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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.20

Samplability Makes Learning Easier

Authors: Guy Blanc, Caleb Koch, Jane Lange, Carmen Strassle, and Li-Yang Tan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

The standard definition of PAC learning (Valiant 1984) requires learners to succeed under all distributions - even ones that are intractable to sample from. This stands in contrast to samplable PAC learning (Blum, Furst, Kearns, and Lipton 1993), where learners only have to succeed under samplable distributions. We study this distinction and show that samplable PAC substantially expands the power of efficient learners. We first construct a concept class that requires exponential sample complexity in standard PAC but is learnable with polynomial sample complexity in samplable PAC. We then lift this statistical separation to the computational setting and obtain a separation relative to a random oracle. Our proofs center around a new complexity primitive, explicit evasive sets, that we introduce and study. These are sets for which membership is easy to determine but are extremely hard to sample from. Our results extend to the online setting to similarly show that its landscape changes when the adversary is assumed to be efficient instead of computationally unbounded.

Cite as

Guy Blanc, Caleb Koch, Jane Lange, Carmen Strassle, and Li-Yang Tan. Samplability Makes Learning Easier. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 20:1-20:12, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{blanc_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.20,
  author =	{Blanc, Guy and Koch, Caleb and Lange, Jane and Strassle, Carmen and Tan, Li-Yang},
  title =	{{Samplability Makes Learning Easier}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{20:1--20:12},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.20},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253071},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.20},
  annote =	{Keywords: PAC learning, Samplable distributions}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.69

Computing Equilibrium Points of Electrostatic Potentials

Authors: Abheek Ghosh, Paul W. Goldberg, and Alexandros Hollender

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

We study the computation of equilibrium points of electrostatic potentials: locations in space where the electrostatic force arising from a collection of charged particles vanishes. This is a novel scenario of optimization in which solutions are guaranteed to exist due to a nonconstructive argument, but gradient descent is unreliable due to the presence of singularities. We present an algorithm based on piecewise approximation of the potential function by Taylor series. The main insight is to divide the domain into a grid with variable coarseness, where grid cells are exponentially smaller in regions where the function changes rapidly compared to regions where it changes slowly. Our algorithm finds approximate equilibrium points in time poly-logarithmic in the approximation parameter, but these points are not guaranteed to be close to exact solutions. Nevertheless, we show that such points can be computed efficiently under a mild assumption that we call "strong non-degeneracy". We complement these algorithmic results by studying a generalization of this problem and showing that it is CLS-hard and in PPAD, leaving its precise classification as an intriguing open problem.

Cite as

Abheek Ghosh, Paul W. Goldberg, and Alexandros Hollender. Computing Equilibrium Points of Electrostatic Potentials. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 69:1-69:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{ghosh_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.69,
  author =	{Ghosh, Abheek and Goldberg, Paul W. and Hollender, Alexandros},
  title =	{{Computing Equilibrium Points of Electrostatic Potentials}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{69:1--69:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.69},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253566},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.69},
  annote =	{Keywords: Total search problems, TFNP, PPAD, CLS, polynomial equations}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.117

On the Power of Computationally Sound Interactive Proofs of Proximity

Authors: Hadar Strauss

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)

