Related papers: On Searching a Table Consistent with Division Pose…
This paper establishes the exact comparison complexity of finding an element repeated $n$ times in a $2n$-element array containing $n+1$ distinct values, under the equality-comparison model with $O(1)$ extra space. We present a simple…
We consider the quantum complexities of the following three problems: searching an ordered list, sorting an un-ordered list, and deciding whether the numbers in a list are all distinct. Letting N be the number of elements in the input list,…
We consider the number of various partitions of $n$ with parts separated by parity and prove combinatorially several inequalities between these numbers. For example, we show that for $n\geq 5$ we have $p_{od}^{eu}(n)<p_{ed}^{ou}(n)$, where…
Although many authors have considered how many ternary comparisons it takes to sort a multiset $S$ of size $n$, the best known upper and lower bounds still differ by a term linear in $n$. In this paper we restrict our attention to online…
The expected number of pairwise comparisons needed to learn a partial order on n elements is shown to be at least n*n/4-o(n*n), and an algorithm is given that needs only n*n/4+o(n*n) comparisons on average. In addition, the optimal strategy…
We prove that any exact quantum algorithm searching an ordered list of N elements requires more than \frac{1}{\pi}(\ln(N)-1) queries to the list. This improves upon the previously best known lower bound of {1/12}\log_2(N) - O(1). Our proof…
Partially ordered models of time occur naturally in applications where agents or processes cannot perfectly communicate with each other, and can be traced back to the seminal work of Lamport. In this paper we consider the problem of…
We study the unsorted database search problem with items $N$ from the viewpoint of unitary discrimination. Instead of considering the famous $O(\sqrt{N})$ Grover's the bounded-error algorithm for the original problem, we seek for the…
An algorithm for structured database searching is presented and used to solve the set partition problem. O(n) oracle calls are required in order to obtain a solution, but the probability that this solution is optimal decreases exponentially…
We revisit the well-known problem of sorting under partial information: sort a finite set given the outcomes of comparisons between some pairs of elements. The input is a partially ordered set P, and solving the problem amounts to…
Sorting has a natural generalization where the input consists of: (1) a ground set $X$ of size $n$, (2) a partial oracle $O_P$ specifying some fixed partial order $P$ on $X$ and (3) a linear oracle $O_L$ specifying a linear order $L$ that…
The partition problem is a well-known basic NP-complete problem. We mainly consider the optimization version of it in this paper. The problem has been investigated from various perspectives for a long time and can be solved efficiently in…
Classical problems of sorting and searching assume an underlying linear ordering of the objects being compared. In this paper, we study a more general setting, in which some pairs of objects are incomparable. This generalization is relevant…
Consider the set $\{1,2,\ldots,3n\}$. We are interested in the number of partitions of this set into subsets of three elements each, where the sum of two of them equals the third. We give some criteria such a partition has to fulfill, which…
We prove that for any positive integers $n$ and $d$ there exists a collection consisting of $f=d\log n+O(1)$ subsets $A_1, A_2, \ldots, A_f$ of $[n]$ such that for any two distinct subsets $X$ and $Y$ of $[n]$ whose size is at most $d$…
If $a_1, a_2, ..., a_k$ and $n$ are positive integers such that $n = a_1 + a_2 + ... + a_k$, then the sum $a_1 + a_2 + ... + a_k$ is said to be a \emph{partition of $n$} of \emph{length $k$}, and $a_1, a_2, ..., a_k$ are said to be the…
It is a long-standing open question to determine the minimum number of comparisons $S(n)$ that suffice to sort an array of $n$ elements. Indeed, before this work $S(n)$ has been known only for $n\leq 22$ with the exception for $n=16$, $17$,…
The goal of the ordered search problem is to find a particular item in an ordered list of n items. Using the adversary method, Hoyer, Neerbek, and Shi proved a quantum lower bound for this problem of (1/pi) ln n + Theta(1). Here, we find…
We consider the problem of finding the $k^{th}$ highest element in a totally ordered set of $n$ elements (select), and partitioning a totally ordered set into the top $k$ and bottom $n-k$ elements (partition) using pairwise comparisons.…
A $(k,\ell )$ partial partition of an $n$-element set is a collection of $\ell $ pairwise disjoint $k$-element subsets. It is proved that, if $n$ is large enough, one can find $\left\lfloor {n\choose k}/{\ell}\right\rfloor$ such partial…