Let a polytope $\mathcal{P}$ be defined by one of the following ways: (i) $\mathcal{P} = \{x \in \mathbb{R}^n \colon A x \leq b\}$, where $A \in \mathbb{Z}^{(n+m) \times n}$, $b \in \mathbb{Z}^{(n+m)}$, and $rank(A) = n$, (ii) $\mathcal{P} = \{x \in \mathbb{R}_+^n \colon A x = b\}$, where $A \in \mathbb{Z}^{m \times n}$, $b \in \mathbb{Z}^{m}$, and $rank(A) = m$, and let all the rank minors of $A$ be bounded by $\Delta$ in the absolute values. We show that $|\mathcal{P} \cap \mathbb{Z}^n|$ can be computed with an algorithm, having the arithmetic complexity bound $$ O\bigl( \nu(d,m,\Delta) \cdot d^3 \cdot \Delta^4 \cdot \log(\Delta) \bigr), $$ where $d = \dim(\mathcal{P})$ and $\nu(d,m,\Delta)$ is the maximal possible number of vertices in a $d$-dimensional polytope $P$, defined by one of the systems above. Using the obtained result, we have the following arithmetical complexity bounds to compute $|P \cap \mathbb{Z}^n|$: 1) The bound $O(\frac{d}{m}+1)^m \cdot d^3 \cdot \Delta^4 \cdot \log(\Delta)$ that is polynomial on $d$ and $\Delta$, for any fixed $m$; 2) The bound $O\bigl(\frac{m}{d}+1\bigr)^{\frac{d}{2}} \cdot d^3 \cdot \Delta^4 \cdot \log(\Delta)$ that is polynomial on $m$ and $\Delta$, for any fixed $d$; 3) The bound $O(d)^{3 + \frac{d}{2}} \cdot \Delta^{4+d} \cdot \log(\Delta)$ that is polynomial on $\Delta$, for any fixed $d$. Given bounds can be used to obtain faster algorithms for the ILP feasibility problem, and for the problem to count integer points in a simplex or in an unbounded Subset-Sum polytope. Unbounded and parametric versions of the above problem are also considered.
The Schrijver graph $S(n,k)$ is defined for integers $n$ and $k$ with $n \geq 2k$ as the graph whose vertices are all the $k$-subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ that do not include two consecutive elements modulo $n$, where two such sets are adjacent if they are disjoint. A result of Schrijver asserts that the chromatic number of $S(n,k)$ is $n-2k+2$ (Nieuw Arch. Wiskd., 1978). In the computational Schrijver problem, we are given an access to a coloring of the vertices of $S(n,k)$ with $n-2k+1$ colors, and the goal is to find a monochromatic edge. The Schrijver problem is known to be complete in the complexity class $\mathsf{PPA}$. We prove that it can be solved by a randomized algorithm with running time $n^{O(1)} \cdot k^{O(k)}$, hence it is fixed-parameter tractable with respect to the parameter $k$.
We give a fast algorithm for sampling uniform solutions of general constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) in a local lemma regime. The expected running time of our algorithm is near-linear in $n$ and a fixed polynomial in $\Delta$, where $n$ is the number of variables and $\Delta$ is the max degree of constraints. Previously, up to similar conditions, sampling algorithms with running time polynomial in both $n$ and $\Delta$, only existed for the almost atomic case, where each constraint is violated by a small number of forbidden local configurations. Our sampling approach departs from all previous fast algorithms for sampling LLL, which were based on Markov chains. A crucial step of our algorithm is a recursive marginal sampler that is of independent interests. Within a local lemma regime, this marginal sampler can draw a random value for a variable according to its marginal distribution, at a local cost independent of the size of the CSP.
In a sports competition, a team might lose a powerful incentive to exert full effort if its final rank does not depend on the outcome of the matches still to be played. Therefore, the organiser should reduce the probability of such a situation to the extent possible. Our paper provides a classification scheme to identify these weakly (where one team is indifferent) or strongly (where both teams are indifferent) stakeless games. A statistical model is estimated to simulate the UEFA Champions League groups and compare the candidate schedules used in the 2021/22 season according to the competitiveness of the matches played in the last round(s). The option followed in four of the eight groups is found to be optimal under a wide set of parameters. Minimising the number of strongly stakeless matches is verified to be a likely goal in the computer draw of the fixture that remains hidden from the public.
We study the problem of testing whether a function $f: \mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R}$ is a polynomial of degree at most $d$ in the \emph{distribution-free} testing model. Here, the distance between functions is measured with respect to an unknown distribution $\mathcal{D}$ over $\mathbb{R}^n$ from which we can draw samples. In contrast to previous work, we do not assume that $\mathcal{D}$ has finite support. We design a tester that given query access to $f$, and sample access to $\mathcal{D}$, makes $(d/\varepsilon)^{O(1)}$ many queries to $f$, accepts with probability $1$ if $f$ is a polynomial of degree $d$, and rejects with probability at least $2/3$ if every degree-$d$ polynomial $P$ disagrees with $f$ on a set of mass at least $\varepsilon$ with respect to $\mathcal{D}$. Our result also holds under mild assumptions when we receive only a polynomial number of bits of precision for each query to $f$, or when $f$ can only be queried on rational points representable using a logarithmic number of bits. Along the way, we prove a new stability theorem for multivariate polynomials that may be of independent interest.