Abstract

Interactive proofs of proximity (IPPs) are a relaxation of interactive proofs, analogous to property testing, in which soundness is required to hold only for inputs that are ε-far from the property being verified, where ε > 0 is a proximity parameter. In such proof systems, the verifier has oracle access to the input, and it engages in two types of activities before making its decision: querying the input oracle and communicating with the prover. The main objective is to achieve protocols where both the query and communication complexities are extremely low. In this work, we focus on computationally sound IPPs (cs-IPPs). We study their power in two aspects: - Query complexity: We show that, assuming the existence of collision-resistant hashing functions (CRHFs), any public-coin cs-IPP that has query complexity q can be transformed into a cs-IPP that makes only O(1/ε) queries, while increasing the communication complexity by roughly q. If we further assume the existence of a good computational PIR (private information retrieval) scheme, then a similar transformation holds for general (i.e., possibly private-coin) cs-IPPs. - Coordination: Aside from the low query complexity, the resulting cs-IPP has only minimal coordination between the verifier’s two activities. The general definition of IPPs allows the verifier to fully coordinate its interaction with the prover and its queries to the input oracle. Goldreich, Rothblum, and Skverer (ITCS 2023) introduced two restricted models of IPPs that are minimally coordinated: The pre-coordinated model, where no information flows between the querying and interacting activities, but they may use a common source of randomness, and the isolated model, where the two activities are fully independent, each operating with a separate source of randomness. Our transformation shows that (under the aforementioned computational assumptions) any cs-IPP can be made to be in the pre-coordinated model, while preserving its efficiency. Hence, pre-coordinated cs-IPPs are essentially as powerful as general cs-IPPs. In contrast, we show that cs-IPPs in the isolated model are extremely limited, offering almost no advantage over property testers. Specifically, extending on a result shown by Goldreich et al. for unconditionally sound IPPs in the isolated model, we show that if a property has a cs-IPP in the isolated model that makes q queries and uses c > 0 bits of communication, then it has a tester with query complexity O(c⋅ q).

Cite as

Hadar Strauss. On the Power of Computationally Sound Interactive Proofs of Proximity. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 117:1-117:9, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{strauss:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.117,
  author =	{Strauss, Hadar},
  title =	{{On the Power of Computationally Sound Interactive Proofs of Proximity}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{117:1--117:9},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.117},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-254047},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.117},
  annote =	{Keywords: Interactive Proofs of Proximity, Computational Soundness}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.20

Selfish Mining Under General Stochastic Rewards

Authors: Maryam Bahrani, Michael Neuder, and S. Matthew Weinberg

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 354, 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)

Abstract

Selfish miners selectively withhold blocks to earn disproportionately high revenue. The vast majority of the selfish mining literature focuses exclusively on block rewards. [Carlsten et al., 2016] is a notable exception, observing that similar strategic behavior is profitable in a zero-block-reward regime (the endgame for Bitcoin’s quadrennial halving schedule) if miners are compensated with transaction fees alone. Neither model fully captures miner incentives today. The block reward remains 3.125 BTC, yet some blocks yield significantly higher revenue. For example, congestion during the launch of the Babylon protocol in August 2024 caused transaction fees to spike from 0.14 BTC to 9.52 BTC, a 68× increase in fees within two blocks. Our results are both practical and theoretical. Of practical interest, we study selfish mining profitability under a combined reward function that more accurately models miner incentives. This analysis enables us to make quantitative claims about protocol risk (e.g., the mining power at which a selfish strategy becomes profitable is reduced by 22% when optimizing over the combined reward function versus block rewards alone) and qualitative observations (e.g., a miner considering both block rewards and transaction fees will mine more or less aggressively respectively than if they cared about either alone). These practical results follow from our novel model and methodology, which constitute our theoretical contributions. We model general, time-accruing stochastic rewards in the Nakamoto Consensus Game, which requires explicit treatment of difficult adjustment and randomness; we characterize reward function structure through a set of properties (e.g., that rewards accrue only as a function of time since the parent block). We present a new methodology to analytically calculate expected selfish miner rewards under a broad class of stochastic reward functions and validate our method numerically by comparing it with the existing literature and simulating the combined reward sources directly.

Cite as

Maryam Bahrani, Michael Neuder, and S. Matthew Weinberg. Selfish Mining Under General Stochastic Rewards. In 7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 354, pp. 20:1-20:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bahrani_et_al:LIPIcs.AFT.2025.20,
  author =	{Bahrani, Maryam and Neuder, Michael and Weinberg, S. Matthew},
  title =	{{Selfish Mining Under General Stochastic Rewards}},
  booktitle =	{7th Conference on Advances in Financial Technologies (AFT 2025)},
  pages =	{20:1--20:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-400-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{354},
  editor =	{Avarikioti, Zeta and Christin, Nicolas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.20},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-247396},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.AFT.2025.20},
  annote =	{Keywords: Proof-of-Work, Selfish Mining, MEV}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.38

Tight Guarantees for Cut-Relative Survivable Network Design via a Decomposition Technique

