Determining Majority in Networks with Local Interactions and Very Small Local Memory

We study here the problem of determining the majority type in an arbitrary connected network, each vertex of which has initially two possible types (states). The vertices may have a few additional possible states and can interact in pairs only if they share an edge. Any (population) protocol is required to stabilize in the initial majority, i.e. its output function must interpret the local state of each vertex so that each vertex outputs the initial majority type. We first provide a protocol with 4 states per vertex that always computes the initial majority value, under any fair scheduler. Under the uniform probabilistic scheduler of pairwise interactions, we prove that our protocol stabilizes in expected polynomial time for any network and is quite fast on the clique. As we prove, this protocol is optimal, in the sense that there does not exist any population protocol that always computes majority with fewer than 4 states per vertex. However this does not rule out the existence of a protocol with 3 states per vertex that is correct with high probability (whp). To this end, we examine an elegant and very natural majority protocol with 3 states per vertex, introduced in [2] where its performance has been analyzed for the clique graph. In particular, it determines the correct initial majority type in the clique very fast and whp under the uniform probabilistic scheduler. We study the performance of this protocol in arbitrary networks. We prove that, when the two initial states are put uniformly at random on the vertices, the protocol of [2] converges to the initial majority with probability higher than the probability of converging to the initial minority. In contrast, we present an infinite family of graphs, on which the protocol of [2] can fail, i.e. it can converge to the initial minority type whp, even when the difference between the initial majority and the initial minority is n − Θ(ln n). We also present another infinite family of graphs in which the protocol of [2] takes an expected exponential time to converge. These two negative results build upon a very positive result concerning the robustness of the protocol of [2] on the clique, namely that if the initial minority is at most n7, the protocol fails with exponentially small probability. Surprisingly, the resistance of the clique to failure causes the failure in general graphs. Our techniques use new domination and coupling arguments for suitably defined processes whose dynamics capture the antagonism between the states involved

Synthesizing and tuning chemical reaction networks with specified behaviours

We consider how to generate chemical reaction networks (CRNs) from functional specifications. We propose a two-stage approach that combines synthesis by satisfiability modulo theories and Markov chain Monte Carlo based optimisation. First, we identify candidate CRNs that have the possibility to produce correct computations for a given finite set of inputs. We then optimise the reaction rates of each CRN using a combination of stochastic search techniques applied to the chemical master equation, simultaneously improving the of correct behaviour and ruling out spurious solutions. In addition, we use techniques from continuous time Markov chain theory to study the expected termination time for each CRN. We illustrate our approach by identifying CRNs for majority decision-making and division computation, which includes the identification of both known and unknown networks.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, appeared the proceedings of the 21st conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming, 201

On the Necessary Memory to Compute the Plurality in Multi-Agent Systems

We consider the Relative-Majority Problem (also known as Plurality), in which, given a multi-agent system where each agent is initially provided an input value out of a set of $k$ possible ones, each agent is required to eventually compute the input value with the highest frequency in the initial configuration. We consider the problem in the general Population Protocols model in which, given an underlying undirected connected graph whose nodes represent the agents, edges are selected by a globally fair scheduler. The state complexity that is required for solving the Plurality Problem (i.e., the minimum number of memory states that each agent needs to have in order to solve the problem), has been a long-standing open problem. The best protocol so far for the general multi-valued case requires polynomial memory: Salehkaleybar et al. (2015) devised a protocol that solves the problem by employing $O(k 2^k)$ states per agent, and they conjectured their upper bound to be optimal. On the other hand, under the strong assumption that agents initially agree on a total ordering of the initial input values, Gasieniec et al. (2017), provided an elegant logarithmic-memory plurality protocol. In this work, we refute Salehkaleybar et al.'s conjecture, by providing a plurality protocol which employs $O(k^{11})$ states per agent. Central to our result is an ordering protocol which allows to leverage on the plurality protocol by Gasieniec et al., of independent interest. We also provide a $\Omega(k^2)$-state lower bound on the necessary memory to solve the problem, proving that the Plurality Problem cannot be solved within the mere memory necessary to encode the output.Comment: 14 pages, accepted at CIAC 201

On Convergence and Threshold Properties of Discrete Lotka-Volterra Population Protocols

In this work we focus on a natural class of population protocols whose dynamics are modelled by the discrete version of Lotka-Volterra equations. In such protocols, when an agent $a$ of type (species) $i$ interacts with an agent $b$ of type (species) $j$ with $a$ as the initiator, then $b$'s type becomes $i$ with probability $P\_{ij}$. In such an interaction, we think of $a$ as the predator, $b$ as the prey, and the type of the prey is either converted to that of the predator or stays as is. Such protocols capture the dynamics of some opinion spreading models and generalize the well-known Rock-Paper-Scissors discrete dynamics. We consider the pairwise interactions among agents that are scheduled uniformly at random. We start by considering the convergence time and show that any Lotka-Volterra-type protocol on an $n$-agent population converges to some absorbing state in time polynomial in $n$, w.h.p., when any pair of agents is allowed to interact. By contrast, when the interaction graph is a star, even the Rock-Paper-Scissors protocol requires exponential time to converge. We then study threshold effects exhibited by Lotka-Volterra-type protocols with 3 and more species under interactions between any pair of agents. We start by presenting a simple 4-type protocol in which the probability difference of reaching the two possible absorbing states is strongly amplified by the ratio of the initial populations of the two other types, which are transient, but "control" convergence. We then prove that the Rock-Paper-Scissors protocol reaches each of its three possible absorbing states with almost equal probability, starting from any configuration satisfying some sub-linear lower bound on the initial size of each species. That is, Rock-Paper-Scissors is a realization of a "coin-flip consensus" in a distributed system. Some of our techniques may be of independent value