Omer Tamuz


Omer Tamuz

עומר תמוז


I am a professor of economics and mathematics at Caltech. I am interested in probability, dynamics and group theory, and in their applications to topics in microeconomic theory, including information, risk and uncertainty, and social choice. I am a member of the Caltech CSIS interdisciplinary research group.

I got my B.Sc. in computer science and physics from Tel Aviv University, where I participated in the search for extrasolar planets with Tsevi Mazeh. In 2013 I received my Ph.D. in mathematics from the Weizmann Institute, advised by Elchanan Mossel. From 2013 until 2015 I was a Schramm postdoctoral fellow at the MIT math department / Microsoft Research, where I previously was an intern of Adam Kalai. I have been at Caltech since 2015.

Email me at omertamuz@gmail.com, or visit me in Baxter Hall, room 213.

Support

I am (or have been) supported by a Sloan research fellowship in mathematics, an NSF CAREER award (DMS-1944153), a BSF award, and a Simons foundation award.

CBS Los Angeles: On the chances of winning the lottery

Public lecture at Caltech: The Long Run Behavior of Random Walks

Caltech news: Math Professor and Students Take 'Random Walk' Together. Also covered in (overhyped) articles by popular mechanics and techexplorist, and in a comically badly article by by interestingengineering

Caltech news: Should You Take the Bet?

On computer-aided humor: wired.co.uk, engadget.com and newscientist.com

Lectures notes: real analysis   game theory   probability   random walks   information minicourse

PS/Ec 172: Undergraduate Game Theory

Ma140b: Random Walks

SS 201a (Graduate game theory): lecture notes.

SS 205a (Graduate foundations of economics) lecture notes.

Ma140a: Probability

CS 101: Projects in Machine Learning

Undergraduate Seminar in Discrete Mathematics 18.304 (MIT, Spring 2015)

Multivariate Calculus 18.022 (MIT, Fall 2015)

Working papers

Decomposable stochastic choice” with Fedor Sandomirskiy

Asymptotic Rényi entropies of random walks on groups” with Kimberly Golubeva and Minghao Pan

On the origin of the Boltzmann distribution” with Fedor Sandomirskiy

Learning through imitation: An experiment” with Marina Agranov, Gabriel Lopez-Moctezuma and Philipp Strack

Private private information” with Kevin He and Fedor Sandomirskiy, presented at EC22

Taxes and market power: A network approach” with Andrea Galeotti, Benjamin Golub, Sanjeev Goyal and Eduard Talamàs

Homomorphisms to ℝ of automorphism groups of zero entropy shifts

Information cascades and social learning” with Sushil Bikhchandani, David Hirshleifer and Ivo Welch

Monotone additive statistics” with Xiaosheng Mu, Luciano Pomatto and Philipp Strack, presented at EC22

Monotone homomorphisms on convolution semigroups” with Tobias Fritz and Xiaosheng Mu

Forthcoming

The hazards and benefits of condescension in social learning” with Itai Arieli, Yakov Babichenko, Stephan Mülller and Farzad Pourbabaee, Theoretical Economics

On the spectrum of asymptotic entropies of random walks” with Tianyi Zheng, Groups, Geometry, and Dynamics

Background risk and small-stakes risk aversion” with Xiaosheng Mu, Luciano Pomatto and Philipp Strack, AER: Insights

A quantitative Neumann lemma for finitely generated groups” with Elia Gorokhovsky and Nicolás Matte Bon, Israel Journal of Mathematics

2024

Learning in repeated interactions on networks” with Wanying Huang and Philipp Strack, Econometrica, presented at EC22

2023

The cost of information: The case of constant marginal costs” with Luciano Pomatto and Philipp Strack, American Economic Review

2022

Characteristic measures of symbolic dynamical systems” with Joshua Frisch, Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems

2021

Additive conjugacy and the Bohr compactification of orthogonal representations” with Zachary Chase and Wade Hann-Caruthers, Mathematische Annalen