Authors: Nikhil Kumar, J. J. Nan, and Chaitanya Swamy

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 351, 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)

Abstract

In the classical survivable-network-design problem (SNDP), we are given an undirected graph G = (V, E), non-negative edge costs, and some k tuples (s_i,t_i,r_i), where s_i,t_i ∈ V and r_i ∈ ℤ_+. The objective is to find a minimum-cost subset H ⊆ E such that each s_i-t_i pair remains connected even after the failure of any r_i-1 edges. It is well-known that SNDP can be equivalently modeled using a weakly-supermodular cut-requirement function f, where the objective is to find the minimum-cost subset of edges that picks at least f(S) edges across every cut S ⊆ V. Recently, motivated by fault-tolerance in graph spanners, Dinitz, Koranteng, and Kortsartz proposed a variant of SNDP that enforces a relative level of fault tolerance with respect to G. Even if a feasible SNDP-solution may not exist due to G lacking the required fault-tolerance, the goal is to find a solution H that is at least as fault-tolerant as G itself. They formalize the latter condition in terms of paths and fault-sets, which gives rise to path-relative SNDP (which they call relative SNDP). Along these lines, we introduce a new model of relative network design, called cut-relative SNDP (CR-SNDP), where the goal is to select a minimum-cost subset of edges that satisfies the given (weakly-supermodular) cut-requirement function to the maximum extent possible, i.e., by picking min{f(S), |δ_G(S)|} edges across every cut S ⊆ V. Unlike SNDP, the cut-relative and path-relative versions of SNDP are not equivalent. The resulting cut-requirement function for CR-SNDP (as also path-relative SNDP) is not weakly supermodular, and extreme-point solutions to the natural LP-relaxation need not correspond to a laminar family of tight cut constraints. Consequently, standard techniques cannot be used directly to design approximation algorithms for this problem. We develop a novel decomposition technique to circumvent this difficulty and use it to give a tight 2-approximation algorithm for CR-SNDP. We also show some new hardness results for these relative-SNDP problems.

Cite as

Nikhil Kumar, J. J. Nan, and Chaitanya Swamy. Tight Guarantees for Cut-Relative Survivable Network Design via a Decomposition Technique. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 38:1-38:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{kumar_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.38,
  author =	{Kumar, Nikhil and Nan, J. J. and Swamy, Chaitanya},
  title =	{{Tight Guarantees for Cut-Relative Survivable Network Design via a Decomposition Technique}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{38:1--38:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-395-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{351},
  editor =	{Benoit, Anne and Kaplan, Haim and Wild, Sebastian and Herman, Grzegorz},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.38},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245061},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.38},
  annote =	{Keywords: Approximation algorithms, Network Design, Cut-requirement functions, Weak Supermodularity, Iterative rounding, LP rounding algorithms}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SAT.2025.8

Certifying Projected Knowledge Compilation

Authors: Randal E. Bryant, Yong Kiam Tan, and Marijn J. H. Heule

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 341, 28th International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT 2025)

Abstract

Knowledge compilers convert Boolean formulas, given in conjunctive normal form (CNF), into representations that enable efficient evaluation of unweighted and weighted model counts, as well as a variety of other useful properties. With projected knowledge compilation, the generated representation describes the restriction of the formula to a designated set of data variables, with the remaining ones eliminated by existential quantification. Projected knowledge compilation has applications in a variety of domains, including formal verification and synthesis. This paper describes a formally verified proof framework for certifying the output of a projected knowledge compiler. It builds on an earlier clausal proof framework for certifying the output of a standard knowledge compiler. Extending the framework to projected compilation requires a method to represent Skolem assignments, describing how the quantified variables can be assigned, given an assignment for the data variables. We do so by extending the representation generated by the knowledge compiler to also encode Skolem assignments. We also refine the earlier framework, moving beyond purely clausal proofs to enable scaling certification to larger formulas. We present experimental results obtained by making small modifications to the D4 projected knowledge compiler and extensions of our earlier proof generator. We detail a soundness argument stating that a compiler output that passes our certifier is logically equivalent to the quantified input formula; the soundness argument has been formally validated using the HOL4 proof assistant. The checker also ensures that the compiler output satisfies the properties required for efficient unweighted and weighted model counting. We have developed two proof checkers for the certification framework: one written in C and designed for high performance and one written in CakeML and formally verified in HOL4.

