Course Description

In this course, we will present the theory of Probabilistically Checkable Proofs (PCPs), and prove some fundamental consequences of it as well as more recent advances. More specifically, the first half of the course will be devoted to the (algebraic) proof of the basic PCP Theorem and basic relation to approximation …
In this course, we will present the theory of Probabilistically Checkable Proofs (PCPs), and prove some fundamental consequences of it as well as more recent advances. More specifically, the first half of the course will be devoted to the (algebraic) proof of the basic PCP Theorem and basic relation to approximation problems. We will then move on to more advanced topics, such as hardness amplification, the long-code framework, the Unique-Games Conjecture and its implications, and the 2-to-2 Games Theorem.
Learning Resource Types
Lecture Notes
Problem Sets
Six ovals, which are subsets of each other.
A representation of the relation among complexity classes, which are subsets of each other. (Image courtesy of Geoff Richards on Wikimedia. Image in the public domain.)