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UID:www.tcs.tifr.res.in/event/1614
DTSTAMP:20251110T065745Z
SUMMARY:Analytic Insights into the Zig-Zag Product and Its Friends
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Gil Cohen (Tel Aviv University)\n\nAbstract: \nThe wel
 l-known Zig-Zag product and related graph operators\, like derandomized sq
 uaring\, are fundamentally combinatorial in nature. Classical bounds on th
 eir behavior often rely on a mix of combinatorics and linear algebra. Howe
 ver\, these traditional bounds are not tight.\nIn this talk\, we will pres
 ent a more refined analysis that utilizes the full spectrum of the graph\,
  rather than relying solely on its spectral expansion. This approach produ
 ces results that both match experimental observations and\, in a sense\, a
 re proved to be optimal. Our technique is analytic\, diverging from classi
 cal methods: for the upper bound\, we apply finite free probability\, whil
 e for the lower bound\, we draw on results from analytic combinatorics.\nB
 ased on joint works with Itay Cohen\, Gal Maor and Yuval Peled.\nNo prior 
 knowledge is required.\nShort Bio:Gil Cohen has been a professor in the De
 partment of Computer Science at Tel Aviv University since 2018. Previously
 \, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech and Princeton University\, 
 after graduating from the Weizmann Institute of Science\, where he was adv
 ised by Ran Raz. His research focuses on pseudorandomness and derandomizat
 ion\, explicit constructions\, coding theory (especially algebraic geometr
 y codes\, tree codes\, and locally decodable codes)\, and spectral graph t
 heory\, often through the lens of free probability theory.\n
URL:https://www.tcs.tifr.res.in/web/events/1614
DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20251118T143000
DTEND;TZID=Asia/Kolkata:20251118T153000
LOCATION:via Zoom in A201
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