Improved Bounds on Fourier Entropy and Min-entropy

Given a Boolean function f:{ -1,1} ^{n}→ { -1,1, define the Fourier distribution to be the distribution on subsets of [n], where each S ⊆ [n] is sampled with probability f ˆ (S) 2 . The Fourier Entropy-influence (FEI) conjecture of Friedgut and Kalai [28] seeks to relate two fundamental measures associated with the Fourier distribution: does there exist a universal constant C > 0 such that H(f ˆ2 ) ≤ C ⋅ Inf (f), where H (fˆ2) is the Shannon entropy of the Fourier distribution of f and Inf(f) is the total influence of f In this article, we present three new contributions toward the FEI conjecture: (1) Our first contribution shows that H(f ˆ2 ) ≤ 2 ⋅ aUC ⊕ (f), where aUC ⊕ (f) is the average unambiguous parity-certificate complexity of f . This improves upon several bounds shown by Chakraborty et al. [20]. We further improve this bound for unambiguous DNFs. We also discuss how our work makes Mansour's conjecture for DNFs a natural next step toward resolution of the FEI conjecture. (2) We next consider the weaker Fourier Min-entropy-influence (FMEI) conjecture posed by O'Donnell and others [50, 53], which asks if H ∞ fˆ2) ≤ C ⋅ Inf(f), where H ∞ fˆ2) is the min-entropy of the Fourier distribution. We show H ∞ (fˆ2) ≤ 2⋅C min ⊕ (f), where C min ⊕ (f) is the minimum parity-certificate complexity of f . We also show that for all ε≥0, we have H ∞ (fˆ2) ≤2 log⁡(∥f ˆ ∥1,ε/(1−ε)), where ∥f ˆ ∥1,ε is the approximate spectral norm of f . As a corollary, we verify the FMEI conjecture for the class of read- k DNFs (for constant k ). (3) Our third contribution is to better understand implications of the FEI conjecture for the structure of polynomials that 1/3-approximate a Boolean function on the Boolean cube. We pose a conjecture: no flat polynomial (whose non-zero Fourier coefficients have the same magnitude) of degree d and sparsity 2 ω(d) can 1/3-approximate a Boolean function. This conjecture is known to be true assuming FEI, and we prove the conjecture unconditionally (i.e., without assuming the FEI conjecture) for a class of polynomials. We discuss an intriguing connection between our conjecture and the constant for the Bohnenblust-Hille inequality, which has been extensively studied in functional analysis.

More on zeros and approximation of the Ising partition function

We consider the problem of computing the partition function $\sum _x e^{f(x)}$ , where $f: \{-1, 1\}^n \longrightarrow {\mathbb R}$ is a quadratic or cubic polynomial on the Boolean cube $\{-1, 1\}^n$ . In the case of a quadratic polynomial f, we show that the partition function can be approximated within relative error $0 < \epsilon < 1$ in quasi-polynomial $n^{O(\ln n - \ln \epsilon )}$ time if the Lipschitz constant of the non-linear part of f with respect to the $\ell ^1$ metric on the Boolean cube does not exceed $1-\delta $ , for any $\delta>0$ , fixed in advance. For a cubic polynomial f, we get the same result under a somewhat stronger condition. We apply the method of polynomial interpolation, for which we prove that $\sum _x e^{\tilde {f}(x)} \ne 0$ for complex-valued polynomials $\tilde {f}$ in a neighborhood of a real-valued f satisfying the above mentioned conditions. The bounds are asymptotically optimal. Results on the zero-free region are interpreted as the absence of a phase transition in the Lee–Yang sense in the corresponding Ising model. The novel feature of the bounds is that they control the total interaction of each vertex but not every single interaction of sets of vertices.

Some problems and algorithms related to the weight order relation on the n-dimensional Boolean cube

The problem “Given a Boolean function [Formula: see text] of [Formula: see text] variables by its truth table vector. Find (if exists) a vector [Formula: see text] of maximal (or minimal) weight, such that [Formula: see text].” is considered here. It is closely related to the problem of computing the algebraic degree of Boolean functions which is an important cryptographic parameter. To solve this problem efficiently, we explore the orders of the vectors of the [Formula: see text]-dimensional Boolean cube [Formula: see text] according to their weights. The notion of “[Formula: see text]th layer” of [Formula: see text] is involved in the definition and examination of the “weight order” relation. It is compared with the known relation “precedes”. Several enumeration problems concerning these relations are solved and the relevant notes were added to three sequences in the on-line encyclopedia of integer sequences (OEIS). One special weight order is defined and examined in detail. In it, the lexicographic order is a second criterion for an ordinance of the vectors of equal weights. So a total order called weight-lexicographic order (WLO) is obtained. Two algorithms for generating the WLO sequence and two algorithms for generating the characteristic vectors of the layers are proposed. The results obtained by them were used in creating two new sequences: A294648 and A305860 in the OEIS. Two algorithms for solving the problem considered are developed — the first one works in a byte-wise manner and uses the WLO sequence, and the second one works in a bitwise manner and uses the characteristic vector as masks. The experimental results from numerous tests confirm the efficiency of these algorithms. Other applications of the obtained algorithms are also discussed — when representing, generating and ranking other combinatorial objects.

FKN theorem for the multislice, with applications

The Friedgut–Kalai–Naor (FKN) theorem states that if ƒ is a Boolean function on the Boolean cube which is close to degree one, then ƒ is close to a dictator, a function depending on a single coordinate. The author has extended the theorem to the slice, the subset of the Boolean cube consisting of all vectors with fixed Hamming weight. We extend the theorem further, to the multislice, a multicoloured version of the slice.As an application, we prove a stability version of the edge-isoperimetric inequality for settings of parameters in which the optimal set is a dictator.