English

Identification of a monotone Boolean function with $k$ "reasons" as a combinatorial search problem

Combinatorics 2025-05-26 v2

Abstract

We study the number of queries needed to identify a monotone Boolean function f:{0,1}n{0,1}f:\{0,1\}^n \rightarrow \{0,1\}. A query consists of a 0-1-sequence, and the answer is the value of ff on that sequence. It is well-known that the number of queries needed is (nn/2)+(nn/2+1)\binom{n}{\lfloor n/2\rfloor}+\binom{n}{\lfloor n/2\rfloor+1} in general. Here we study a variant where ff has kk ``reasons'' to be 1, i.e., its disjunctive normal form has kk conjunctions if the redundant conjunctions are deleted. This problem is equivalent to identifying an upfamily in 2[n]2^{[n]} that has exactly kk minimal members. We find the asymptotics on the number of queries needed for fixed kk. We also study the non-adaptive version of the problem, where the queries are asked at the same time, and determine the exact number of queries for most values of kk and nn.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2411.19833,
  title  = {Identification of a monotone Boolean function with $k$ "reasons" as a combinatorial search problem},
  author = {Dániel Gerbner and András Imolay and Gyula O. H. Katona and Dániel T. Nagy and Kartal Nagy and Balázs Patkós and Domonkos Stadler and Kristóf Zólomy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.19833},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T20:17:02.370Z