Streaming algorithms for language recognition problems

We study the complexity of the following problems in the streaming model. Membership testing for \DLIN We show that every language in \DLIN\ can be recognised by a randomized one-pass $O(\log n)$ space algorithm with inverse polynomial one-sided error, and by a deterministic p-pass $O(n/p)$ space algorithm. We show that these algorithms are optimal. Membership testing for \LL$(k)$ For languages generated by \LL$(k)$ grammars with a bound of $r$ on the number of nonterminals at any stage in the left-most derivation, we show that membership can be tested by a randomized one-pass $O(r\log n)$ space algorithm with inverse polynomial (in $n$) one-sided error. Membership testing for \DCFL We show that randomized algorithms as efficient as the ones described above for \DLIN\ and \LL(k) (which are subclasses of \DCFL) cannot exist for all of \DCFL: there is a language in \VPL\ (a subclass of \DCFL) for which any randomized p-pass algorithm with error bounded by $\epsilon < 1/2$ must use $\Omega(n/p)$ space. Degree sequence problem We study the problem of determining, given a sequence $d_1, d_2,..., d_n$ and a graph $G$, whether the degree sequence of $G$ is precisely $d_1, d_2,..., d_n$. We give a randomized one-pass $O(\log n)$ space algorithm with inverse polynomial one-sided error probability. We show that our algorithms are optimal. Our randomized algorithms are based on the recent work of Magniez et al. \cite{MMN09}; our lower bounds are obtained by considering related communication complexity problems

Finite state verifiers with constant randomness

We give a new characterization of $\mathsf{NL}$ as the class of languages whose members have certificates that can be verified with small error in polynomial time by finite state machines that use a constant number of random bits, as opposed to its conventional description in terms of deterministic logarithmic-space verifiers. It turns out that allowing two-way interaction with the prover does not change the class of verifiable languages, and that no polynomially bounded amount of randomness is useful for constant-memory computers when used as language recognizers, or public-coin verifiers. A corollary of our main result is that the class of outcome problems corresponding to O(log n)-space bounded games of incomplete information where the universal player is allowed a constant number of moves equals NL.Comment: 17 pages. An improved versio

Semi-Streaming Algorithms for Annotated Graph Streams

Considerable effort has been devoted to the development of streaming algorithms for analyzing massive graphs. Unfortunately, many results have been negative, establishing that a wide variety of problems require $\Omega(n^2)$ space to solve. One of the few bright spots has been the development of semi-streaming algorithms for a handful of graph problems -- these algorithms use space $O(n\cdot\text{polylog}(n))$. In the annotated data streaming model of Chakrabarti et al., a computationally limited client wants to compute some property of a massive input, but lacks the resources to store even a small fraction of the input, and hence cannot perform the desired computation locally. The client therefore accesses a powerful but untrusted service provider, who not only performs the requested computation, but also proves that the answer is correct. We put forth the notion of semi-streaming algorithms for annotated graph streams (semi-streaming annotation schemes for short). These are protocols in which both the client's space usage and the length of the proof are $O(n \cdot \text{polylog}(n))$. We give evidence that semi-streaming annotation schemes represent a substantially more robust solution concept than does the standard semi-streaming model. On the positive side, we give semi-streaming annotation schemes for two dynamic graph problems that are intractable in the standard model: (exactly) counting triangles, and (exactly) computing maximum matchings. The former scheme answers a question of Cormode. On the negative side, we identify for the first time two natural graph problems (connectivity and bipartiteness in a certain edge update model) that can be solved in the standard semi-streaming model, but cannot be solved by annotation schemes of "sub-semi-streaming" cost. That is, these problems are just as hard in the annotations model as they are in the standard model.Comment: This update includes some additional discussion of the results proven. The result on counting triangles was previously included in an ECCC technical report by Chakrabarti et al. available at http://eccc.hpi-web.de/report/2013/180/. That report has been superseded by this manuscript, and the CCC 2015 paper "Verifiable Stream Computation and Arthur-Merlin Communication" by Chakrabarti et a

On the state complexity of semi-quantum finite automata

Some of the most interesting and important results concerning quantum finite automata are those showing that they can recognize certain languages with (much) less resources than corresponding classical finite automata \cite{Amb98,Amb09,AmYa11,Ber05,Fre09,Mer00,Mer01,Mer02,Yak10,ZhgQiu112,Zhg12}. This paper shows three results of such a type that are stronger in some sense than other ones because (a) they deal with models of quantum automata with very little quantumness (so-called semi-quantum one- and two-way automata with one qubit memory only); (b) differences, even comparing with probabilistic classical automata, are bigger than expected; (c) a trade-off between the number of classical and quantum basis states needed is demonstrated in one case and (d) languages (or the promise problem) used to show main results are very simple and often explored ones in automata theory or in communication complexity, with seemingly little structure that could be utilized.Comment: 19 pages. We improve (make stronger) the results in section

