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We study the space complexity of solving the bias-regularized SVM problem in the streaming model. This is a classic supervised learning problem that has drawn lots of attention, including for developing fast algorithms for solving the problem approximately. One of the most widely used algorithms for approximately optimizing the SVM objective is Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD), which requires only $O(frac{1}{lambdaepsilon})$ random samples, and which immediately yields a streaming algorithm that uses $O(frac{d}{lambdaepsilon})$ space. For related problems, better streaming algorithms are only known for smooth functions, unlike the SVM objective that we focus on in this work. We initiate an investigation of the space complexity for both finding an approximate optimum of this objective, and for the related ``point estimation problem of sketching the data set to evaluate the function value $F_lambda$ on any query $(theta, b)$. We show that, for both problems, for dimensions $d=1,2$, one can obtain streaming algorithms with space polynomially smaller than $frac{1}{lambdaepsilon}$, which is the complexity of SGD for strongly convex functions like the bias-regularized SVM, and which is known to be tight in general, even for $d=1$. We also prove polynomial lower bounds for both point estimation and optimization. In particular, for point estimation we obtain a tight bound of $Theta(1/sqrt{epsilon})$ for $d=1$ and a nearly tight lower bound of $widetilde{Omega}(d/{epsilon}^2)$ for $d = Omega( log(1/epsilon))$. Finally, for optimization, we prove a $Omega(1/sqrt{epsilon})$ lower bound for $d = Omega( log(1/epsilon))$, and show similar bounds when $d$ is constant.
Product measures of dimension $n$ are known to be concentrated in Hamming distance: for any set $S$ in the product space of probability $epsilon$, a random point in the space, with probability $1-delta$, has a neighbor in $S$ that is different from the original point in only $O(sqrt{nln(1/(epsilondelta))})$ coordinates. We obtain the tight computational version of this result, showing how given a random point and access to an $S$-membership oracle, we can find such a close point in polynomial time. This resolves an open question of [Mahloujifar and Mahmoody, ALT 2019]. As corollaries, we obtain polynomial-time poisoning and (in certain settings) evasion attacks against learning algorithms when the original vulnerabilities have any cryptographically non-negligible probability. We call our algorithm MUCIO (MUltiplicative Conditional Influence Optimizer) since proceeding through the coordinates, it decides to change each coordinate of the given point based on a multiplicative version of the influence of that coordinate, where influence is computed conditioned on previously updated coordinates. We also define a new notion of algorithmic reduction between computational concentration of measure in different metric probability spaces. As an application, we get computational concentration of measure for high-dimensional Gaussian distributions under the $ell_1$ metric. We prove several extensions to the results above: (1) Our computational concentration result is also true when the Hamming distance is weighted. (2) We obtain an algorithmic version of concentration around mean, more specifically, McDiarmids inequality. (3) Our result generalizes to discrete random processes, and this leads to new tampering algorithms for collective coin tossing protocols. (4) We prove exponential lower bounds on the average running time of non-adaptive query algorithms.
An ordering constraint satisfaction problem (OCSP) is given by a positive integer $k$ and a constraint predicate $Pi$ mapping permutations on ${1,ldots,k}$ to ${0,1}$. Given an instance of OCSP$(Pi)$ on $n$ variables and $m$ constraints, the goal is to find an ordering of the $n$ variables that maximizes the number of constraints that are satisfied, where a constraint specifies a sequence of $k$ distinct variables and the constraint is satisfied by an ordering on the $n$ variables if the ordering induced on the $k$ variables in the constraint satisfies $Pi$. OCSPs capture natural problems including Maximum acyclic subgraph (MAS) and Betweenness. In this work we consider the task of approximating the maximum number of satisfiable constraints in the (single-pass) streaming setting, where an instance is presented as a stream of constraints. We show that for every $Pi$, OCSP$(Pi)$ is approximation-resistant to $o(n)$-space streaming algorithms. This space bound is tight up to polylogarithmic factors. In the case of MAS our result shows that for every $epsilon>0$, MAS is not $1/2+epsilon$-approximable in $o(n)$ space. The previous best inapproximability result only ruled out a $3/4$-approximation in $o(sqrt n)$ space. Our results build on recent works of Chou, Golovnev, Sudan, Velingker, and Velusamy who show tight, linear-space inapproximability results for a broad class of (non-ordering) constraint satisfaction problems over arbitrary (finite) alphabets. We design a family of appropriate CSPs (one for every $q$) from any given OCSP, and apply their work to this family of CSPs. We show that the hard instances from this earlier work have a particular small-set expansion property. By exploiting this combinatorial property, in combination with the hardness results of the resulting families of CSPs, we give optimal inapproximability results for all OCSPs.
