A graph is called a sum graph if its vertices can be labelled by distinct positive integers such that there is an edge between two vertices if and only if the sum of their labels is the label of another vertex of the graph. Most papers on sum graphs consider combinatorial questions like the minimum number of isolated vertices that need to be added to a given graph to make it a sum graph. In this paper, we initiate the study of sum graphs from the viewpoint of computational complexity. Notice that every $n$-vertex sum graph can be represented by a sorted list of $n$ positive integers where edge queries can be answered in $O(\log n)$ time. Therefore, limiting the size of the vertex labels also upper-bounds the space complexity of storing the graph in the database. We show that every $n$-vertex, $m$-edge, $d$-degenerate graph can be made a sum graph by adding at most $m$ isolated vertices to it, such that the size of each vertex label is at most $O(n^2d)$. This enables us to store the graph using $O(m\log n)$ bits of memory. For sparse graphs (graphs with $O(n)$ edges), this matches the trivial lower bound of $\Omega(n\log n)$. Since planar graphs and forests have constant degeneracy, our result implies an upper bound of $O(n^2)$ on their label size. The previously best known upper bound on the label size of general graphs with the minimum number of isolated vertices was $O(4^n)$, due to Kratochv\'il, Miller & Nguyen. Furthermore, their proof was existential, whereas our labelling can be constructed in polynomial time.
Given its status as a classic problem and its importance to both theoreticians and practitioners, edit distance provides an excellent lens through which to understand how the theoretical analysis of algorithms impacts practical implementations. From an applied perspective, the goals of theoretical analysis are to predict the empirical performance of an algorithm and to serve as a yardstick to design novel algorithms that perform well in practice. In this paper, we systematically survey the types of theoretical analysis techniques that have been applied to edit distance and evaluate the extent to which each one has achieved these two goals. These techniques include traditional worst-case analysis, worst-case analysis parametrized by edit distance or entropy or compressibility, average-case analysis, semi-random models, and advice-based models. We find that the track record is mixed. On one hand, two algorithms widely used in practice have been born out of theoretical analysis and their empirical performance is captured well by theoretical predictions. On the other hand, all the algorithms developed using theoretical analysis as a yardstick since then have not had any practical relevance. We conclude by discussing the remaining open problems and how they can be tackled.
The approximate uniform sampling of graph realizations with a given degree sequence is an everyday task in several social science, computer science, engineering etc. projects. One approach is using Markov chains. The best available current result about the well-studied switch Markov chain is that it is rapidly mixing on P-stable degree sequences (see DOI:10.1016/j.ejc.2021.103421). The switch Markov chain does not change any degree sequence. However, there are cases where degree intervals are specified rather than a single degree sequence. (A natural scenario where this problem arises is in hypothesis testing on social networks that are only partially observed.) Rechner, Strowick, and M\"uller-Hannemann introduced in 2018 the notion of degree interval Markov chain which uses three (separately well-studied) local operations (switch, hinge-flip and toggle), and employing on degree sequence realizations where any two sequences under scrutiny have very small coordinate-wise distance. Recently Amanatidis and Kleer published a beautiful paper (arXiv:2110.09068), showing that the degree interval Markov chain is rapidly mixing if the sequences are coming from a system of very thin intervals which are centered not far from a regular degree sequence. In this paper we extend substantially their result, showing that the degree interval Markov chain is rapidly mixing if the intervals are centred at P-stable degree sequences.
We study streaming algorithms in the white-box adversarial model, where the stream is chosen adaptively by an adversary who observes the entire internal state of the algorithm at each time step. We show that nontrivial algorithms are still possible. We first give a randomized algorithm for the $L_1$-heavy hitters problem that outperforms the optimal deterministic Misra-Gries algorithm on long streams. If the white-box adversary is computationally bounded, we use cryptographic techniques to reduce the memory of our $L_1$-heavy hitters algorithm even further and to design a number of additional algorithms for graph, string, and linear algebra problems. The existence of such algorithms is surprising, as the streaming algorithm does not even have a secret key in this model, i.e., its state is entirely known to the adversary. One algorithm we design is for estimating the number of distinct elements in a stream with insertions and deletions achieving a multiplicative approximation and sublinear space; such an algorithm is impossible for deterministic algorithms. We also give a general technique that translates any two-player deterministic communication lower bound to a lower bound for {\it randomized} algorithms robust to a white-box adversary. In particular, our results show that for all $p\ge 0$, there exists a constant $C_p>1$ such that any $C_p$-approximation algorithm for $F_p$ moment estimation in insertion-only streams with a white-box adversary requires $\Omega(n)$ space for a universe of size $n$. Similarly, there is a constant $C>1$ such that any $C$-approximation algorithm in an insertion-only stream for matrix rank requires $\Omega(n)$ space with a white-box adversary. Our algorithmic results based on cryptography thus show a separation between computationally bounded and unbounded adversaries. (Abstract shortened to meet arXiv limits.)
