DROPS

Volume

LIPIcs, Volume 116

Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2018)

APPROX/RANDOM 2018, August 20-22, 2018, Princeton, NJ, USA

Editors: Eric Blais, Klaus Jansen, José D. P. Rolim, and David Steurer

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.1

A Technique for Hardness Amplification Against AC⁰

Authors: William M. Hoza

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract

We study hardness amplification in the context of two well-known "moderate" average-case hardness results for AC⁰ circuits. First, we investigate the extent to which AC⁰ circuits of depth d can approximate AC⁰ circuits of some larger depth d + k. The case k = 1 is resolved by Håstad, Rossman, Servedio, and Tan’s celebrated average-case depth hierarchy theorem (JACM 2017). Our contribution is a significantly stronger correlation bound when k ≥ 3. Specifically, we show that there exists a linear-size AC⁰_{d + k} circuit h : {0, 1}ⁿ → {0, 1} such that for every AC⁰_d circuit g, either g has size exp(n^{Ω(1/d)}), or else g agrees with h on at most a (1/2 + ε)-fraction of inputs where ε = exp(-(1/d) ⋅ Ω(log n)^{k-1}). For comparison, Håstad, Rossman, Servedio, and Tan’s result has ε = n^{-Θ(1/d)}. Second, we consider the majority function. It is well known that the majority function is moderately hard for AC⁰ circuits (and stronger classes). Our contribution is a stronger correlation bound for the XOR of t copies of the n-bit majority function, denoted MAJ_n^{⊕ t}. We show that if g is an AC⁰_d circuit of size S, then g agrees with MAJ_n^{⊕ t} on at most a (1/2 + ε)-fraction of inputs, where ε = (O(log S)^{d - 1} / √n)^t. To prove these results, we develop a hardness amplification technique that is tailored to a specific type of circuit lower bound proof. In particular, one way to show that a function h is moderately hard for AC⁰ circuits is to (a) design some distribution over random restrictions or random projections, (b) show that AC⁰ circuits simplify to shallow decision trees under these restrictions/projections, and finally (c) show that after applying the restriction/projection, h is moderately hard for shallow decision trees with respect to an appropriate distribution. We show that (roughly speaking) if h can be proven to be moderately hard by a proof with that structure, then XORing multiple copies of h amplifies its hardness. Our analysis involves a new kind of XOR lemma for decision trees, which might be of independent interest.

Cite as

William M. Hoza. A Technique for Hardness Amplification Against AC⁰. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 1:1-1:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{hoza:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.1,
  author =	{Hoza, William M.},
  title =	{{A Technique for Hardness Amplification Against AC⁰}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-203977},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Bounded-depth circuits, average-case lower bounds, hardness amplification, XOR lemmas}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.10

Explicit Directional Affine Extractors and Improved Hardness for Linear Branching Programs

Authors: Xin Li and Yan Zhong

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract

Affine extractors give some of the best-known lower bounds for various computational models, such as AC⁰ circuits, parity decision trees, and general Boolean circuits. However, they are not known to give strong lower bounds for read-once branching programs (ROBPs). In a recent work, Gryaznov, Pudlák, and Talebanfard (CCC' 22) introduced a stronger version of affine extractors known as directional affine extractors, together with a generalization of ROBPs where each node can make linear queries, and showed that the former implies strong lower bound for a certain type of the latter known as strongly read-once linear branching programs (SROLBPs). Their main result gives explicit constructions of directional affine extractors for entropy k > 2n/3, which implies average-case complexity 2^{n/3-o(n)} against SROLBPs with exponentially small correlation. A follow-up work by Chattopadhyay and Liao (CCC' 23) improves the hardness to 2^{n-o(n)} at the price of increasing the correlation to polynomially large, via a new connection to sumset extractors introduced by Chattopadhyay and Li (STOC' 16) and explicit constructions of such extractors by Chattopadhyay and Liao (STOC' 22). Both works left open the questions of better constructions of directional affine extractors and improved average-case complexity against SROLBPs in the regime of small correlation. This paper provides a much more in-depth study of directional affine extractors, SROLBPs, and ROBPs. Our main results include: - An explicit construction of directional affine extractors with k = o(n) and exponentially small error, which gives average-case complexity 2^{n-o(n)} against SROLBPs with exponentially small correlation, thus answering the two open questions raised in previous works. - An explicit function in AC⁰ that gives average-case complexity 2^{(1-δ)n} against ROBPs with negligible correlation, for any constant δ > 0. Previously, no such average-case hardness is known, and the best size lower bound for any function in AC⁰ against ROBPs is 2^Ω(n). One of the key ingredients in our constructions is a new linear somewhere condenser for affine sources, which is based on dimension expanders. The condenser also leads to an unconditional improvement of the entropy requirement of explicit affine extractors with negligible error. We further show that the condenser also works for general weak random sources, under the Polynomial Freiman-Ruzsa Theorem in 𝖥₂ⁿ, recently proved by Gowers, Green, Manners, and Tao (arXiv' 23).

