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We introduce a new model of membership query (MQ) learning, where the learning algorithm is restricted to query points that are \emph{close} to random examples drawn from the underlying distribution. The learning model is intermediate…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2013-04-19 Pranjal Awasthi , Vitaly Feldman , Varun Kanade

In the PATH COVER problem, one asks to cover the vertices of a graph using the smallest possible number of (not necessarily disjoint) paths. While the variant where the paths need to be pairwise vertex-disjoint, which we call PATH…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-11-11 Florent Foucaud , Atrayee Majumder , Tobias Mömke , Aida Roshany-Tabrizi

The tree inclusion problem is, given two node-labeled trees $P$ and $T$ (the ``pattern tree'' and the ``target tree''), to locate every minimal subtree in $T$ (if any) that can be obtained by applying a sequence of node insertion operations…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2021-06-16 Tatsuya Akutsu , Jesper Jansson , Ruiming Li , Atsuhiro Takasu , Takeyuki Tamura

We establish new hardness results for decision tree optimization problems, adding to a line of work that dates back to Hyafil and Rivest in 1976. We prove, under randomized ETH, superpolynomial lower bounds for two basic problems: given an…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2022-10-13 Caleb Koch , Carmen Strassle , Li-Yang Tan

We study the problem of multiway number partition optimization, which has a myriad of applications in the decision, learning and optimization literature. Even though the original multiway partitioning problem is NP-hard and requires…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-03-14 Kaan Gokcesu , Hakan Gokcesu

We consider the problem of learning unions of rectangles over the domain $[b]^n$, in the uniform distribution membership query learning setting, where both b and n are "large". We obtain poly$(n, \log b)$-time algorithms for the following…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2008-09-12 Alp Atici , Rocco A. Servedio

In this paper, we study learning and testing decision tree of size and depth that are significantly smaller than the number of attributes $n$. Our main result addresses the problem of poly$(n,1/\epsilon)$ time algorithms with…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2021-08-11 Nader H. Bshouty , Catherine A. Haddad-Zaknoon

We give practical, efficient algorithms that automatically determine the asymptotic distributed round complexity of a given locally checkable graph problem in the $[\Theta(\log n), \Theta(n)]$ region, in two settings. We present one…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2022-09-05 Alkida Balliu , Sebastian Brandt , Yi-Jun Chang , Dennis Olivetti , Jan Studený , Jukka Suomela

The Tree Evaluation Problem ($\mathsf{TreeEval}$) is a computational problem originally proposed as a candidate to prove a separation between complexity classes $\mathsf{P}$ and $\mathsf{L}$. Recently, this problem has gained significant…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2026-04-09 Vahid R. Asadi , Richard Cleve

We investigate the complexity of several fundamental polynomial-time solvable problems on graphs and on matrices, when the given instance has low treewidth; in the case of matrices, we consider the treewidth of the graph formed by non-zero…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2015-11-05 Fedor V. Fomin , Daniel Lokshtanov , Michał Pilipczuk , Saket Saurabh , Marcin Wrochna

Given a set $ P $ of $n$ points and a set $ H $ of $n$ half-planes in the plane, we consider the problem of computing a smallest subset of points such that each half-plane contains at least one point of the subset. The previously best…

Computational Geometry · Computer Science 2025-01-07 Gang Liu , Haitao Wang

Decision Tree is a classic formulation of active learning: given $n$ hypotheses with nonnegative weights summing to 1 and a set of tests that each partition the hypotheses, output a decision tree using the provided tests that uniquely…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2019-10-23 Ray Li , Percy Liang , Stephen Mussmann

It is an open question whether there exists a polynomial-time algorithm for computing the rotation distances between pairs of extended ordered binary trees. The problem of computing the rotation distance between an arbitrary pair of trees,…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2020-01-20 Sean Cleary , Roland Maio

We prove that it is NP-hard to properly PAC learn decision trees with queries, resolving a longstanding open problem in learning theory (Bshouty 1993; Guijarro-Lavin-Raghavan 1999; Mehta-Raghavan 2002; Feldman 2016). While there has been a…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2023-07-11 Caleb Koch , Carmen Strassle , Li-Yang Tan

We show how any PAC learning algorithm that works under the uniform distribution can be transformed, in a blackbox fashion, into one that works under an arbitrary and unknown distribution $\mathcal{D}$. The efficiency of our transformation…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2023-03-31 Guy Blanc , Jane Lange , Ali Malik , Li-Yang Tan

Given a signed permutation on $n$ elements, we need to sort it with the fewest reversals. This is a fundamental algorithmic problem motivated by applications in comparative genomics, as it allows to accurately model rearrangements in small…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2023-08-31 Bartłomiej Dudek , Paweł Gawrychowski , Tatiana Starikovskaya

We resolve a long-standing open question, about the existence of a constant-factor approximation algorithm for the average-case \textsc{Decision Tree} problem with uniform probability distribution over the hypotheses. We answer the question…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2026-04-29 Michał Szyfelbein

The apportionment problem deals with the fair distribution of a discrete set of $k$ indivisible resources (such as legislative seats) to $n$ entities (such as parties or geographic subdivisions). Highest averages methods are a frequently…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2014-09-10 Zhanpeng Cheng , David Eppstein

We give an algorithm for properly learning Poisson binomial distributions. A Poisson binomial distribution (PBD) of order $n$ is the discrete probability distribution of the sum of $n$ mutually independent Bernoulli random variables. Given…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2015-11-13 Ilias Diakonikolas , Daniel M. Kane , Alistair Stewart

We present the first polynomial time algorithm to learn nontrivial classes of languages of infinite trees. Specifically, our algorithm uses membership and equivalence queries to learn classes of $\omega$-tree languages derived from weak…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2023-06-22 Dana Angluin , Timos Antonopoulos , Dana Fisman