Related papers: Is submodularity testable?
We present an efficient algorithm to find non-empty minimizers of a symmetric submodular function over any family of sets closed under inclusion. This for example includes families defined by a cardinality constraint, a knapsack constraint,…
Given Boolean functions \( f, g : \mathbb{F}_2^n \to \{-1,+1\} \), we say they are {\em linearly isomorphic} if there exists \( A \in \mathrm{GL}_n(\mathbb{F}_2) \) such that \( f(x)=g(Ax) \) for all \( x \). We study this problem in the…
Test functions are important to validate new optimization algorithms and to compare the performance of various algorithms. There are many test functions in the literature, but there is no standard list or set of test functions one has to…
We improve both upper and lower bounds for the distribution-free testing of monotone conjunctions. Given oracle access to an unknown Boolean function $f:\{0,1\}^n \rightarrow \{0,1\}$ and sampling oracle access to an unknown distribution…
A Boolean function $f:\{0,1\}^d \mapsto \{0,1\}$ is unate if, along each coordinate, the function is either nondecreasing or nonincreasing. In this note, we prove that any nonadaptive, one-sided error unateness tester must make…
We consider the problem of maximizing a nonnegative (possibly non-monotone) submodular set function with or without constraints. Feige et al. [FOCS'07] showed a 2/5-approximation for the unconstrained problem and also proved that no…
The problem of maximizing non-negative submodular functions has been studied extensively in the last few years. However, most papers consider submodular set functions. Recently, several advances have been made for the more general case of…
We define tests of boolean functions which distinguish between linear (or quadratic) polynomials, and functions which are very far, in an appropriate sense, from these polynomials. The tests have optimal or nearly optimal trade-offs between…
We establish new upper and lower bounds on the number of queries required to test convexity of functions over various discrete domains. 1. We provide a simplified version of the non-adaptive convexity tester on the line. We re-prove the…
Using polarity, we give an outer polyhedral approximation for the epigraph of set functions. For a submodular function, we prove that the corresponding polar relaxation is exact; hence, it is equivalent to the Lov\'asz extension. The polar…
We consider the maximization of a submodular objective function $f:2^U\to\mathbb{R}_{\geq 0}$, where the objective $f$ is not accessed as a value oracle but instead subject to noisy queries. We introduce a versatile adaptive sampling…
A set label disagreement function is defined over the number of variables that deviates from the dominant label. The dominant label is the value assumed by the largest number of variables within a set of binary variables. The submodularity…
Submodular continuous functions are a category of (generally) non-convex/non-concave functions with a wide spectrum of applications. We characterize these functions and demonstrate that they can be maximized efficiently with approximation…
The model of relative-error property testing of Boolean functions has been the subject of significant recent research effort [CDH+24][CPPS25a][CPPS25b] In this paper we consider the problem of relative-error testing an unknown and arbitrary…
In this paper, we focus on applications in machine learning, optimization, and control that call for the resilient selection of a few elements, e.g. features, sensors, or leaders, against a number of adversarial denial-of-service attacks or…
Submodular functions and variants, through their ability to characterize diversity and coverage, have emerged as a key tool for data selection and summarization. Many recent approaches to learn submodular functions suffer from limited…
Many combinatorial problems arising in machine learning can be reduced to the problem of minimizing a submodular function. Submodular functions are a natural discrete analog of convex functions, and can be minimized in strongly polynomial…
In this paper, we present an algorithm for minimizing the difference between two submodular functions using a variational framework which is based on (an extension of) the concave-convex procedure [17]. Because several commonly used metrics…
We introduce several generalizations of classical computer science problems obtained by replacing simpler objective functions with general submodular functions. The new problems include submodular load balancing, which generalizes load…
We present an $\tilde{O}(n^{2/3}/\epsilon^2)$-query algorithm that tests whether an unknown Boolean function $f\colon\{0,1\}^n\rightarrow \{0,1\}$ is unate (i.e., every variable is either non-decreasing or non-increasing) or $\epsilon$-far…