Combinatorics Seminar

When: Sunday, December 7, 10am
Where: Schreiber 309
Speaker: Shachar Lovett, Weizmann Institute
Title: Approximation and calculation for low-degree polynomials

Abstract:

We study the model of approximation and calculation of multivariate low-degree polynomials over finite fields, by lower degree polynomials. We prove that the models are in fact equivalent for constant degree polynomials - if a constant degree polynomial can be non-trivially approximated by a lower degree polynomial, then it can be exactly computed by a constant number of lower degree polynomials.

This work is in fact a generalization of a work by Green & Tao. They show this result for polynomials of degree at most the size of the field, and we generalize their result to all fields (and in particular to F_2, where the original result by Green&Tao is meaningless).

Joint work with Tali Kaufman.