{BPP}$ but not known to belong to $\mathsf P$? More precisely, I am interested in independent problems, that is whose derandomizations are not known to be ...
Bruno's user avatar
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27 votes
4 answers
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What specific evidence is there for P = RP?

RP is the class of problems decidable by a nondeterministic Turing machine that terminates in polynomial time, but that is also allowed one-sided error. P is the usual class of problems decidable by ...
András Salamon's user avatar
24 votes
2 answers
904 views

Space efficient "industrial" unbalanced expanders

I am looking for unbalanced expanders that are "good" and "space-efficient". Specifically, a bipartite left-regular graph $G=(A,B,E)$, $|A|=n$, $|B|=m$, with left degree $d$ is a $(k,\epsilon)$-...
Piotr's user avatar
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23 votes
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Fine-grained complexity of BPP

If E does not have i.o.-$2^{o(n)}$ circuits, then P=BPP, but this does not tell us about the fine-grained containments between $\mathrm{Time}(n^a)$ and $\mathrm{BPTime}(n^b)$. Are there reasonable ...
Dmytro Taranovsky's user avatar
22 votes
1 answer
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Is BPP vs. P a real problem after we know BPP lies in P/poly?

We know (for now about 40 years, thank Adleman, Bennet and Gill) that the inclusion BPP $\subseteq$ P/poly, and an even stronger BPP/poly $\subseteq$ P/poly hold. The "/poly" means that we work non-...
Stasys's user avatar
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Consequences of $BQP \subseteq P/poly$?

While Adleman's theorem shows, that $\mathsf{BPP} \subseteq \mathsf{P}/\text{poly}$, I'm not aware of any literature investigating the possible inclusion of $\mathsf{BQP} \subseteq \mathsf{P}/\text{...
Martin Schwarz's user avatar
21 votes
1 answer
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A comparison of extractors in terms of tradeoffs between time, randomness and space ?

Is there a good survey that compares different extractors, concentrators and superconcentrators and lays out the best methods in terms of the tradeoff between randomness, time and space ?
Suresh Venkat's user avatar
20 votes
4 answers
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Is there an equivalent to derandomization for quantum algorithms?

With some randomized algorithms you can derandomize the algorithm, removing (at a possible cost in run time) the use of random bits and maximizing some lower bound on the objective (usually computed ...
Alexandre Passos's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
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Running a BPP algorithm with a half-random, half-adversarial string

Consider the following model: an n-bit string r=r1...rn is chosen uniformly at random. Next, each index i∈{1,...,n} is put into a set A with independent probability 1/2. Finally, an adversary ...
Scott Aaronson's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
870 views

A Boolean function that is not constant on affine subspaces of large enough dimension

I'm interested in an explicit Boolean function $f \colon \\{0,1\\}^n \rightarrow \\{0,1\\}$ with the following property: if $f$ is constant on some affine subspace of $\\{0,1\\}^n$, then the dimension ...
Alexander S. Kulikov's user avatar
18 votes
3 answers
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Does randomness buy us anything inside P?

Let $\mathsf{BPTIME}(f(n))$ be the class of the decision problems having a bounded two-sided error randomized algorithm running in time $O(f(n))$. Do we know of any problem $Q \in \mathsf{P}$ such ...
aelguindy's user avatar
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18 votes
2 answers
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Beginner's Guide to Derandomization

I found the book Pairwise Independence and Derandomization on the subject, but it's more research-oriented than tutorial oriented. I'm new to the subject of "Derandomization," and as such, I wanted ...
Sadeq Dousti's user avatar
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17 votes
1 answer
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Fooling arbitrary symmetric functions

A distribution $\mathcal{D}$ is said to $\epsilon$-fool a function $f$ if $|E_{x\in U}(f(x)) - E_{x\in \mathcal{D}}(f(x))| \leq \epsilon$. And it is said to fool a class of functions if it fools every ...
Ramprasad's user avatar
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17 votes
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Problem-Dependent Derandomization

The famous result of Impagliazzo and Wigderson in '97 cemented our belief that BPP is most likely the same as P; that is, problems that can be efficiently solved with randomness can also be ...
Henry Yuen's user avatar
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16 votes
5 answers
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Examples of successful derandomization from BPP to P

What are some major examples of successful derandomization or at least progress in showing concrete evidence towards $P=BPP$ goal (not the hardness randomness connection)? The only example that comes ...
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16 votes
3 answers
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Chernoff-type Inequality for pair-wise independent random variables

Chernoff-type inequalities are used to show that the probability that a sum of independent random variables deviates significantly from its expected value is exponentially small in the expected value ...
Rahul Tripathi's user avatar
16 votes
2 answers
5k views

What is worst case complexity of number field sieve?

