Enumerating a subset of the integer points inside a Minkowski sum

AbstractSparse elimination exploits the structure of algebraic equations in order to obtain tighter bounds on the number of roots and better complexity in numerically approximating them. The model of sparsity is of combinatorial nature, thus leading to certain problems in general-dimensional convex geometry. This work addresses one such problem, namely the computation of a certain subset of integer points in the interior of integer convex polytopes. These polytopes are Minkowski sums, but avoiding their explicit construction is precisely one of the main features of the algorithm. Complexity bounds for our algorithm are derived under certain hypotheses, in terms of output-size and the sparsity parameters. A public domain implementation is described and its performance studied. Linear optimization lies at the inner loop of the algorithm, hence we analyze the structure of the linear programs and compare different implementations

On the sphere-decoding algorithm I. Expected complexity

The problem of finding the least-squares solution to a system of linear equations where the unknown vector is comprised of integers, but the matrix coefficient and given vector are comprised of real numbers, arises in many applications: communications, cryptography, GPS, to name a few. The problem is equivalent to finding the closest lattice point to a given point and is known to be NP-hard. In communications applications, however, the given vector is not arbitrary but rather is an unknown lattice point that has been perturbed by an additive noise vector whose statistical properties are known. Therefore, in this paper, rather than dwell on the worst-case complexity of the integer least-squares problem, we study its expected complexity, averaged over the noise and over the lattice. For the "sphere decoding" algorithm of Fincke and Pohst, we find a closed-form expression for the expected complexity, both for the infinite and finite lattice. It is demonstrated in the second part of this paper that, for a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and numbers of antennas, the expected complexity is polynomial, in fact, often roughly cubic. Since many communications systems operate at noise levels for which the expected complexity turns out to be polynomial, this suggests that maximum-likelihood decoding, which was hitherto thought to be computationally intractable, can, in fact, be implemented in real time - a result with many practical implications

CP-violating theta parameter in the domain model of the QCD vacuum

A non-zero CP-violating $\theta$ parameter is treated in the domain model which assumes a cluster-like vacuum structure whose units are characterised in particular by a topological charge which is not necessarily an integer number. In the present paper we restrict consideration to rational values of the charge. The model has previously been shown to manifest confinement, spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking and the absence of an axial U(1) Goldstone boson. We find that the specific structure of the minima of the free energy density of the domain ensemble forces a $2\pi$-periodicity of observables in $\theta$ for any number of light quarks, that vacuum doubling occurs at $\theta=\pi$ for any $N_f>1$ and any value of topological charge $q$. These features are in agreement with expectations based on anomalous Ward identities and large $N_c$ effective theories. We find also additional values of $\theta$ depending on $q$ for which vacuum doubling occurs.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Final version with modification of Eq.(2), additional references, minor typographical correction