Polytopes, Lattices, and Spherical Codes for the Nearest Neighbor Problem

We study locality-sensitive hash methods for the nearest neighbor problem for the angular distance, focusing on the approach of first projecting down onto a random low-dimensional subspace, and then partitioning the projected vectors according to the Voronoi cells induced by a well-chosen spherical code. This approach generalizes and interpolates between the fast but asymptotically suboptimal hyperplane hashing of Charikar [STOC 2002], and asymptotically optimal but practically often slower hash families of e.g. Andoni - Indyk [FOCS 2006], Andoni - Indyk - Nguyen - Razenshteyn [SODA 2014] and Andoni - Indyk - Laarhoven - Razenshteyn - Schmidt [NIPS 2015]. We set up a framework for analyzing the performance of any spherical code in this context, and we provide results for various codes appearing in the literature, such as those related to regular polytopes and root lattices. Similar to hyperplane hashing, and unlike e.g. cross-polytope hashing, our analysis of collision probabilities and query exponents is exact and does not hide any order terms which vanish only for large d, thus facilitating an easier parameter selection in practical applications. For the two-dimensional case, we analytically derive closed-form expressions for arbitrary spherical codes, and we show that the equilateral triangle is optimal, achieving a better performance than the two-dimensional analogues of hyperplane and cross-polytope hashing. In three and four dimensions, we numerically find that the tetrahedron and 5-cell (the 3-simplex and 4-simplex) and the 16-cell (the 4-orthoplex) achieve the best query exponents, while in five or more dimensions orthoplices appear to outperform regular simplices, as well as the root lattice families A_k and D_k in terms of minimizing the query exponent. We provide lower bounds based on spherical caps, and we predict that in higher dimensions, larger spherical codes exist which outperform orthoplices in terms of the query exponent, and we argue why using the D_k root lattices will likely lead to better results in practice as well (compared to using cross-polytopes), due to a better trade-off between the asymptotic query exponent and the concrete costs of hashing

Experimental study of energy-minimizing point configurations on spheres

In this paper we report on massive computer experiments aimed at finding spherical point configurations that minimize potential energy. We present experimental evidence for two new universal optima (consisting of 40 points in 10 dimensions and 64 points in 14 dimensions), as well as evidence that there are no others with at most 64 points. We also describe several other new polytopes, and we present new geometrical descriptions of some of the known universal optima.Comment: 41 pages, 12 figures, to appear in Experimental Mathematic

Approximate Voronoi cells for lattices, revisited

We revisit the approximate Voronoi cells approach for solving the closest vector problem with preprocessing (CVPP) on high-dimensional lattices, and settle the open problem of Doulgerakis-Laarhoven-De Weger [PQCrypto, 2019] of determining exact asymptotics on the volume of these Voronoi cells under the Gaussian heuristic. As a result, we obtain improved upper bounds on the time complexity of the randomized iterative slicer when using less than $2^{0.076d + o(d)}$ memory, and we show how to obtain time-memory trade-offs even when using less than $2^{0.048d + o(d)}$ memory. We also settle the open problem of obtaining a continuous trade-off between the size of the advice and the query time complexity, as the time complexity with subexponential advice in our approach scales as $d^{d/2 + o(d)}$, matching worst-case enumeration bounds, and achieving the same asymptotic scaling as average-case enumeration algorithms for the closest vector problem.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

A method for dense packing discovery

The problem of packing a system of particles as densely as possible is foundational in the field of discrete geometry and is a powerful model in the material and biological sciences. As packing problems retreat from the reach of solution by analytic constructions, the importance of an efficient numerical method for conducting \textit{de novo} (from-scratch) searches for dense packings becomes crucial. In this paper, we use the \textit{divide and concur} framework to develop a general search method for the solution of periodic constraint problems, and we apply it to the discovery of dense periodic packings. An important feature of the method is the integration of the unit cell parameters with the other packing variables in the definition of the configuration space. The method we present led to improvements in the densest-known tetrahedron packing which are reported in [arXiv:0910.5226]. Here, we use the method to reproduce the densest known lattice sphere packings and the best known lattice kissing arrangements in up to 14 and 11 dimensions respectively (the first such numerical evidence for their optimality in some of these dimensions). For non-spherical particles, we report a new dense packing of regular four-dimensional simplices with density $\phi=128/219\approx0.5845$ and with a similar structure to the densest known tetrahedron packing.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

A reliable order-statistics-based approximate nearest neighbor search algorithm

We propose a new algorithm for fast approximate nearest neighbor search based on the properties of ordered vectors. Data vectors are classified based on the index and sign of their largest components, thereby partitioning the space in a number of cones centered in the origin. The query is itself classified, and the search starts from the selected cone and proceeds to neighboring ones. Overall, the proposed algorithm corresponds to locality sensitive hashing in the space of directions, with hashing based on the order of components. Thanks to the statistical features emerging through ordering, it deals very well with the challenging case of unstructured data, and is a valuable building block for more complex techniques dealing with structured data. Experiments on both simulated and real-world data prove the proposed algorithm to provide a state-of-the-art performance

Basic Understanding of Condensed Phases of Matter via Packing Models

Packing problems have been a source of fascination for millenia and their study has produced a rich literature that spans numerous disciplines. Investigations of hard-particle packing models have provided basic insights into the structure and bulk properties of condensed phases of matter, including low-temperature states (e.g., molecular and colloidal liquids, crystals and glasses), multiphase heterogeneous media, granular media, and biological systems. The densest packings are of great interest in pure mathematics, including discrete geometry and number theory. This perspective reviews pertinent theoretical and computational literature concerning the equilibrium, metastable and nonequilibrium packings of hard-particle packings in various Euclidean space dimensions. In the case of jammed packings, emphasis will be placed on the "geometric-structure" approach, which provides a powerful and unified means to quantitatively characterize individual packings via jamming categories and "order" maps. It incorporates extremal jammed states, including the densest packings, maximally random jammed states, and lowest-density jammed structures. Packings of identical spheres, spheres with a size distribution, and nonspherical particles are also surveyed. We close this review by identifying challenges and open questions for future research.Comment: 33 pages, 20 figures, Invited "Perspective" submitted to the Journal of Chemical Physics. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1008.298

Multiple Description Vector Quantization with Lattice Codebooks: Design and Analysis

The problem of designing a multiple description vector quantizer with lattice codebook Lambda is considered. A general solution is given to a labeling problem which plays a crucial role in the design of such quantizers. Numerical performance results are obtained for quantizers based on the lattices A_2 and Z^i, i=1,2,4,8, that make use of this labeling algorithm. The high-rate squared-error distortions for this family of L-dimensional vector quantizers are then analyzed for a memoryless source with probability density function p and differential entropy h(p) < infty. For any a in (0,1) and rate pair (R,R), it is shown that the two-channel distortion d_0 and the channel 1 (or channel 2) distortions d_s satisfy lim_{R -> infty} d_0 2^(2R(1+a)) = (1/4) G(Lambda) 2^{2h(p)} and lim_{R -> infty} d_s 2^(2R(1-a)) = G(S_L) 2^2h(p), where G(Lambda) is the normalized second moment of a Voronoi cell of the lattice Lambda and G(S_L) is the normalized second moment of a sphere in L dimensions.Comment: 46 pages, 14 figure