We call a pseudorandom generator $G_n:\{0,1\}^n\to \{0,1\}^m$ {\em
hard} for a propositional proof system $P$ if $P$ can not efficiently
prove the (properly encoded) statement $G_n(x_1,\ldots,x_n)\neq b$ for
{\em any} string $b\in\{0,1\}^m$. We consider a variety of
``combinatorial'' pseudorandom generators inspired by the
Nisan-Wigderson generator on the one hand, and ... more >>>

Assuming the inractability of factoring, we show that the
output of the exponentiation modulo a composite function
$f_{N,g}(x)=g^x\bmod N$ (where $N=P\cdot Q$) is pseudorandom,
even when its input is restricted to be half the size.
This result is equivalent to the simultaneous hardness of
the ... more >>>

We study the complexity of building
pseudorandom generators (PRGs) from hard functions.

We show that, starting from a function f : {0,1}^l -> {0,1} that
is mildly hard on average, i.e. every circuit of size 2^Omega(l)
fails to compute f on at least a 1/poly(l)
fraction of inputs, we can ... more >>>

We study pseudorandom generator (PRG) constructions $G^f : {0,1}^l \to {0,1}^{l+s}$ from one-way functions $f : {0,1}^n \to {0,1}^m$. We consider PRG constructions of the form $G^f(x) = C(f(q_{1}) \ldots f(q_{poly(n)}))$
where $C$ is a polynomial-size constant depth circuit
and $C$ and the $q$'s are generated from $x$ arbitrarily.
more >>>

We exhibit an explicitly computable `pseudorandom' generator stretching $l$ bits into $m(l) = l^{\Omega(\log l)}$ bits that look random to constant-depth circuits of size $m(l)$ with $\log m(l)$ arbitrary symmetric gates (e.g. PARITY, MAJORITY). This improves on a generator by Luby, Velickovic and Wigderson (ISTCS '93) that achieves the same ... more >>>

We present a new approach to constructing pseudorandom generators that fool low-degree polynomials over finite fields, based on the Gowers norm. Using this approach, we obtain the following main constructions of explicitly computable generators $G : \F^s \to \F^n$ that fool polynomials over a prime field $\F$:
\begin{enumerate}
\item a ... more >>>

We prove that the sum of $d$ small-bias generators $L
: \F^s \to \F^n$ fools degree-$d$ polynomials in $n$
variables over a prime field $\F$, for any fixed
degree $d$ and field $\F$, including $\F = \F_2 =
{0,1}$.

Our result improves on both the work by Bogdanov and
Viola ... more >>>

We show that any distribution on {-1,1}^n that is k-wise independent fools any halfspace h with error \eps for k = O(\log^2(1/\eps)/\eps^2). Up to logarithmic factors, our result matches a lower bound by Benjamini, Gurel-Gurevich, and Peled (2007) showing that k = \Omega(1/(\eps^2 \cdot \log(1/\eps))). Using standard constructions of k-wise ... more >>>

In this paper, we consider coding schemes for computationally bounded channels, which can introduce an arbitrary set of errors as long as (a) the fraction of errors is bounded with high probability by a parameter p and (b) the process which adds the errors can be described by a sufficiently ... more >>>

We show that the promise problem of distinguishing $n$-bit strings of hamming weight $\ge 1/2 + \Omega(1/\log^{d-1} n)$ from strings of weight $\le 1/2 - \Omega(1/\log^{d-1} n)$ can be solved by explicit, randomized (unbounded-fan-in) poly(n)-size depth-$d$ circuits with error $\le 1/3$, but cannot be solved by deterministic poly(n)-size depth-$(d+1)$ circuits, ... more >>>

The {\em hybrid argument}
allows one to relate
the {\em distinguishability} of a distribution (from
uniform) to the {\em
predictability} of individual bits given a prefix. The
argument incurs a loss of a factor $k$ equal to the
bit-length of the
distributions: $\epsilon$-distinguishability implies only
$\epsilon/k$-predictability. ... more >>>

Every pseudorandom generator is in particular a one-way function. If we only consider part of the output of the
pseudorandom generator is this still one-way? Here is a general setting formalizing this question. Suppose
$G:\{0,1\}^n\rightarrow \{0,1\}^{\ell(n)}$ is a pseudorandom generator with stretch $\ell(n)> n$. Let $M_R\in\{0,1\}^{m(n)\times \ell(n)}$ be a linear ... more >>>