In this paper we propose a methodology to accelerate the resolution of the so-called "Sorted L-One Penalized Estimation" (SLOPE) problem. Our method leverages the concept of "safe screening", well-studied in the literature for \textit{group-separable} sparsity-inducing norms, and aims at identifying the zeros in the solution of SLOPE. More specifically, we derive a set of \(\tfrac{n(n+1)}{2}\) inequalities for each element of the \(n\)-dimensional primal vector and prove that the latter can be safely screened if some subsets of these inequalities are verified. We propose moreover an efficient algorithm to jointly apply the proposed procedure to all the primal variables. Our procedure has a complexity \(\mathcal{O}(n\log n + LT)\) where \(T\leq n\) is a problem-dependent constant and \(L\) is the number of zeros identified by the tests. Numerical experiments confirm that, for a prescribed computational budget, the proposed methodology leads to significant improvements of the solving precision.
The similarity between a pair of time series, i.e., sequences of indexed values in time order, is often estimated by the dynamic time warping (DTW) distance, instead of any in the well-studied family of measures including the longest common subsequence (LCS) length and the edit distance. Although it may seem as if the DTW and the LCS(-like) measures are essentially different, we reveal that the DTW distance can be represented by the longest increasing subsequence (LIS) length of a sequence of integers, which is the LCS length between the integer sequence and itself sorted. For a given pair of time series of length $n$ such that the dissimilarity between any elements is an integer between zero and $c$, we propose an integer sequence that represents any substring-substring DTW distance as its band-substring LIS length. The length of the produced integer sequence is $O(c n^2)$, which can be translated to $O(n^2)$ for constant dissimilarity functions. To demonstrate that techniques developed under the LCS(-like) measures are directly applicable to analysis of time series via our reduction of DTW to LIS, we present time-efficient algorithms for DTW-related problems utilizing the semi-local sequence comparison technique developed for LCS-related problems.
We study dynamic algorithms for the problem of maximizing a monotone submodular function over a stream of $n$ insertions and deletions. We show that any algorithm that maintains a $(0.5+\epsilon)$-approximate solution under a cardinality constraint, for any constant $\epsilon>0$, must have an amortized query complexity that is $\mathit{polynomial}$ in $n$. Moreover, a linear amortized query complexity is needed in order to maintain a $0.584$-approximate solution. This is in sharp contrast with recent dynamic algorithms of [LMNF+20, Mon20] that achieve $(0.5-\epsilon)$-approximation with a $\mathsf{poly}\log(n)$ amortized query complexity. On the positive side, when the stream is insertion-only, we present efficient algorithms for the problem under a cardinality constraint and under a matroid constraint with approximation guarantee $1-1/e-\epsilon$ and amortized query complexities $\smash{O(\log (k/\epsilon)/\epsilon^2)}$ and $\smash{k^{\tilde{O}(1/\epsilon^2)}\log n}$, respectively, where $k$ denotes the cardinality parameter or the rank of the matroid.
We study a class of enriched unfitted finite element or generalized finite element methods (GFEM) to solve a larger class of interface problems, that is, 1D elliptic interface problems with discontinuous solutions, including those having implicit or Robin-type interface jump conditions. The major challenge of GFEM development is to construct enrichment functions that capture the imposed discontinuity of the solution while keeping the condition number from fast growth. The linear stable generalized finite element method (SGFEM) was recently developed using one enrichment function. We generalized it to an arbitrary degree using two simple discontinuous one-sided enrichment functions. Optimal order convergence in the $L^2$ and broken $H^1$-norms are established. So is the optimal order convergence at all nodes. To prove the efficiency of the SGFEM, the enriched linear, quadratic, and cubic elements are applied to a multi-layer wall model for drug-eluting stents in which zero-flux jump conditions and implicit concentration interface conditions are both present.
Dynamic Linear Models (DLMs) are commonly employed for time series analysis due to their versatile structure, simple recursive updating, ability to handle missing data, and probabilistic forecasting. However, the options for count time series are limited: Gaussian DLMs require continuous data, while Poisson-based alternatives often lack sufficient modeling flexibility. We introduce a novel semiparametric methodology for count time series by warping a Gaussian DLM. The warping function has two components: a (nonparametric) transformation operator that provides distributional flexibility and a rounding operator that ensures the correct support for the discrete data-generating process. We develop conjugate inference for the warped DLM, which enables analytic and recursive updates for the state space filtering and smoothing distributions. We leverage these results to produce customized and efficient algorithms for inference and forecasting, including Monte Carlo simulation for offline analysis and an optimal particle filter for online inference. This framework unifies and extends a variety of discrete time series models and is valid for natural counts, rounded values, and multivariate observations. Simulation studies illustrate the excellent forecasting capabilities of the warped DLM. The proposed approach is applied to a multivariate time series of daily overdose counts and demonstrates both modeling and computational successes.
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.