Smoothing probability distributions and smooth entropy

Author

Cachin, Christian ; Maurer, Ueli

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., Eidgenossische Tech. Hochschule, Zurich, Switzerland

fYear

1997

fDate

29 Jun-4 Jul 1997

Firstpage

91

Abstract

We introduce smooth entropy as a measure for the number of almost uniform random bits that can be extracted from a source by probabilistic algorithms. The extraction process should be universal in the sense that it does not require the distribution of the source to be known. Rather, it should work for all sources with some structural property. Smooth entropy unifies previous work on privacy amplification and entropy smoothing. It enables a systematic investigation of the spoiling knowledge proof technique to obtain lower bounds on smooth entropy and to show new connections to Renyi entropy of order α>1

Keywords

cryptography; entropy; probability; random processes; smoothing methods; statistical analysis; Renyi entropy; entropy smoothing; extraction process; lower bounds; privacy amplification; probabilistic algorithms; random bits; smooth entropy; smoothing probability distributions; spoiling knowledge proof technique; structural property; Complexity theory; Computer science; Cryptography; Entropy; Privacy; Random number generation; Random variables; Security; Size measurement; Smoothing methods;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Information Theory. 1997. Proceedings., 1997 IEEE International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Ulm

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3956-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISIT.1997.613006

Filename

613006