paper talk “extracting randomness how and why. a survey,” by.pptVIP

Paper Talk: “Extracting Randomness: How  and Why. A survey,” by Noam Nisan Albert Boggess Randomized Algorithms Can solve problems for which there are no known deterministic algorithms Often simpler than deterministic equivalents Generating Randomness Pseudo-random number generators are not sufficient True randomness? Physical source can provide some true randomness Dispersers and extractors Dispersers and Extractors The goal is to “convert a somewhat random distribution into an almost random distribution” by adding a small number of truly random bits. Can be represented as either graphs or functions Definitions Probability distribution X over finite space A: X(a) ≥ 0 for all a in A ∑aX(a) = 1 Statistical distance between two probability distributions: d(X, Y) = (?)∑a|X(a) – Y(a)| X is e-close to Y if d(X, Y) ≤ e Min-Entropy of a distribution: H∞(X) = mina{-log2(X(a))} Extractors and Dispersers Graph A type of bipartite graph where: Left set [N] contains N = 2n vertices and right set [M] contains M = 2m vertices. Typically n m. Vertices are numbered by binary integers: N = {1…N} = {0,1}n M = {1…M} = {0,1}m All vertices in the left set have the same degree D = 2d. Extractors and Dispersers Graph Given a graph G = ([N], [M], E), the neighbor set of a vertex a in [N] is defined as T(a) = {z in [M] | (a,z) is in E}. For a probability distribution X, T(X) is the probability distribution induced on [M] by choosing an a in [N] according to X, and then choosing a random neighbor z in T(a). Dispersers and Extractors Graph Disperser: G = ([N], [M], E) is a (k, e)-disperser if for all A in [N] where |A| ≥ K = 2k, |T(A)| ≥ (1 – e)M. Extractor: G = ([N], [M], E) is a (k, e)-extractor if for any distribution X with H∞(X) ≥ k, T(x) is e-close to uniform on [M]. Any (k, e)-extractor is a (k, e)-disperser. Dispersers and Extractors Function Given integer sets [N], [M], and [D], the function is defined as G : [N] x [D] ? [M]. T(x) = {z = G(x, y) | x is in [N], y is in [D]}