32,452 research outputs found
Consistency of circuit lower bounds with bounded theories
Proving that there are problems in that require
boolean circuits of super-linear size is a major frontier in complexity theory.
While such lower bounds are known for larger complexity classes, existing
results only show that the corresponding problems are hard on infinitely many
input lengths. For instance, proving almost-everywhere circuit lower bounds is
open even for problems in . Giving the notorious difficulty of
proving lower bounds that hold for all large input lengths, we ask the
following question: Can we show that a large set of techniques cannot prove
that is easy infinitely often? Motivated by this and related
questions about the interaction between mathematical proofs and computations,
we investigate circuit complexity from the perspective of logic.
Among other results, we prove that for any parameter it is
consistent with theory that computational class , where is one of
the pairs: and , and , and
. In other words, these theories cannot establish
infinitely often circuit upper bounds for the corresponding problems. This is
of interest because the weaker theory already formalizes
sophisticated arguments, such as a proof of the PCP Theorem. These consistency
statements are unconditional and improve on earlier theorems of [KO17] and
[BM18] on the consistency of lower bounds with
Making proofs without Modus Ponens: An introduction to the combinatorics and complexity of cut elimination
This paper is intended to provide an introduction to cut elimination which is
accessible to a broad mathematical audience. Gentzen's cut elimination theorem
is not as well known as it deserves to be, and it is tied to a lot of
interesting mathematical structure. In particular we try to indicate some
dynamical and combinatorial aspects of cut elimination, as well as its
connections to complexity theory. We discuss two concrete examples where one
can see the structure of short proofs with cuts, one concerning feasible
numbers and the other concerning "bounded mean oscillation" from real analysis
Optimal Uncertainty Quantification
We propose a rigorous framework for Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) in which
the UQ objectives and the assumptions/information set are brought to the forefront.
This framework, which we call Optimal Uncertainty Quantification (OUQ), is based
on the observation that, given a set of assumptions and information about the problem,
there exist optimal bounds on uncertainties: these are obtained as extreme
values of well-defined optimization problems corresponding to extremizing probabilities
of failure, or of deviations, subject to the constraints imposed by the scenarios
compatible with the assumptions and information. In particular, this framework
does not implicitly impose inappropriate assumptions, nor does it repudiate relevant
information.
Although OUQ optimization problems are extremely large, we show that under
general conditions, they have finite-dimensional reductions. As an application,
we develop Optimal Concentration Inequalities (OCI) of Hoeffding and McDiarmid
type. Surprisingly, contrary to the classical sensitivity analysis paradigm, these results
show that uncertainties in input parameters do not necessarily propagate to
output uncertainties.
In addition, a general algorithmic framework is developed for OUQ and is tested
on the Caltech surrogate model for hypervelocity impact, suggesting the feasibility
of the framework for important complex systems
Optimal Uncertainty Quantification
We propose a rigorous framework for Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) in which
the UQ objectives and the assumptions/information set are brought to the
forefront. This framework, which we call \emph{Optimal Uncertainty
Quantification} (OUQ), is based on the observation that, given a set of
assumptions and information about the problem, there exist optimal bounds on
uncertainties: these are obtained as values of well-defined optimization
problems corresponding to extremizing probabilities of failure, or of
deviations, subject to the constraints imposed by the scenarios compatible with
the assumptions and information. In particular, this framework does not
implicitly impose inappropriate assumptions, nor does it repudiate relevant
information. Although OUQ optimization problems are extremely large, we show
that under general conditions they have finite-dimensional reductions. As an
application, we develop \emph{Optimal Concentration Inequalities} (OCI) of
Hoeffding and McDiarmid type. Surprisingly, these results show that
uncertainties in input parameters, which propagate to output uncertainties in
the classical sensitivity analysis paradigm, may fail to do so if the transfer
functions (or probability distributions) are imperfectly known. We show how,
for hierarchical structures, this phenomenon may lead to the non-propagation of
uncertainties or information across scales. In addition, a general algorithmic
framework is developed for OUQ and is tested on the Caltech surrogate model for
hypervelocity impact and on the seismic safety assessment of truss structures,
suggesting the feasibility of the framework for important complex systems. The
introduction of this paper provides both an overview of the paper and a
self-contained mini-tutorial about basic concepts and issues of UQ.Comment: 90 pages. Accepted for publication in SIAM Review (Expository
Research Papers). See SIAM Review for higher quality figure
Optimal one-dimensional coverage by unreliable sensors
This paper regards the problem of optimally placing unreliable sensors in a
one-dimensional environment. We assume that sensors can fail with a certain
probability and we minimize the expected maximum distance from any point in the
environment to the closest active sensor. We provide a computational method to
find the optimal placement and we estimate the relative quality of equispaced
and random placements. We prove that the former is asymptotically equivalent to
the optimal placement when the number of sensors goes to infinity, with a cost
ratio converging to 1, while the cost of the latter remains strictly larger.Comment: 21 pages 2 figure
Optimal Transport and Ricci Curvature: Wasserstein Space Over the Interval
In this essay, we discuss the notion of optimal transport on geodesic measure
spaces and the associated (2-)Wasserstein distance. We then examine
displacement convexity of the entropy functional on the space of probability
measures. In particular, we give a detailed proof that the Lott-Villani-Sturm
notion of generalized Ricci bounds agree with the classical notion on smooth
manifolds. We also give the proof that generalized Ricci bounds are preserved
under Gromov-Hausdorff convergence. In particular, we examine in detail the
space of probability measures over the interval, equipped with the
Wasserstein metric . We show that this metric space is isometric to a
totally convex subset of a Hilbert space, , which allows for concrete
calculations, contrary to the usual state of affairs in the theory of optimal
transport. We prove explicitly that has vanishing Alexandrov
curvature, and give an easy to work with expression for the entropy functional
on this space. In addition, we examine finite dimensional Gromov-Hausdorff
approximations to this space, and use these to construct a measure on the limit
space, the entropic measure first considered by Von Renesse and Sturm. We
examine properties of the measure, in particular explaining why one would
expect it to have generalized Ricci lower bounds. We then show that this is in
fact not true. We also discuss the possibility and consequences of finding a
different measure which does admit generalized Ricci lower bounds.Comment: 47 pages, 9 figure
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