Feasible joint posterior beliefs” with Itai Arieli, Yakov Babichenko and Fedor Sandomirskiy, Journal of Political Economy, recipient of the EC20 best paper award

Equitable voting rules” with Laurent Bartholdi, Wade Hann-Caruthers, Maya Josyula and Leeat Yariv, Econometrica, presented at EC19

From Blackwell Dominance in Large Samples to Rényi Divergences and Back Again” with Xiaosheng Mu, Luciano Pomatto and Philipp Strack, Econometrica

Unfriendly colorings of graphs with finite average degree” with Clinton T. Conley, Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society

Rational groupthink” with Elchanan Mossel, Matan Harel and Philipp Strack, Quarterly Journal of Economics

2020

Repeated coordination with private learning” with Pathikrit Basu, Kalyan Chatterjee and Tetsuya Hoshino Journal of Economic Theory

Stochastic dominance under independent noise” with Luciano Pomatto and Philipp Strack, Journal of Political Economy

Social learning equilibria” with Elchanan Mossel, Manuel Mueller-Frank and Allan Sly, Econometrica, presented at EC18

Invariant random subgroups of semidirect products” with Ian Biringer and Lewis Bowen, Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems

2019

Strong amenability and the infinite conjugacy class property” with Joshua Frisch and Pooya Vahidi Ferdowsi, Inventiones Mathematicae

Normal amenable subgroups of the automorphism group of the full shift” with Joshua Frisch and Tomer Schlank, Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems

Thompson's group F is not strongly amenable” with Yair Hartman, Kate Juschenko and Pooya Vahidi Ferdowsi, Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems

Choquet-Deny groups and the infinite conjugacy class property” with Joshua Frisch, Yair Hartman, and Pooya Vahidi Ferdowsi, Annals of Mathematics

2018

A deterministic protocol for sequential asymptotic learning” with Yu Cheng and Wade Hann-Caruthers, IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT)

The speed of sequential asymptotic learning” with Wade Hann-Caruthers and Vadim V. Martynov, Journal of Economic Theory

Non-exploitable protocols for repeated cake cutting” with Shai Vardi and Juba Ziani, AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence

Quasi-regular sequences and optimal schedules for security games” with David Kempe and Leonard J. Schulman, Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA)

2017

Opinion exchange dynamics” with Elchanan Mossel, Probability Surveys

Symbolic dynamics on amenable groups: the entropy of generic shifts” with Joshua Frisch, Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems

Generic stationary measures and actions” with Lewis Bowen and Yair Hartman, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society

Unimodularity of invariant random subgroups” with Ian Biringer, Transactions of the American Mathematical Society

2016

Stabilizer rigidity in irreducible group actions” with Yair Hartman, Israel Journal of Mathematics

Efficient bayesian learning in social networks with Gaussian estimators” with Elchanan Mossel and Noah Olsman, The Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing

Convergence, unanimity and disagreement in majority dynamics on unimodular graphs and random graphs” with Itai Benjamini, Siu-On Chan, Ryan O'Donnell and Li-Yang Tan, Stochastic Processes and their Applications

Graphical potential games” with Yakov Babichenko, Journal of Economic Theory

Transitive graphs uniquely determined by their local structure” with Joshua Frisch, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society

Property (T) and the Furstenberg entropy of nonsingular actions” with Lewis Bowen and Yair Hartman, Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society

2015

Strategic learning and the topology of social networks” with Elchanan Mossel and Allan Sly, Econometrica

Furstenberg entropy realizations for virtually free groups and lamplighter groups” with Yair Hartman, Journal d'Analyse Mathématique

OMG UR funny! Computer-aided humor with an application to chat” Miaomiao Wen, Nancy Baym, Omer Tamuz, Jaime Teevan, Susan Dumais, Adam Kalai, The International Conference on Computational Creativity (ICCC)


