We present algorithms and a C code to decide quantum contextuality and evaluate the contextuality degree (a way to quantify contextuality) for a variety of point-line geometries located in binary symplectic polar spaces of small rank. With this code we were not only able to recover, in a more efficient way, all the results of a recent paper by de Boutray et al (J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 55 475301, 2022), but also arrived at a bunch of new noteworthy results. The paper first describes the algorithms and the C code. Then it illustrates its power on a number of subspaces of symplectic polar spaces whose rank ranges from two to seven. The most interesting new results include: (i) non-contextuality of configurations whose contexts are subspaces of dimension two and higher, (ii) non-existence of negative subspaces of dimension three and higher, (iii) considerably improved bounds for the contextuality degree of both elliptic and hyperbolic quadrics for ranks four, as well as for a particular subgeometry of the three-qubit space whose contexts are the lines of this space, (iv) proof for the non-contextuality of perpsets and, last but not least, (v) contextual nature of a distinguished subgeometry of a multi-qubit doily, called a two-spread, and computation of its contextuality degree.
We propose a general optimization-based framework for computing differentially private M-estimators and a new method for constructing differentially private confidence regions. Firstly, we show that robust statistics can be used in conjunction with noisy gradient descent or noisy Newton methods in order to obtain optimal private estimators with global linear or quadratic convergence, respectively. We establish local and global convergence guarantees, under both local strong convexity and self-concordance, showing that our private estimators converge with high probability to a small neighborhood of the non-private M-estimators. Secondly, we tackle the problem of parametric inference by constructing differentially private estimators of the asymptotic variance of our private M-estimators. This naturally leads to approximate pivotal statistics for constructing confidence regions and conducting hypothesis testing. We demonstrate the effectiveness of a bias correction that leads to enhanced small-sample empirical performance in simulations. We illustrate the benefits of our methods in several numerical examples.
Calibration tests based on the probability integral transform (PIT) are routinely used to assess the quality of univariate distributional forecasts. However, PIT-based calibration tests for multivariate distributional forecasts face various challenges. We propose two new types of tests based on proper scoring rules, which overcome these challenges. They arise from a general framework for calibration testing in the multivariate case, introduced in this work. The new tests have good size and power properties in simulations and solve various problems of existing tests. We apply the tests to forecast distributions for macroeconomic and financial time series data.
Linear complementary pairs (LCPs) of codes have been studied since they were introduced in the context of discussing mitigation measures against possible hardware attacks to integrated circuits. Since the security parameters for LCPs of codes are defined from the (Hamming) distance and the dual distance of the codes in the pair, and the additional algebraic structure of skew constacyclic codes provides tools for studying the the dual and the distance of a code, we study the properties of LCPs of skew constacyclic codes. As a result, we give a characterization for those pairs, as well as multiple results that lead to constructing pairs with designed security parameters. We extend skew BCH codes to a constacyclic context and show that an LCP of codes can be immediately constructed from a skew BCH constacyclic code. Additionally, we describe a Hamming weight-preserving automorphism group in the set of skew constacyclic codes, which can be used for constructing LCPs of codes.
In survival analysis, complex machine learning algorithms have been increasingly used for predictive modeling. Given a collection of features available for inclusion in a predictive model, it may be of interest to quantify the relative importance of a subset of features for the prediction task at hand. In particular, in HIV vaccine trials, participant baseline characteristics are used to predict the probability of infection over the intended follow-up period, and investigators may wish to understand how much certain types of predictors, such as behavioral factors, contribute toward overall predictiveness. Time-to-event outcomes such as time to infection are often subject to right censoring, and existing methods for assessing variable importance are typically not intended to be used in this setting. We describe a broad class of algorithm-agnostic variable importance measures for prediction in the context of survival data. We propose a nonparametric efficient estimation procedure that incorporates flexible learning of nuisance parameters, yields asymptotically valid inference, and enjoys double-robustness. We assess the performance of our proposed procedure via numerical simulations and analyze data from the HVTN 702 study to inform enrollment strategies for future HIV vaccine trials.