Given composite $N\in\Bbb N$ general number field sieve is best known factorization algorithm for integer factorization of $N$. It is a randomized algorithm and we get an expected complexity of $O\Big(...
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16 votes
1 answer
550 views

Does Nisan's pseudo-random generator relativize?

Nisan proved in "Psuedorandom Generators for Space-Bounded Computation", that there exists a pseudo-random generator which "fools" space-bounded computations. Does this construction hold for every ...
Sebastian Ben Daniel's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
274 views

More efficient non-uniform derandomization ?

Adleman, FOCS'78 showed that any randomized circuit for inputs of length $n$ can be non-uniformly derandomized. However, the construction effectively duplicates the original circuit $O(n)$ times, so ...
Piotr's user avatar
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13 votes
1 answer
285 views

When does randomization stops helping within PSPACE

It is known that adding bounded-error randomization to PSPACE doesn't add power. That is, BPPSAPCE=PSPACE. It is famously unknown whether P=BPP, but it is known that $BPP\subseteq \Sigma_2\cap \Pi_2$....
Shaull's user avatar
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13 votes
1 answer
422 views

Adleman's theorem over infinite semirings?

Adleman has shown in 1978 that $\mathrm{BPP}\subseteq \mathrm{P/poly}$: if a boolean function $f$ of $n$ variables can be computed by a probabilistic boolean circuit of size $M$, then $f$ can be also ...
Stasys's user avatar
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13 votes
2 answers
589 views

Pairwise independent gaussians

Given $X_1,\ldots,X_k$ (i.i.d. gaussians with mean $0$ and variance $1$), is it possible (how?) to sample (for $m=k^2$) $Y_1, \ldots, Y_m$ such that $Y_i$'s are pairwise independent gaussians with ...
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12 votes
3 answers
477 views

Streaming derandomization

Stream algorithms require randomization for the most part to do anything nontrivial, and because of the small-space constraint, need PRGs that use little space. I know of two methods that have been ...
Suresh Venkat's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
1k views

Impagliazzo and Wigderson's famous P=BPP paper

I'm reading Impagliazzo and Wigderson's famous $\mathsf P=\mathsf{BPP}$ paper in 1997. Since I'm new to this field and the paper is a concise conference version, I have difficulty following their ...
Pteromys's user avatar
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11 votes
2 answers
624 views

On fooling $AC^0$

I have a few questions regarding fooling constant depth circuits. It's known that $\log^{O(d)}(n)$-wise independence is necessary to fool $AC^0$ circuits of depth $d$, where $n$ is the size of the ...
user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
463 views

Randomized algorithms using a stack

I have developed a new derandomization technique which is aimed at recursive randomized algorithms (or) more generally randomized algorithms that use a stack. Unfortunately, I could not find natural ...
Shiva Kintali's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
870 views

Randomized algorithms not based on Schwartz-Zippel

Are there any problems that are known to be in a randomized complexity class (e.g. RNC, ZPP, RP, BPP, or even PP), but not in any lower non-randomized class (e.g. NC, P, NP), and whose membership in ...
Shaull's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
422 views

Uniform way of quantifying "branching" in nondeterministic, probabilistic, and quantum computation?

The computation of a nondeterministic Turing machine (NTM) is well known to be representable as a tree of configurations, rooted at the starting configuration. Any transition in the program is ...
Cem Say's user avatar
  • 823
11 votes
2 answers
382 views

Consequence of PIT over $\Bbb Z[x_1,\dots,x_n]$ not having efficient algorithm

Given $p(x_1,\dots,x_n),q(x_1,\dots,x_n)\in \Bbb Z[x_1,\dots,x_n]$ such that coefficients of $p,q$ are bounded by $B$, does $p\equiv q$ hold? Schwartz-Zippel lemma applies here since it holds for ...
user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
478 views

Borel-Cantelli Lemma and Derandomization

I was reading a paper titled Random Oracles with(out) Programmability. The last paragraph of section 2.3 reads: [Using our novel approach] there is no need to apply well-known classical ...
Sadeq Dousti's user avatar
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10 votes
4 answers
503 views

Constructions better than a random one.

