627 research outputs found
Model Counting of Query Expressions: Limitations of Propositional Methods
Query evaluation in tuple-independent probabilistic databases is the problem
of computing the probability of an answer to a query given independent
probabilities of the individual tuples in a database instance. There are two
main approaches to this problem: (1) in `grounded inference' one first obtains
the lineage for the query and database instance as a Boolean formula, then
performs weighted model counting on the lineage (i.e., computes the probability
of the lineage given probabilities of its independent Boolean variables); (2)
in methods known as `lifted inference' or `extensional query evaluation', one
exploits the high-level structure of the query as a first-order formula.
Although it is widely believed that lifted inference is strictly more powerful
than grounded inference on the lineage alone, no formal separation has
previously been shown for query evaluation. In this paper we show such a formal
separation for the first time.
We exhibit a class of queries for which model counting can be done in
polynomial time using extensional query evaluation, whereas the algorithms used
in state-of-the-art exact model counters on their lineages provably require
exponential time. Our lower bounds on the running times of these exact model
counters follow from new exponential size lower bounds on the kinds of d-DNNF
representations of the lineages that these model counters (either explicitly or
implicitly) produce. Though some of these queries have been studied before, no
non-trivial lower bounds on the sizes of these representations for these
queries were previously known.Comment: To appear in International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT) 201
Algorithmic and enumerative aspects of the Moser-Tardos distribution
Moser & Tardos have developed a powerful algorithmic approach (henceforth
"MT") to the Lovasz Local Lemma (LLL); the basic operation done in MT and its
variants is a search for "bad" events in a current configuration. In the
initial stage of MT, the variables are set independently. We examine the
distributions on these variables which arise during intermediate stages of MT.
We show that these configurations have a more or less "random" form, building
further on the "MT-distribution" concept of Haeupler et al. in understanding
the (intermediate and) output distribution of MT. This has a variety of
algorithmic applications; the most important is that bad events can be found
relatively quickly, improving upon MT across the complexity spectrum: it makes
some polynomial-time algorithms sub-linear (e.g., for Latin transversals, which
are of basic combinatorial interest), gives lower-degree polynomial run-times
in some settings, transforms certain super-polynomial-time algorithms into
polynomial-time ones, and leads to Las Vegas algorithms for some coloring
problems for which only Monte Carlo algorithms were known.
We show that in certain conditions when the LLL condition is violated, a
variant of the MT algorithm can still produce a distribution which avoids most
of the bad events. We show in some cases this MT variant can run faster than
the original MT algorithm itself, and develop the first-known criterion for the
case of the asymmetric LLL. This can be used to find partial Latin transversals
-- improving upon earlier bounds of Stein (1975) -- among other applications.
We furthermore give applications in enumeration, showing that most applications
(where we aim for all or most of the bad events to be avoided) have many more
solutions than known before by proving that the MT-distribution has "large"
min-entropy and hence that its support-size is large
The Moser-Tardos Framework with Partial Resampling
The resampling algorithm of Moser \& Tardos is a powerful approach to develop
constructive versions of the Lov\'{a}sz Local Lemma (LLL). We generalize this
to partial resampling: when a bad event holds, we resample an
appropriately-random subset of the variables that define this event, rather
than the entire set as in Moser & Tardos. This is particularly useful when the
bad events are determined by sums of random variables. This leads to several
improved algorithmic applications in scheduling, graph transversals, packet
routing etc. For instance, we settle a conjecture of Szab\'{o} & Tardos (2006)
on graph transversals asymptotically, and obtain improved approximation ratios
for a packet routing problem of Leighton, Maggs, & Rao (1994)
An Algorithmic Proof of the Lovasz Local Lemma via Resampling Oracles
The Lovasz Local Lemma is a seminal result in probabilistic combinatorics. It
gives a sufficient condition on a probability space and a collection of events
for the existence of an outcome that simultaneously avoids all of those events.
Finding such an outcome by an efficient algorithm has been an active research
topic for decades. Breakthrough work of Moser and Tardos (2009) presented an
efficient algorithm for a general setting primarily characterized by a product
structure on the probability space.
In this work we present an efficient algorithm for a much more general
setting. Our main assumption is that there exist certain functions, called
resampling oracles, that can be invoked to address the undesired occurrence of
the events. We show that, in all scenarios to which the original Lovasz Local
Lemma applies, there exist resampling oracles, although they are not
necessarily efficient. Nevertheless, for essentially all known applications of
the Lovasz Local Lemma and its generalizations, we have designed efficient
resampling oracles. As applications of these techniques, we present new results
for packings of Latin transversals, rainbow matchings and rainbow spanning
trees.Comment: 47 page
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