We propose a framework to study the effect of local recovery requirements of codeword symbols on the dimension of linear codes, based on a combinatorial proxy that we call \emph{visible rank}. The locality constraints of a linear code are stipulated by a matrix $H$ of $\star$'s and $0$'s (which we call a "stencil"), whose rows correspond to the local parity checks (with the $\star$'s indicating the support of the check). The visible rank of $H$ is the largest $r$ for which there is a $r \times r$ submatrix in $H$ with a unique generalized diagonal of $\star$'s. The visible rank yields a field-independent combinatorial lower bound on the rank of $H$ and thus the co-dimension of the code. We prove a rank-nullity type theorem relating visible rank to the rank of an associated construct called \emph{symmetric spanoid}, which was introduced by Dvir, Gopi, Gu, and Wigderson~\cite{DGGW20}. Using this connection and a construction of appropriate stencils, we answer a question posed in \cite{DGGW20} and demonstrate that symmetric spanoid rank cannot improve the currently best known $\widetilde{O}(n^{(q-2)/(q-1)})$ upper bound on the dimension of $q$-query locally correctable codes (LCCs) of length $n$. We also study the $t$-Disjoint Repair Group Property ($t$-DRGP) of codes where each codeword symbol must belong to $t$ disjoint check equations. It is known that linear $2$-DRGP codes must have co-dimension $\Omega(\sqrt{n})$. We show that there are stencils corresponding to $2$-DRGP with visible rank as small as $O(\log n)$. However, we show the second tensor of any $2$-DRGP stencil has visible rank $\Omega(n)$, thus recovering the $\Omega(\sqrt{n})$ lower bound for $2$-DRGP. For $q$-LCC, however, the $k$'th tensor power for $k\le n^{o(1)}$ is unable to improve the $\widetilde{O}(n^{(q-2)/(q-1)})$ upper bound on the dimension of $q$-LCCs by a polynomial factor.
We study a new two-time-scale stochastic gradient method for solving optimization problems, where the gradients are computed with the aid of an auxiliary variable under samples generated by time-varying Markov random processes parameterized by the underlying optimization variable. These time-varying samples make gradient directions in our update biased and dependent, which can potentially lead to the divergence of the iterates. In our two-time-scale approach, one scale is to estimate the true gradient from these samples, which is then used to update the estimate of the optimal solution. While these two iterates are implemented simultaneously, the former is updated "faster" (using bigger step sizes) than the latter (using smaller step sizes). Our first contribution is to characterize the finite-time complexity of the proposed two-time-scale stochastic gradient method. In particular, we provide explicit formulas for the convergence rates of this method under different structural assumptions, namely, strong convexity, convexity, the Polyak-Lojasiewicz condition, and general non-convexity. We apply our framework to two problems in control and reinforcement learning. First, we look at the standard online actor-critic algorithm over finite state and action spaces and derive a convergence rate of O(k^(-2/5)), which recovers the best known rate derived specifically for this problem. Second, we study an online actor-critic algorithm for the linear-quadratic regulator and show that a convergence rate of O(k^(-2/3)) is achieved. This is the first time such a result is known in the literature. Finally, we support our theoretical analysis with numerical simulations where the convergence rates are visualized.
Isogeometric analysis with the boundary element method (IGABEM) has recently gained interest. In this paper, the approximability of IGABEM on 3D acoustic scattering problems will be investigated and a new improved BeTSSi submarine will be presented as a benchmark example. Both Galerkin and collocation are considered in combination with several boundary integral equations (BIE). In addition to the conventional BIE, regularized versions of this BIE will be considered. Moreover, the hyper-singular BIE and the Burton--Miller formulation are also considered. A new adaptive integration routine is presented, and the numerical examples show the importance of the integration procedure in the boundary element method. The numerical examples also include comparison between standard BEM and IGABEM, which again verifies the higher accuracy obtained from the increased inter-element continuity of the spline basis functions. One of the main objectives in this paper is benchmarking acoustic scattering problems, and the method of manufactured solution will be used frequently in this regard.
