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arXiv · 1908.06428

The smallest grammar problem revisited

Hideo Bannai·Momoko Hirayama·Danny Hucke·Shunsuke Inenaga·Artur Jez·Markus Lohrey·Carl Philipp Reh
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Abstract

In a seminal paper of Charikar et al. on the smallest grammar problem, the authors derive upper and lower bounds on the approximation ratios for several grammar-based compressors, but in all cases there is a gap between the lower and upper bound. Here the gaps for $\mathsf{LZ78}$ and $\mathsf{BISECTION}$ are closed by showing that the approximation ratio of $\mathsf{LZ78}$ is $\Theta( (n/\log n)^{2/3})$, whereas the approximation ratio of $\mathsf{BISECTION}$ is $\Theta(\sqrt{n/\log n})$. In addition, the lower bound for $\mathsf{RePair}$ is improved from $\Omega(\sqrt{\log n})$ to $\Omega(\log n/\log\log n)$. Finally, results of Arpe and Reischuk relating grammar-based compression for arbitrary alphabets and binary alphabets are improved.

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Hideo Bannai, Momoko Hirayama, Danny Hucke, Shunsuke Inenaga, Artur Jez, Markus Lohrey, Carl Philipp Reh. 2019-08-18. The smallest grammar problem revisited. https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.06428

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