Cite as

Xin Li and Yan Zhong. Explicit Directional Affine Extractors and Improved Hardness for Linear Branching Programs. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 10:1-10:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{li_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.10,
  author =	{Li, Xin and Zhong, Yan},
  title =	{{Explicit Directional Affine Extractors and Improved Hardness for Linear Branching Programs}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{10:1--10:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.10},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-204060},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.10},
  annote =	{Keywords: Randomness Extractors, Affine, Read-once Linear Branching Programs, Low-degree polynomials, AC⁰ circuits}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.16

A Strong Direct Sum Theorem for Distributional Query Complexity

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

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract

Consider the expected query complexity of computing the k-fold direct product f^{⊗ k} of a function f to error ε with respect to a distribution μ^k. One strategy is to sequentially compute each of the k copies to error ε/k with respect to μ and apply the union bound. We prove a strong direct sum theorem showing that this naive strategy is essentially optimal. In particular, computing a direct product necessitates a blowup in both query complexity and error. Strong direct sum theorems contrast with results that only show a blowup in query complexity or error but not both. There has been a long line of such results for distributional query complexity, dating back to (Impagliazzo, Raz, Wigderson 1994) and (Nisan, Rudich, Saks 1994), but a strong direct sum theorem that holds for all functions in the standard query model had been elusive. A key idea in our work is the first use of the Hardcore Theorem (Impagliazzo 1995) in the context of query complexity. We prove a new resilience lemma that accompanies it, showing that the hardcore of f^{⊗k} is likely to remain dense under arbitrary partitions of the input space.

Cite as

Guy Blanc, Caleb Koch, Carmen Strassle, and Li-Yang Tan. A Strong Direct Sum Theorem for Distributional Query Complexity. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 16:1-16:30, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{blanc_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.16,
  author =	{Blanc, Guy and Koch, Caleb and Strassle, Carmen and Tan, Li-Yang},
  title =	{{A Strong Direct Sum Theorem for Distributional Query Complexity}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{16:1--16:30},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.16},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-204123},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.16},
  annote =	{Keywords: Query complexity, direct product theorem, hardcore theorem}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.18

Pseudorandomness, Symmetry, Smoothing: I

Authors: Harm Derksen, Peter Ivanov, Chin Ho Lee, and Emanuele Viola

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract

We prove several new results about bounded uniform and small-bias distributions. A main message is that, small-bias, even perturbed with noise, does not fool several classes of tests better than bounded uniformity. We prove this for threshold tests, small-space algorithms, and small-depth circuits. In particular, we obtain small-bias distributions that - achieve an optimal lower bound on their statistical distance to any bounded-uniform distribution. This closes a line of research initiated by Alon, Goldreich, and Mansour in 2003, and improves on a result by O'Donnell and Zhao. - have heavier tail mass than the uniform distribution. This answers a question posed by several researchers including Bun and Steinke. - rule out a popular paradigm for constructing pseudorandom generators, originating in a 1989 work by Ajtai and Wigderson. This again answers a question raised by several researchers. For branching programs, our result matches a bound by Forbes and Kelley. Our small-bias distributions above are symmetric. We show that the xor of any two symmetric small-bias distributions fools any bounded function. Hence our examples cannot be extended to the xor of two small-bias distributions, another popular paradigm whose power remains unknown. We also generalize and simplify the proof of a result of Bazzi.