2014

Majority dynamics and the retention of information” with Ran Tessler, Israel Journal of Mathematics

Scenery reconstruction on finite abelian groups” with Hilary Finucane and Yariv Yaari, Stochastic Processes and their Applications

An Abramov formula for stationary spaces of discrete groups” with Yair Hartman and Yuri Lima, Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems

Asymptotic learning on bayesian social networks” with Elchanan Mossel and Allan Sly, Probability Theory and Related Fields

Majority dynamics and aggregation of information in social networks” with Elchanan Mossel and Joe Neeman, Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems

2013

A machine learning framework for programming by example” Aditya Menon, Omer Tamuz, Sumit Gulwani, Butler Lampson, Adam Kalai, The International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML)

Making consensus tractable” with Elchanan Mossel, ACM Transactions on Economics and Computation

A lower bound on seller revenue in single buyer monopoly auctions”, Operations Research Letters

Testing booleanity and the uncertainty principle” with Tom Gur, Chicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science

Tractable bayesian social learning on trees” with Yashodhan Kanoria, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communication and IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT)

2012

Lower bounds on revenue of approximately optimal auctions” with Balasubramanian Sivan and Vasilis Syrgkanis, The Workshop on Internet and Network Economics (WINE)

Complete characterization of functions satisfying the conditions of Arrow's theorem” with Elchanan Mossel, Social Choice and Welfare

2011

Social learning in a changing world” with Rafael Frongillo and Grant Schoenebeck, The Workshop on Internet and Network Economics (WINE)

Adaptively learning the crowd kernel” Omer Tamuz, Ce Liu, Serge Belongie, Ohad Shamir, Adam Kalai, The International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML)

2010

Truthful fair division” with Elchanan Mossel, The International Symposium on Algorithmic Game Theory (SAGT)

Iterative maximum likelihood on networks” with Elchanan Mossel, Advances in Applied Mathematics, and The Allerton Conference on Communication, Control, and Computing

PROMO: A method for identifying modules in protein interaction networks” with Yaron Singer and Roded Sharan, 2006, European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB)

Past work in Astronomy

The CORALIE survey for southern extra-solar planets. XVI. Discovery of a planetary system around HD 147018 and of two long period and massive planets orbiting HD 171238 and HD 204313” Damien Ségransan, Stephane Udry, Michel Mayor et al, 2010, Astronomy & Astrophysics

The CORALIE survey for southern extra-solar planets. XV. Discovery of two eccentric planets orbiting HD 4113 and HD 156846” Omer Tamuz, Damien Ségransan, Stephane Udry et al, 2008, Astronomy & Astrophysics

A transiting planet among 23 new near-threshold candidates from the OGLE survey - OGLE-TR-182” Frédéric Pont, Omer Tamuz, Andrzej Udalski et al, 2008, Astronomy & Astrophysics

OGLE-TR-211 - a new transiting inflated hot Jupiter from the OGLE survey and ESO LP666 spectroscopic follow-up program” Andrzej Udalski, Frédéric Pont, Dominique Naef et al, 2008, Astronomy & Astrophysics

The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets. IX. mu Ara, a system with four planets” Francesco Pepe, Alexandre Correia, Michel Mayor et al, 2007, Astronomy & Astrophysics

Photometric follow-up of the transiting planet WASP-1b” Avi Shporer, Omer Tamuz, Shay Zucker, Tsevi Mazeh, 2007, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Automated analysis of eclipsing binary lightcurves. I. EBAS --- a new Eclipsing Binary Automated Solver with EBOP” Omer Tamuz, Tsevi Mazeh, Pierre North, 2006, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Automated analysis of eclipsing binary light curves. II. Statistical analysis of OGLE LMC eclipsing binaries” Tsevi Mazeh, Omer Tamuz, Pierre North, 2006, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Correcting systematic effects in a large set of photometric lightcurves” Omer Tamuz, Tsevi Mazeh, Shay Zucker, 2005, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society