TY - JOUR T1 - Improved Algorithms via Approximations of Probability Distributions JF - Journal of Computer and System Sciences Y1 - 2000 A1 - Chari,Suresh A1 - Rohatgi,Pankaj A1 - Srinivasan, Aravind KW - derandomization KW - discrepancy KW - explicit constructions KW - graph coloring KW - Parallel algorithms KW - small sample spaces AB - We present two techniques for constructing sample spaces that approximate probability distributions. The first is a simple method for constructing the small-bias probability spaces introduced by Naor and Naor. We show how to efficiently combine this construction with the method of conditional probabilities to yield improved parallel algorithms for problems such as set discrepancy, finding large cuts in graphs, and finding large acyclic subgraphs. The second is a construction of small probability spaces approximating general independent distributions which are of smaller size than the constructions of Even, Goldreich, Luby, Nisan, and Veličković. VL - 61 SN - 0022-0000 UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022000099916951 CP - 1 M3 - 10.1006/jcss.1999.1695 ER -