Cite as

Harm Derksen, Peter Ivanov, Chin Ho Lee, and Emanuele Viola. Pseudorandomness, Symmetry, Smoothing: I. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 18:1-18:27, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{derksen_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.18,
  author =	{Derksen, Harm and Ivanov, Peter and Lee, Chin Ho and Viola, Emanuele},
  title =	{{Pseudorandomness, Symmetry, Smoothing: I}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{18:1--18:27},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.18},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-204144},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.18},
  annote =	{Keywords: pseudorandomness, k-wise uniform distributions, small-bias distributions, noise, symmetric tests, thresholds, Krawtchouk polynomials}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.24

Distribution-Free Proofs of Proximity

Authors: Hugo Aaronson, Tom Gur, Ninad Rajgopal, and Ron D. Rothblum

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract

Motivated by the fact that input distributions are often unknown in advance, distribution-free property testing considers a setting in which the algorithmic task is to accept functions f: [n] → {0,1} having a certain property Π and reject functions that are ε-far from Π, where the distance is measured according to an arbitrary and unknown input distribution 𝒟 ∼ [n]. As usual in property testing, the tester is required to do so while making only a sublinear number of input queries, but as the distribution is unknown, we also allow a sublinear number of samples from the distribution 𝒟. In this work we initiate the study of distribution-free interactive proofs of proximity (df-IPPs) in which the distribution-free testing algorithm is assisted by an all powerful but untrusted prover. Our main result is that for any problem Π ∈ NC, any proximity parameter ε > 0, and any (trade-off) parameter τ ≤ √n, we construct a df-IPP for Π with respect to ε, that has query and sample complexities τ+O(1/ε), and communication complexity Õ(n/τ + 1/ε). For τ as above and sufficiently large ε (namely, when ε > τ/n), this result matches the parameters of the best-known general purpose IPPs in the standard uniform setting. Moreover, for such τ, its parameters are optimal up to poly-logarithmic factors under reasonable cryptographic assumptions for the same regime of ε as the uniform setting, i.e., when ε ≥ 1/τ. For smaller values of ε (i.e., when ε < τ/n), our protocol has communication complexity Ω(1/ε), which is worse than the Õ(n/τ) communication complexity of the uniform IPPs (with the same query complexity). With the aim of improving on this gap, we further show that for IPPs over specialised, but large distribution families, such as sufficiently smooth distributions and product distributions, the communication complexity can be reduced to Õ(n/τ^{1-o(1)}). In addition, we show that for certain natural families of languages, such as symmetric and (relaxed) self-correctable languages, it is possible to further improve the efficiency of distribution-free IPPs.

Cite as

Hugo Aaronson, Tom Gur, Ninad Rajgopal, and Ron D. Rothblum. Distribution-Free Proofs of Proximity. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 24:1-24:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{aaronson_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.24,
  author =	{Aaronson, Hugo and Gur, Tom and Rajgopal, Ninad and Rothblum, Ron D.},
  title =	{{Distribution-Free Proofs of Proximity}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{24:1--24:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.24},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-204204},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.24},
  annote =	{Keywords: Property Testing, Interactive Proofs, Distribution-Free Property Testing}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.27

Baby PIH: Parameterized Inapproximability of Min CSP

Authors: Venkatesan Guruswami, Xuandi Ren, and Sai Sandeep

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 300, 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)

Abstract

The Parameterized Inapproximability Hypothesis (PIH) is the analog of the PCP theorem in the world of parameterized complexity. It asserts that no FPT algorithm can distinguish a satisfiable 2CSP instance from one which is only (1-ε)-satisfiable (where the parameter is the number of variables) for some constant 0 < ε < 1. We consider a minimization version of CSPs (Min-CSP), where one may assign r values to each variable, and the goal is to ensure that every constraint is satisfied by some choice among the r × r pairs of values assigned to its variables (call such a CSP instance r-list-satisfiable). We prove the following strong parameterized inapproximability for Min CSP: For every r ≥ 1, it is W[1]-hard to tell if a 2CSP instance is satisfiable or is not even r-list-satisfiable. We refer to this statement as "Baby PIH", following the recently proved Baby PCP Theorem (Barto and Kozik, 2021). Our proof adapts the combinatorial arguments underlying the Baby PCP theorem, overcoming some basic obstacles that arise in the parameterized setting. Furthermore, our reduction runs in time polynomially bounded in both the number of variables and the alphabet size, and thus implies the Baby PCP theorem as well.

