66,669 research outputs found
Distribution-Independent Evolvability of Linear Threshold Functions
Valiant's (2007) model of evolvability models the evolutionary process of
acquiring useful functionality as a restricted form of learning from random
examples. Linear threshold functions and their various subclasses, such as
conjunctions and decision lists, play a fundamental role in learning theory and
hence their evolvability has been the primary focus of research on Valiant's
framework (2007). One of the main open problems regarding the model is whether
conjunctions are evolvable distribution-independently (Feldman and Valiant,
2008). We show that the answer is negative. Our proof is based on a new
combinatorial parameter of a concept class that lower-bounds the complexity of
learning from correlations.
We contrast the lower bound with a proof that linear threshold functions
having a non-negligible margin on the data points are evolvable
distribution-independently via a simple mutation algorithm. Our algorithm
relies on a non-linear loss function being used to select the hypotheses
instead of 0-1 loss in Valiant's (2007) original definition. The proof of
evolvability requires that the loss function satisfies several mild conditions
that are, for example, satisfied by the quadratic loss function studied in
several other works (Michael, 2007; Feldman, 2009; Valiant, 2010). An important
property of our evolution algorithm is monotonicity, that is the algorithm
guarantees evolvability without any decreases in performance. Previously,
monotone evolvability was only shown for conjunctions with quadratic loss
(Feldman, 2009) or when the distribution on the domain is severely restricted
(Michael, 2007; Feldman, 2009; Kanade et al., 2010
Deterministic Time-Space Tradeoffs for k-SUM
Given a set of numbers, the -SUM problem asks for a subset of numbers
that sums to zero. When the numbers are integers, the time and space complexity
of -SUM is generally studied in the word-RAM model; when the numbers are
reals, the complexity is studied in the real-RAM model, and space is measured
by the number of reals held in memory at any point.
We present a time and space efficient deterministic self-reduction for the
-SUM problem which holds for both models, and has many interesting
consequences. To illustrate:
* -SUM is in deterministic time and space
. In general, any
polylogarithmic-time improvement over quadratic time for -SUM can be
converted into an algorithm with an identical time improvement but low space
complexity as well. * -SUM is in deterministic time and space
, derandomizing an algorithm of Wang.
* A popular conjecture states that 3-SUM requires time on the
word-RAM. We show that the 3-SUM Conjecture is in fact equivalent to the
(seemingly weaker) conjecture that every -space algorithm for
-SUM requires at least time on the word-RAM.
* For , -SUM is in deterministic time and
space
Threesomes, Degenerates, and Love Triangles
The 3SUM problem is to decide, given a set of real numbers, whether any
three sum to zero. It is widely conjectured that a trivial -time
algorithm is optimal and over the years the consequences of this conjecture
have been revealed. This 3SUM conjecture implies lower bounds on
numerous problems in computational geometry and a variant of the conjecture
implies strong lower bounds on triangle enumeration, dynamic graph algorithms,
and string matching data structures.
In this paper we refute the 3SUM conjecture. We prove that the decision tree
complexity of 3SUM is and give two subquadratic 3SUM
algorithms, a deterministic one running in
time and a randomized one running in time with
high probability. Our results lead directly to improved bounds for -variate
linear degeneracy testing for all odd . The problem is to decide, given
a linear function and a set , whether . We show the
decision tree complexity of this problem is .
Finally, we give a subcubic algorithm for a generalization of the
-product over real-valued matrices and apply it to the problem of
finding zero-weight triangles in weighted graphs. We give a
depth- decision tree for this problem, as well as an
algorithm running in time
- …