Related papers: Rounds in a combinatorial search problem
We formulate and study a statistical version of Katona's two-round search problem of finding at least one excellent element in a set. A population of $n$ elements is considered, where each element is independently excellent with probability…
In combinatorial group testing problems Questioner needs to find a special element $x \in [n]$ by testing subsets of $[n]$. Tapolcai et al. introduced a new model, where each element knows the answer for those queries that contain it and…
We consider the basic problem of learning an unknown partition of $n$ elements into at most $k$ sets using simple queries that reveal information about a small subset of elements. Our starting point is the well-studied pairwise same-set…
We examine the following version of a classic combinatorial search problem introduced by R\'enyi: Given a finite set $X$ of $n$ elements we want to identify an unknown subset $Y \subset X$ of exactly $d$ elements by testing, by as few as…
The area of computing with uncertainty considers problems where some information about the input elements is uncertain, but can be obtained using queries. For example, instead of the weight of an element, we may be given an interval that is…
The element distinctness problem is the problem of determining whether the elements of a list are distinct, that is, if $x=(x_1,...,x_N)$ is a list with $N$ elements, we ask whether the elements of $x$ are distinct or not. The solution in a…
Binary search finds a given element in a sorted array with an optimal number of $\log n$ queries. However, binary search fails even when the array is only slightly disordered or access to its elements is subject to errors. We study the…
We consider the problem of finding an edge in a hidden undirected graph $G = (V, E)$ with $n$ vertices, in a model where we only allowed queries that ask whether or not a subset of vertices contains an edge. We study the non-adaptive model…
An archetypal problem discussed in computer science is the problem of searching for a given number in a given set of numbers. Other than sequential search, the classic solution is to sort the list of numbers and then apply binary search.…
We prove that for any positive integers $n$ and $d$ there exists a collection consisting of $f=d\log n+O(1)$ subsets $A_1, A_2, \ldots, A_f$ of $[n]$ such that for any two distinct subsets $X$ and $Y$ of $[n]$ whose size is at most $d$…
The problem of ranking can be described as follows. We have a set of combinatorial objects $S$, such as, say, the k-subsets of n things, and we can imagine that they have been arranged in some list, say lexicographically, and we want to…
Given two sets A and B and two oracles O(A) and O(B) that can identify the elements of these sets respectively, the goal is to find an element common to both sets using minimum number of oracle queries. Each application of either O(A) or…
We examine sorting algorithms for $n$ elements whose basic operation is comparing $t$ elements simultaneously (a $t$-comparator). We focus on algorithms that use only a single round or two rounds -- comparisons performed in the second round…
Two widely-used computational paradigms for sublinear algorithms are using linear measurements to perform computations on a high dimensional input and using structured queries to access a massive input. Typically, algorithms in the former…
We consider the quantum complexities of the following three problems: searching an ordered list, sorting an un-ordered list, and deciding whether the numbers in a list are all distinct. Letting N be the number of elements in the input list,…
This paper establishes the exact comparison complexity of finding an element repeated $n$ times in a $2n$-element array containing $n+1$ distinct values, under the equality-comparison model with $O(1)$ extra space. We present a simple…
In this paper we investigate some new problems in additive combinatorics. Our problems mainly involve permutations (or circular permutations) $n$ distinct numbers (or elements of an additive abelian group) $a_1,\ldots,a_n$ with adjacent…
We are often interested in decomposing complex, structured data into simple components that explain the data. The linear version of this problem is well-studied as dictionary learning and factor analysis. In this work, we propose a…
Since Grover's seminal work, quantum search has been studied in great detail. In the usual search problem, we have a collection of n items and we would like to find a marked item. We consider a new variant of this problem in which…
We consider a combinatorial question about searching for an unknown ideal $\mu$ within a known poset $\lambda$. Elements of $\lambda$ may be queried for membership in $\mu$, but at most $k$ positive query results are permitted. The goal is…