Cite as

Venkatesan Guruswami, Xuandi Ren, and Sai Sandeep. Baby PIH: Parameterized Inapproximability of Min CSP. In 39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 300, pp. 27:1-27:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{guruswami_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2024.27,
  author =	{Guruswami, Venkatesan and Ren, Xuandi and Sandeep, Sai},
  title =	{{Baby PIH: Parameterized Inapproximability of Min CSP}},
  booktitle =	{39th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2024)},
  pages =	{27:1--27:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-331-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{300},
  editor =	{Santhanam, Rahul},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.27},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-204237},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2024.27},
  annote =	{Keywords: Parameterized Inapproximability Hypothesis, Constraint Satisfaction Problems}
}

Document

Track A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.35

A Spectral Approach to Approximately Counting Independent Sets in Dense Bipartite Graphs

Authors: Charlie Carlson, Ewan Davies, Alexandra Kolla, and Aditya Potukuchi

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

Abstract

We give a randomized algorithm that approximates the number of independent sets in a dense, regular bipartite graph - in the language of approximate counting, we give an FPRAS for #BIS on the class of dense, regular bipartite graphs. Efficient counting algorithms typically apply to "high-temperature" problems on bounded-degree graphs, and our contribution is a notable exception as it applies to dense graphs in a low-temperature setting. Our methods give a counting-focused complement to the long line of work in combinatorial optimization showing that CSPs such as Max-Cut and Unique Games are easy on dense graphs via spectral arguments. Our contributions include a novel extension of the method of graph containers that differs considerably from other recent low-temperature algorithms. The additional key insights come from spectral graph theory and have previously been successful in approximation algorithms. As a result, we can overcome some limitations that seem inherent to the aforementioned class of algorithms. In particular, we exploit the fact that dense, regular graphs exhibit a kind of small-set expansion (i.e., bounded threshold rank), which, via subspace enumeration, lets us enumerate small cuts efficiently.

Cite as

Charlie Carlson, Ewan Davies, Alexandra Kolla, and Aditya Potukuchi. A Spectral Approach to Approximately Counting Independent Sets in Dense Bipartite Graphs. In 51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 297, pp. 35:1-35:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{carlson_et_al:LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.35,
  author =	{Carlson, Charlie and Davies, Ewan and Kolla, Alexandra and Potukuchi, Aditya},
  title =	{{A Spectral Approach to Approximately Counting Independent Sets in Dense Bipartite Graphs}},
  booktitle =	{51st International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2024)},
  pages =	{35:1--35:18},
  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.2024.35},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-201782},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICALP.2024.35},
  annote =	{Keywords: approximate counting, independent sets, bipartite graphs, graph containers}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.15

Testing and Learning Convex Sets in the Ternary Hypercube

Authors: Hadley Black, Eric Blais, and Nathaniel Harms

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 287, 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)

Abstract

We study the problems of testing and learning high-dimensional discrete convex sets. The simplest high-dimensional discrete domain where convexity is a non-trivial property is the ternary hypercube, {-1,0,1}ⁿ. The goal of this work is to understand structural combinatorial properties of convex sets in this domain and to determine the complexity of the testing and learning problems. We obtain the following results. Structural: We prove nearly tight bounds on the edge boundary of convex sets in {0,±1}ⁿ, showing that the maximum edge boundary of a convex set is Õ(n^{3/4})⋅3ⁿ, or equivalently that every convex set has influence Õ(n^{3/4}) and a convex set exists with influence Ω(n^{3/4}). Learning and sample-based testing: We prove upper and lower bounds of 3^{Õ(n^{3/4})} and 3^{Ω(√n)} for the task of learning convex sets under the uniform distribution from random examples. The analysis of the learning algorithm relies on our upper bound on the influence. Both the upper and lower bound also hold for the problem of sample-based testing with two-sided error. For sample-based testing with one-sided error we show that the sample-complexity is 3^{Θ(n)}. Testing with queries: We prove nearly matching upper and lower bounds of 3^{Θ̃(√n)} for one-sided error testing of convex sets with non-adaptive queries.

