Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics

Date:
Feb
02
2026

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

Disjoint Pairs in Set Systems and the Combinatorics of Low-Rank Matrices
Benjamin Sudakov
11:00am|Simonyi Hall 101 and Remote Access

In this talk, I will discuss the solution to several problems in two closely related settings: set families in 2^[n] with many disjoint pairs, and low-rank matrices with many zero entries.

Highlights include a resolution of an old question of Daykin...

Feb
03
2026

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

The Communication Complexity of Distributed Estimation
Parikshit Gopalan
10:30am|Simonyi 101 and Remote Access

We propose an extension of Yao's standard two-party communication model, where Alice and Bob respectively hold probability distributions p and q over inputs to a function f, rather than singleton inputs. Their goal is to estimate E[f(x,y)] to within...

Feb
09
2026

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar I

Upper and Lower Bounds for the Linear Ordering Principle
Ilya Volkovich
11:00am|Simonyi Hall 101 and Remote Access

The Linear Ordering Principle (LOP) is a total search problem that generalizes the task of finding the minimum element of a given order to settings in which the order need not be total. Building on this, Korten and Pitassi (FOCS 2024) introduced the...

Feb
10
2026

Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics Seminar II

A Complexity Lower Bound on Algebra Isomorphisms
Jeongwan Haah
10:30am|Simonyi 101 and Remote Access

Two vector spaces of the same finite dimension are related by a linear isomorphism; that’s how the dimension is defined. Similarly, two simple subalgebras over complex numbers that are closed under conjugate transpose are related by a unitary...