I am interested in examples of constructions in the complexity theory which are better than a random constructions. The only one example of such construction which I know is in the field of error-...
10 votes
1 answer
436 views

On derandomizing polynomial identity testing

In polynomial identity testing we seek a deterministic algorithm to infer equality of two polynomials $g,h\in\Bbb Z[x_1,\dots,x_n]$. Derandomizing known efficient randomized algorithms and producing ...
Turbo's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
274 views

Uniform derandomisation of circuit complexity classes

Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a complexity class and $\textrm{BP-}\mathcal{C}$ be the randomized counterpart of $\mathcal{C}$ defined in the same way as $\textrm{BPP}$ is defined with respect to $\textrm{P}$. ...
C.P.'s user avatar
  • 992
10 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is it known whether $BPP\cap NP\subseteq RP$?

The reverse inclusion is obvious, as is the fact that any self-reducible NP language in BPP is also in RP. Is this also known to hold for non-self-reducible NP languages?
bppcapnpvsrp's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
406 views

Has the derandomization of slightly non-uniform classes, e.g BPP/linear, been studied?

By BPP/linear I refer to BPP machines with linear advice, which fulfills the promise when given the "correct" advice, and the derandomization should give us, say, a P/linear or (SUBEXP/linear) ...
Sebastian Ben Daniel's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
357 views

Can we construct a k-wise independent permutation on [n] using only constant time and space?

Let $k>0$ be a fixed constant. Given an integer $n$, we want to construct a permutation $\sigma \in S_n$ such that: The construction uses constant time and space (i.e. preprocessing takes constant ...
Sariel Har-Peled's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
299 views

What are some results on algorithms that estimate polynomials over a given set of points?

There seem to be many randomized algorithms for polynomial identity testing, checking whether or not a given polynomial is zero. Are there any results of algorithms that do some sort of estimation of ...
Shravas Rao's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
221 views

$BPL$ with polylog random bits is in $L$

Consider a $BPL$ machine (namely, a probabilistic algorithm that uses logspace and polynomially many random bits). It is known (Saks-Zhou) that $BPL \subseteq DSPACE(log^{1.5}(n))$. My question is ...
BharatRam's user avatar
  • 383
9 votes
0 answers
337 views

Extensions of Affine Dispersers

A function $f\colon\{0,1\}^n\to\{0,1\}$ is called an affine disperser for dimension $d$, if for every affine subspace $S\subseteq \{0,1\}^n$ of dimension at least $d$, $f$ is not constant on $S$. This ...
Alex Golovnev's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
584 views

Extracting randomness from Santha-Vazirani sources using a seed of constant length

This question is actually an exercise problem from Salil Vadhan's draft survey "Pseudorandomness" marked with a star (*) (see Chapter 6, Problem 6.6). I do not know other references. We say a random ...
Zeyu's user avatar
  • 651
7 votes
2 answers
2k views

P vs. NP and Pseudorandom Bit Generators

According to an article on pseudorandom number generators (PRNG) by Jeff Lagarias, he states that trying to prove that a PRNG is unpredictable (secure) is just "as hard" as trying to prove ...
user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
849 views

Why should we believe that $NEXP \not \subset P/poly$

I am sorry if this is not an advanced question. Most computer scientists believed that $NEXP \not \subset P/poly$ but they are not even close to this assumption. The main evidence that they are used ...
Mohsen Ghorbani's user avatar
7 votes
0 answers
119 views

Deterministic approximation algorithms for treewidth

As far as I understand, the factor $O(\sqrt{\log OPT})$ approximation algorithm for treewidth of Feige, Hajiaghayi, and Lee is randomized, and no deterministic approximation algorithm with this factor ...
daniello's user avatar
  • 3,256
7 votes
0 answers
503 views

On the shortest vector problem (is it $NP$-complete?)

Ajtai has shown that shortest vector problem is $NP$-hard by using randomized reduction from subset sum. Has this been derandomized?
Turbo's user avatar
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