325,815 research outputs found
Restricted Value Iteration: Theory and Algorithms
Value iteration is a popular algorithm for finding near optimal policies for
POMDPs. It is inefficient due to the need to account for the entire belief
space, which necessitates the solution of large numbers of linear programs. In
this paper, we study value iteration restricted to belief subsets. We show
that, together with properly chosen belief subsets, restricted value iteration
yields near-optimal policies and we give a condition for determining whether a
given belief subset would bring about savings in space and time. We also apply
restricted value iteration to two interesting classes of POMDPs, namely
informative POMDPs and near-discernible POMDPs
Phase Transitions and Backbones of the Asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem
In recent years, there has been much interest in phase transitions of
combinatorial problems. Phase transitions have been successfully used to
analyze combinatorial optimization problems, characterize their typical-case
features and locate the hardest problem instances. In this paper, we study
phase transitions of the asymmetric Traveling Salesman Problem (ATSP), an
NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem that has many real-world
applications. Using random instances of up to 1,500 cities in which intercity
distances are uniformly distributed, we empirically show that many properties
of the problem, including the optimal tour cost and backbone size, experience
sharp transitions as the precision of intercity distances increases across a
critical value. Our experimental results on the costs of the ATSP tours and
assignment problem agree with the theoretical result that the asymptotic cost
of assignment problem is pi ^2 /6 the number of cities goes to infinity. In
addition, we show that the average computational cost of the well-known
branch-and-bound subtour elimination algorithm for the problem also exhibits a
thrashing behavior, transitioning from easy to difficult as the distance
precision increases. These results answer positively an open question regarding
the existence of phase transitions in the ATSP, and provide guidance on how
difficult ATSP problem instances should be generated
Towards efficient SimRank computation on large networks
SimRank has been a powerful model for assessing the similarity of pairs of vertices in a graph. It is based on the concept that two vertices are similar if they are referenced by similar vertices. Due to its self-referentiality, fast SimRank computation on large graphs poses significant challenges. The state-of-the-art work [17] exploits partial sums memorization for computing SimRank in O(Kmn) time on a graph with n vertices and m edges, where K is the number of iterations. Partial sums memorizing can reduce repeated calculations by caching part of similarity summations for later reuse. However, we observe that computations among different partial sums may have duplicate redundancy. Besides, for a desired accuracy ϵ, the existing SimRank model requires K = [logC ϵ] iterations [17], where C is a damping factor. Nevertheless, such a geometric rate of convergence is slow in practice if a high accuracy is desirable. In this paper, we address these gaps. (1) We propose an adaptive clustering strategy to eliminate partial sums redundancy (i.e., duplicate computations occurring in partial sums), and devise an efficient algorithm for speeding up the computation of SimRank to 0(Kdn2) time, where d is typically much smaller than the average in-degree of a graph. (2) We also present a new notion of SimRank that is based on a differential equation and can be represented as an exponential sum of transition matrices, as opposed to the geometric sum of the conventional counterpart. This leads to a further speedup in the convergence rate of SimRank iterations. (3) Using real and synthetic data, we empirically verify that our approach of partial sums sharing outperforms the best known algorithm by up to one order of magnitude, and that our revised notion of SimRank further achieves a 5X speedup on large graphs while also fairly preserving the relative order of original SimRank scores
LS 5039 - the counterpart of the unidentified MeV source GRO J1823-12
The COMPTEL experiment on CGRO observed the gamma-ray sky at energies from
0.75 MeV to 30 MeV between April 1991 and June 2000. COMPTEL detected many
gamma-ray sources, among them an unidentified one labeled GRO J1823-12, which
is positionally consistent with the prominent high-mass X-ray binary LS 5039.
Because LS 5039 was established as gamma-ray emitter during recent years, whose
gamma-radiation radiation is modulated along its binary orbit, we reanalysed
the COMPTEL data of GRO J1823-12 including an orbital resolved analysis. We
find a significant MeV source, showing evidence for a modulated MeV flux
corresponding to the orbital period of LS 5039 of about 3.9 days. We show that
its MeV emission is stronger at the orbital part around the inferior conjuction
than at the part of the superior conjunction, being in phase with X-rays and
TeV gamma-rays, however being in anti-phase with GeV gamma-rays. We conclude
that the COMPTEL source GRO J1823-12 is the counterpart of the microquasar
candidate LS 5039, at least for the majority of its MeV emission. The COMPTEL
fluxes, put into multifrequency perspective, provide new constraints on the
modelling of the high-energy emission of LS 5039.Comment: accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics; 11 pages, 9 figure
Toward parton equilibration with improved parton interaction matrix elements
The Quark-Gluon Plasma can be produced in high energy heavy ion collisions
and how it equilibrates is important for the extraction of the properties of
strongly interacting matter. A radiative transport model can be used to reveal
interesting characteristics of Quark-Gluon Plasma thermalization. For example,
screened parton interactions always lead to partial pressure isotropization.
Systems with different initial pressure anisotropies evolve toward the same
asymptotic evolution. In particular, radiative processes are crucial for the
chemical equilibration of the system. Matrix elements under the soft and
collinear approximation for these processes, as first derived by Gunion and
Bertsch, are widely used. A different approach is to start with the exact
matrix elements for the two to three and its inverse processes. General
features of this approach will be reviewed and the results will be compared
with the Gunion-Bertsch results. We will comment on the possible implications
of the exact matrix element approach on Quark-Gluon Plasma thermalization.Comment: Presented at the 11th International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus
Collisions (NN2012), San Antonio, Texas, USA, 27 May-1 June 201
- …