We address the important question of the extent to which random variables and vectors with truncated power tails retain the characteristic features of random variables and vectors with power tails.
A typical problem in network design is to find a subgraph H of a given graph G such that H satisfies some connectivity requirements and has minimum cost.
Cryptographic primitives often define controlled access to (learning and influencing) information, permitting some kind of access while denying others.
We will discuss the MCMC method. We will talk about approximately counting the number of satisfying assignments of a DNF formula, approximately counting the number of independent sets in a graph, and (time permitting) the Metropolis Algorithm.