Cite as

Hadley Black, Eric Blais, and Nathaniel Harms. Testing and Learning Convex Sets in the Ternary Hypercube. In 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 287, pp. 15:1-15:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{black_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.15,
  author =	{Black, Hadley and Blais, Eric and Harms, Nathaniel},
  title =	{{Testing and Learning Convex Sets in the Ternary Hypercube}},
  booktitle =	{15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)},
  pages =	{15:1--15:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-309-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{287},
  editor =	{Guruswami, Venkatesan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.15},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-195435},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.15},
  annote =	{Keywords: Property testing, learning theory, convex sets, testing convexity, fluctuation}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.47

Distribution Testing with a Confused Collector

Authors: Renato Ferreira Pinto Jr. and Nathaniel Harms

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 287, 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)

Abstract

We are interested in testing properties of distributions with systematically mislabeled samples. Our goal is to make decisions about unknown probability distributions, using a sample that has been collected by a confused collector, such as a machine-learning classifier that has not learned to distinguish all elements of the domain. The confused collector holds an unknown clustering of the domain and an input distribution μ, and provides two oracles: a sample oracle which produces a sample from μ that has been labeled according to the clustering; and a label-query oracle which returns the label of a query point x according to the clustering. Our first set of results shows that identity, uniformity, and equivalence of distributions can be tested efficiently, under the earth-mover distance, with remarkably weak conditions on the confused collector, even when the unknown clustering is adversarial. This requires defining a variant of the distribution testing task (inspired by the recent testable learning framework of Rubinfeld & Vasilyan), where the algorithm should test a joint property of the distribution and its clustering. As an example, we get efficient testers when the distribution tester is allowed to reject if it detects that the confused collector clustering is "far" from being a decision tree. The second set of results shows that we can sometimes do significantly better when the clustering is random instead of adversarial. For certain one-dimensional random clusterings, we show that uniformity can be tested under the TV distance using Õ((√n)/(ρ^{3/2} ε²)) samples and zero queries, where ρ ∈ (0,1] controls the "resolution" of the clustering. We improve this to O((√n)/(ρ ε²)) when queries are allowed.

Cite as

Renato Ferreira Pinto Jr. and Nathaniel Harms. Distribution Testing with a Confused Collector. In 15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 287, pp. 47:1-47:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{ferreirapintojr._et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.47,
  author =	{Ferreira Pinto Jr., Renato and Harms, Nathaniel},
  title =	{{Distribution Testing with a Confused Collector}},
  booktitle =	{15th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2024)},
  pages =	{47:1--47:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-309-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{287},
  editor =	{Guruswami, Venkatesan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.47},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-195755},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2024.47},
  annote =	{Keywords: Distribution testing, property testing, uniformity testing, identity testing, earth-mover distance, sublinear algorithms}
}

Document

RANDOM

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.61

Directed Poincaré Inequalities and L¹ Monotonicity Testing of Lipschitz Functions

Authors: Renato Ferreira Pinto Jr.

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 275, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023)

Abstract

We study the connection between directed isoperimetric inequalities and monotonicity testing. In recent years, this connection has unlocked breakthroughs for testing monotonicity of functions defined on discrete domains. Inspired the rich history of isoperimetric inequalities in continuous settings, we propose that studying the relationship between directed isoperimetry and monotonicity in such settings is essential for understanding the full scope of this connection. Hence, we ask whether directed isoperimetric inequalities hold for functions f:[0,1]ⁿ → R, and whether this question has implications for monotonicity testing. We answer both questions affirmatively. For Lipschitz functions f:[0,1]ⁿ → ℝ, we show the inequality d^mono₁(f) ≲ 𝔼 [‖∇^- f‖₁], which upper bounds the L¹ distance to monotonicity of f by a measure of its "directed gradient". A key ingredient in our proof is the monotone rearrangement of f, which generalizes the classical "sorting operator" to continuous settings. We use this inequality to give an L¹ monotonicity tester for Lipschitz functions f:[0,1]ⁿ → ℝ, and this framework also implies similar results for testing real-valued functions on the hypergrid.