Let $\sigma$ be a first-order signature and let $\mathbf{W}_n$ be the set of all $\sigma$-structures with domain $[n] = \{1, \ldots, n\}$. We can think of each structure in $\mathbf{W}_n$ as representing a "possible (state of the) world". By an inference framework we mean a class $\mathbf{F}$ of pairs $(\mathbb{P}, L)$, where $\mathbb{P} = (\mathbb{P}_n : n = 1, 2, 3, \ldots)$ and each $\mathbb{P}_n$ is a probability distribution on $\mathbb{W}_n$, and $L$ is a logic with truth values in the unit interval $[0, 1]$. From the point of view of probabilistic and logical expressivity one may consider an inference framework as optimal if it allows any pair $(\mathbb{P}, L)$ where $\mathbb{P} = (\mathbb{P}_n : n = 1, 2, 3, \ldots)$ is a sequence of probability distributions on $\mathbb{W}_n$ and $L$ is a logic. But from the point of view of using a pair $(\mathbb{P}, L)$ from such an inference framework for making inferences on $\mathbb{W}_n$ when $n$ is large we face the problem of computational complexity. This motivates looking for an "optimal" trade-off (in a given context) between expressivity and computational efficiency. We define a notion that an inference framework is "asymptotically at least as expressive" as another inference framework. This relation is a preorder and we describe a (strict) partial order on the equivalence classes of some inference frameworks that in our opinion are natural in the context of machine learning and artificial intelligence. The results have bearing on issues concerning efficient learning and probabilistic inference, but are also new instances of results in finite model theory about "almost sure elimination" of extra syntactic features (e.g quantifiers) beyond the connectives. Often such a result has a logical convergence law as a corollary.
We introduce and analyze various Regularized Combined Field Integral Equations (CFIER) formulations of time-harmonic Navier equations in media with piece-wise constant material properties. These formulations can be derived systematically starting from suitable coercive approximations of Dirichlet-to-Neumann operators (DtN), and we present a periodic pseudodifferential calculus framework within which the well posedness of CIER formulations can be established. We also use the DtN approximations to derive and analyze Optimized Schwarz (OS) methods for the solution of elastodynamics transmission problems. The pseudodifferential calculus we develop in this paper relies on careful singularity splittings of the kernels of Navier boundary integral operators which is also the basis of high-order Nystr\"om quadratures for their discretizations. Based on these high-order discretizations we investigate the rate of convergence of iterative solvers applied to CFIER and OS formulations of scattering and transmission problems. We present a variety of numerical results that illustrate that the CFIER methodology leads to important computational savings over the classical CFIE one, whenever iterative solvers are used for the solution of the ensuing discretized boundary integral equations. Finally, we show that the OS methods are competitive in the high-frequency high-contrast regime.
Differential privacy is a mathematical concept that provides an information-theoretic security guarantee. While differential privacy has emerged as a de facto standard for guaranteeing privacy in data sharing, the known mechanisms to achieve it come with some serious limitations. Utility guarantees are usually provided only for a fixed, a priori specified set of queries. Moreover, there are no utility guarantees for more complex - but very common - machine learning tasks such as clustering or classification. In this paper we overcome some of these limitations. Working with metric privacy, a powerful generalization of differential privacy, we develop a polynomial-time algorithm that creates a private measure from a data set. This private measure allows us to efficiently construct private synthetic data that are accurate for a wide range of statistical analysis tools. Moreover, we prove an asymptotically sharp min-max result for private measures and synthetic data for general compact metric spaces. A key ingredient in our construction is a new superregular random walk, whose joint distribution of steps is as regular as that of independent random variables, yet which deviates from the origin logarithmicaly slowly.
