English

Streaming algorithms for products of probabilities

Data Structures and Algorithms 2025-10-02 v2

Abstract

We consider streaming algorithms for approximating a product of input probabilities up to multiplicative error of 1ϵ1-\epsilon. It is shown that every randomized streaming algorithm for this problem needs space Ω(logn+logblogϵ)O(1)\Omega(\log n + \log b - \log \epsilon) - \mathcal{O}(1), where nn is length of the input stream and bb is the bit length of the input numbers. This matches an upper bound from Alur et al.~up to a constant multiplicative factor. Moreover, we consider the threshold problem, where it is asked whether the product of the input probabilities is below a given threshold. It is shown that every randomized streaming algorithm for this problem needs space Ω(nb)\Omega(n \cdot b).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.16507,
  title  = {Streaming algorithms for products of probabilities},
  author = {Markus Lohrey and Leon Rische and Louisa Seelbach Benkner and Julio Xochitemol},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.16507},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T23:08:13.880Z