No Arabic abstract
We present an elementary way to transform an expander graph into a simplicial complex where all high order random walks have a constant spectral gap, i.e., they converge rapidly to the stationary distribution. As an upshot, we obtain new constructions, as well as a natural probabilistic model to sample constant degree high-dimensional expanders. In particular, we show that given an expander graph $G$, adding self loops to $G$ and taking the tensor product of the modified graph with a high-dimensional expander produces a new high-dimensional expander. Our proof of rapid mixing of high order random walks is based on the decomposable Markov chains framework introduced by Jerrum et al.
We initiate the study of Boolean function analysis on high-dimensional expanders. We give a random-walk based definition of high dimensional expansion, which coincides with the earlier definition in terms of two-sided link expanders. Using this definition, we describe an analogue of the Fourier expansion and the Fourier levels of the Boolean hypercube for simplicial complexes. Our analogue is a decomposition into approximate eigenspaces of random walks associated with the simplicial complexes. We then use this decomposition to extend the Friedgut-Kalai-Naor theorem to high-dimensional expanders. Our results demonstrate that a high-dimensional expander can sometimes serve as a sparse model for the Boolean slice or hypercube, and quite possibly additional results from Boolean function analysis can be carried over to this sparse model. Therefore, this model can be viewed as a derandomization of the Boolean slice, containing only $|X(k-1)|=O(n)$ points in contrast to $binom{n}{k}$ points in the $(k)$-slice (which consists of all $n$-bit strings with exactly $k$ ones). Our random-walk definition and the decomposition has the additional advantage that they extend to the more general setting of posets, which include both high-dimensional expanders and the Grassmann poset, which appears in recent works on the unique games conjecture.
Higher order random walks (HD-walks) on high dimensional expanders (HDX) have seen an incredible amount of study and application since their introduction by Kaufman and Mass [KM16], yet their broader combinatorial and spectral properties remain poorly understood. We develop a combinatorial characterization of the spectral structure of HD-walks on two-sided local-spectral expanders [DK17], which offer a broad generalization of the well-studied Johnson and Grassmann graphs. Our characterization, which shows that the spectra of HD-walks lie tightly concentrated in a few combinatorially structured strips, leads to novel structural theorems such as a tight $ell_2$-characterization of edge-expansion, as well as to a new understanding of local-to-global algorithms on HDX. Towards the latter, we introduce a spectral complexity measure called Stripped Threshold Rank, and show how it can replace the (much larger) threshold rank in controlling the performance of algorithms on structured objects. Combined with a sum-of-squares proof of the former $ell_2$-characterization, we give a concrete application of this framework to algorithms for unique games on HD-walks, in many cases improving the state of the art [RBS11, ABS15] from nearly-exponential to polynomial time (e.g. for sparsifications of Johnson graphs or of slices of the $q$-ary hypercube). Our characterization of expansion also holds an interesting connection to hardness of approximation, where an $ell_infty$-variant for the Grassmann graphs was recently used to resolve the 2-2 Games Conjecture [KMS18]. We give a reduction from a related $ell_infty$-variant to our $ell_2$-characterization, but it loses factors in the regime of interest for hardness where the gap between $ell_2$ and $ell_infty$ structure is large. Nevertheless, we open the door for further work on the use of HDX in hardness of approximation and unique games.
Deterministic constructions of expander graphs have been an important topic of research in computer science and mathematics, with many well-studied constructions of infinite families of expanders. In some applications, though, an infinite family is not enough: we need expanders which are close to each other. We study the following question: Construct an an infinite sequence of expanders $G_0,G_1,dots$, such that for every two consecutive graphs $G_i$ and $G_{i+1}$, $G_{i+1}$ can be obtained from $G_i$ by adding a single vertex and inserting/removing a small number of edges, which we call the expansion cost of transitioning from $G_i$ to $G_{i+1}$. This question is very natural, e.g., in the context of datacenter networks, where the vertices represent racks of servers, and the expansion cost captures the amount of rewiring needed when adding another rack to the network. We present an explicit construction of $d$-regular expanders with expansion cost at most $5d/2$, for any $dgeq 6$. Our construction leverages the notion of a 2-lift of a graph. This operation was first analyzed by Bilu and Linial, who repeatedly applied 2-lifts to construct an infinite family of expanders which double in size from one expander to the next. Our construction can be viewed as a way to interpolate between Bilu-Linial expanders with low expansion cost while preserving good edge expansion throughout. While our main motivation is centralized (datacenter networks), we also get the best-known distributed expander construction in the self-healing model.
We construct an explicit family of 3XOR instances which is hard for $O(sqrt{log n})$ levels of the Sum-of-Squares hierarchy. In contrast to earlier constructions, which involve a random component, our systems can be constructed explicitly in deterministic polynomial time. Our construction is based on the high-dimensional expanders devised by Lubotzky, Samuels and Vishne, known as LSV complexes or Ramanujan complexes, and our analysis is based on two notions of expansion for these complexes: cosystolic expansion, and a local isoperimetric inequality due to Gromov. Our construction offers an interesting contrast to the recent work of Alev, Jeronimo and the last author~(FOCS 2019). They showed that 3XOR instances in which the variables correspond to vertices in a high-dimensional expander are easy to solve. In contrast, in our instances the variables correspond to the edges of the complex.
A graph $X$ is defined inductively to be $(a_0,dots,a_{n-1})$-regular if $X$ is $a_0$-regular and for every vertex $v$ of $X$, the sphere of radius $1$ around $v$ is an $(a_1,dots,a_{n-1})$-regular graph. Such a graph $X$ is said to be highly regular (HR) of level $n$ if $a_{n-1} eq 0$. Chapman, Linial and Peled studied HR-graphs of level 2 and provided several methods to construct families of graphs which are expanders globally and locally. They ask whether such HR-graphs of level 3 exist. In this paper we show how the theory of Coxeter groups, and abstract regular polytopes and their generalisations, can lead to such graphs. Given a Coxeter system $(W,S)$ and a subset $M$ of $S$, we construct highly regular quotients of the 1-skeleton of the associated Wythoffian polytope $mathcal{P}_{W,M}$, which form an infinite family of expander graphs when $(W,S)$ is indefinite and $mathcal{P}_{W,M}$ has finite vertex links. The regularity of the graphs in this family can be deduced from the Coxeter diagram of $(W,S)$. The expansion stems from applying superapproximation to the congruence subgroups of the linear group $W$. This machinery gives a rich collection of families of HR-graphs, with various interesting properties, and in particular answers affirmatively the question asked by Chapman, Linial and Peled.