Oded Goldreich Boeken

You can start by putting the DO NOT DISTURB sign. Cay, in Desert Hearts (1985). The interplay between randomness and computation is one of the most fas cinating scientific phenomena uncovered in the last couple of decades. This interplay is at the heart of modern cryptography and plays a fundamental role in complexity theory at large. Specifically, the interplay of randomness and computation is pivotal to several intriguing notions of probabilistic proof systems and is the focal of the computational approach to randomness. This book provides an introduction to these three, somewhat interwoven domains (i.e., cryptography, proofs and randomness). Modern Cryptography. Whereas classical cryptography was confined to the art of designing and breaking encryption schemes (or "secrecy codes"), Modern Cryptography is concerned with the rigorous analysis of any system which should withstand malicious attempts to abuse it. We emphasize two aspects of the transition from classical to modern cryptography: ( 1) the wide ning of scope from one specific task to an utmost wide general class of tasks; and (2) the move from an engineering-art which strives on ad-hoc tricks to a scientific discipline based on rigorous approaches and techniques."

Doubly-efficient interactive proof systems enable polynomial-time provers and almost-linear time verifiers, making them practical for real-life agents limited to polynomial-time computation. This innovation allows for the advantages of interactive proofs to be accessible in scenarios where computational efficiency is crucial, bridging the gap between theoretical concepts and practical applications in computing.

Probabilistic proof systems introduce randomization and interaction into the verification process, marking a significant evolution in computer science. Unlike traditional proofs, these systems allow for a bounded error probability, which can be minimized through repetition. Their unique approach offers distinct advantages over deterministic proof systems, enhancing efficiency and flexibility in verification tasks.

This book presents a collection of 36 pieces of scientific work in the areas of complexity theory and foundations of cryptography: 20 research contributions, 13 survey articles, and 3 programmatic and reflective viewpoint statements. These so far formally unpublished pieces were written by Oded Goldreich, some in collaboration with other scientists. The articles included in this book essentially reflect the topical scope of the scientific career of Oded Goldreich now spanning three decades. In particular the topics dealt with include average-case complexity, complexity of approximation, derandomization, expander graphs, hashing functions, locally testable codes, machines that take advice, NP-completeness, one-way functions, probabilistically checkable proofs, proofs of knowledge, property testing, pseudorandomness, randomness extractors, sampling, trapdoor permutations, zero-knowledge, and non-iterative zero-knowledge. All in all, this potpourri of studies in complexity and cryptography constitutes a most valuable contribution to the field of theoretical computer science centered around the personal achievements and views of one of its outstanding representatives.

Property Testing is the study of super-fast (randomized) algorithms for approximate decision making. These algorithms are given direct access to items of a huge data set, and determine, whether this data set has some predetermined (global) property or is far from having this property. Remarkably, this approximate decision is made by accessing a small portion of the data set. This state-of-the-art survey presents a collection of extended abstracts and surveys of leading researchers in property testing and related areas; it reflects the program of a mini-workshop on property testing that took place in January 2010 at the Institute for Computer Science (ITCS), Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. The volume contains two editor's introductions, 10 survey papers and 18 extended abstracts.

On May 1, 2004, the world of theoretical computer science su? ered a stunning loss: Shimon Even passed away. Few computer scientists have had as long, s- tained, and in? uential a career as Shimon. Shimon Even was born in Tel-Aviv in 1935. He received a B. Sc. in Elect- cal Engineering from the Technion in 1959, an M. A. in Mathematics from the University of Northern Carolina in 1961, and a Ph. D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University in 1963. He held positions at the Technion (1964–67 and 1974–2003), Harvard University (1967–69), the Weizmann Institute (1969– 74), and the Tel-Aviv Academic College (2003-04). He visited many universities and research institutes, including Bell Laboratories, Boston University, Cornell, Duke, Lucent Technologies, MIT, Paderborn, Stanford, UC-Berkeley, USC and UT-Dallas. Shimon Even played a major role in establishing computer science education in Israel and led the development of academic programs in two major insti- tions: the Weizmann Institute and the Technion. In 1969 he established at the Weizmann the ? rst computer science education program in Israel, and led this program for ? ve years. In 1974 he joined the newly formed computer science department at the Technion and shaped its academic development for several decades. These two academic programs turned out to have a lasting impact on the evolution of computer science in Israel.