Motivated by the study of Parallel Repetition and also by the Unique
Games Conjecture, we investigate the value of the ``Odd Cycle Games''
under parallel repetition. Using tools from discrete harmonic
analysis, we show that after $d$ rounds on the cycle of length $m$,
the value of the game is ... more >>>

In this paper we show a reduction from the Unique Games problem to the problem of approximating MAX-CUT to within a factor of $\GW + \eps$, for all $\eps > 0$; here $\GW \approx .878567$ denotes the approximation ratio achieved by the Goemans-Williamson algorithm~\cite{GW95}. This implies that if the Unique ... more >>>

Optimal dispersers have better dependence on the error than
optimal extractors. In this paper we give explicit disperser
constructions that beat the best possible extractors in some
parameters. Our constructions are not strong, but we show that
having such explicit strong constructions implies a solution
to the Ramsey graph construction ... more >>>

This paper studies the computational complexity of the following type of
quadratic programs: given an arbitrary matrix whose diagonal elements are zero, find $x \in \{-1,+1\}^n$ that maximizes $x^TA x$. This problem recently attracted attention due to its application in various clustering settings (Charikar and Wirth, 2004) as well as ... more >>>

This paper strengthens the low-error PCP characterization of NP, coming
closer to the ultimate BGLR conjecture. Namely, we prove that witnesses for
membership in any NP language can be verified with a constant
number of accesses, and with an error probability exponentially
small in the number ... more >>>

This paper shows finding the closest vector in a lattice
to be NP-hard to approximate to within any factor up to
$2^{(\log{n})^{1-\epsilon}}$ where
$\epsilon = (\log\log{n})^{-\alpha}$
and $\alpha$ is any positive constant $<{1\over 2}$.