We give tight cell-probe bounds for the time to compute convolution, multiplication and Hamming distance in a stream. The cell probe model is a particularly strong computational model and subsumes, for example, the popular word RAM model. We first consider online convolution where the task is to output the inner product between a fixed $n$-dimensional vector and a vector of the $n$ most recent values from a stream. One symbol of the stream arrives at a time and the each output must be computed before the next symbols arrives. Next we show bounds for online multiplication where the stream consists of pairs of digits, one from each of two $n$ digit numbers that are to be multiplied. One pair arrives at a time and the task is to output a single new digit from the product before the next pair of digits arrives. Finally we look at the online Hamming distance problem where the Hamming distance is outputted instead of the inner product. For each of these three problems, we give a lower bound of $Omega(frac{delta}{w}log n)$ time on average per output, where $delta$ is the number of bits needed to represent an input symbol and $w$ is the cell or word size. We argue that these bound are in fact tight within the cell probe model.
We present algorithmic results for the parallel assembly of many micro-scale objects in two and three dimensions from tiny particles, which has been proposed in the context of programmable matter and self-assembly for building high-yield micro-factories. The underlying model has particles moving under the influence of uniform external forces until they hit an obstacle; particles can bond when being forced together with another appropriate particle. Due to the physical and geometric constraints, not all shapes can be built in this manner; this gives rise to the Tilt Assembly Problem (TAP) of deciding constructibility. For simply-connected polyominoes $P$ in 2D consisting of $N$ unit-squares (tiles), we prove that TAP can be decided in $O(Nlog N)$ time. For the optimization variant MaxTAP (in which the objective is to construct a subshape of maximum possible size), we show polyAPX-hardness: unless P=NP, MaxTAP cannot be approximated within a factor of $Omega(N^{frac{1}{3}})$; for tree-shaped structures, we give an $O(N^{frac{1}{2}})$-approximation algorithm. For the efficiency of the assembly process itself, we show that any constructible shape allows pipelined assembly, which produces copies of $P$ in $O(1)$ amortized time, i.e., $N$ copies of $P$ in $O(N)$ time steps. These considerations can be extended to three-dimensional objects: For the class of polycubes $P$ we prove that it is NP-hard to decide whether it is possible to construct a path between two points of $P$; it is also NP-hard to decide constructibility of a polycube $P$. Moreover, it is expAPX-hard to maximize a path from a given start point.
We consider minimum-cardinality Manhattan connected sets with arbitrary demands: Given a collection of points $P$ in the plane, together with a subset of pairs of points in $P$ (which we call demands), find a minimum-cardinality superset of $P$ such that every demand pair is connected by a path whose length is the $ell_1$-distance of the pair. This problem is a variant of three well-studied problems that have arisen in computational geometry, data structures, and network design: (i) It is a node-cost variant of the classical Manhattan network problem, (ii) it is an extension of the binary search tree problem to arbitrary demands, and (iii) it is a special case of the directed Steiner forest problem. Since the problem inherits basic structural properties from the context of binary search trees, an $O(log n)$-approximation is trivial. We show that the problem is NP-hard and present an $O(sqrt{log n})$-approximation algorithm. Moreover, we provide an $O(loglog n)$-approximation algorithm for complete bipartite demands as well as improved results for unit-disk demands and several generalizations. Our results crucially rely on a new lower bound on the optimal cost that could potentially be useful in the context of BSTs.