Lower Bounds for Approximating Graph Parameters via Communication Complexity

In a celebrated work, Blais, Brody, and Matulef [Blais et al., 2012] developed a technique for proving property testing lower bounds via reductions from communication complexity. Their work focused on testing properties of functions, and yielded new lower bounds as well as simplified analyses of known lower bounds. Here, we take a further step in generalizing the methodology of [Blais et al., 2012] to analyze the query complexity of graph parameter estimation problems. In particular, our technique decouples the lower bound arguments from the representation of the graph, allowing it to work with any query type. We illustrate our technique by providing new simpler proofs of previously known tight lower bounds for the query complexity of several graph problems: estimating the number of edges in a graph, sampling edges from an almost-uniform distribution, estimating the number of triangles (and more generally, r-cliques) in a graph, and estimating the moments of the degree distribution of a graph. We also prove new lower bounds for estimating the edge connectivity of a graph and estimating the number of instances of any fixed subgraph in a graph. We show that the lower bounds for estimating the number of triangles and edge connectivity also hold in a strictly stronger computational model that allows access to uniformly random edge samples

An adaptivity hierarchy theorem for property testing

Adaptivity is known to play a crucial role in property testing. In particular, there exist properties for which there is an exponential gap between the power of adaptive testing algorithms, wherein each query may be determined by the answers received to prior queries, and their non-adaptive counterparts, in which all queries are independent of answers obtained from previous queries. In this work, we investigate the role of adaptivity in property testing at a finer level. We first quantify the degree of adaptivity of a testing algorithm by considering the number of "rounds of adaptivity" it uses. More accurately, we say that a tester is k-(round) adaptive if it makes queries in k+1 rounds, where the queries in the i'th round may depend on the answers obtained in the previous i-1 rounds. Then, we ask the following question: Does the power of testing algorithms smoothly grow with the number of rounds of adaptivity? We provide a positive answer to the foregoing question by proving an adaptivity hierarchy theorem for property testing. Specifically, our main result shows that for every n in N and 0 <= k <= n^{0.99} there exists a property Pi_{n,k} of functions for which (1) there exists a k-adaptive tester for Pi_{n,k} with query complexity tilde O(k), yet (2) any (k-1)-adaptive tester for Pi_{n,k} must make Omega(n) queries. In addition, we show that such a qualitative adaptivity hierarchy can be witnessed for testing natural properties of graphs

Distribution testing lower bounds via reductions from communication complexity

We present a new methodology for proving distribution testing lower bounds, establishing a connection between distribution testing and the simultaneous message passing (SMP) communication model. Extending the framework of Blais, Brody, and Matulef (Computational Complexity, 2012), we show a simple way to reduce (private-coin) SMP problems to distribution testing problems. This method allows us to prove new distribution testing lower bounds, as well as to provide simple proofs of known lower bounds. Our main result is concerned with testing identity to a specific distribution p, given as a parameter. In a recent and influential work, Valiant and Valiant (FOCS, 2014) showed that the sample complexity of the aforementioned problem is closely related to the 2/3-quasinorm of p. We obtain alternative bounds on the complexity of this problem in terms of an arguably more intuitive measure and using simpler proofs. More specifically, we prove that the sample complexity is essentially determined by a fundamental operator in the theory of interpolation of Banach spaces, known as Peetre's K-functional. We show that this quantity is closely related to the size of the effective support of p (loosely speaking, the number of supported elements that constitute the vast majority of the mass of p). This result, in turn, stems from an unexpected connection to functional analysis and refined concentration of measure inequalities, which arise naturally in our reduction

An Adaptivity Hierarchy Theorem for Property Testing

Adaptivity is known to play a crucial role in property testing. In particular, there exist properties for which there is an exponential gap between the power of adaptive testing algorithms, wherein each query may be determined by the answers received to prior queries, and their non-adaptive counterparts, in which all queries are independent of answers obtained from previous queries. In this work, we investigate the role of adaptivity in property testing at a finer level. We first quantify the degree of adaptivity of a testing algorithm by considering the number of "rounds of adaptivity" it uses. More accurately, we say that a tester is k-(round) adaptive if it makes queries in k+1 rounds, where the queries in the i\u27th round may depend on the answers obtained in the previous i-1 rounds. Then, we ask the following question: Does the power of testing algorithms smoothly grow with the number of rounds of adaptivity? We provide a positive answer to the foregoing question by proving an adaptivity hierarchy theorem for property testing. Specifically, our main result shows that for every n in N and 0 <= k <= n^{0.99} there exists a property Pi_{n,k} of functions for which (1) there exists a k-adaptive tester for Pi_{n,k} with query complexity tilde O(k), yet (2) any (k-1)-adaptive tester for Pi_{n,k} must make Omega(n) queries. In addition, we show that such a qualitative adaptivity hierarchy can be witnessed for testing natural properties of graphs