For relational structures A, B of the same signature, the Promise Constraint Satisfaction Problem PCSP(A,B) asks whether a given input structure maps homomorphically to A or does not even map to B. We are promised that the input satisfies exactly one of these two cases. If there exists a structure C with homomorphisms $A\to C\to B$, then PCSP(A,B) reduces naturally to CSP(C). To the best of our knowledge all known tractable PCSPs reduce to tractable CSPs in this way. However Barto showed that some PCSPs over finite structures A, B require solving CSPs over infinite C. We show that even when such a reduction to finite C is possible, this structure may become arbitrarily large. For every integer $n>1$ and every prime p we give A, B of size n with a single relation of arity $n^p$ such that PCSP(A, B) reduces via a chain of homomorphisms $ A\to C\to B$ to a tractable CSP over some C of size p but not over any smaller structure. In a second family of examples, for every prime $p\geq 7$ we construct A, B of size $p-1$ with a single ternary relation such that PCSP(A, B) reduces via $A\to C\to B$ to a tractable CSP over some C of size p but not over any smaller structure. In contrast we show that if A, B are graphs and PCSP(A,B) reduces to tractable CSP(C) for some finite digraph C, then already A or B has a tractable CSP. This extends results and answers a question of Deng et al.
Given a set $P$ of $n$ points in the plane, the $k$-center problem is to find $k$ congruent disks of minimum possible radius such that their union covers all the points in $P$. The $2$-center problem is a special case of the $k$-center problem that has been extensively studied in the recent past \cite{CAHN,HT,SH}. In this paper, we consider a generalized version of the $2$-center problem called \textit{proximity connected} $2$-center (PCTC) problem. In this problem, we are also given a parameter $\delta\geq 0$ and we have the additional constraint that the distance between the centers of the disks should be at most $\delta$. Note that when $\delta=0$, the PCTC problem is reduced to the $1$-center(minimum enclosing disk) problem and when $\delta$ tends to infinity, it is reduced to the $2$-center problem. The PCTC problem first appeared in the context of wireless networks in 1992 \cite{ACN0}, but obtaining a nontrivial deterministic algorithm for the problem remained open. In this paper, we resolve this open problem by providing a deterministic $O(n^2\log n)$ time algorithm for the problem.
The classical coding theorem in Kolmogorov complexity states that if an $n$-bit string $x$ is sampled with probability $\delta$ by an algorithm with prefix-free domain then K$(x) \leq \log(1/\delta) + O(1)$. In a recent work, Lu and Oliveira [LO21] established an unconditional time-bounded version of this result, by showing that if $x$ can be efficiently sampled with probability $\delta$ then rKt$(x) = O(\log(1/\delta)) + O(\log n)$, where rKt denotes the randomized analogue of Levin's Kt complexity. Unfortunately, this result is often insufficient when transferring applications of the classical coding theorem to the time-bounded setting, as it achieves a $O(\log(1/\delta))$ bound instead of the information-theoretic optimal $\log(1/\delta)$. We show a coding theorem for rKt with a factor of $2$. As in previous work, our coding theorem is efficient in the sense that it provides a polynomial-time probabilistic algorithm that, when given $x$, the code of the sampler, and $\delta$, it outputs, with probability $\ge 0.99$, a probabilistic representation of $x$ that certifies this rKt complexity bound. Assuming the security of cryptographic pseudorandom generators, we show that no efficient coding theorem can achieve a bound of the form rKt$(x) \leq (2 - o(1)) \cdot \log(1/\delta) +$ poly$(\log n)$. Under a weaker assumption, we exhibit a gap between efficient coding theorems and existential coding theorems with near-optimal parameters. We consider pK$^t$ complexity [GKLO22], a variant of rKt where the randomness is public and the time bound is fixed. We observe the existence of an optimal coding theorem for pK$^t$, and employ this result to establish an unconditional version of a theorem of Antunes and Fortnow [AF09] which characterizes the worst-case running times of languages that are in average polynomial-time over all P-samplable distributions.
