We consider the randomized decision tree complexity of the recursive 3-majority function. We prove a lower bound of $(1/2-delta) cdot 2.57143^h$ for the two-sided-error randomized decision tree complexity of evaluating height $h$ formulae with error
$delta in [0,1/2)$. This improves the lower bound of $(1-2delta)(7/3)^h$ given by Jayram, Kumar, and Sivakumar (STOC03), and the one of $(1-2delta) cdot 2.55^h$ given by Leonardos (ICALP13). Second, we improve the upper bound by giving a new zero-error randomized decision tree algorithm that has complexity at most $(1.007) cdot 2.64944^h$. The previous best known algorithm achieved complexity $(1.004) cdot 2.65622^h$. The new lower bound follows from a better analysis of the base case of the recursion of Jayram et al. The new algorithm uses a novel interleaving of two recursive algorithms.
We develop a new framework that extends the quantum walk framework of Magniez, Nayak, Roland, and Santha, by utilizing the idea of quantum data structures to construct an efficient method of nesting quantum walks. Surprisingly, only classical data st
ructures were considered before for searching via quantum walks. The recently proposed learning graph framework of Belovs has yielded improved upper bounds for several problems, including triangle finding and more general subgraph detection. We exhibit the power of our framework by giving a simple explicit constructions that reproduce both the $O(n^{35/27})$ and $O(n^{9/7})$ learning graph upper bounds (up to logarithmic factors) for triangle finding, and discuss how other known upper bounds in the original learning graph framework can be converted to algorithms in our framework. We hope that the ease of use of this framework will lead to the discovery of new upper bounds.
We show that the quantum query complexity of detecting if an $n$-vertex graph contains a triangle is $O(n^{9/7})$. This improves the previous best algorithm of Belovs making $O(n^{35/27})$ queries. For the problem of determining if an operation $circ
: S times S rightarrow S$ is associative, we give an algorithm making $O(|S|^{10/7})$ queries, the first improvement to the trivial $O(|S|^{3/2})$ application of Grover search. Our algorithms are designed using the learning graph framework of Belovs. We give a family of algorithms for detecting constant-sized subgraphs, which can possibly be directed and colored. These algorithms are designed in a simple high-level language; our main theorem shows how this high-level language can be compiled as a learning graph and gives the resulting complexity. The key idea to our improvements is to allow more freedom in the parameters of the database kept by the algorithm. As in our previous work, the edge slots maintained in the database are specified by a graph whose edges are the union of regular bipartite graphs, the overall structure of which mimics that of the graph of the certificate. By allowing these bipartite graphs to be unbalanced and of variable degree we obtain better algorithms.
Let $H$ be a fixed $k$-vertex graph with $m$ edges and minimum degree $d >0$. We use the learning graph framework of Belovs to show that the bounded-error quantum query complexity of determining if an $n$-vertex graph contains $H$ as a subgraph is $O
(n^{2-2/k-t})$, where $ t = max{frac{k^2- 2(m+1)}{k(k+1)(m+1)}, frac{2k - d - 3}{k(d+1)(m-d+2)}}$. The previous best algorithm of Magniez et al. had complexity $widetilde O(n^{2-2/k})$.
We study the problem of validating XML documents of size $N$ against general DTDs in the context of streaming algorithms. The starting point of this work is a well-known space lower bound. There are XML documents and DTDs for which $p$-pass streaming
algorithms require $Omega(N/p)$ space. We show that when allowing access to external memory, there is a deterministic streaming algorithm that solves this problem with memory space $O(log^2 N)$, a constant number of auxiliary read/write streams, and $O(log N)$ total number of passes on the XML document and auxiliary streams. An important intermediate step of this algorithm is the computation of the First-Child-Next-Sibling (FCNS) encoding of the initial XML document in a streaming fashion. We study this problem independently, and we also provide memory efficient streaming algorithms for decoding an XML document given in its FCNS encoding. Furthermore, validating XML documents encoding binary trees in the usual streaming model without external memory can be done with sublinear memory. There is a one-pass algorithm using $O(sqrt{N log N})$ space, and a bidirectional two-pass algorithm using $O(log^2 N)$ space performing this task.
In this paper we define new Monte Carlo type classical and quantum hitting times, and we prove several relationships among these and the already existing Las Vegas type definitions. In particular, we show that for some marked state the two types of h
itting time are of the same order in both the classical and the quantum case. Further, we prove that for any reversible ergodic Markov chain $P$, the quantum hitting time of the quantum analogue of $P$ has the same order as the square root of the classical hitting time of $P$. We also investigate the (im)possibility of achieving a gap greater than quadratic using an alternative quantum walk. Finally, we present new quantum algorithms for the detection and finding problems. The complexities of both algorithms are related to the new, potentially smaller, quantum hitting times. The detection algorithm is based on phase estimation and is particularly simple. The finding algorithm combines a similar phase estimation based procedure with ideas of Tulsi from his recent theorem for the 2D grid. Extending his result, we show that for any state-transitive Markov chain with unique marked state, the quantum hitting time is of the same order for both the detection and finding problems.
