Related papers: Towards Testing Monotonicity of Distributions Over…
We investigate the problem of testing the equivalence between two discrete histograms. A {\em $k$-histogram} over $[n]$ is a probability distribution that is piecewise constant over some set of $k$ intervals over $[n]$. Histograms have been…
We study the prevalent problem when a test distribution differs from the training distribution. We consider a setting where our training set consists of a small number of sample domains, but where we have many samples in each domain. Our…
We consider the problem of $L_p$-testing of class of bounded derivative properties over hypergrid domain with points distributed according to some product distribution. This class includes monotonicity, the Lipschitz property,…
We study a new framework for property testing of probability distributions, by considering distribution testing algorithms that have access to a conditional sampling oracle.* This is an oracle that takes as input a subset $S \subseteq [N]$…
We consider the extent to which we can learn from a completely randomized experiment whether all individuals have treatment effects that are weakly of the same sign, a condition we call monotonicity. From a classical sampling perspective,…
We consider the problem of testing distribution identity. Given a sequence of independent samples from an unknown distribution on a domain of size n, the goal is to check if the unknown distribution approximately equals a known distribution…
Measuring the concentration of random variables is a fundamental concept in probability and statistics. Here, we explore a type of concentration measure for continuous random variables with bounded support and use it to provide a notion of…
Distribution testing can be described as follows: $q$ samples are being drawn from some unknown distribution $P$ over a known domain $[n]$. After the sampling process, a decision must be made about whether $P$ holds some property, or is far…
The classic problems of testing uniformity of and learning a discrete distribution, given access to independent samples from it, are examined under general $\ell_p$ metrics. The intuitions and results often contrast with the classic…
This paper studies the problem of testing whether a function is monotone from a nonparametric Bayesian perspective. Two new families of tests are constructed. The first uses constrained smoothing splines, together with a hierarchical…
We study the density estimation problem defined as follows: given $k$ distributions $p_1, \ldots, p_k$ over a discrete domain $[n]$, as well as a collection of samples chosen from a ``query'' distribution $q$ over $[n]$, output $p_i$ that…
Shape restrictions such as monotonicity on functions often arise naturally in statistical modeling. We consider a Bayesian approach to the problem of estimation of a monotone regression function and testing for monotonicity. We construct a…
We consider the problem of closeness testing for two discrete distributions in the practically relevant setting of \emph{unequal} sized samples drawn from each of them. Specifically, given a target error parameter $\varepsilon > 0$, $m_1$…
Given a non-negative $n \times n$ matrix viewed as a set of distances between $n$ points, we consider the property testing problem of deciding if it is a metric. We also consider the same problem for two special classes of metrics, tree…
We initiate a study of a new model of property testing that is a hybrid of testing properties of distributions and testing properties of strings. Specifically, the new model refers to testing properties of distributions, but these are…
We study monotonicity testing of functions $f \colon \{0,1\}^d \to \{0,1\}$ using sample-based algorithms, which are only allowed to observe the value of $f$ on points drawn independently from the uniform distribution. A classic result by…
We prove a lower bound of $\Omega(n^{1/2 - c})$, for all $c>0$, on the query complexity of (two-sided error) non-adaptive algorithms for testing whether an $n$-variable Boolean function is monotone versus constant-far from monotone. This…
A family of consistent tests, derived from a characterization of the probability generating function, is proposed for assessing Poissonity against a wide class of count distributions, which includes some of the most frequently adopted…
We consider the problem of distinguishing between two arbitrary black-box distributions defined over the domain [n], given access to $s$ samples from both. It is known that in the worst case O(n^{2/3}) samples is both necessary and…
Given a finite collection of probability measures defined on subsets of a measurable space, how can we determine if they are compatible, in the sense that they can be realized as conditional distributions of a single probability measure on…