Cite as

Randal E. Bryant, Yong Kiam Tan, and Marijn J. H. Heule. Certifying Projected Knowledge Compilation. In 28th International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 341, pp. 8:1-8:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bryant_et_al:LIPIcs.SAT.2025.8,
  author =	{Bryant, Randal E. and Tan, Yong Kiam and Heule, Marijn J. H.},
  title =	{{Certifying Projected Knowledge Compilation}},
  booktitle =	{28th International Conference on Theory and Applications of Satisfiability Testing (SAT 2025)},
  pages =	{8:1--8:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-381-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{341},
  editor =	{Berg, Jeremias and Nordstr\"{o}m, Jakob},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SAT.2025.8},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-237422},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SAT.2025.8},
  annote =	{Keywords: Knowledge Compilation, Propositional model counting, Proof checking}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.34

Witness Encryption and NP-Hardness of Learning

Authors: Halley Goldberg and Valentine Kabanets

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 339, 40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025)

Abstract

We study connections between two fundamental questions from computer science theory. (1) Is witness encryption possible for NP [Sanjam Garg et al., 2013]? That is, given an instance x of an NP-complete language L, can one encrypt a secret message with security contingent on the ability to provide a witness for x ∈ L? (2) Is computational learning (in the sense of [Leslie G. Valiant, 1984; Michael J. Kearns et al., 1994]) hard for NP? That is, is there a polynomial-time reduction from instances of L to instances of learning? Our main contribution is that certain formulations of NP-hardness of learning characterize the existence of witness encryption for NP. More specifically, we show: - witness encryption for a language L ∈ NP is equivalent to a half-Levin reduction from L to the Computational Gap Learning problem (denoted CGL [Benny Applebaum et al., 2008]), where a half-Levin reduction is the same as a Levin reduction but only required to preserve witnesses in one direction, and CGL formalizes agnostic learning as a decision problem. We show versions of the statement above for witness encryption secure against non-uniform and uniform adversaries. We also show that witness encryption for NP with ciphertexts of logarithmic length, along with a circuit lower bound for E, are together equivalent to NP-hardness of a generalized promise version of MCSP. We complement the above with a number of unconditional NP-hardness results for agnostic PAC learning. Extending a result of [Shuichi Hirahara, 2022] to the standard setting of boolean circuits, we show NP-hardness of "semi-proper" learning. Namely: - for some polynomial s, it is NP-hard to agnostically learn circuits of size s(n) by circuits of size s(n)⋅ n^{1/(log log n)^O(1)}. Looking beyond the computational model of standard boolean circuits enables us to prove NP-hardness of improper learning (ie. without a restriction on the size of hypothesis returned by the learner). We obtain such results for: - learning circuits with oracle access to a given randomly sampled string, and - learning RAM programs. In particular, we show that a variant of MINLT [Ker-I Ko, 1991] for RAM programs is NP-hard with parameters corresponding to the setting of improper learning. We view these results as partial progress toward the ultimate goal of showing NP-hardness of learning boolean circuits in an improper setting. Lastly, we give some consequences of NP-hardness of learning for private- and public-key cryptography. Improving a main result of [Benny Applebaum et al., 2008], we show that if improper agnostic PAC learning is NP-hard under a randomized non-adaptive reduction (with some restrictions), then NP ⊈ BPP implies the existence of i.o. one-way functions. In contrast, if CGL is NP-hard under a half-Levin reduction, then NP ⊈ BPP implies the existence of i.o. public-key encryption.

