An improved Singleton-type upper bound is presented for the list decoding radius of linear codes, in terms of the code parameters [n,k,d] and the list size L. L-MDS codes are then defined as codes that attain this bound (under a slightly stronger notion of list decodability), with 1-MDS codes corresponding to ordinary linear MDS codes. Several properties of such codes are presented; in particular, it is shown that the 2-MDS property is preserved under duality. Finally, explicit constructions for 2-MDS codes are presented through generalized Reed-Solomon (GRS) codes.
Bayesian inference for nonlinear diffusions, observed at discrete times, is a challenging task that has prompted the development of a number of algorithms, mainly within the computational statistics community. We propose a new direction, and accompanying methodology, borrowing ideas from statistical physics and computational chemistry, for inferring the posterior distribution of latent diffusion paths and model parameters, given observations of the process. Joint configurations of the underlying process noise and of parameters, mapping onto diffusion paths consistent with observations, form an implicitly defined manifold. Then, by making use of a constrained Hamiltonian Monte Carlo algorithm on the embedded manifold, we are able to perform computationally efficient inference for a class of discretely observed diffusion models. Critically, in contrast with other approaches proposed in the literature, our methodology is highly automated, requiring minimal user intervention and applying alike in a range of settings, including: elliptic or hypo-elliptic systems; observations with or without noise; linear or non-linear observation operators. Exploiting Markovianity, we propose a variant of the method with complexity that scales linearly in the resolution of path discretisation and the number of observation times. Python code reproducing the results is available at //doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5796148
We study the classical expander codes, introduced by Sipser and Spielman \cite{SS96}. Given any constants $0< \alpha, \varepsilon < 1/2$, and an arbitrary bipartite graph with $N$ vertices on the left, $M < N$ vertices on the right, and left degree $D$ such that any left subset $S$ of size at most $\alpha N$ has at least $(1-\varepsilon)|S|D$ neighbors, we show that the corresponding linear code given by parity checks on the right has distance at least roughly $\frac{\alpha N}{2 \varepsilon }$. This is strictly better than the best known previous result of $2(1-\varepsilon ) \alpha N$ \cite{Sudan2000note, Viderman13b} whenever $\varepsilon < 1/2$, and improves the previous result significantly when $\varepsilon $ is small. Furthermore, we show that this distance is tight in general, thus providing a complete characterization of the distance of general expander codes. Next, we provide several efficient decoding algorithms, which vastly improve previous results in terms of the fraction of errors corrected, whenever $\varepsilon < \frac{1}{4}$. Finally, we also give a bound on the list-decoding radius of general expander codes, which beats the classical Johnson bound in certain situations (e.g., when the graph is almost regular and the code has a high rate). Our techniques exploit novel combinatorial properties of bipartite expander graphs. In particular, we establish a new size-expansion tradeoff, which may be of independent interests.
We consider Broyden's method and some accelerated schemes for nonlinear equations having a strongly regular singularity of first order with a one-dimensional nullspace. Our two main results are as follows. First, we show that the use of a preceding Newton-like step ensures convergence for starting points in a starlike domain with density 1. This extends the domain of convergence of these methods significantly. Second, we establish that the matrix updates of Broyden's method converge q-linearly with the same asymptotic factor as the iterates. This contributes to the long-standing question whether the Broyden matrices converge by showing that this is indeed the case for the setting at hand. Furthermore, we prove that the Broyden directions violate uniform linear independence, which implies that existing results for convergence of the Broyden matrices cannot be applied. Numerical experiments of high precision confirm the enlarged domain of convergence, the q-linear convergence of the matrix updates, and the lack of uniform linear independence. In addition, they suggest that these results can be extended to singularities of higher order and that Broyden's method can converge r-linearly without converging q-linearly. The underlying code is freely available.
This paper tackles two problems that are relevant to coding for insertions and deletions. These problems are motivated by several applications, among them is reconstructing strands in DNA-based storage systems. Under this paradigm, a word is transmitted over some fixed number of identical independent channels and the goal of the decoder is to output the transmitted word or some close approximation of it. The first part of this paper studies the deletion channel that deletes a symbol with some fixed probability $p$, while focusing on two instances of this channel. Since operating the maximum likelihood (ML) decoder in this case is computationally unfeasible, we study a slightly degraded version of this decoder for two channels and its expected normalized distance. We identify the dominant error patterns and based on these observations, it is derived that the expected normalized distance of the degraded ML decoder is roughly $\frac{3q-1}{q-1}p^2$, when the transmitted word is any $q$-ary sequence and $p$ is the channel's deletion probability. We also study the cases when the transmitted word belongs to the Varshamov Tenengolts (VT) code or the shifted VT code. Additionally, the insertion channel is studied as well as the case of two insertion channels. These theoretical results are verified by corresponding simulations. The second part of the paper studies optimal decoding for a special case of the deletion channel, the $k$-deletion channel, which deletes exactly $k$ symbols of the transmitted word uniformly at random. In this part, the goal is to understand how an optimal decoder operates in order to minimize the expected normalized distance. A full characterization of an efficient optimal decoder for this setup, referred to as the maximum likelihood* (ML*) decoder, is given for a channel that deletes one or two symbols.
