Search results for "Computation Theory & Mathematics"
showing 10 items of 332 documents
Randomized Block Frank–Wolfe for Convergent Large-Scale Learning
2017
Owing to their low-complexity iterations, Frank-Wolfe (FW) solvers are well suited for various large-scale learning tasks. When block-separable constraints are present, randomized block FW (RB-FW) has been shown to further reduce complexity by updating only a fraction of coordinate blocks per iteration. To circumvent the limitations of existing methods, the present work develops step sizes for RB-FW that enable a flexible selection of the number of blocks to update per iteration while ensuring convergence and feasibility of the iterates. To this end, convergence rates of RB-FW are established through computational bounds on a primal sub-optimality measure and on the duality gap. The novel b…
Pattern statistics in faro words and permutations
2021
We study the distribution and the popularity of some patterns in $k$-ary faro words, i.e. words over the alphabet $\{1, 2, \ldots, k\}$ obtained by interlacing the letters of two nondecreasing words of lengths differing by at most one. We present a bijection between these words and dispersed Dyck paths (i.e. Motzkin paths with all level steps on the $x$-axis) with a given number of peaks. We show how the bijection maps statistics of consecutive patterns of faro words into linear combinations of other pattern statistics on paths. Then, we deduce enumerative results by providing multivariate generating functions for the distribution and the popularity of patterns of length at most three. Fina…
Whom to befriend to influence people
2020
Alice wants to join a new social network, and influence its members to adopt a new product or idea. Each person $v$ in the network has a certain threshold $t(v)$ for {\em activation}, i.e adoption of the product or idea. If $v$ has at least $t(v)$ activated neighbors, then $v$ will also become activated. If Alice wants to activate the entire social network, whom should she befriend? More generally, we study the problem of finding the minimum number of links that a set of external influencers should form to people in the network, in order to activate the entire social network. This {\em Minimum Links} Problem has applications in viral marketing and the study of epidemics. Its solution can be…
A permutation code preserving a double Eulerian bistatistic
2016
Visontai conjectured in 2013 that the joint distribution of ascent and distinct nonzero value numbers on the set of subexcedant sequences is the same as that of descent and inverse descent numbers on the set of permutations. This conjecture has been proved by Aas in 2014, and the generating function of the corresponding bistatistics is the double Eulerian polynomial. Among the techniques used by Aas are the M\"obius inversion formula and isomorphism of labeled rooted trees. In this paper we define a permutation code (that is, a bijection between permutations and subexcedant sequences) and show the more general result that two $5$-tuples of set-valued statistics on the set of permutations an…
On prefix normal words and prefix normal forms
2016
A $1$-prefix normal word is a binary word with the property that no factor has more $1$s than the prefix of the same length; a $0$-prefix normal word is defined analogously. These words arise in the context of indexed binary jumbled pattern matching, where the aim is to decide whether a word has a factor with a given number of $1$s and $0$s (a given Parikh vector). Each binary word has an associated set of Parikh vectors of the factors of the word. Using prefix normal words, we provide a characterization of the equivalence class of binary words having the same set of Parikh vectors of their factors. We prove that the language of prefix normal words is not context-free and is strictly contai…
Primitive sets of words
2020
Given a (finite or infinite) subset $X$ of the free monoid $A^*$ over a finite alphabet $A$, the rank of $X$ is the minimal cardinality of a set $F$ such that $X \subseteq F^*$. We say that a submonoid $M$ generated by $k$ elements of $A^*$ is {\em $k$-maximal} if there does not exist another submonoid generated by at most $k$ words containing $M$. We call a set $X \subseteq A^*$ {\em primitive} if it is the basis of a $|X|$-maximal submonoid. This definition encompasses the notion of primitive word -- in fact, $\{w\}$ is a primitive set if and only if $w$ is a primitive word. By definition, for any set $X$, there exists a primitive set $Y$ such that $X \subseteq Y^*$. We therefore call $Y$…
Mahonian STAT on words
2016
In 2000, Babson and Steingrimsson introduced the notion of what is now known as a permutation vincular pattern, and based on it they re-defined known Mahonian statistics and introduced new ones, proving or conjecturing their Mahonity. These conjectures were proved by Foata and Zeilberger in 2001, and by Foata and Randrianarivony in 2006.In 2010, Burstein refined some of these results by giving a bijection between permutations with a fixed value for the major index and those with the same value for STAT , where STAT is one of the statistics defined and proved to be Mahonian in the 2000 Babson and Steingrimsson's paper. Several other statistics are preserved as well by Burstein's bijection.At…
Quantum algorithm for tree size estimation, with applications to backtracking and 2-player games
2017
We study quantum algorithms on search trees of unknown structure, in a model where the tree can be discovered by local exploration. That is, we are given the root of the tree and access to a black box which, given a vertex $v$, outputs the children of $v$. We construct a quantum algorithm which, given such access to a search tree of depth at most $n$, estimates the size of the tree $T$ within a factor of $1\pm \delta$ in $\tilde{O}(\sqrt{nT})$ steps. More generally, the same algorithm can be used to estimate size of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) in a similar model. We then show two applications of this result: a) We show how to transform a classical backtracking search algorithm which exam…
Superlinear advantage for exact quantum algorithms
2012
A quantum algorithm is exact if, on any input data, it outputs the correct answer with certainty (probability 1). A key question is: how big is the advantage of exact quantum algorithms over their classical counterparts: deterministic algorithms. For total Boolean functions in the query model, the biggest known gap was just a factor of 2: PARITY of N inputs bits requires $N$ queries classically but can be computed with N/2 queries by an exact quantum algorithm. We present the first example of a Boolean function f(x_1, ..., x_N) for which exact quantum algorithms have superlinear advantage over the deterministic algorithms. Any deterministic algorithm that computes our function must use N qu…
A Quantum Lovasz Local Lemma
2012
The Lovasz Local Lemma (LLL) is a powerful tool in probability theory to show the existence of combinatorial objects meeting a prescribed collection of "weakly dependent" criteria. We show that the LLL extends to a much more general geometric setting, where events are replaced with subspaces and probability is replaced with relative dimension, which allows to lower bound the dimension of the intersection of vector spaces under certain independence conditions. Our result immediately applies to the k-QSAT problem: For instance we show that any collection of rank 1 projectors with the property that each qubit appears in at most $2^k/(e \cdot k)$ of them, has a joint satisfiable state. We then …