Cite as

Halley Goldberg and Valentine Kabanets. Witness Encryption and NP-Hardness of Learning. In 40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 339, pp. 34:1-34:43, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{goldberg_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2025.34,
  author =	{Goldberg, Halley and Kabanets, Valentine},
  title =	{{Witness Encryption and NP-Hardness of Learning}},
  booktitle =	{40th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2025)},
  pages =	{34:1--34:43},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-379-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{339},
  editor =	{Srinivasan, Srikanth},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.34},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-237281},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2025.34},
  annote =	{Keywords: agnostic PAC learning, witness encryption, NP-hardness}
}

Document

Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.84

One-Shot Learning for k-SAT

Authors: Andreas Galanis, Leslie Ann Goldberg, and Xusheng Zhang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract

Consider a k-SAT formula Φ where every variable appears at most d times, and let σ be a satisfying assignment of Φ sampled proportionally to e^{β m(σ)} where m(σ) is the number of variables set to true and β is a real parameter. Given Φ and σ, can we learn the value of β efficiently? This problem falls into a recent line of works about single-sample ("one-shot") learning of Markov random fields. The k-SAT setting we consider here was recently studied by Galanis, Kandiros, and Kalavasis (SODA'24) where they showed that single-sample learning is possible when roughly d ≤ 2^{k/6.45} and impossible when d ≥ (k+1) 2^{k-1}. Crucially, for their impossibility results they used the existence of unsatisfiable instances which, aside from the gap in d, left open the question of whether the feasibility threshold for one-shot learning is dictated by the satisfiability threshold of k-SAT formulas of bounded degree. Our main contribution is to answer this question negatively. We show that one-shot learning for k-SAT is infeasible well below the satisfiability threshold; in fact, we obtain impossibility results for degrees d as low as k² when β is sufficiently large, and bootstrap this to small values of β when d scales exponentially with k, via a probabilistic construction. On the positive side, we simplify the analysis of the learning algorithm and obtain significantly stronger bounds on d in terms of β. In particular, for the uniform case β → 0 that has been studied extensively in the sampling literature, our analysis shows that learning is possible under the condition d≲ 2^{k/2}. This is nearly optimal (up to constant factors) in the sense that it is known that sampling a uniformly-distributed satisfying assignment is NP-hard for d≳ 2^{k/2}.

Cite as

Andreas Galanis, Leslie Ann Goldberg, and Xusheng Zhang. One-Shot Learning for k-SAT. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 84:1-84:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{galanis_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.84,
  author =	{Galanis, Andreas and Goldberg, Leslie Ann and Zhang, Xusheng},
  title =	{{One-Shot Learning for k-SAT}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{84:1--84:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.84},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234610},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.84},
  annote =	{Keywords: Computational Learning Theory, k-SAT, Maximum likelihood estimation}
}

Document

Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.35

Near-Optimal Directed Low-Diameter Decompositions

Authors: Karl Bringmann, Nick Fischer, Bernhard Haeupler, and Rustam Latypov

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract

Low Diameter Decompositions (LDDs) are invaluable tools in the design of combinatorial graph algorithms. While historically they have been applied mainly to undirected graphs, in the recent breakthrough for the negative-length Single Source Shortest Path problem, Bernstein, Nanongkai, and Wulff-Nilsen [FOCS '22] extended the use of LDDs to directed graphs for the first time. Specifically, their LDD deletes each edge with probability at most O(1/D ⋅ log²n), while ensuring that each strongly connected component in the remaining graph has a (weak) diameter of at most D. In this work, we make further advancements in the study of directed LDDs. We reveal a natural and intuitive (in hindsight) connection to Expander Decompositions, and leveraging this connection along with additional techniques, we establish the existence of an LDD with an edge-cutting probability of O(1/D ⋅ log n log log n). This improves the previous bound by nearly a logarithmic factor and closely approaches the lower bound of Ω(1/D ⋅ log n). With significantly more technical effort, we also develop two efficient algorithms for computing our LDDs: a deterministic algorithm that runs in time Õ(m poly(D)) and a randomized algorithm that runs in near-linear time Õ(m). We believe that our work provides a solid conceptual and technical foundation for future research relying on directed LDDs, which will undoubtedly follow soon.