We consider the problem of chance constrained optimization where it is sought to optimize a function and satisfy constraints, both of which are affected by uncertainties. The real world declinations of this problem are particularly challenging because of their inherent computational cost. To tackle such problems, we propose a new Bayesian optimization method. It applies to the situation where the uncertainty comes from some of the inputs, so that it becomes possible to define an acquisition criterion in the joint controlled-uncontrolled input space. The main contribution of this work is an acquisition criterion that accounts for both the average improvement in objective function and the constraint reliability. The criterion is derived following the Stepwise Uncertainty Reduction logic and its maximization provides both optimal controlled and uncontrolled parameters. Analytical expressions are given to efficiently calculate the criterion. Numerical studies on test functions are presented. It is found through experimental comparisons with alternative sampling criteria that the adequation between the sampling criterion and the problem contributes to the efficiency of the overall optimization. As a side result, an expression for the variance of the improvement is given.
Singularly perturbed boundary value problems pose a significant challenge for their numerical approximations because of the presence of sharp boundary layers. These sharp boundary layers are responsible for the stiffness of solutions, which leads to large computational errors, if not properly handled. It is well-known that the classical numerical methods as well as the Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) require some special treatments near the boundary, e.g., using extensive mesh refinements or finer collocation points, in order to obtain an accurate approximate solution especially inside of the stiff boundary layer. In this article, we modify the PINNs and construct our new semi-analytic SL-PINNs suitable for singularly perturbed boundary value problems. Performing the boundary layer analysis, we first find the corrector functions describing the singular behavior of the stiff solutions inside boundary layers. Then we obtain the SL-PINN approximations of the singularly perturbed problems by embedding the explicit correctors in the structure of PINNs or by training the correctors together with the PINN approximations. Our numerical experiments confirm that our new SL-PINN methods produce stable and accurate approximations for stiff solutions.
The accurate and efficient evaluation of Newtonian potentials over general 2-D domains is important for the numerical solution of Poisson's equation and volume integral equations. In this paper, we present a simple and efficient high-order algorithm for computing the Newtonian potential over a planar domain discretized by an unstructured mesh. The algorithm is based on the use of Green's third identity for transforming the Newtonian potential into a collection of layer potentials over the boundaries of the mesh elements, which can be easily evaluated by the Helsing-Ojala method. One important component of our algorithm is the use of high-order (up to order 20) bivariate polynomial interpolation in the monomial basis, for which we provide extensive justification. The performance of our algorithm is illustrated through several numerical experiments.
Finite-dimensional truncations are routinely used to approximate partial differential equations (PDEs), either to obtain numerical solutions or to derive reduced-order models. The resulting discretized equations are known to violate certain physical properties of the system. In particular, first integrals of the PDE may not remain invariant after discretization. Here, we use the method of reduced-order nonlinear solutions (RONS) to ensure that the conserved quantities of the PDE survive its finite-dimensional truncation. In particular, we develop two methods: Galerkin RONS and finite volume RONS. Galerkin RONS ensures the conservation of first integrals in Galerkin-type truncations, whether used for direct numerical simulations or reduced-order modeling. Similarly, finite volume RONS conserves any number of first integrals of the system, including its total energy, after finite volume discretization. Both methods are applicable to general time-dependent PDEs and can be easily incorporated in existing Galerkin-type or finite volume code. We demonstrate the efficacy of our methods on two examples: direct numerical simulations of the shallow water equation and a reduced-order model of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. As a byproduct, we also generalize RONS to phenomena described by a system of PDEs.
Many data symmetries can be described in terms of group equivariance and the most common way of encoding group equivariances in neural networks is by building linear layers that are group equivariant. In this work we investigate whether equivariance of a network implies that all layers are equivariant. On the theoretical side we find cases where equivariance implies layerwise equivariance, but also demonstrate that this is not the case generally. Nevertheless, we conjecture that CNNs that are trained to be equivariant will exhibit layerwise equivariance and explain how this conjecture is a weaker version of the recent permutation conjecture by Entezari et al. [2022]. We perform quantitative experiments with VGG-nets on CIFAR10 and qualitative experiments with ResNets on ImageNet to illustrate and support our theoretical findings. These experiments are not only of interest for understanding how group equivariance is encoded in ReLU-networks, but they also give a new perspective on Entezari et al.'s permutation conjecture as we find that it is typically easier to merge a network with a group-transformed version of itself than merging two different networks.
We introduce a framework for constructing quantum codes defined on spheres by recasting such codes as quantum analogues of the classical spherical codes. We apply this framework to bosonic coding, obtaining multimode extensions of the cat codes that can outperform previous constructions while requiring a similar type of overhead. Our polytope-based cat codes consist of sets of points with large separation that at the same time form averaging sets known as spherical designs. We also recast concatenations of CSS codes with cat codes as quantum spherical codes, revealing a new way to autonomously protect against dephasing noise.