English

Notes on computational-to-statistical gaps: predictions using statistical physics

Machine Learning 2018-04-23 v2 Data Structures and Algorithms Machine Learning

Abstract

In these notes we describe heuristics to predict computational-to-statistical gaps in certain statistical problems. These are regimes in which the underlying statistical problem is information-theoretically possible although no efficient algorithm exists, rendering the problem essentially unsolvable for large instances. The methods we describe here are based on mature, albeit non-rigorous, tools from statistical physics. These notes are based on a lecture series given by the authors at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences in New York City, on May 16th, 2017.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1803.11132,
  title  = {Notes on computational-to-statistical gaps: predictions using statistical physics},
  author = {Afonso S. Bandeira and Amelia Perry and Alexander S. Wein},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1803.11132},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

22 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T01:08:58.850Z