Cite as

Karl Bringmann, Nick Fischer, Bernhard Haeupler, and Rustam Latypov. Near-Optimal Directed Low-Diameter Decompositions. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 35:1-35:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{bringmann_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.35,
  author =	{Bringmann, Karl and Fischer, Nick and Haeupler, Bernhard and Latypov, Rustam},
  title =	{{Near-Optimal Directed Low-Diameter Decompositions}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{35:1--35:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.35},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234125},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.35},
  annote =	{Keywords: Low Diameter Decompositions, Expander Decompositions, Directed Graphs}
}

Document

Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.69

Approximation Algorithms for Optimal Hopsets

Authors: Michael Dinitz, Ama Koranteng, and Yasamin Nazari

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 334, 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)

Abstract

For a given graph G, a hopset H with hopbound β and stretch α is a set of edges such that between every pair of vertices u and v, there is a path with at most β hops in G ∪ H that approximates the distance between u and v up to a multiplicative stretch of α. Hopsets have found a wide range of applications for distance-based problems in various computational models since the 90s. More recently, there has been significant interest in understanding these fundamental objects from an existential and structural perspective. But all of this work takes a worst-case (or existential) point of view: How many edges do we need to add to satisfy a given hopbound and stretch requirement for any input graph? We initiate the study of the natural optimization variant of this problem: given a specific graph instance, what is the minimum number of edges that satisfy the hopbound and stretch requirements? We give approximation algorithms for a generalized hopset problem which, when combined with known existential bounds, lead to different approximation guarantees for various regimes depending on hopbound, stretch, and directed vs. undirected inputs. We complement our upper bounds with a lower bound that implies Label Cover hardness for directed hopsets and shortcut sets with hopbound at least 3.

Cite as

Michael Dinitz, Ama Koranteng, and Yasamin Nazari. Approximation Algorithms for Optimal Hopsets. In 52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 334, pp. 69:1-69:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{dinitz_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.69,
  author =	{Dinitz, Michael and Koranteng, Ama and Nazari, Yasamin},
  title =	{{Approximation Algorithms for Optimal Hopsets}},
  booktitle =	{52nd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2025)},
  pages =	{69:1--69:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-372-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{334},
  editor =	{Censor-Hillel, Keren and Grandoni, Fabrizio and Ouaknine, Jo\"{e}l and Puppis, Gabriele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.69},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-234464},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2025.69},
  annote =	{Keywords: Hopsets, Approximation Algorithms}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2025.51

Protecting the Connectivity of a Graph Under Non-Uniform Edge Failures

Authors: Felix Hommelsheim, Zhenwei Liu, Nicole Megow, and Guochuan Zhang

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 327, 42nd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2025)

Abstract

We study the problem of guaranteeing the connectivity of a given graph by protecting or strengthening edges. Herein, a protected edge is assumed to be robust and will not fail, which features a non-uniform failure model. We introduce the (p,q)-Steiner-Connectivity Preservation problem where we protect a minimum-cost set of edges such that the underlying graph maintains p-edge-connectivity between given terminal pairs against edge failures, assuming at most q unprotected edges can fail. We design polynomial-time exact algorithms for the cases where p and q are small and approximation algorithms for general values of p and q. Additionally, we show that when both p and q are part of the input, even deciding whether a given solution is feasible is NP-complete. This hardness also carries over to Flexible Network Design, a research direction that has gained significant attention. In particular, previous work focuses on problem settings where either p or q is constant, for which our new hardness result now provides justification.

Cite as

Felix Hommelsheim, Zhenwei Liu, Nicole Megow, and Guochuan Zhang. Protecting the Connectivity of a Graph Under Non-Uniform Edge Failures. In 42nd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 327, pp. 51:1-51:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{hommelsheim_et_al:LIPIcs.STACS.2025.51,
  author =	{Hommelsheim, Felix and Liu, Zhenwei and Megow, Nicole and Zhang, Guochuan},
  title =	{{Protecting the Connectivity of a Graph Under Non-Uniform Edge Failures}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2025)},
  pages =	{51:1--51:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-365-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{327},
  editor =	{Beyersdorff, Olaf and Pilipczuk, Micha{\l} and Pimentel, Elaine and Thắng, Nguy\~{ê}n Kim},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2025.51},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-228761},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.STACS.2025.51},
  annote =	{Keywords: Network Design, Edge Failures, Graph Connectivity, Approximation Algorithms}
}

