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, and the chair of Caltech's undergrad admissions committee.

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.

Working papers

Infinite stationary measures of co-compact group actions
with Mohammedsaid Alhalimi, Tom Hutchcroft, Minghao Pan and Tianyi Zheng

Narrow framing and risk in games
with Fedor Sandomirskiy, Po Hyun Sung and Ben Wincelberg

The power of two in token systems
with Itai Ashlagi and Süleyman Kerimov, MATCH-UP 2024 best paper award

Decomposable stochastic choice
with Fedor Sandomirskiy

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

Robust Market Interventions
with Andrea Galeotti, Benjamin Golub, Sanjeev Goyal and Eduard Talamàs

Homomorphisms to ℝ of automorphism groups of zero entropy shifts

Monotone homomorphisms on convolution semigroups
with Tobias Fritz and Xiaosheng Mu

Forthcoming

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

2024

Information cascades and social learningJournal of Economic Literature
with Sushil Bikhchandani, David Hirshleifer and Ivo Welch

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

Asymptotic Rényi entropies of random walks on groupsElectronic Journal of Probability
with Kimberly Golubeva and Minghao Pan

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

On the spectrum of asymptotic entropies of random walksGroups, Geometry, and Dynamics
with Tianyi Zheng

A quantitative Neumann lemma for finitely generated groupsIsrael Journal of Mathematics
with Elia Gorokhovsky and Nicolás Matte Bon

Learning in repeated interactions on networksEconometrica, presented at EC22
with Wanying Huang and Philipp Strack

2023

The cost of information: The case of constant marginal costsAmerican Economic Review
with Luciano Pomatto and Philipp Strack

2022

Characteristic measures of symbolic dynamical systemsErgodic Theory and Dynamical Systems
with Joshua Frisch

2021

Additive conjugacy and the Bohr compactification of orthogonal representationsMathematische Annalen
with Zachary Chase and Wade Hann-Caruthers

Feasible joint posterior beliefsJournal of Political Economy, EC20 best paper award
with Itai Arieli, Yakov Babichenko and Fedor Sandomirskiy

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

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

Unfriendly colorings of graphs with finite average degreeProceedings of the London Mathematical Society
with Clinton T. Conley

Rational groupthinkQuarterly Journal of Economics
with Elchanan Mossel, Matan Harel and Philipp Strack

2020

Repeated coordination with private learningJournal of Economic Theory
with Pathikrit Basu, Kalyan Chatterjee and Tetsuya Hoshino

Stochastic dominance under independent noiseJournal of Political Economy
with Luciano Pomatto and Philipp Strack

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

Invariant random subgroups of semidirect productsErgodic Theory and Dynamical Systems
with Ian Biringer and Lewis Bowen

2019

Strong amenability and the infinite conjugacy class propertyInventiones Mathematicae
with Joshua Frisch and Pooya Vahidi Ferdowsi

Normal amenable subgroups of the automorphism group of the full shiftErgodic Theory and Dynamical Systems
with Joshua Frisch and Tomer Schlank

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

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

2018

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

The speed of sequential asymptotic learningJournal of Economic Theory
with Wade Hann-Caruthers and Vadim V. Martynov

Non-exploitable protocols for repeated cake cuttingAAAI Conference on Artificial cutting
with Shai Vardi and Juba Ziani

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

2017

Opinion exchange dynamicsProbability Surveys
with Elchanan Mossel

Symbolic dynamics on amenable groups: the entropy of generic shiftsErgodic Theory and Dynamical Systems
with Joshua Frisch

Generic stationary measures and actionsTransactions of the American Mathematical Society
with Lewis Bowen and Yair Hartman

Unimodularity of invariant random subgroupsTransactions of the American Mathematical Society
with Ian Biringer

2016

Stabilizer rigidity in irreducible group actionsIsrael Journal of Mathematics
with Yair Hartman

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

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

Graphical potential gamesJournal of Economic Theory
with Yakov Babichenko

Transitive graphs uniquely determined by their local structureProceedings of the American Mathematical Society
with Joshua Frisch

Property (T) and the Furstenberg entropy of nonsingular actionsProceedings of the American Mathematical Society
with Lewis Bowen and Yair Hartman

2015

Strategic learning and the topology of social networksEconometrica
with Elchanan Mossel and Allan Sly

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

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

2014

Majority dynamics and the retention of informationIsrael Journal of Mathematics
with Ran Tessler

Scenery reconstruction on finite abelian groupsStochastic Processes and their Applications
with Hilary Finucane and Yariv Yaari

An Abramov formula for stationary spaces of discrete groupsErgodic Theory and Dynamical Systems
with Yair Hartman and Yuri Lima

Asymptotic learning on Bayesian social networksProbability Theory and Related Fields
with Elchanan Mossel and Allan Sly

Majority dynamics and aggregation of information in social networksJournal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems
with Elchanan Mossel and Joe Neeman

2013

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

Making consensus tractableACM Transactions on Economics and Computation
with Elchanan Mossel

A lower bound on seller revenue in single buyer monopoly auctionsOperations Research Letters

Testing booleanity and the uncertainty principleChicago Journal of Theoretical Computer Science
with Tom Gur

Tractable Bayesian social learning on treesIEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communication and IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT)
with Yashodhan Kanoria

2012

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

Complete characterization of functions satisfying the conditions of Arrow's theoremSocial Choice and Welfare
with Elchanan Mossel

2011

Social learning in a changing worldThe Workshop on Internet and Network Economics (WINE)
with Rafael Frongillo and Grant Schoenebeck

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

2010

Truthful fair divisionThe International Symposium on Algorithmic Game Theory (SAGT)
with Elchanan Mossel

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

PROMO: A method for identifying modules in protein interaction networksEuropean Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB)
with Yaron Singer and Roded Sharan

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

Lectures notes

Real analysis

Game theory

Probability

Random walks

Information minicourse

General equilibrium theory

Courses

PS/Ec 172: Undergraduate Game Theory

Ma140b: Random Walks 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)
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