Working in Zermelo-Fraenkel Set Theory with Atoms over an $\omega$-categorical $\omega$-stable structure, we show how \emph{infinite} constructions over definable sets can be encoded as \emph{finite} constructions over the Stone-\v{C}ech compactification of the sets. In particular, we show that for a definable set $X$ with its Stone-\v{C}ech compactification $\overline{X}$ the following holds: a) the powerset $\mathcal{P}(X)$ of $X$ is isomorphic to the finite-powerset $\mathcal{P}_{\textit{fin}}(\overline{X})$ of $\overline{X}$, b) the vector space $\mathcal{K}^X$ over a field $\mathcal{K}$ is the free vector space $F_{\mathcal{K}}(\overline{X})$ on $\overline{X}$ over $\mathcal{K}$, c) every measure on $X$ is tantamount to a \emph{discrete} measure on $\overline{X}$. Moreover, we prove that the Stone-\v{C}ech compactification of a definable set is still definable, which allows us to obtain some results about equivalence of certain formalizations of register machines.
In this paper we consider the problem of estimating the $f$-moment ($\sum_{v\in [n]} (f(\mathbf{x}(v))-f(0))$) of a dynamic vector $\mathbf{x}\in \mathbb{G}^n$ over some abelian group $(\mathbb{G},+)$, where the $\|f\|_\infty$ norm is bounded. We propose a simple sketch and new estimation framework based on the \emph{Fourier transform} of $f$. I.e., we decompose $f$ into a linear combination of homomorphisms $f_1,f_2,\ldots$ from $(\mathbb{G},+)$ to $(\mathbb{C},\times)$, estimate the $f_k$-moment for each $f_k$, and synthesize them to obtain an estimate of the $f$-moment. Our estimators are asymptotically unbiased and have variance asymptotic to $\|\mathbf{x}\|_0^2 (\|f\|_\infty^2 m^{-1} + \|\hat{f}\|_1^2 m^{-2})$, where the size of the sketch is $O(m\log n\log|\mathbb{G}|)$ bits. When $\mathbb{G}=\mathbb{Z}$ this problem can also be solved using off-the-shelf $\ell_0$-samplers with space $O(m\log^2 n)$ bits, which does not obviously generalize to finite groups. As a concrete benchmark, we extend Ganguly, Garofalakis, and Rastogi's singleton-detector-based sampler to work over $\mathbb{G}$ using $O(m\log n\log|\mathbb{G}|\log(m\log n))$ bits. We give some experimental evidence that the Fourier-based estimation framework is significantly more accurate than sampling-based approaches at the same memory footprint.
In 2017, Aharoni proposed the following generalization of the Caccetta-H\"{a}ggkvist conjecture: if $G$ is a simple $n$-vertex edge-colored graph with $n$ color classes of size at least $r$, then $G$ contains a rainbow cycle of length at most $\lceil n/r \rceil$. In this paper, we prove that, for fixed $r$, Aharoni's conjecture holds up to an additive constant. Specifically, we show that for each fixed $r \geq 1$, there exists a constant $c_r$ such that if $G$ is a simple $n$-vertex edge-colored graph with $n$ color classes of size at least $r$, then $G$ contains a rainbow cycle of length at most $n/r + c_r$.
We consider finite element approximations of ill-posed elliptic problems with conditional stability. The notion of {\emph{optimal error estimates}} is defined including both convergence with respect to mesh parameter and perturbations in data. The rate of convergence is determined by the conditional stability of the underlying continuous problem and the polynomial order of the finite element approximation space. A proof is given that no finite element approximation can converge at a better rate than that given by the definition, justifying the concept. A recently introduced class of finite element methods with weakly consistent regularisation is recalled and the associated error estimates are shown to be quasi optimal in the sense of our definition.
For any positive integer $q\geq 2$ and any real number $\delta\in(0,1)$, let $\alpha_q(n,\delta n)$ denote the maximum size of a subset of $\mathbb{Z}_q^n$ with minimum Hamming distance at least $\delta n$, where $\mathbb{Z}_q=\{0,1,\dotsc,q-1\}$ and $n\in\mathbb{N}$. The asymptotic rate function is defined by $ R_q(\delta) = \limsup_{n\rightarrow\infty}\frac{1}{n}\log_q\alpha_q(n,\delta n).$ The famous $q$-ary asymptotic Gilbert-Varshamov bound, obtained in the 1950s, states that \[ R_q(\delta) \geq 1 - \delta\log_q(q-1)-\delta\log_q\frac{1}{\delta}-(1-\delta)\log_q\frac{1}{1-\delta} \stackrel{\mathrm{def}}{=}R_\mathrm{GV}(\delta,q) \] for all positive integers $q\geq 2$ and $0<\delta<1-q^{-1}$. In the case that $q$ is an even power of a prime with $q\geq 49$, the $q$-ary Gilbert-Varshamov bound was firstly improved by using algebraic geometry codes in the works of Tsfasman, Vladut, and Zink and of Ihara in the 1980s. These algebraic geometry codes have been modified to improve the $q$-ary Gilbert-Varshamov bound $R_\mathrm{GV}(\delta,q)$ at a specific tangent point $\delta=\delta_0\in (0,1)$ of the curve $R_\mathrm{GV}(\delta,q)$ for each given integer $q\geq 46$. However, the $q$-ary Gilbert-Varshamov bound $R_\mathrm{GV}(\delta,q)$ at $\delta=1/2$, i.e., $R_\mathrm{GV}(1/2,q)$, remains the largest known lower bound of $R_q(1/2)$ for infinitely many positive integers $q$ which is a generic prime and which is a generic non-prime-power integer. In this paper, by using codes from geometry of numbers introduced by Lenstra in the 1980s, we prove that the $q$-ary Gilbert-Varshamov bound $R_\mathrm{GV}(\delta,q)$ with $\delta\in(0,1)$ can be improved for all but finitely many positive integers $q$. It is shown that the growth defined by $\eta(\delta)= \liminf_{q\rightarrow\infty}\frac{1}{\log q}\log[1-\delta-R_q(\delta)]^{-1}$ for every $\delta\in(0,1)$ has actually a nontrivial lower bound.