Document

Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.74

Linear Relaxed Locally Decodable and Correctable Codes Do Not Need Adaptivity and Two-Sided Error

Authors: Guy Goldberg

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 297, 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)

Abstract

Relaxed locally decodable codes (RLDCs) are error-correcting codes in which individual bits of the message can be recovered by querying only a few bits from a noisy codeword. For uncorrupted codewords, and for every bit, the decoder must decode the bit correctly with high probability. However, for a noisy codeword, a relaxed local decoder is allowed to output a "rejection" symbol, indicating that the decoding failed. We study the power of adaptivity and two-sided error for RLDCs. Our main result is that if the underlying code is linear, adaptivity and two-sided error do not give any power to relaxed local decoding. We construct a reduction from adaptive, two-sided error relaxed local decoders to non-adaptive, one-sided error ones. That is, the reduction produces a relaxed local decoder that never errs or rejects if its input is a valid codeword and makes queries based on its internal randomness (and the requested index to decode), independently of the input. The reduction essentially maintains the query complexity, requiring at most one additional query. For any input, the decoder’s error probability increases at most two-fold. Furthermore, assuming the underlying code is in systematic form, where the original message is embedded as the first bits of its encoding, the reduction also conserves both the code itself and its rate and distance properties We base the reduction on our new notion of additive promise problems. A promise problem is additive if the sum of any two YES-instances is a YES-instance and the sum of any NO-instance and a YES-instance is a NO-instance. This novel framework captures both linear RLDCs and property testing (of linear properties), despite their significant differences. We prove that in general, algorithms for any additive promise problem do not gain power from adaptivity or two-sided error, and obtain the result for RLDCs as a special case. The result also holds for relaxed locally correctable codes (RLCCs), where a codeword bit should be recovered. As an application, we improve the best known lower bound for linear adaptive RLDCs. Specifically, we prove that such codes require block length of n ≥ k^{1+Ω(1/q²)}, where k denotes the message length and q denotes the number of queries.

Cite as

Guy Goldberg. Linear Relaxed Locally Decodable and Correctable Codes Do Not Need Adaptivity and Two-Sided Error. In 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 297, pp. 74:1-74:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{goldberg:LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.74,
  author =	{Goldberg, Guy},
  title =	{{Linear Relaxed Locally Decodable and Correctable Codes Do Not Need Adaptivity and Two-Sided Error}},
  booktitle =	{51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)},
  pages =	{74:1--74:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-322-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{297},
  editor =	{Bringmann, Karl and Grohe, Martin and Puppis, Gabriele and Svensson, Ola},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.74},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-202174},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.74},
  annote =	{Keywords: Locally decodable codes, Relaxed locally correctable codes, Relaxed locally decodable codes}
}

Document

Position

DOI: 10.4230/TGDK.1.1.2

Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: Opportunities and Challenges

Authors: Jeff Z. Pan, Simon Razniewski, Jan-Christoph Kalo, Sneha Singhania, Jiaoyan Chen, Stefan Dietze, Hajira Jabeen, Janna Omeliyanenko, Wen Zhang, Matteo Lissandrini, Russa Biswas, Gerard de Melo, Angela Bonifati, Edlira Vakaj, Mauro Dragoni, and Damien Graux

Published in: TGDK, Volume 1, Issue 1 (2023): Special Issue on Trends in Graph Data and Knowledge. Transactions on Graph Data and Knowledge, Volume 1, Issue 1

Abstract

Large Language Models (LLMs) have taken Knowledge Representation - and the world - by storm. This inflection point marks a shift from explicit knowledge representation to a renewed focus on the hybrid representation of both explicit knowledge and parametric knowledge. In this position paper, we will discuss some of the common debate points within the community on LLMs (parametric knowledge) and Knowledge Graphs (explicit knowledge) and speculate on opportunities and visions that the renewed focus brings, as well as related research topics and challenges.

