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We study the problem of distinguishing between two symmetric probability distributions over $n$ bits by observing $k$ bits of a sample, subject to the constraint that all $k-1$-wise marginal distributions of the two distributions are…

Computational Complexity · Computer Science 2021-03-16 Christopher Williamson

We study goodness-of-fit of discrete distributions in the distributed setting, where samples are divided between multiple users who can only release a limited amount of information about their samples due to various information constraints.…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2019-07-23 Jayadev Acharya , Clément L. Canonne , Yanjun Han , Ziteng Sun , Himanshu Tyagi

A preferential domain is a collection of sets of preferences which are linear orders over a set of alternatives. These domains have been studied extensively in social choice theory due to both its practical importance and theoretical…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2019-02-26 Palash Dey , Swaprava Nath , Garima Shakya

Uniformity testing is arguably one of the most fundamental distribution testing problems. Given sample access to an unknown distribution $\mathbf{p}$ on $[n]$, one must decide if $\mathbf{p}$ is uniform or $\varepsilon$-far from uniform (in…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2024-10-16 Sihan Liu , Christopher Ye

Given samples from an unknown distribution $p$ and a description of a distribution $q$, are $p$ and $q$ close or far? This question of "identity testing" has received significant attention in the case of testing whether $p$ and $q$ are…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2017-11-01 Constantinos Daskalakis , Gautam Kamath , John Wright

In the uniformity testing task, an algorithm is provided with samples from an unknown probability distribution over a (known) finite domain, and must decide whether it is the uniform distribution, or, alternatively, if its total variation…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-08-05 Guy Blanc , Clément L. Canonne , Erik Waingarten

A probability distribution over {-1, 1}^n is (eps, k)-wise uniform if, roughly, it is eps-close to the uniform distribution when restricted to any k coordinates. We consider the problem of how far an (eps, k)-wise uniform distribution can…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2018-06-12 Ryan O'Donnell , Yu Zhao

We study distribution-free property testing and learning problems where the unknown probability distribution is a product distribution over $\mathbb{R}^d$. For many important classes of functions, such as intersections of halfspaces,…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2021-11-17 Nathaniel Harms , Yuichi Yoshida

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 $S \subseteq [N]$…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2015-01-19 Clement Canonne , Dana Ron , Rocco A. Servedio

What advantage do \emph{sequential} procedures provide over batch algorithms for testing properties of unknown distributions? Focusing on the problem of testing whether two distributions $\mathcal{D}_1$ and $\mathcal{D}_2$ on $\{1,\dots,…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2022-05-13 Omar Fawzi , Nicolas Flammarion , Aurélien Garivier , Aadil Oufkir

The problem of quickest detection of a change in distribution is considered under the assumption that the pre-change distribution is known, and the post-change distribution is only known to belong to a family of distributions…

Applications · Statistics 2019-01-30 Tze Siong Lau , Wee Peng Tay , Venugopal V. Veeravalli

In this work, we consider the problem of sampling a $k$-clique in a graph from an almost uniform distribution in sublinear time in the general graph query model. Specifically the algorithm should output each $k$-clique with probability…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2020-12-09 Talya Eden , Dana Ron , Will Rosenbaum

We study distribution testing without direct access to a source of relevant data, but rather to one where only a tiny fraction is relevant. To enable this, we introduce the following verification query model. The goal is to perform a…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-09-23 Hadley Black , Christopher Ye

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…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2020-12-04 Uri Meir

A classical problem in statistics is estimating the expected coverage of a sample, which has had applications in gene expression, microbial ecology, optimization, and even numismatics. Here we consider a related extension of this problem to…

Statistics Theory · Mathematics 2013-02-11 Jerrad Hampton , Manuel E. Lladser

Given samples from two distributions over an $n$-element set, we wish to test whether these distributions are statistically close. We present an algorithm which uses sublinear in $n$, specifically, $O(n^{2/3}\epsilon^{-8/3}\log n)$,…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2010-11-05 Tugkan Batu , Lance Fortnow , Ronitt Rubinfeld , Warren D. Smith , Patrick White

In this work, we give a novel general approach for distribution testing. We describe two techniques: our first technique gives sample-optimal testers, while our second technique gives matching sample lower bounds. As a consequence, we…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2016-05-10 Ilias Diakonikolas , Daniel M. Kane

Motivated by applications in text mining and discrete distribution inference, we investigate the testing for equality of probability mass functions of $K$ groups of high-dimensional multinomial distributions. A test statistic, which is…

Methodology · Statistics 2023-11-28 T. Tony Cai , Zheng Tracy Ke , Paxton Turner

Estimating the density of a distribution from its samples is a fundamental problem in statistics. Hypothesis selection addresses the setting where, in addition to a sample set, we are given $n$ candidate distributions -- referred to as…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2025-10-23 Maryam Aliakbarpour , Zhan Shi , Ria Stevens , Vincent X. Wang

The comparison of a parameter in $k$ populations is a classical problem in statistics. Testing for the equality of means or variances are typical examples. Most procedures designed to deal with this problem assume that $k$ is fixed and that…