An adaptivity hierarchy theorem for property testing

Adaptivity is known to play a crucial role in property testing. In particular, there exist properties for which there is an exponential gap between the power of adaptive testing algorithms, wherein each query may be determined by the answers received to prior queries, and their non-adaptive counterparts, in which all queries are independent of answers obtained from previous queries. In this work, we investigate the role of adaptivity in property testing at a finer level. We first quantify the degree of adaptivity of a testing algorithm by considering the number of "rounds of adaptivity" it uses. More accurately, we say that a tester is k-(round) adaptive if it makes queries in k+1 rounds, where the queries in the i'th round may depend on the answers obtained in the previous i-1 rounds. Then, we ask the following question: Does the power of testing algorithms smoothly grow with the number of rounds of adaptivity? We provide a positive answer to the foregoing question by proving an adaptivity hierarchy theorem for property testing. Specifically, our main result shows that for every n in N and 0 <= k <= n^{0.99} there exists a property Pi_{n,k} of functions for which (1) there exists a k-adaptive tester for Pi_{n,k} with query complexity tilde O(k), yet (2) any (k-1)-adaptive tester for Pi_{n,k} must make Omega(n) queries. In addition, we show that such a qualitative adaptivity hierarchy can be witnessed for testing natural properties of graphs

Distribution Testing Lower Bounds via Reductions from Communication Complexity

We present a new methodology for proving distribution testing lower bounds, establishing a connection between distribution testing and the simultaneous message passing (SMP) communication model. Extending the framework of Blais, Brody, and Matulef (Computational Complexity, 2012), we show a simple way to reduce (private-coin) SMP problems to distribution testing problems. This method allows us to prove new distribution testing lower bounds, as well as to provide simple proofs of known lower bounds. Our main result is concerned with testing identity to a specific distribution p, given as a parameter. In a recent and influential work, Valiant and Valiant (FOCS, 2014) showed that the sample complexity of the aforementioned problem is closely related to the 2/3-quasinorm of p. We obtain alternative bounds on the complexity of this problem in terms of an arguably more intuitive measure and using simpler proofs. More specifically, we prove that the sample complexity is essentially determined by a fundamental operator in the theory of interpolation of Banach spaces, known as Peetre\u27s K-functional. We show that this quantity is closely related to the size of the effective support of p (loosely speaking, the number of supported elements that constitute the vast majority of the mass of p). This result, in turn, stems from an unexpected connection to functional analysis and refined concentration of measure inequalities, which arise naturally in our reduction

Distributional Property Testing in a Quantum World

A fundamental problem in statistics and learning theory is to test properties of distributions. We show that quantum computers can solve such problems with significant speed-ups. We also introduce a novel access model for quantum distributions, enabling the coherent preparation of quantum samples, and propose a general framework that can naturally handle both classical and quantum distributions in a unified manner. Our framework generalizes and improves previous quantum algorithms for testing closeness between unknown distributions, testing independence between two distributions, and estimating the Shannon / von Neumann entropy of distributions. For classical distributions our algorithms significantly improve the precision dependence of some earlier results. We also show that in our framework procedures for classical distributions can be directly lifted to the more general case of quantum distributions, and thus obtain the first speed-ups for testing properties of density operators that can be accessed coherently rather than only via sampling

An Introduction to Quantum Complexity Theory

We give a basic overview of computational complexity, query complexity, and communication complexity, with quantum information incorporated into each of these scenarios. The aim is to provide simple but clear definitions, and to highlight the interplay between the three scenarios and currently-known quantum algorithms.Comment: 28 pages, LaTeX, 11 figures within the text, to appear in "Collected Papers on Quantum Computation and Quantum Information Theory", edited by C. Macchiavello, G.M. Palma, and A. Zeilinger (World Scientific

Sampling Correctors

In many situations, sample data is obtained from a noisy or imperfect source. In order to address such corruptions, this paper introduces the concept of a sampling corrector. Such algorithms use structure that the distribution is purported to have, in order to allow one to make "on-the-fly" corrections to samples drawn from probability distributions. These algorithms then act as filters between the noisy data and the end user. We show connections between sampling correctors, distribution learning algorithms, and distribution property testing algorithms. We show that these connections can be utilized to expand the applicability of known distribution learning and property testing algorithms as well as to achieve improved algorithms for those tasks. As a first step, we show how to design sampling correctors using proper learning algorithms. We then focus on the question of whether algorithms for sampling correctors can be more efficient in terms of sample complexity than learning algorithms for the analogous families of distributions. When correcting monotonicity, we show that this is indeed the case when also granted query access to the cumulative distribution function. We also obtain sampling correctors for monotonicity without this stronger type of access, provided that the distribution be originally very close to monotone (namely, at a distance $O(1/\log^2 n)$). In addition to that, we consider a restricted error model that aims at capturing "missing data" corruptions. In this model, we show that distributions that are close to monotone have sampling correctors that are significantly more efficient than achievable by the learning approach. We also consider the question of whether an additional source of independent random bits is required by sampling correctors to implement the correction process