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Jeff Z. Pan, Simon Razniewski, Jan-Christoph Kalo, Sneha Singhania, Jiaoyan Chen, Stefan Dietze, Hajira Jabeen, Janna Omeliyanenko, Wen Zhang, Matteo Lissandrini, Russa Biswas, Gerard de Melo, Angela Bonifati, Edlira Vakaj, Mauro Dragoni, and Damien Graux. Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: Opportunities and Challenges. In Special Issue on Trends in Graph Data and Knowledge. Transactions on Graph Data and Knowledge (TGDK), Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 2:1-2:38, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@Article{pan_et_al:TGDK.1.1.2,
  author =	{Pan, Jeff Z. and Razniewski, Simon and Kalo, Jan-Christoph and Singhania, Sneha and Chen, Jiaoyan and Dietze, Stefan and Jabeen, Hajira and Omeliyanenko, Janna and Zhang, Wen and Lissandrini, Matteo and Biswas, Russa and de Melo, Gerard and Bonifati, Angela and Vakaj, Edlira and Dragoni, Mauro and Graux, Damien},
  title =	{{Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: Opportunities and Challenges}},
  journal =	{Transactions on Graph Data and Knowledge},
  pages =	{2:1--2:38},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{1},
  number =	{1},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/TGDK.1.1.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-194766},
  doi =		{10.4230/TGDK.1.1.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Large Language Models, Pre-trained Language Models, Knowledge Graphs, Ontology, Retrieval Augmented Language Models}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.77

Sample-Based Proofs of Proximity

Authors: Guy Goldberg and Guy N. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 215, 13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022)

Abstract

Suppose we have random sampling access to a huge object, such as a graph or a database. Namely, we can observe the values of random locations in the object, say random records in the database or random edges in the graph. We cannot, however, query locations of our choice. Can we verify complex properties of the object using only this restricted sampling access? In this work, we initiate the study of sample-based proof systems, where the verifier is extremely constrained; Given an input, the verifier can only obtain samples of uniformly random and i.i.d. locations in the input string, together with the values at those locations. The goal is verifying complex properties in sublinear time, using only this restricted access. Following the literature on Property Testing and on Interactive Proofs of Proximity (IPPs), we seek proof systems where the verifier accepts every input that has the property, and with high probability rejects every input that is far from the property. We study both interactive and non-interactive sample-based proof systems, showing: - On the positive side, our main result is that rich families of properties / languages have sub-linear sample-based interactive proofs of proximity (SIPPs). We show that every language in NC has a SIPP, where the sample and communication complexities, as well as the verifier’s running time, are Õ(√n), and with polylog(n) communication rounds. We also show that every language that can be computed in polynomial-time and bounded-polynomial space has a SIPP, where the sample and communication complexities of the protocol, as well as the verifier’s running time are roughly √n, and with a constant number of rounds. This is achieved by constructing a reduction protocol from SIPPs to IPPs. With the aid of an untrusted prover, this reduction enables a restricted, sample-based verifier to simulate an execution of a (query-based) IPP, even though it cannot query the input. Applying the reduction to known query-based IPPs yields SIPPs for the families described above. - We show that every language with an adequate (query-based) property tester has a 1-round SIPP with constant sample complexity and logarithmic communication complexity. One such language is equality testing, for which we give an explicit and simple SIPP. - On the negative side, we show that interaction can be essential: we prove that there is no non-interactive sample-based proof of proximity for equality testing. - Finally, we prove that private coins can dramatically increase the power of SIPPs. We show a strong separation between the power of public-coin SIPPs and private-coin SIPPs for Equality Testing.

Cite as

Guy Goldberg and Guy N. Rothblum. Sample-Based Proofs of Proximity. In 13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 215, pp. 77:1-77:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2022)

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@InProceedings{goldberg_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.77,
  author =	{Goldberg, Guy and N. Rothblum, Guy},
  title =	{{Sample-Based Proofs of Proximity}},
  booktitle =	{13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2022)},
  pages =	{77:1--77:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-217-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2022},
  volume =	{215},
  editor =	{Braverman, Mark},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.77},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-156736},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2022.77},
  annote =	{Keywords: Interactive Proof Systems, Sample-Based Access, Proofs of Proximity}
}

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