Related papers: The sum-capture problem for abelian groups

We improve on recent estimates for the probability of generating the alternating and symmetric groups $\mathrm{Alt}(n)$ and $\mathrm{Sym}(n)$. In particular we find the sharp lower bound, if the probability is given by a quadratic in…

For probability distributions on $\mathbb{R}^n$, we study the optimal sample size N = N(n,p) that suffices to uniformly approximate the pth moments of all one-dimensional marginals. Under the assumption that the marginals have bounded 4p…

The problem of computing the optimum of a function on a finite set is an important problem in mathematics and computer science. Many combinatorial problems such as MAX-SAT and MAXCUT can be recognized as optimization problems on the…

Bayesian bandit algorithms with approximate Bayesian inference have been widely used in real-world applications. However, there is a large discrepancy between the superior practical performance of these approaches and their theoretical…

We prove a Freiman--Ruzsa-type theorem with polynomial bounds in arbitrary abelian groups with bounded torsion, thereby proving (in full generality) a conjecture of Marton. Specifically, let $G$ be an abelian group of torsion $m$ (meaning…

We give an efficient deterministic algorithm that outputs an expanding generating set for any finite abelian group. The size of the generating set is close to the randomized construction of Alon and Roichman (1994), improving upon various…

We study the usual stochastic order between probability measures on preordered topological abelian groups, focusing on asymptotic and catalytic versions of the order. In the asymptotic version, a measure $\mu$ dominates a measure $\nu$ if…

Let A be a finite nonempty subset of an additive abelian group G, and let \Sigma(A) denote the set of all group elements representable as a sum of some subset of A. We prove that |\Sigma(A)| >= |H| + 1/64 |A H|^2 where H is the stabilizer…

In this paper, building among others on earlier works by U. Krause and C. Zahlten (dealing with the case of cyclic groups), we obtain a new upper bound for the little cross number valid in the general case of arbitrary finite Abelian…

Let $X$ be the constrained random walk on ${\mathbb Z}_+^2$ taking the steps $(1,0)$, $(-1,1)$ and $(0,-1)$ with probabilities $\lambda < (\mu_1\neq \mu_2)$; in particular, $X$ is assumed stable. Let $\tau_n$ be the first time $X$ hits…

The likelihood function of a finite mixture model is a non-convex function with multiple local maxima and commonly used iterative algorithms such as EM will converge to different solutions depending on initial conditions. In this paper we…

This note considers a variation of the full-information secretary problem where the random variables to be observed are independent and identically distributed. Consider $X_1,\dots,X_n$ to be an independent sequence of random variables, let…

Best-Fit is one of the most prominent and practically used algorithms for the bin packing problem, where a set of items with associated sizes needs to be packed in the minimum number of unit-capacity bins. Kenyon [SODA '96] studied online…

We show that for any set $A \subset \mathbb{N}$ with positive upper density and any $\ell,m \in \mathbb{N}$, there exist an infinite set $B\subset \mathbb{N}$ and some $t\in \mathbb{N}$ so that $\{mb_1 + \ell b_2 \colon b_1,b_2\in B\…

Let $G\cong C_{n_1}\oplus ... \oplus C_{n_r}$ be a finite and nontrivial abelian group with $n_1|n_2|...|n_r$. A conjecture of Hamidoune says that if $W=w_1... w_n$ is a sequence of integers, all but at most one relatively prime to $|G|$,…

Maximum likelihood estimation is a fundamental computational problem in statistics. In this note, we give a bound for the maximum likelihood degree of algebraic statistical models for discrete data. As usual, such models are identified with…

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a finite, connected graph. We investigate a notion of boundary $\partial G \subseteq V$ and argue that it is well behaved from the point of view of potential theory. This is done by proving a number of discrete analogous of…

A generating set for a finite group $G$ is said to be minimal if no proper subset generates $G$, and $m(G)$ denotes the maximal size of a minimal generating set for $G$. We prove a conjecture of Lucchini, Moscatiello and Spiga by showing…

We derive a tight upper bound on the probability over $\mathbf{x}=(x_1,\dots,x_\mu) \in \mathbb{Z}^\mu$ uniformly distributed in $ [0,m)^\mu$ that $f(\mathbf{x}) = 0 \bmod N$ for any $\mu$-linear polynomial $f \in…

We study a characteristic subgroup of finitely generated groups, consisting of elements with uniform upper bound for word-lengths. For a group $G$, we denote this subgroup by $G_{bound}$. We give sufficient criteria for triviality and…