Related papers: Minimax Risk for Missing Mass Estimation
We consider an original problem that arises from the issue of security analysis of a power system and that we name optimal discovery with probabilistic expert advice. We address it with an algorithm based on the optimistic paradigm and the…
We study the problem of estimating the stationary mass -- also called the unigram mass -- that is missing from a single trajectory of a discrete-time, ergodic Markov chain. This problem has several applications -- for example, estimating…
We consider the problem of detecting (testing) Gaussian stochastic sequences (signals) with imprecisely known means and covariance matrices. The alternative is independent identically distributed zero-mean Gaussian random variables with…
Feature models are popular in machine learning and they have been recently used to solve many unsupervised learning problems. In these models every observation is endowed with a finite set of features, usually selected from an infinite…
We study the problem of estimating the joint probability mass function (pmf) over two random variables. In particular, the estimation is based on the observation of $m$ samples containing both variables and $n$ samples missing one fixed…
We study the problem of testing the goodness of fit of categorical count data to a Poisson distribution uniform over the categories, against a class of alternatives defined by excluding an $\ell_p$ ball, $p \leq 2$, of radius $\epsilon$…
We develop a technique for establishing lower bounds on the sample complexity of Least Squares (or, Empirical Risk Minimization) for large classes of functions. As an application, we settle an open problem regarding optimality of Least…
Consider the problem of estimating the Shannon entropy of a distribution over $k$ elements from $n$ independent samples. We show that the minimax mean-square error is within universal multiplicative constant factors of $$\Big(\frac{k }{n…
A central result in statistical theory is Pinsker's theorem, which characterizes the minimax rate in the normal means model of nonparametric estimation. In this paper, we present an extension to Pinsker's theorem where estimation is carried…
We consider the classical problem of missing-mass estimation, which deals with estimating the total probability of unseen elements in a sample. The missing-mass estimation problem has various applications in machine learning, statistics,…
Despite the simplicity and intuitive interpretation of Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE) estimators, their effectiveness in certain scenarios is questionable. Indeed, minimizing squared errors on average does not provide any form of…
Shuffled regression and unlinked regression represent intriguing challenges that have garnered considerable attention in many fields, including but not limited to ecological regression, multi-target tracking problems, image denoising, etc.…
We analyze the problem of discrete distribution estimation under $\ell_1$ loss. We provide non-asymptotic upper and lower bounds on the maximum risk of the empirical distribution (the maximum likelihood estimator), and the minimax risk in…
We develop an approach for estimating models described via conditional moment restrictions, with a prototypical application being non-parametric instrumental variable regression. We introduce a min-max criterion function, under which the…
Missing data imputation, where a model is trained on observed data to estimate unobserved values, is a fundamental problem in machine learning. In this paper, we rigorously formulate imputation model learning as a mean-squared error risk…
We consider the problem of estimating the support size of a discrete distribution whose minimum non-zero mass is at least $ \frac{1}{k}$. Under the independent sampling model, we show that the sample complexity, i.e., the minimal sample…
We study the problem of designing minimax procedures in linear regression under the quantile risk. We start by considering the realizable setting with independent Gaussian noise, where for any given noise level and distribution of inputs,…
In nonparametric statistics an optimality criterion for estimation procedures is provided by the minimax rate of convergence. However this classical point of view is subject to controversy as it requires to look for the worst behaviour…
We study the rates of estimation of finite mixing distributions, that is, the parameters of the mixture. We prove that under some regularity and strong identifiability conditions, around a given mixing distribution with $m_0$ components,…
We determine the exact minimax rate of a Gaussian sequence model under bounded convex constraints, purely in terms of the local geometry of the given constraint set $K$. Our main result shows that the minimax risk (up to constant factors)…