Cite as

Renato Ferreira Pinto Jr.. Directed Poincaré Inequalities and L¹ Monotonicity Testing of Lipschitz Functions. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 275, pp. 61:1-61:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{ferreirapintojr.:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.61,
  author =	{Ferreira Pinto Jr., Renato},
  title =	{{Directed Poincar\'{e} Inequalities and L¹ Monotonicity Testing of Lipschitz Functions}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2023)},
  pages =	{61:1--61:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-296-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{275},
  editor =	{Megow, Nicole and Smith, Adam},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.61},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-188867},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2023.61},
  annote =	{Keywords: Monotonicity testing, property testing, isoperimetric inequalities, Poincar\'{e} inequalities}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2021.3

Box Covers and Domain Orderings for Beyond Worst-Case Join Processing

Authors: Kaleb Alway, Eric Blais, and Semih Salihoglu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 186, 24th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2021)

Abstract

Recent beyond worst-case optimal join algorithms Minesweeper and its generalization Tetris have brought the theory of indexing and join processing together by developing a geometric framework for joins. These algorithms take as input an index ℬ, referred to as a box cover, that stores output gaps that can be inferred from traditional indexes, such as B+ trees or tries, on the input relations. The performances of these algorithms highly depend on the certificate of ℬ, which is the smallest subset of gaps in ℬ whose union covers all of the gaps in the output space of a query Q. Different box covers can have different size certificates and the sizes of both the box covers and certificates highly depend on the ordering of the domain values of the attributes in Q. We study how to generate box covers that contain small size certificates to guarantee efficient runtimes for these algorithms. First, given a query Q over a set of relations of size N and a fixed set of domain orderings for the attributes, we give a Õ(N)-time algorithm called GAMB which generates a box cover for Q that is guaranteed to contain the smallest size certificate across any box cover for Q. Second, we show that finding a domain ordering to minimize the box cover size and certificate is NP-hard through a reduction from the 2 consecutive block minimization problem on boolean matrices. Our third contribution is a Õ(N)-time approximation algorithm called ADORA to compute domain orderings, under which one can compute a box cover of size Õ(K^r), where K is the minimum box cover for Q under any domain ordering and r is the maximum arity of any relation. This guarantees certificates of size Õ(K^r). We combine ADORA and GAMB with Tetris to form a new algorithm we call TetrisReordered, which provides several new beyond worst-case bounds. On infinite families of queries, TetrisReordered’s runtimes are unboundedly better than the bounds stated in prior work.

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Kaleb Alway, Eric Blais, and Semih Salihoglu. Box Covers and Domain Orderings for Beyond Worst-Case Join Processing. In 24th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2021). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 186, pp. 3:1-3:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2021)

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@InProceedings{alway_et_al:LIPIcs.ICDT.2021.3,
  author =	{Alway, Kaleb and Blais, Eric and Salihoglu, Semih},
  title =	{{Box Covers and Domain Orderings for Beyond Worst-Case Join Processing}},
  booktitle =	{24th International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT 2021)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-179-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2021},
  volume =	{186},
  editor =	{Yi, Ke and Wei, Zhewei},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2021.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-137114},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ICDT.2021.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Beyond worst-case join algorithms, Tetris, Box covers, Domain orderings}
}

Document

RANDOM

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2020.18

On Testing and Robust Characterizations of Convexity

Authors: Eric Blais and Abhinav Bommireddi

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 176, Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2020)

Abstract

A body K ⊂ ℝⁿ is convex if and only if the line segment between any two points in K is completely contained within K or, equivalently, if and only if the convex hull of a set of points in K is contained within K. We show that neither of those characterizations of convexity are robust: there are bodies in ℝⁿ that are far from convex - in the sense that the volume of the symmetric difference between the set K and any convex set C is a constant fraction of the volume of K - for which a line segment between two randomly chosen points x,y ∈ K or the convex hull of a random set X of points in K is completely contained within K except with exponentially small probability. These results show that any algorithms for testing convexity based on the natural line segment and convex hull tests have exponential query complexity.

