Explicit Almost-Optimal $\varepsilon$-Balanced Codes via Free Expander Walks

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Hsieh, Jun-Ting, Mohanty, Sidhanth, Zhang, Rachel Yun
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Hsieh, Jun-Ting
Mohanty, Sidhanth
Zhang, Rachel Yun
author_facet Hsieh, Jun-Ting
Mohanty, Sidhanth
Zhang, Rachel Yun
contents We study the problem of constructing explicit codes whose rate and distance match the Gilbert-Varshamov bound in the low-rate, high-distance regime. In 2017, Ta-Shma gave an explicit family of codes where every pair of codewords has relative distance $\frac{1-\varepsilon}{2}$, with rate $Ω(\varepsilon^{2+o(1)})$, matching the Gilbert-Varshamov bound up to a factor of $\varepsilon^{o(1)}$. Ta-Shma's construction was based on starting with a good code and amplifying its bias with walks arising from the $s$-wide-replacement product. In this work, we give a simpler almost-optimal construction, based on what we call free expander walks: ordinary expander walks where each step is taken on a distinct expander from a carefully chosen sequence. This sequence of expanders is derived from the construction of near-$X$-Ramanujan graphs due to O'Donnell and Wu. We additionally discuss some additional applications of near-$X$-Ramanujan graphs to "on average" lossless expansion and rotating expanders.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_12606
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Explicit Almost-Optimal $\varepsilon$-Balanced Codes via Free Expander Walks
Hsieh, Jun-Ting
Mohanty, Sidhanth
Zhang, Rachel Yun
Computational Complexity
Discrete Mathematics
Data Structures and Algorithms
Combinatorics
We study the problem of constructing explicit codes whose rate and distance match the Gilbert-Varshamov bound in the low-rate, high-distance regime. In 2017, Ta-Shma gave an explicit family of codes where every pair of codewords has relative distance $\frac{1-\varepsilon}{2}$, with rate $Ω(\varepsilon^{2+o(1)})$, matching the Gilbert-Varshamov bound up to a factor of $\varepsilon^{o(1)}$. Ta-Shma's construction was based on starting with a good code and amplifying its bias with walks arising from the $s$-wide-replacement product. In this work, we give a simpler almost-optimal construction, based on what we call free expander walks: ordinary expander walks where each step is taken on a distinct expander from a carefully chosen sequence. This sequence of expanders is derived from the construction of near-$X$-Ramanujan graphs due to O'Donnell and Wu. We additionally discuss some additional applications of near-$X$-Ramanujan graphs to "on average" lossless expansion and rotating expanders.
title Explicit Almost-Optimal $\varepsilon$-Balanced Codes via Free Expander Walks
topic Computational Complexity
Discrete Mathematics
Data Structures and Algorithms
Combinatorics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.12606