Related papers: Randomized Binary and Tree Search under Pressure
We present efficient algorithms for computing optimal or approximately optimal strategies in a zero-sum game for which Player I has n pure strategies and Player II has an arbitrary number of pure strategies. We assume that for any given…
The generalized egg dropping problem is a classic challenge in sequential decision-making. Standard dynamic programming evaluates the minimax minimum number of tests in $\mathcal{O}(K \cdot N^2)$ time. A known approach formulates the…
``Algorithms with predictions'', or ``learning-augmented algorithms'', has proved to be an extremely useful paradigm for combining machine learning with traditional algorithms. One of the textbook settings for this is searching a sorted…
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 use a Bayesian approach to optimally solve problems in noisy binary search. We deal with two variants: 1. Each comparison can be erroneous with some probability $1 - p$. 2. At each stage $k$ comparisons can be performed in parallel and a…
We consider a class of zero-sum search games in which a Hider hides one or more target among a set of $n$ boxes. The boxes may require differing amount of time to search, and detection may be imperfect, so that there is a certain…
This paper considers the task of performing binary search under noisy decisions, focusing on the application of target area localization. In the presence of noise, the classical partitioning approach of binary search is prone to error…
We study the problem of searching for a hidden target in an environment that is modeled by an edge-weighted graph. A sequence of edges is chosen starting from a given root vertex such that each edge is adjacent to a previously chosen edge.…
A single target is hidden at a location chosen from a predetermined probability distribution. Then, a searcher must find a second probability distribution from which random search points are sampled such that the target is found in the…
We address here spanning tree problems on a graph with binary edge weights. For a general weighted graph the minimum spanning tree is solved in super-linear running time, even when the edges of the graph are pre-sorted. A related problem,…
We study the classic problem in which a Searcher must locate a hidden point, also called the Hider in a network, starting from a root point. The network may be either bounded or unbounded, thus generalizing well-known settings such as…
We consider the following generalization of the classic Binary Search Problem: a searcher is required to find a hidden target vertex $x$ in a graph $G$, by iteratively performing queries about vertices. A query to $v$ incurs a cost $c(v,…
We investigate the problem of active learning on a given tree whose nodes are assigned binary labels in an adversarial way. Inspired by recent results by Guillory and Bilmes, we characterize (up to constant factors) the optimal placement of…
We find a searching method on ordered lists that surprisingly outperforms binary searching with respect to average query complexity while retaining minmax optimality. The method is shown to require $O(\log_2\log_2 n)$ queries on average…
We present the zipper tree, an $O(\log \log n)$-competitive online binary search tree that performs each access in $O(\log n)$ worst-case time. This shows that for binary search trees, optimal worst-case access time and near-optimal…
Search trees on trees (STTs) generalize the fundamental binary search tree (BST) data structure: in STTs the underlying search space is an arbitrary tree, whereas in BSTs it is a path. An optimal BST of size $n$ can be computed for a given…
We consider the design of adaptive data structures for searching elements of a tree-structured space. We use a natural generalization of the rotation-based online binary search tree model in which the underlying search space is the set of…
This work considers the problem of the noisy binary search in a sorted array. The noise is modeled by a parameter $p$ that dictates that a comparison can be incorrect with probability $p$, independently of other queries. We state two types…
We consider a search problem in which one or more targets must be rescued by a search party, or Searcher. The targets may be survivors of some natural disaster, or prisoners held by an adversary. The targets are hidden among a finite set of…
In this paper we present novel algorithmic techniques with a O(H(N)+N/H(N)) time complexity for performing several types of queries and updates on general rooted trees, binary search trees and lists of size N. For rooted trees we introduce…