MPC for MPC: Secure Computation on a Massively Parallel Computing Architecture

Massively Parallel Computation (MPC) is a model of computation widely believed to best capture realistic parallel computing architectures such as large-scale MapReduce and Hadoop clusters. Motivated by the fact that many data analytics tasks performed on these platforms involve sensitive user data, we initiate the theoretical exploration of how to leverage MPC architectures to enable efficient, privacy-preserving computation over massive data. Clearly if a computation task does not lend itself to an efficient implementation on MPC even without security, then we cannot hope to compute it efficiently on MPC with security. We show, on the other hand, that any task that can be efficiently computed on MPC can also be securely computed with comparable efficiency. Specifically, we show the following results: - any MPC algorithm can be compiled to a communication-oblivious counterpart while asymptotically preserving its round and space complexity, where communication-obliviousness ensures that any network intermediary observing the communication patterns learn no information about the secret inputs; - assuming the existence of Fully Homomorphic Encryption with a suitable notion of compactness and other standard cryptographic assumptions, any MPC algorithm can be compiled to a secure counterpart that defends against an adversary who controls not only intermediate network routers but additionally up to 1/3 - ? fraction of machines (for an arbitrarily small constant ?) - moreover, this compilation preserves the round complexity tightly, and preserves the space complexity upto a multiplicative security parameter related blowup. As an initial exploration of this important direction, our work suggests new definitions and proposes novel protocols that blend algorithmic and cryptographic techniques

State succinctness of two-way finite automata with quantum and classical states

{\it Two-way quantum automata with quantum and classical states} (2QCFA) were introduced by Ambainis and Watrous in 2002. In this paper we study state succinctness of 2QCFA. For any $m\in {\mathbb{Z}}^+$ and any $\epsilon<1/2$, we show that: {enumerate} there is a promise problem $A^{eq}(m)$ which can be solved by a 2QCFA with one-sided error $\epsilon$ in a polynomial expected running time with a constant number (that depends neither on $m$ nor on $\varepsilon$) of quantum states and $\mathbf{O}(\log{\frac{1}{\epsilon})}$ classical states, whereas the sizes of the corresponding {\it deterministic finite automata} (DFA), {\it two-way nondeterministic finite automata} (2NFA) and polynomial expected running time {\it two-way probabilistic finite automata} (2PFA) are at least $2m+2$, $\sqrt{\log{m}}$, and $\sqrt[3]{(\log m)/b}$, respectively; there exists a language $L^{twin}(m)=\{wcw| w\in\{a,b\}^*\}$ over the alphabet $\Sigma=\{a,b,c\}$ which can be recognized by a 2QCFA with one-sided error $\epsilon$ in an exponential expected running time with a constant number of quantum states and $\mathbf{O}(\log{\frac{1}{\epsilon})}$ classical states, whereas the sizes of the corresponding DFA, 2NFA and polynomial expected running time 2PFA are at least $2^m$, $\sqrt{m}$, and $\sqrt[3]{m/b}$, respectively; {enumerate} where $b$ is a constant.Comment: 26pages, comments and suggestions are welcom

Silent MST approximation for tiny memory

In network distributed computing, minimum spanning tree (MST) is one of the key problems, and silent self-stabilization one of the most demanding fault-tolerance properties. For this problem and this model, a polynomial-time algorithm with $O(\log^2\!n)$ memory is known for the state model. This is memory optimal for weights in the classic $[1,\text{poly}(n)]$ range (where $n$ is the size of the network). In this paper, we go below this $O(\log^2\!n)$ memory, using approximation and parametrized complexity. More specifically, our contributions are two-fold. We introduce a second parameter~$s$, which is the space needed to encode a weight, and we design a silent polynomial-time self-stabilizing algorithm, with space $O(\log n \cdot s)$. In turn, this allows us to get an approximation algorithm for the problem, with a trade-off between the approximation ratio of the solution and the space used. For polynomial weights, this trade-off goes smoothly from memory $O(\log n)$ for an $n$-approximation, to memory $O(\log^2\!n)$ for exact solutions, with for example memory $O(\log n\log\log n)$ for a 2-approximation

Streaming Verification of Graph Properties

Streaming interactive proofs (SIPs) are a framework for outsourced computation. A computationally limited streaming client (the verifier) hands over a large data set to an untrusted server (the prover) in the cloud and the two parties run a protocol to confirm the correctness of result with high probability. SIPs are particularly interesting for problems that are hard to solve (or even approximate) well in a streaming setting. The most notable of these problems is finding maximum matchings, which has received intense interest in recent years but has strong lower bounds even for constant factor approximations. In this paper, we present efficient streaming interactive proofs that can verify maximum matchings exactly. Our results cover all flavors of matchings (bipartite/non-bipartite and weighted). In addition, we also present streaming verifiers for approximate metric TSP. In particular, these are the first efficient results for weighted matchings and for metric TSP in any streaming verification model.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figure, 1 tabl