Related papers: The Randomized Query Complexity of Finding a Tarsk…
The problem of testing monotonicity for Boolean functions on the hypergrid, $f:[n]^d \to \{0,1\}$ is a classic topic in property testing. When $n=2$, the domain is the hypercube. For the hypercube case, a breakthrough result of…
The Lovasz Local Lemma (LLL) is a powerful result in probability theory that states that the probability that none of a set of bad events happens is nonzero if the probability of each event is small compared to the number of events that…
We use and adapt the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem from topology to derive limitations on list-replicable and globally stable learning algorithms. We further demonstrate the applicability of our methods in combinatorics and topology. We show that,…
For the unsorted database quantum search with the unknown fraction $\lambda$ of target items, there are mainly two kinds of methods, i.e., fixed-point or trail-and-error. (i) In terms of the fixed-point method, Yoder et al. [Phys. Rev.…
The threshold-$k$ metric dimension ($\mathrm{Tmd}_k$) of a graph is the minimum number of sensors -- a subset of the vertex set -- needed to uniquely identify any vertex in the graph, solely based on its distances from the sensors, when the…
The clustering problem, and more generally, latent factor discovery --or latent space inference-- is formulated in terms of the Wasserstein barycenter problem from optimal transport. The objective proposed is the maximization of the…
It is well-known (cf. K.-Pudl\'ak 1989) that a polynomial time algorithm finding tautologies hard for a propositional proof system $P$ exists iff $P$ is not optimal. Such an algorithm takes $1^{(k)}$ and outputs a tautology $\tau_k$ of size…
We describe a $\tilde{O}(d^{5/6})$-query monotonicity tester for Boolean functions $f:[n]^d \to \{0,1\}$ on the $n$-hypergrid. This is the first $o(d)$ monotonicity tester with query complexity independent of $n$. Motivated by this…
We lower bound the complexity of finding $\epsilon$-stationary points (with gradient norm at most $\epsilon$) using stochastic first-order methods. In a well-studied model where algorithms access smooth, potentially non-convex functions…
We study the problem of {\sl certification}: given queries to a function $f : \{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ with certificate complexity $\le k$ and an input $x^\star$, output a size-$k$ certificate for $f$'s value on $x^\star$. This abstractly…
Let $\mathsf{TH}_k$ denote the $k$-out-of-$n$ threshold function: given $n$ input Boolean variables, the output is $1$ if and only if at least $k$ of the inputs are $1$. We consider the problem of computing the $\mathsf{TH}_k$ function…
We study the problem of \emph{local search} on a graph. Given a real-valued black-box function f on the graph's vertices, this is the problem of determining a local minimum of f--a vertex v for which f(v) is no more than f evaluated at any…
The purpose of this article is to study the algorithmic complexity of the Besicovitch stability of noisy subshifts of finite type, a notion studied in a previous article. First, we exhibit an unstable aperiodic tiling, and then see how it…
Local search is a powerful heuristic in optimization and computer science, the complexity of which was studied in the white box and black box models. In the black box model, we are given a graph $G = (V,E)$ and oracle access to a function…
The Weber problem consists of finding a point in $\mathbbm{R}^n$ that minimizes the weighted sum of distances from $m$ points in $\mathbbm{R}^n$ that are not collinear. An application that motivated this problem is the optimal location of…
We study the oracle complexity of producing $(\delta,\epsilon)$-stationary points of Lipschitz functions, in the sense proposed by Zhang et al. [2020]. While there exist dimension-free randomized algorithms for producing such points within…
Form a random k-SAT formula on n variables by selecting uniformly and independently m=rn clauses out of all 2^k (n choose k) possible k-clauses. The Satisfiability Threshold Conjecture asserts that for each k there exists a constant r_k…
We consider the following generalization of binary search in sorted arrays to tree domains. In each step of the search, an algorithm is querying a vertex $q$, and as a reply, it receives an answer, which either states that $q$ is the…
Is detecting a $k$-clique in $k$-partite regular (hyper-)graphs as hard as in the general case? Intuition suggests yes, but proving this -- especially for hypergraphs -- poses notable challenges. Concretely, we consider a strong notion of…
For any Boolean function $f:\{0,1\}^n \to \{0,1\}$ with a complexity measure having value $k \ll n$, is it possible to restrict the function $f$ to $\Theta(k)$ variables while keeping the complexity preserved at $\Theta(k)$? This question,…