Cite as

Eric Blais and Abhinav Bommireddi. On Testing and Robust Characterizations of Convexity. In Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 176, pp. 18:1-18:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{blais_et_al:LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2020.18,
  author =	{Blais, Eric and Bommireddi, Abhinav},
  title =	{{On Testing and Robust Characterizations of Convexity}},
  booktitle =	{Approximation, Randomization, and Combinatorial Optimization. Algorithms and Techniques (APPROX/RANDOM 2020)},
  pages =	{18:1--18:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-164-1},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{176},
  editor =	{Byrka, Jaros{\l}aw and Meka, Raghu},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2020.18},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-126214},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.APPROX/RANDOM.2020.18},
  annote =	{Keywords: Convexity, Line segment test, Convex hull test, Intersecting cones}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.33

Universal Communication, Universal Graphs, and Graph Labeling

Authors: Nathaniel Harms

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 151, 11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020)

Abstract

We introduce a communication model called universal SMP, in which Alice and Bob receive a function f belonging to a family ℱ, and inputs x and y. Alice and Bob use shared randomness to send a message to a third party who cannot see f, x, y, or the shared randomness, and must decide f(x,y). Our main application of universal SMP is to relate communication complexity to graph labeling, where the goal is to give a short label to each vertex in a graph, so that adjacency or other functions of two vertices x and y can be determined from the labels ℓ(x), ℓ(y). We give a universal SMP protocol using O(k^2) bits of communication for deciding whether two vertices have distance at most k in distributive lattices (generalizing the k-Hamming Distance problem in communication complexity), and explain how this implies a O(k^2 log n) labeling scheme for deciding dist(x,y) ≤ k on distributive lattices with size n; in contrast, we show that a universal SMP protocol for determining dist(x,y) ≤ 2 in modular lattices (a superset of distributive lattices) has super-constant Ω(n^{1/4}) communication cost. On the other hand, we demonstrate that many graph families known to have efficient adjacency labeling schemes, such as trees, low-arboricity graphs, and planar graphs, admit constant-cost communication protocols for adjacency. Trees also have an O(k) protocol for deciding dist(x,y) ≤ k and planar graphs have an O(1) protocol for dist(x,y) ≤ 2, which implies a new O(log n) labeling scheme for the same problem on planar graphs.

Cite as

Nathaniel Harms. Universal Communication, Universal Graphs, and Graph Labeling. In 11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 151, pp. 33:1-33:27, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{harms:LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.33,
  author =	{Harms, Nathaniel},
  title =	{{Universal Communication, Universal Graphs, and Graph Labeling}},
  booktitle =	{11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020)},
  pages =	{33:1--33:27},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-134-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{151},
  editor =	{Vidick, Thomas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.33},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-117182},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.33},
  annote =	{Keywords: Universal graphs, graph labeling, distance labeling, planar graphs, lattices, hamming distance}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2019.29

Optimal Separation and Strong Direct Sum for Randomized Query Complexity

Authors: Eric Blais and Joshua Brody

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 137, 34th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2019)

Abstract

We establish two results regarding the query complexity of bounded-error randomized algorithms. Bounded-error separation theorem. There exists a total function f : {0,1}^n -> {0,1} whose epsilon-error randomized query complexity satisfies overline{R}_epsilon(f) = Omega(R(f) * log 1/epsilon). Strong direct sum theorem. For every function f and every k >= 2, the randomized query complexity of computing k instances of f simultaneously satisfies overline{R}_epsilon(f^k) = Theta(k * overline{R}_{epsilon/k}(f)). As a consequence of our two main results, we obtain an optimal superlinear direct-sum-type theorem for randomized query complexity: there exists a function f for which R(f^k) = Theta(k log k * R(f)). This answers an open question of Drucker (2012). Combining this result with the query-to-communication complexity lifting theorem of Göös, Pitassi, and Watson (2017), this also shows that there is a total function whose public-coin randomized communication complexity satisfies R^{cc}(f^k) = Theta(k log k * R^{cc}(f)), answering a question of Feder, Kushilevitz, Naor, and Nisan (1995).

Cite as

Eric Blais and Joshua Brody. Optimal Separation and Strong Direct Sum for Randomized Query Complexity. In 34th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2019). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 137, pp. 29:1-29:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2019)

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@InProceedings{blais_et_al:LIPIcs.CCC.2019.29,
  author =	{Blais, Eric and Brody, Joshua},
  title =	{{Optimal Separation and Strong Direct Sum for Randomized Query Complexity}},
  booktitle =	{34th Computational Complexity Conference (CCC 2019)},
  pages =	{29:1--29:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-116-0},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2019},
  volume =	{137},
  editor =	{Shpilka, Amir},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2019.29},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-108511},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.CCC.2019.29},
  annote =	{Keywords: Decision trees, query complexity, communication complexity}
}

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