Coin Problem and Read-Once Branching Programs
Speaker: SumeghaTitle: Coin Problem and Read-Once Branching Programs
Date: 25 Mar 2021 17:00-18:00 EST
Location: Zoom
Food: Self-prepared
Abstract: In this talk, we will look at the coin problem defined as follows: given a sequence of n independent coins which are all either heads with probability 1/$2+\delta$ or heads with probability $1/2-\delta$, the goal is to guess whether the coin is biased towards heads or tails. [BV’10] studied the coin problem in the context of read-once branching programs and showed that any width w read-once branching program cannot solve the coin problem for $\delta <O(1/(\log n)^{3w})$ (with almost tight upper bound for constant width $w$ read-once branching programs). Recent research shows new upper and lower bounds on $\delta$ for solving the coin problem using width-$n$ read-once branching programs. We will focus on the proofs and [BV’10] and recent progress. The talk will be self contained. As a pregame for the talk, try to come up with a width-3 length-$n$ read-once branching program that distinguishes coins which are heads with probability $1/2 +2/\log n$ or tails with probability $1/2+2/\log n$.