Related papers: From Discrepancy to Majority
The Plurality problem - introduced by Aigner \cite{A2004} - has many variants. In this article we deal with the following version: suppose we are given $n$ balls, each of them colored by one of three colors. A \textit{plurality ball} is one…
Given $n$ colored balls, we want to detect if more than $\lfloor n/2\rfloor$ of them have the same color, and if so find one ball with such majority color. We are only allowed to choose two balls and compare their colors, and the goal is to…
We consider some coloring issues related to the famous Erd\H {o}s Discrepancy Problem. A set of the form $A_{s,k}=\{s,2s,\dots,ks\}$, with $s,k\in \mathbb{N}$, is called a \emph{homogeneous arithmetic progression}. We prove that for every…
The purpose of this note is to draw attention to problems related to a concept called majority colouring recently studied by Kreutzer, Oum, Seymour, van der Zypen and Wood. They raised a problem of determining, for a natural number $k$, the…
The discrepancy between two independent samples \(X_1,\dots,X_n\) and \(Y_1,\dots,Y_n\) drawn from the same distribution on $\mathbb{R}^d$ typically has order \(O(\sqrt{n})\) even in one dimension. We give a simple online algorithm that…
We study one of the key tools in data approximation and optimization: low-discrepancy colorings. Formally, given a finite set system $(X,\mathcal S)$, the \emph{discrepancy} of a two-coloring $\chi:X\to\{-1,1\}$ is defined as $\max_{S \in…
We generalize overpartitions to (k,j)-colored partitions: k-colored partitions in which each part size may have at most j colors. We find numerous congruences and other symmetries. We use a wide array of tools to prove our theorems:…
The challenges of black box optimization arise due to imprecise responses and limited output information. This article describes new results on optimizing multivariable functions using an Order Oracle, which provides access only to the…
A result of Spencer states that every collection of $n$ sets over a universe of size $n$ has a coloring of the ground set with $\{-1,+1\}$ of discrepancy $O(\sqrt{n})$. A geometric generalization of this result was given by Gluskin (see…
Motivated by the celebrated Beck-Fiala conjecture, we consider the random setting where there are $n$ elements and $m$ sets and each element lies in $t$ randomly chosen sets. In this setting, Ezra and Lovett showed an $O((t \log t)^{1/2})$…
Motivated by the Matrix Spencer conjecture, we study the problem of finding signed sums of matrices with a small matrix norm. A well-known strategy to obtain these signs is to prove, given matrices $A_1, \dots, A_n \in \mathbb{R}^{m \times…
A \emph{majority coloring} of a digraph is a coloring of its vertices such that for each vertex $v$, at most half of the out-neighbors of $v$ has the same color as $v$. A digraph $D$ is \emph{majority $k$-choosable} if for any assignment of…
Let $P$ be a set of $n$ colored points. We develop efficient data structures that store $P$ and can answer chromatic $k$-nearest neighbor ($k$-NN) queries. Such a query consists of a query point $q$ and a number $k$, and asks for the color…
We explore the top-$K$ rank aggregation problem. Suppose a collection of items is compared in pairs repeatedly, and we aim to recover a consistent ordering that focuses on the top-$K$ ranked items based on partially revealed preference…
Given a graph $G=(V,E)$ where each vertex is assigned a color from the set $C=\{c_1, c_2, .., c_\sigma\}$. In the (approximate) nearest colored node problem, we want to query, given $v \in V$ and $c \in C$, for the (approximate) distance…
Suppose one desires to randomly sample a pair of objects such as socks, hoping to get a matching pair. Even in the simplest situation for sampling, which is sampling with replacement, the innocent phrase "the distribution of the color of a…
We are given $n$ balls and an unknown coloring of them with two colors. Our goal is to find a ball that belongs to the larger color class, or show that the color classes have the same size. We can ask sets of $k$ balls as queries, and the…
Given a set of $n$ colored balls, a \textit{majority, non-minority or plurality ball} is one whose color class has size more than $n/2$, at least $n/2$ or larger than any other color class, respectively. We describe linear time algorithms…
Given an $n$-vertex graph $G$ and two positive integers $d,k \in \mathbb{N}$, the ($d,kn$)-differential coloring problem asks for a coloring of the vertices of $G$ (if one exists) with distinct numbers from 1 to $kn$ (treated as…
In the online multiple knapsack problem, an algorithm faces a stream of items, and each item has to be either rejected or stored irrevocably in one of $n$ bins (knapsacks) of equal size. The gain of an~algorithm is equal to the sum of sizes…