Specifications of complex, large scale, computer software and hardware systems can be radically simplified by using simple maps from input sequences to output values. These "state machine maps" provide an alternative representation of classical Moore type state machines. Composition of state machine maps corresponds to state machine products and can be used to specify essentially any type of interconnection as well as parallel and distributed computation. State machine maps can also specify abstract properties of systems and are significantly more concise and scalable than traditional representations of automata. Examples included here include specifications of producer/consumer software, network distributed consensus, real-time digital circuits, and operating system scheduling. The motivation for this work comes from experience designing and developing operating systems and real-time software where weak methods for understanding and exploring designs is a well known handicap. The methods introduced here are based on ordinary discrete mathematics, primitive recursive functions and deterministic state machines and are intended, initially, to aid the intuition and understanding of the system developers. Staying strictly within the boundaries of classical deterministic state machines anchors the methods to the algebraic structures of automata and semigroups, obviates any need for axiomatic deduction systems, "formal methods", or extensions to the model, and makes the specifications more faithful to engineering practice. While state machine maps are obvious representations of state machines, the techniques introduced here for defining and composing them are novel.
Transformers have achieved state-of-the-art results across multiple NLP tasks. However, the self-attention mechanism complexity scales quadratically with the sequence length, creating an obstacle for tasks involving long sequences, like in the speech domain. In this paper, we discuss the usefulness of self-attention for Direct Speech Translation. First, we analyze the layer-wise token contributions in the self-attention of the encoder, unveiling local diagonal patterns. To prove that some attention weights are avoidable, we propose to substitute the standard self-attention with a local efficient one, setting the amount of context used based on the results of the analysis. With this approach, our model matches the baseline performance, and improves the efficiency by skipping the computation of those weights that standard attention discards.
Dynamic topological logic ($\mathbf{DTL}$) is a trimodal logic designed for reasoning about dynamic topological systems. It was shown by Fern\'andez-Duque that the natural set of axioms for $\mathbf{DTL}$ is incomplete, but he provided a complete axiomatisation in an extended language. In this paper, we consider dynamic topological logic over scattered spaces, which are topological spaces where every nonempty subspace has an isolated point. Scattered spaces appear in the context of computational logic as they provide semantics for provability and enjoy definable fixed points. We exhibit the first sound and complete dynamic topological logic in the original trimodal language. In particular, we show that the version of $\mathbf{DTL}$ based on the class of scattered spaces is finitely axiomatisable over the original language, and that the natural axiomatisation is sound and complete.
In this work, we focus on the high-dimensional trace regression model with a low-rank coefficient matrix. We establish a nearly optimal in-sample prediction risk bound for the rank-constrained least-squares estimator under no assumptions on the design matrix. Lying at the heart of the proof is a covering number bound for the family of projection operators corresponding to the subspaces spanned by the design. By leveraging this complexity result, we perform a power analysis for a permutation test on the existence of a low-rank signal under the high-dimensional trace regression model. We show that the permutation test based on the rank-constrained least-squares estimator achieves non-trivial power with no assumptions on the minimum (restricted) eigenvalue of the covariance matrix of the design. Finally, we use alternating minimization to approximately solve the rank-constrained least-squares problem to evaluate its empirical in-sample prediction risk and power of the resulting permutation test in our numerical study.
We propose a simple modification to the iterative hard thresholding (IHT) algorithm, which recovers asymptotically sparser solutions as a function of the condition number. When aiming to minimize a convex function $f(x)$ with condition number $\kappa$ subject to $x$ being an $s$-sparse vector, the standard IHT guarantee is a solution with relaxed sparsity $O(s\kappa^2)$, while our proposed algorithm, regularized IHT, returns a solution with sparsity $O(s\kappa)$. Our algorithm significantly improves over ARHT which also finds a solution of sparsity $O(s\kappa)$, as it does not require re-optimization in each iteration (and so is much faster), is deterministic, and does not require knowledge of the optimal solution value $f(x^*)$ or the optimal sparsity level $s$. Our main technical tool is an adaptive regularization framework, in which the algorithm progressively learns the weights of an $\ell_2$ regularization term that will allow convergence to sparser solutions. We also apply this framework to low rank optimization, where we achieve a similar improvement of the best known condition number dependence from $\kappa^2$ to $\kappa$.