Consider a matroid where all elements are labeled with an element in $\mathbb{Z}$. We are interested in finding a base where the sum of the labels is congruent to $g \pmod m$. We show that this problem can be solved in $\tilde{O}(2^{4m} n r^{5/6})$ time for a matroid with $n$ elements and rank $r$, when $m$ is either the product of two primes or a prime power. The algorithm can be generalized to all moduli and, in fact, to all abelian groups if a classic additive combinatorics conjecture by Schrijver and Seymour holds true. We also discuss the optimization version of the problem.
We investigate a Bayesian $k$-armed bandit problem in the \emph{many-armed} regime, where $k \geq \sqrt{T}$ and $T$ represents the time horizon. Initially, and aligned with recent literature on many-armed bandit problems, we observe that subsampling plays a key role in designing optimal algorithms; the conventional UCB algorithm is sub-optimal, whereas a subsampled UCB (SS-UCB), which selects $\Theta(\sqrt{T})$ arms for execution under the UCB framework, achieves rate-optimality. However, despite SS-UCB's theoretical promise of optimal regret, it empirically underperforms compared to a greedy algorithm that consistently chooses the empirically best arm. This observation extends to contextual settings through simulations with real-world data. Our findings suggest a new form of \emph{free exploration} beneficial to greedy algorithms in the many-armed context, fundamentally linked to a tail event concerning the prior distribution of arm rewards. This finding diverges from the notion of free exploration, which relates to covariate variation, as recently discussed in contextual bandit literature. Expanding upon these insights, we establish that the subsampled greedy approach not only achieves rate-optimality for Bernoulli bandits within the many-armed regime but also attains sublinear regret across broader distributions. Collectively, our research indicates that in the many-armed regime, practitioners might find greater value in adopting greedy algorithms.
Given an intractable distribution $p$, the problem of variational inference (VI) is to compute the best approximation $q$ from some more tractable family $\mathcal{Q}$. Most commonly the approximation is found by minimizing a Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence. However, there exist other valid choices of divergences, and when $\mathcal{Q}$ does not contain~$p$, each divergence champions a different solution. We analyze how the choice of divergence affects the outcome of VI when a Gaussian with a dense covariance matrix is approximated by a Gaussian with a diagonal covariance matrix. In this setting we show that different divergences can be \textit{ordered} by the amount that their variational approximations misestimate various measures of uncertainty, such as the variance, precision, and entropy. We also derive an impossibility theorem showing that no two of these measures can be simultaneously matched by a factorized approximation; hence, the choice of divergence informs which measure, if any, is correctly estimated. Our analysis covers the KL divergence, the R\'enyi divergences, and a score-based divergence that compares $\nabla\log p$ and $\nabla\log q$. We empirically evaluate whether these orderings hold when VI is used to approximate non-Gaussian distributions.
The local regularity of functional time series is studied under $L^p-m-$appro\-ximability assumptions. The sample paths are observed with error at possibly random design points. Non-asymptotic concentration bounds of the regularity estimators are derived. As an application, we build nonparametric mean and autocovariance functions estimators that adapt to the regularity and the design, which can be sparse or dense. We also derive the asymptotic normality of the mean estimator, which allows honest inference for irregular mean functions. Simulations and a real data application illustrate the performance of the new estimators.
This study introduces the syntropy function ($S_N$) and expectancy function ($E_N$), derived from the novel function $\phi$, to provide a refined perspective on complexity, extending beyond conventional entropy analysis. $S_N$ is designed to detect localized coherent events, whereas $E_N$ encapsulates expected system behaviors, offering a comprehensive framework for understanding system dynamics. The manuscript explores essential theorems and properties, underscoring their theoretical and practical implications. Future research will further elucidate their roles, particularly in biological signals and dynamic systems, suggesting a deep interplay between order and chaos.
Due to their inherent capability in semantic alignment of aspects and their context words, attention mechanism and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are widely applied for aspect-based sentiment classification. However, these models lack a mechanism to account for relevant syntactical constraints and long-range word dependencies, and hence may mistakenly recognize syntactically irrelevant contextual words as clues for judging aspect sentiment. To tackle this problem, we propose to build a Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) over the dependency tree of a sentence to exploit syntactical information and word dependencies. Based on it, a novel aspect-specific sentiment classification framework is raised. Experiments on three benchmarking collections illustrate that our proposed model has comparable effectiveness to a range of state-of-the-art models, and further demonstrate that both syntactical information and long-range word dependencies are properly captured by the graph convolution structure.