An error correcting code is said to be locally testable if there is a test that checks whether a given string is a codeword, or rather far from the code, by reading only a constant number of symbols of the string. Locally Testable Codes (LTCs) were first systematically studied by ... more >>>

We introduce a 2-round stochastic constraint-satisfaction problem, and show that its approximation version is complete for (the promise version of) the complexity class $\mathsf{AM}$. This gives a `PCP characterization' of $\mathsf{AM}$ analogous to the PCP Theorem for $\mathsf{NP}$. Similar characterizations have been given for higher levels of the Polynomial Hierarchy, ... more >>>

We prove almost tight hardness results for finding independent sets in bounded degree graphs and hypergraphs that admit a good
coloring. Our specific results include the following (where $\Delta$, assumed to be a constant, is a bound on the degree, and
$n$ is the number of vertices):

\begin{itemize}
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Probabilistically checkable debate systems (PCDSs) are debates between two competing provers, in which a polynomial-time verifier inspects a constant number of bits of the debate. It was shown by Condon, Feigenbaum, Lund, and Shor that every language in PSPACE has a PCDS in which the debate length is polynomially bounded. ... more >>>