Many forms of dependence manifest themselves over time, with behavior of variables in dynamical systems as a paradigmatic example. This paper studies temporal dependence in dynamical systems from a logical perspective, by extending a minimal modal base logic of static functional dependencies. We define a logic for dynamical systems with single time steps, provide a complete axiomatic proof calculus, and show the decidability of the satisfiability problem for a substantial fragment. The system comes in two guises: modal and first-order, that naturally complement each other. Next, we consider a timed semantics for our logic, as an intermediate between state spaces and temporal universes for the unfoldings of a dynamical system. We prove completeness and decidability by combining techniques from dynamic-epistemic logic and modal logic of functional dependencies with complex terms for objects. Also, we extend these results to the timed logic with functional symbols and term identity. Finally, we conclude with a brief outlook on how the system proposed here connects with richer temporal logics of system behavior, and with dynamic topological logic.
The minimum energy path (MEP) describes the mechanism of reaction, and the energy barrier along the path can be used to calculate the reaction rate in thermal systems. The nudged elastic band (NEB) method is one of the most commonly used schemes to compute MEPs numerically. It approximates an MEP by a discrete set of configuration images, where the discretization size determines both computational cost and accuracy of the simulations. In this paper, we consider a discrete MEP to be a stationary state of the NEB method and prove an optimal convergence rate of the discrete MEP with respect to the number of images. Numerical simulations for the transitions of some several proto-typical model systems are performed to support the theory.
There are many important high dimensional function classes that have fast agnostic learning algorithms when strong assumptions on the distribution of examples can be made, such as Gaussianity or uniformity over the domain. But how can one be sufficiently confident that the data indeed satisfies the distributional assumption, so that one can trust in the output quality of the agnostic learning algorithm? We propose a model by which to systematically study the design of tester-learner pairs $(\mathcal{A},\mathcal{T})$, such that if the distribution on examples in the data passes the tester $\mathcal{T}$ then one can safely trust the output of the agnostic learner $\mathcal{A}$ on the data. To demonstrate the power of the model, we apply it to the classical problem of agnostically learning halfspaces under the standard Gaussian distribution and present a tester-learner pair with a combined run-time of $n^{\tilde{O}(1/\epsilon^4)}$. This qualitatively matches that of the best known ordinary agnostic learning algorithms for this task. In contrast, finite sample Gaussian distribution testers do not exist for the $L_1$ and EMD distance measures. A key step in the analysis is a novel characterization of concentration and anti-concentration properties of a distribution whose low-degree moments approximately match those of a Gaussian. We also use tools from polynomial approximation theory. In contrast, we show strong lower bounds on the combined run-times of tester-learner pairs for the problems of agnostically learning convex sets under the Gaussian distribution and for monotone Boolean functions under the uniform distribution over $\{0,1\}^n$. Through these lower bounds we exhibit natural problems where there is a dramatic gap between standard agnostic learning run-time and the run-time of the best tester-learner pair.
This paper focuses on the expected difference in borrower's repayment when there is a change in the lender's credit decisions. Classical estimators overlook the confounding effects and hence the estimation error can be magnificent. As such, we propose another approach to construct the estimators such that the error can be greatly reduced. The proposed estimators are shown to be unbiased, consistent, and robust through a combination of theoretical analysis and numerical testing. Moreover, we compare the power of estimating the causal quantities between the classical estimators and the proposed estimators. The comparison is tested across a wide range of models, including linear regression models, tree-based models, and neural network-based models, under different simulated datasets that exhibit different levels of causality, different degrees of nonlinearity, and different distributional properties. Most importantly, we apply our approaches to a large observational dataset provided by a global technology firm that operates in both the e-commerce and the lending business. We find that the relative reduction of estimation error is strikingly substantial if the causal effects are accounted for correctly.