Let $P$ be a $k$-colored set of $n$ points in the plane, $4 \leq k \leq n$. We study the problem of deciding if $P$ contains a subset of four points of different colors such that its Rectilinear Convex Hull has positive area. We provide an $O(n \log n)$-time algorithm for this problem, where the hidden constant does not depend on $k$; then, we prove that this problem has time complexity $\Omega(n \log n)$ in the algebraic computation tree model. No general position assumptions for $P$ are required.
We consider the problem of learning low-degree quantum objects up to $\varepsilon$-error in $\ell_2$-distance. We show the following results: $(i)$ unknown $n$-qubit degree-$d$ (in the Pauli basis) quantum channels and unitaries can be learned using $O(1/\varepsilon^d)$ queries (independent of $n$), $(ii)$ polynomials $p:\{-1,1\}^n\rightarrow [-1,1]$ arising from $d$-query quantum algorithms can be classically learned from $O((1/\varepsilon)^d\cdot \log n)$ many random examples $(x,p(x))$ (which implies learnability even for $d=O(\log n)$), and $(iii)$ degree-$d$ polynomials $p:\{-1,1\}^n\to [-1,1]$ can be learned through $O(1/\varepsilon^d)$ queries to a quantum unitary $U_p$ that block-encodes $p$. Our main technical contributions are new Bohnenblust-Hille inequalities for quantum channels and completely bounded~polynomials.
Starting from an A-stable rational approximation to $\rm{e}^z$ of order $p$, $$r(z)= 1+ z+ \cdots + z^p/ p! + O(z^{p+1}),$$ families of stable methods are proposed to time discretize abstract IVP's of the type $u'(t) = A u(t) + f(t)$. These numerical procedures turn out to be of order $p$, thus overcoming the order reduction phenomenon, and only one evaluation of $f$ per step is required.
We study the problem of distinguishing between two independent samples $\mathbf{G}_n^1,\mathbf{G}_n^2$ of a binomial random graph $G(n,p)$ by first order (FO) sentences. Shelah and Spencer proved that, for a constant $\alpha\in(0,1)$, $G(n,n^{-\alpha})$ obeys FO zero-one law if and only if $\alpha$ is irrational. Therefore, for irrational $\alpha\in(0,1)$, any fixed FO sentence does not distinguish between $\mathbf{G}_n^1,\mathbf{G}_n^2$ with asymptotical probability 1 (w.h.p.) as $n\to\infty$. We show that the minimum quantifier depth $\mathbf{k}_{\alpha}$ of a FO sentence $\varphi=\varphi(\mathbf{G}_n^1,\mathbf{G}_n^2)$ distinguishing between $\mathbf{G}_n^1,\mathbf{G}_n^2$ depends on how closely $\alpha$ can be approximated by rationals: (1) for all non-Liouville $\alpha\in(0,1)$, $\mathbf{k}_{\alpha}=\Omega(\ln\ln\ln n)$ w.h.p.; (2) there are irrational $\alpha\in(0,1)$ with $\mathbf{k}_{\alpha}$ that grow arbitrarily slowly w.h.p.; (3) $\mathbf{k}_{\alpha}=O_p(\frac{\ln n}{\ln\ln n})$ for all $\alpha\in(0,1)$. The main ingredients in our proofs are a novel randomized algorithm that generates asymmetric strictly balanced graphs as well as a new method to study symmetry groups of randomly perturbed graphs.
We study the classic \textsc{(Uncapacitated) Facility Location} problem on Unit Disk Graphs (UDGs). For a given point set $P$ in the plane, the unit disk graph UDG(P) on $P$ has vertex set $P$ and an edge between two distinct points $p, q \in P$ if and only if their Euclidean distance $|pq|$ is at most 1. The weight of the edge $pq$ is equal to their distance $|pq|$. An instance of \fl on UDG(P) consists of a set $C\subseteq P$ of clients and a set $F\subseteq P$ of facilities, each having an opening cost $f_i$. The goal is to pick a subset $F'\subseteq F$ to open while minimizing $\sum_{i\in F'} f_i + \sum_{v\in C} d(v,F')$, where $d(v,F')$ is the distance of $v$ to nearest facility in $F'$ through UDG(P). In this paper, we present the first Quasi-Polynomial Time Approximation Schemes (QPTAS) for the problem. While approximation schemes are well-established for facility location problems on sparse geometric graphs (such as planar graphs), there is a lack of such results for dense graphs. Specifically, prior to this study, to the best of our knowledge, there was no approximation scheme for any facility location problem on UDGs in the general setting.
