We consider a synchronous process of particles moving on the vertices of a graph $G$, introduced by Cooper, McDowell, Radzik, Rivera and Shiraga (2018). Initially,~$M$ particles are placed on a vertex of $G$. At the beginning of each time step, for every vertex inhabited by at least two particles, each of these particles moves independently to a neighbour chosen uniformly at random. The process ends at the first step when no vertex is inhabited by more than one particle. Cooper et al. showed that when the underlying graph is the complete graph on~$n$ vertices, then there is a phase transition when the number of particles $M = n/2$. They showed that if $M<(1-\varepsilon)n/2$ for some fixed $\varepsilon>0$, then the process finishes in a logarithmic number of steps, while if $M>(1+\varepsilon)n/2$, an exponential number of steps are required with high probability. In this paper we provide a thorough analysis of the dispersion time around criticality, where $\varepsilon = o(1)$, and describe the fine details of the transition between logarithmic and exponential time. As a consequence of our results we establish, for example, that the dispersion time is in probability and in expectation $\Theta(n^{1/2})$ when $|\varepsilon| = O(n^{-1/2})$, and provide qualitative bounds for its tail behavior.
Next-generation wireless communication systems impose much stricter requirements for transmission rate, latency, and reliability. The peak data rate of 6G networks should be no less than 1 Tb/s, which is comparable to existing long-haul optical transport networks. It is believed that using long error-correcting codes (ECC) with soft-decision decoding (SDD) is not feasible in this case due to the resulting high power consumption. On the other hand, ECC with hard-decision decoding (HDD) suffers from significant performance degradation. In this paper, we consider a concatenated solution consisting of an outer long HDD code and an inner short SDD code. The latter code is a crucial component of the system and the focus of our research. Due to its short length, the code cannot correct all errors, but it is designed to minimize the number of errors. Such codes are known as error-reducing codes. We investigate the error-reducing properties of superposition codes. Initially, we explore sparse regression codes (SPARCs) with Gaussian signals. This approach outperforms error-reducing binary LDPC codes optimized by Barakatain, et al. (2018) in terms of performance but faces limitations in practical applicability due to high implementation complexity. Subsequently, we propose an LDPC-based superposition code scheme with low-complexity soft successive interference cancellation (SIC) decoding. This scheme demonstrates comparable performance to SPARCs while maintaining manageable complexity. Numerical results were obtained for inner codes with an overhead (OH) of 8.24% within a concatenated scheme (15% OH) with an outer hard-decision decoded staircase code (6.25% OH).
We consider the problem of contextual bandits and imitation learning, where the learner lacks direct knowledge of the executed action's reward. Instead, the learner can actively query an expert at each round to compare two actions and receive noisy preference feedback. The learner's objective is two-fold: to minimize the regret associated with the executed actions, while simultaneously, minimizing the number of comparison queries made to the expert. In this paper, we assume that the learner has access to a function class that can represent the expert's preference model under appropriate link functions, and provide an algorithm that leverages an online regression oracle with respect to this function class for choosing its actions and deciding when to query. For the contextual bandit setting, our algorithm achieves a regret bound that combines the best of both worlds, scaling as $O(\min\{\sqrt{T}, d/\Delta\})$, where $T$ represents the number of interactions, $d$ represents the eluder dimension of the function class, and $\Delta$ represents the minimum preference of the optimal action over any suboptimal action under all contexts. Our algorithm does not require the knowledge of $\Delta$, and the obtained regret bound is comparable to what can be achieved in the standard contextual bandits setting where the learner observes reward signals at each round. Additionally, our algorithm makes only $O(\min\{T, d^2/\Delta^2\})$ queries to the expert. We then extend our algorithm to the imitation learning setting, where the learning agent engages with an unknown environment in episodes of length $H$ each, and provide similar guarantees for regret and query complexity. Interestingly, our algorithm for imitation learning can even learn to outperform the underlying expert, when it is suboptimal, highlighting a practical benefit of preference-based feedback in imitation learning.
We introduce a new class of numerical schemes which allow for low regularity approximations to the expectation $ \mathbb{E}(|u_{k}(\tau, v^{\eta})|^2)$, where $u_k$ denotes the $k$-th Fourier coefficient of the solution $u$ of the dispersive equation and $ v^{\eta}(x) $ the associated random initial data. This quantity plays an important role in physics, in particular in the study of wave turbulence where one needs to adopt a statistical approach in order to obtain deep insight into the generic long-time behaviour of solutions to dispersive equations. Our new class of schemes is based on Wick's theorem and Feynman diagrams together with a resonance based discretisation (see arXiv:2005.01649) set in a more general context: we introduce a novel combinatorial structure called paired decorated forests which are two decorated trees whose decorations on the leaves come in pair. The character of the scheme draws its inspiration from the treatment of singular stochastic partial differential equations via Regularity Structures. In contrast to classical approaches, we do not discretize the PDE itself, but rather its expectation. This allows us to heavily exploit the optimal resonance structure and underlying gain in regularity on the finite dimensional (discrete) level.
We consider the following problem that we call the Shortest Two Disjoint Paths problem: given an undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ with edge weights $w:E\rightarrow \mathbb{R}$, two terminals $s$ and $t$ in $G$, find two internally vertex-disjoint paths between $s$ and $t$ with minimum total weight. As shown recently by Schlotter and Seb\H{o} (2023), this problem becomes NP-hard if edges can have negative weights, even if the weight function is conservative, i.e., there are are no cycles in $G$ with negative weight. We propose a polynomial-time algorithm that solves the Shortest Two Disjoint Paths problem for conservative weights in the case when the negative-weight edges form a single tree in $G$.
