3,474 research outputs found
Space--Time Tradeoffs for Subset Sum: An Improved Worst Case Algorithm
The technique of Schroeppel and Shamir (SICOMP, 1981) has long been the most
efficient way to trade space against time for the SUBSET SUM problem. In the
random-instance setting, however, improved tradeoffs exist. In particular, the
recently discovered dissection method of Dinur et al. (CRYPTO 2012) yields a
significantly improved space--time tradeoff curve for instances with strong
randomness properties. Our main result is that these strong randomness
assumptions can be removed, obtaining the same space--time tradeoffs in the
worst case. We also show that for small space usage the dissection algorithm
can be almost fully parallelized. Our strategy for dealing with arbitrary
instances is to instead inject the randomness into the dissection process
itself by working over a carefully selected but random composite modulus, and
to introduce explicit space--time controls into the algorithm by means of a
"bailout mechanism"
Finding the Median (Obliviously) with Bounded Space
We prove that any oblivious algorithm using space to find the median of a
list of integers from requires time . This bound also applies to the problem of determining whether the median
is odd or even. It is nearly optimal since Chan, following Munro and Raman, has
shown that there is a (randomized) selection algorithm using only
registers, each of which can store an input value or -bit counter,
that makes only passes over the input. The bound also implies
a size lower bound for read-once branching programs computing the low order bit
of the median and implies the analog of for length oblivious branching programs
Solving -SUM using few linear queries
The -SUM problem is given input real numbers to determine whether any
of them sum to zero. The problem is of tremendous importance in the
emerging field of complexity theory within , and it is in particular open
whether it admits an algorithm of complexity with . Inspired by an algorithm due to Meiser (1993), we show
that there exist linear decision trees and algebraic computation trees of depth
solving -SUM. Furthermore, we show that there exists a
randomized algorithm that runs in
time, and performs linear queries on the input. Thus, we show
that it is possible to have an algorithm with a runtime almost identical (up to
the ) to the best known algorithm but for the first time also with the
number of queries on the input a polynomial that is independent of . The
bound on the number of linear queries is also a tighter bound
than any known algorithm solving -SUM, even allowing unlimited total time
outside of the queries. By simultaneously achieving few queries to the input
without significantly sacrificing runtime vis-\`{a}-vis known algorithms, we
deepen the understanding of this canonical problem which is a cornerstone of
complexity-within-.
We also consider a range of tradeoffs between the number of terms involved in
the queries and the depth of the decision tree. In particular, we prove that
there exist -linear decision trees of depth
Mean-Variance Optimization in Markov Decision Processes
We consider finite horizon Markov decision processes under performance
measures that involve both the mean and the variance of the cumulative reward.
We show that either randomized or history-based policies can improve
performance. We prove that the complexity of computing a policy that maximizes
the mean reward under a variance constraint is NP-hard for some cases, and
strongly NP-hard for others. We finally offer pseudopolynomial exact and
approximation algorithms.Comment: A full version of an ICML 2011 pape
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