3,462 research outputs found
Learning probability distributions generated by finite-state machines
We review methods for inference of probability distributions generated by probabilistic automata and related models for sequence generation. We focus on methods that can be proved to learn in the inference
in the limit and PAC formal models. The methods we review are state merging and state splitting methods for probabilistic deterministic automata and the recently developed spectral method for nondeterministic probabilistic automata. In both cases, we derive them from a high-level algorithm described in terms of the Hankel matrix of the distribution to be learned, given as an oracle, and then describe how to adapt that algorithm to account for the error introduced by a finite sample.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft
A Second Step Towards Complexity-Theoretic Analogs of Rice's Theorem
Rice's Theorem states that every nontrivial language property of the
recursively enumerable sets is undecidable. Borchert and Stephan initiated the
search for complexity-theoretic analogs of Rice's Theorem. In particular, they
proved that every nontrivial counting property of circuits is UP-hard, and that
a number of closely related problems are SPP-hard.
The present paper studies whether their UP-hardness result itself can be
improved to SPP-hardness. We show that their UP-hardness result cannot be
strengthened to SPP-hardness unless unlikely complexity class containments
hold. Nonetheless, we prove that every P-constructibly bi-infinite counting
property of circuits is SPP-hard. We also raise their general lower bound from
unambiguous nondeterminism to constant-ambiguity nondeterminism.Comment: 14 pages. To appear in Theoretical Computer Scienc
Strengths and Weaknesses of Quantum Computing
Recently a great deal of attention has focused on quantum computation
following a sequence of results suggesting that quantum computers are more
powerful than classical probabilistic computers. Following Shor's result that
factoring and the extraction of discrete logarithms are both solvable in
quantum polynomial time, it is natural to ask whether all of NP can be
efficiently solved in quantum polynomial time. In this paper, we address this
question by proving that relative to an oracle chosen uniformly at random, with
probability 1, the class NP cannot be solved on a quantum Turing machine in
time . We also show that relative to a permutation oracle chosen
uniformly at random, with probability 1, the class cannot be
solved on a quantum Turing machine in time . The former bound is
tight since recent work of Grover shows how to accept the class NP relative to
any oracle on a quantum computer in time .Comment: 18 pages, latex, no figures, to appear in SIAM Journal on Computing
(special issue on quantum computing
Kolmogorov Complexity in perspective. Part II: Classification, Information Processing and Duality
We survey diverse approaches to the notion of information: from Shannon
entropy to Kolmogorov complexity. Two of the main applications of Kolmogorov
complexity are presented: randomness and classification. The survey is divided
in two parts published in a same volume. Part II is dedicated to the relation
between logic and information system, within the scope of Kolmogorov
algorithmic information theory. We present a recent application of Kolmogorov
complexity: classification using compression, an idea with provocative
implementation by authors such as Bennett, Vitanyi and Cilibrasi. This stresses
how Kolmogorov complexity, besides being a foundation to randomness, is also
related to classification. Another approach to classification is also
considered: the so-called "Google classification". It uses another original and
attractive idea which is connected to the classification using compression and
to Kolmogorov complexity from a conceptual point of view. We present and unify
these different approaches to classification in terms of Bottom-Up versus
Top-Down operational modes, of which we point the fundamental principles and
the underlying duality. We look at the way these two dual modes are used in
different approaches to information system, particularly the relational model
for database introduced by Codd in the 70's. This allows to point out diverse
forms of a fundamental duality. These operational modes are also reinterpreted
in the context of the comprehension schema of axiomatic set theory ZF. This
leads us to develop how Kolmogorov's complexity is linked to intensionality,
abstraction, classification and information system.Comment: 43 page
Immunity and Simplicity for Exact Counting and Other Counting Classes
Ko [RAIRO 24, 1990] and Bruschi [TCS 102, 1992] showed that in some
relativized world, PSPACE (in fact, ParityP) contains a set that is immune to
the polynomial hierarchy (PH). In this paper, we study and settle the question
of (relativized) separations with immunity for PH and the counting classes PP,
C_{=}P, and ParityP in all possible pairwise combinations. Our main result is
that there is an oracle A relative to which C_{=}P contains a set that is
immune to BPP^{ParityP}. In particular, this C_{=}P^A set is immune to PH^{A}
and ParityP^{A}. Strengthening results of Tor\'{a}n [J.ACM 38, 1991] and Green
[IPL 37, 1991], we also show that, in suitable relativizations, NP contains a
C_{=}P-immune set, and ParityP contains a PP^{PH}-immune set. This implies the
existence of a C_{=}P^{B}-simple set for some oracle B, which extends results
of Balc\'{a}zar et al. [SIAM J.Comp. 14, 1985; RAIRO 22, 1988] and provides the
first example of a simple set in a class not known to be contained in PH. Our
proof technique requires a circuit lower bound for ``exact counting'' that is
derived from Razborov's [Mat. Zametki 41, 1987] lower bound for majority.Comment: 20 page
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