Entity Resolution (ER) is the problem of determining when two entities refer to the same underlying entity. The problem has been studied for over 50 years, and most recently, has taken on new importance in an era of large, heterogeneous 'knowledge graphs' published on the Web and used widely in domains as wide ranging as social media, e-commerce and search. This chapter will discuss the specific problem of named ER in the context of personal knowledge graphs (PKGs). We begin with a formal definition of the problem, and the components necessary for doing high-quality and efficient ER. We also discuss some challenges that are expected to arise for Web-scale data. Next, we provide a brief literature review, with a special focus on how existing techniques can potentially apply to PKGs. We conclude the chapter by covering some applications, as well as promising directions for future research.
The Independent Cutset problem asks whether there is a set of vertices in a given graph that is both independent and a cutset. Such a problem is $\textsf{NP}$-complete even when the input graph is planar and has maximum degree five. In this paper, we first present a $\mathcal{O}^*(1.4423^{n})$-time algorithm for the problem. We also show how to compute a minimum independent cutset (if any) in the same running time. Since the property of having an independent cutset is MSO$_1$-expressible, our main results are concerned with structural parameterizations for the problem considering parameters that are not bounded by a function of the clique-width of the input. We present $\textsf{FPT}$-time algorithms for the problem considering the following parameters: the dual of the maximum degree, the dual of the solution size, the size of a dominating set (where a dominating set is given as an additional input), the size of an odd cycle transversal, the distance to chordal graphs, and the distance to $P_5$-free graphs. We close by introducing the notion of $\alpha$-domination, which allows us to identify more fixed-parameter tractable and polynomial-time solvable cases.
Time-sensitive networks require timely and accurate monitoring of the status of the network. To achieve this, many devices send packets periodically, which are then aggregated and forwarded to the controller. Bounding the aggregate burstiness of the traffic is then crucial for effective resource management. In this paper, we are interested in bounding this aggregate burstiness for independent and periodic flows. A deterministic bound is tight only when flows are perfectly synchronized, which is highly unlikely in practice and would be overly pessimistic. We compute the probability that the aggregate burstiness exceeds some value. When all flows have the same period and packet size, we obtain a closed-form bound using the Dvoretzky-Kiefer-Wolfowitz inequality. In the heterogeneous case, we group flows and combine the bounds obtained for each group using the convolution bound. Our bounds are numerically close to simulations and thus fairly tight. The resulting aggregate burstiness estimated for a non-zero violation probability is considerably smaller than the deterministic one: it grows in $\sqrt{n\log{n}}$, instead of $n$, where $n$ is the number of flows.
The recently introduced DeepONet operator-learning framework for PDE control is extended from the results for basic hyperbolic and parabolic PDEs to an advanced hyperbolic class that involves delays on both the state and the system output or input. The PDE backstepping design produces gain functions that are outputs of a nonlinear operator, mapping functions on a spatial domain into functions on a spatial domain, and where this gain-generating operator's inputs are the PDE's coefficients. The operator is approximated with a DeepONet neural network to a degree of accuracy that is provably arbitrarily tight. Once we produce this approximation-theoretic result in infinite dimension, with it we establish stability in closed loop under feedback that employs approximate gains. In addition to supplying such results under full-state feedback, we also develop DeepONet-approximated observers and output-feedback laws and prove their own stabilizing properties under neural operator approximations. With numerical simulations we illustrate the theoretical results and quantify the numerical effort savings, which are of two orders of magnitude, thanks to replacing the numerical PDE solving with the DeepONet.
In inverse problems, one attempts to infer spatially variable functions from indirect measurements of a system. To practitioners of inverse problems, the concept of "information" is familiar when discussing key questions such as which parts of the function can be inferred accurately and which cannot. For example, it is generally understood that we can identify system parameters accurately only close to detectors, or along ray paths between sources and detectors, because we have "the most information" for these places. Although referenced in many publications, the "information" that is invoked in such contexts is not a well understood and clearly defined quantity. Herein, we present a definition of information density that is based on the variance of coefficients as derived from a Bayesian reformulation of the inverse problem. We then discuss three areas in which this information density can be useful in practical algorithms for the solution of inverse problems, and illustrate the usefulness in one of these areas -- how to choose the discretization mesh for the function to be reconstructed -- using numerical experiments.
With the rapid increase of large-scale, real-world datasets, it becomes critical to address the problem of long-tailed data distribution (i.e., a few classes account for most of the data, while most classes are under-represented). Existing solutions typically adopt class re-balancing strategies such as re-sampling and re-weighting based on the number of observations for each class. In this work, we argue that as the number of samples increases, the additional benefit of a newly added data point will diminish. We introduce a novel theoretical framework to measure data overlap by associating with each sample a small neighboring region rather than a single point. The effective number of samples is defined as the volume of samples and can be calculated by a simple formula $(1-\beta^{n})/(1-\beta)$, where $n$ is the number of samples and $\beta \in [0,1)$ is a hyperparameter. We design a re-weighting scheme that uses the effective number of samples for each class to re-balance the loss, thereby yielding a class-balanced loss. Comprehensive experiments are conducted on artificially induced long-tailed CIFAR datasets and large-scale datasets including ImageNet and iNaturalist. Our results show that when trained with the proposed class-balanced loss, the network is able to achieve significant performance gains on long-tailed datasets.