In binary classification, imbalance refers to situations in which one class is heavily under-represented. This issue is due to either a data collection process or because one class is indeed rare in a population. Imbalanced classification frequently arises in applications such as biology, medicine, engineering, and social sciences. In this paper, for the first time, we theoretically study the impact of imbalance class sizes on the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) in high dimensions. We show that due to data scarcity in one class, referred to as the minority class, and high-dimensionality of the feature space, the LDA ignores the minority class yielding a maximum misclassification rate. We then propose a new construction of hard-thresholding rules based on a data splitting technique that reduces the large difference between the misclassification rates. We show that the proposed method is asymptotically optimal. We further study two well-known sparse versions of the LDA in imbalanced cases. We evaluate the finite-sample performance of different methods using simulations and by analyzing two real data sets. The results show that our method either outperforms its competitors or has comparable performance based on a much smaller subset of selected features, while being computationally more efficient.
Motivated by applications to DNA-storage, flash memory, and magnetic recording, we study perfect burst-correcting codes for the limited-magnitude error channel. These codes are lattices that tile the integer grid with the appropriate error ball. We construct two classes of such perfect codes correcting a single burst of length $2$ for $(1,0)$-limited-magnitude errors, both for cyclic and non-cyclic bursts. We also present a generic construction that requires a primitive element in a finite field with specific properties. We then show that in various parameter regimes such primitive elements exist, and hence, infinitely many perfect burst-correcting codes exist.
We construct s-interleaved linearized Reed-Solomon (ILRS) codes and variants and propose efficient decoding schemes that can correct errors beyond the unique decoding radius in the sum-rank, sum-subspace and skew metric. The proposed interpolation-based scheme for ILRS codes can be used as a list decoder or as a probabilistic unique decoder that corrects errors of sum-rank up to $t\leq\frac{s}{s+1}(n-k)$, where s is the interleaving order, n the length and k the dimension of the code. Upper bounds on the list size and the decoding failure probability are given where the latter is based on a novel Loidreau-Overbeck-like decoder for ILRS codes. The results are extended to decoding of lifted interleaved linearized Reed-Solomon (LILRS) codes in the sum-subspace metric and interleaved skew Reed-Solomon (ISRS) codes in the skew metric. We generalize fast minimal approximant basis interpolation techniques to obtain efficient decoding schemes for ILRS codes (and variants) with subquadratic complexity in the code length. Up to our knowledge, the presented decoding schemes are the first being able to correct errors beyond the unique decoding region in the sum-rank, sum-subspace and skew metric. The results for the proposed decoding schemes are validated via Monte Carlo simulations.
Multi-dimensional cyclic code is a natural generalization of cyclic code. In an earlier paper we explored two-dimensional constacyclic codes over finite fields. Following the same technique, here we characterize the algebraic structure of multi-dimensional constacyclic codes, in particular three-dimensional $(\alpha,\beta,\gamma)$- constacyclic codes of arbitrary length $s\ell k$ and their duals over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$, where $\alpha,\beta,\gamma$ are non zero elements of $\mathbb{F}_q$. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for a three-dimensional $(\alpha,\beta,\gamma)$- constacyclic code to be self-dual.
Shamir and Spencer proved in the 1980s that the chromatic number of the binomial random graph G(n,p) is concentrated in an interval of length at most \omega\sqrt{n}, and in the 1990s Alon showed that an interval of length \omega\sqrt{n}/\log n suffices for constant edge-probabilities p \in (0,1). We prove a similar logarithmic improvement of the Shamir-Spencer concentration results for the sparse case p=p(n) \to 0, and uncover a surprising concentration `jump' of the chromatic number in the very dense case p=p(n) \to 1.
We consider the exploration-exploitation trade-off in reinforcement learning and we show that an agent imbued with a risk-seeking utility function is able to explore efficiently, as measured by regret. The parameter that controls how risk-seeking the agent is can be optimized exactly, or annealed according to a schedule. We call the resulting algorithm K-learning and show that the corresponding K-values are optimistic for the expected Q-values at each state-action pair. The K-values induce a natural Boltzmann exploration policy for which the `temperature' parameter is equal to the risk-seeking parameter. This policy achieves an expected regret bound of $\tilde O(L^{3/2} \sqrt{S A T})$, where $L$ is the time horizon, $S$ is the number of states, $A$ is the number of actions, and $T$ is the total number of elapsed time-steps. This bound is only a factor of $L$ larger than the established lower bound. K-learning can be interpreted as mirror descent in the policy space, and it is similar to other well-known methods in the literature, including Q-learning, soft-Q-learning, and maximum entropy policy gradient, and is closely related to optimism and count based exploration methods. K-learning is simple to implement, as it only requires adding a bonus to the reward at each state-action and then solving a Bellman equation. We conclude with a numerical example demonstrating that K-learning is competitive with other state-of-the-art algorithms in practice.