We revisit the following problem, proposed by Kolmogorov: given prescribed marginal distributions $F$ and $G$ for random variables $X,Y$ respectively, characterize the set of compatible distribution functions for the sum $Z=X+Y$. Bounds on the distribution function for $Z$ were given by Markarov (1982), and Frank et al. (1987), the latter using copula theory. However, though they obtain the same bounds, they make different assertions concerning their sharpness. In addition, their solutions leave some open problems in the case when the given marginal distribution functions are discontinuous. These issues have led to some confusion and erroneous statements in subsequent literature, which we correct. Kolmogorov's problem is closely related to inferring possible distributions for individual treatment effects $Y_1 - Y_0$ given the marginal distributions of $Y_1$ and $Y_0$; the latter being identified from a randomized experiment. We use our new insights to sharpen and correct results due to Fan and Park (2010) concerning individual treatment effects, and to fill some other logical gaps.
In this paper, we investigate two questions on Kneser graphs $KG_{n,k}$. First, we prove that the union of $s$ non-trivial intersecting families in ${[n]\choose k}$ has size at most ${n\choose k}-{n-s\choose k}$ for all sufficiently large $n$ that satisfy $n>(2+\epsilon)k^2$ with $\epsilon>0$. We provide an example that shows that this result is essentially tight for the number of colors close to $\chi(KG_{n,k})=n-2k+2$. We also improve the result of Bulankina and Kupavskii on the choice chromatic number, showing that it is at least $\frac 1{16} n\log n$ for all $k<\sqrt n$ and $n$ sufficiently large.
The correlated Erd\"os-R\'enyi random graph ensemble is a probability law on pairs of graphs with $n$ vertices, parametrized by their average degree $\lambda$ and their correlation coefficient $s$. It can be used as a benchmark for the graph alignment problem, in which the labels of the vertices of one of the graphs are reshuffled by an unknown permutation; the goal is to infer this permutation and thus properly match the pairs of vertices in both graphs. A series of recent works has unveiled the role of Otter's constant $\alpha$ (that controls the exponential rate of growth of the number of unlabeled rooted trees as a function of their sizes) in this problem: for $s>\sqrt{\alpha}$ and $\lambda$ large enough it is possible to recover in a time polynomial in $n$ a positive fraction of the hidden permutation. The exponent of this polynomial growth is however quite large and depends on the other parameters, which limits the range of applications of the algorithm. In this work we present a family of faster algorithms for this task, show through numerical simulations that their accuracy is only slightly reduced with respect to the original one, and conjecture that they undergo, in the large $\lambda$ limit, phase transitions at modified Otter's thresholds $\sqrt{\widehat{\alpha}}>\sqrt{\alpha}$, with $\widehat{\alpha}$ related to the enumeration of a restricted family of trees.
A set $C$ of vertices in a graph $G=(V,E)$ is an identifying code if it is dominating and any two vertices of $V$ are dominated by distinct sets of codewords. This paper presents a survey of Iiro Honkala's contributions to the study of identifying codes with respect to several aspects: complexity of computing an identifying code, combinatorics in binary Hamming spaces, infinite grids, relationships between identifying codes and usual parameters in graphs, structural properties of graphs admitting identifying codes, and number of optimal identifying codes.
Let $B$ and $C$ be square complex matrices. The differential equation \begin{equation*} x''(t)+Bx'(t)+Cx(t)=f(t) \end{equation*} is considered. A solvent is a matrix solution $X$ of the equation $X^2+BX+C=\mathbf0$. A pair of solvents $X$ and $Z$ is called complete if the matrix $X-Z$ is invertible. Knowing a complete pair of solvents $X$ and $Z$ allows us to reduce the solution of the initial value problem to the calculation of two matrix exponentials $e^{Xt}$ and $e^{Zt}$. The problem of finding a complete pair $X$ and $Z$, which leads to small rounding errors in solving the differential equation, is discussed.
We study stochastic approximation procedures for approximately solving a $d$-dimensional linear fixed point equation based on observing a trajectory of length $n$ from an ergodic Markov chain. We first exhibit a non-asymptotic bound of the order $t_{\mathrm{mix}} \tfrac{d}{n}$ on the squared error of the last iterate of a standard scheme, where $t_{\mathrm{mix}}$ is a mixing time. We then prove a non-asymptotic instance-dependent bound on a suitably averaged sequence of iterates, with a leading term that matches the local asymptotic minimax limit, including sharp dependence on the parameters $(d, t_{\mathrm{mix}})$ in the higher order terms. We complement these upper bounds with a non-asymptotic minimax lower bound that establishes the instance-optimality of the averaged SA estimator. We derive corollaries of these results for policy evaluation with Markov noise -- covering the TD($\lambda$) family of algorithms for all $\lambda \in [0, 1)$ -- and linear autoregressive models. Our instance-dependent characterizations open the door to the design of fine-grained model selection procedures for hyperparameter tuning (e.g., choosing the value of $\lambda$ when running the TD($\lambda$) algorithm).