English

Testing Distribution Identity Efficiently

Data Structures and Algorithms 2009-10-20 v1

Abstract

We consider the problem of testing distribution identity. Given a sequence of independent samples from an unknown distribution on a domain of size n, the goal is to check if the unknown distribution approximately equals a known distribution on the same domain. While Batu, Fortnow, Fischer, Kumar, Rubinfeld, and White (FOCS 2001) proved that the sample complexity of the problem is O~(sqrt(n) * poly(1/epsilon)), the running time of their tester is much higher: O(n) + O~(sqrt(n) * poly(1/epsilon)). We modify their tester to achieve a running time of O~(sqrt(n) * poly(1/epsilon)).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0910.3243,
  title  = {Testing Distribution Identity Efficiently},
  author = {Krzysztof Onak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0910.3243},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

4 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T13:59:32.555Z