arXiv subjects

Eldar Fischer

Publications and source records attributed to Eldar Fischer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Optimal mass estimation in the conditional sampling model

The conditional sampling model, introduced by Cannone, Ron and Servedio (SODA 2014, SIAM J. Comput. 2015) and independently by Chakraborty, Fischer, Goldhirsh and Matsliah (ITCS 2013, SIAM J. Comput. 2016), is a common framework for a number of studies concerning strengthened models of distribution testing. A core task in these investigations is that of estimating the mass of individual elements. The above mentioned works, and the improvement of Kumar, Meel and Pote (AISTATS 2025), provided polylogarithmic algorithms for this task. In this work we shatter the polylogarithmic barrier, and provide an estimator for the mass of individual elements that uses only $O(\log \log N) + O(\mathrm{poly}(1/\varepsilon))$ conditional samples. We complement this result with an $\Omega(\log\log N)$ lower bound. We then show that our mass estimator provides an improvement (and in some cases a unifying framework) for a number of related tasks, such as testing by learning of any label-invariant property, and distance estimation between two (unknown) distribution. By considering some known lower bounds, this also shows that the full power of the conditional model is indeed required for the doubly-logarithmic upper bound. Finally, we exponentially improve the previous lower bound on testing by learning of label-invariant properties from double-logarithmic to $\Omega(\log N)$ conditional samples, whereas our testing by learning algorithm provides an upper bound of $O(\mathrm{poly}(1/\varepsilon)\cdot\log N \log \log N)$.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2025

Effective MC-finiteness

An integer sequence $(a_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ is \emph{MC-finite} if for all $m$, the sequence $a_n \bmod m$ is eventually periodic. There are MC-finite sequences $(a_n)_{n \in \mathbb{N}}$ such that the function $F: (m,n) \mapsto a_n \bmod m$ is not computable. In \cite{filmus2023mc} we presented concrete examples of MC-finite sequences taken from the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS) without discussing the computability of $F$. In this paper we discuss cases when this $F$ is effectively computable.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

Testing vs Estimation for Index-Invariant Properties in the Huge Object Model

The Huge Object model of property testing [Goldreich and Ron, TheoretiCS 23] concerns properties of distributions supported on $\{0,1\}^n$, where $n$ is so large that even reading a single sampled string is unrealistic. Instead, query access is provided to the samples, and the efficiency of the algorithm is measured by the total number of queries that were made to them. Index-invariant properties under this model were defined in [Chakraborty et al., COLT 23], as a compromise between enduring the full intricacies of string testing when considering unconstrained properties, and giving up completely on the string structure when considering label-invariant properties. Index-invariant properties are those that are invariant through a consistent reordering of the bits of the involved strings. Here we provide an adaptation of Szemer\'edi's regularity method for this setting, and in particular show that if an index-invariant property admits an $\epsilon$-test with a number of queries depending only on the proximity parameter $\epsilon$, then it also admits a distance estimation algorithm whose number of queries depends only on the approximation parameter.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2024

Improved Bounds for High-Dimensional Equivalence and Product Testing using Subcube Queries

We study property testing in the subcube conditional model introduced by Bhattacharyya and Chakraborty (2017). We obtain the first equivalence test for $n$-dimensional distributions that is quasi-linear in $n$, improving the previously known $\tilde{O}(n^2/\varepsilon^2)$ query complexity bound to $\tilde{O}(n/\varepsilon^2)$. We extend this result to general finite alphabets with logarithmic cost in the alphabet size. By exploiting the specific structure of the queries that we use (which are more restrictive than general subcube queries), we obtain a cubic improvement over the best known test for distributions over $\{1,\ldots,N\}$ under the interval querying model of Canonne, Ron and Servedio (2015), attaining a query complexity of $\tilde{O}((\log N)/\varepsilon^2)$, which for fixed $\varepsilon$ almost matches the known lower bound of $\Omega((\log N)/\log\log N)$. We also derive a product test for $n$-dimensional distributions with $\tilde{O}(n / \varepsilon^2)$ queries, and provide an $\Omega(\sqrt{n} / \varepsilon^2)$ lower bound for this property.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2024

A basic lower bound for property testing

An $\epsilon$-test for any non-trivial property (one for which there are both satisfying inputs and inputs of large distance from the property) should use a number of queries that is at least inversely proportional in $\epsilon$. However, to the best of our knowledge there is no reference proof for this intuition. Such a proof is provided here. It is written so as to not require any prior knowledge of the related literature, and in particular does not use Yao's method.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2024

Pixelating Relations and Functions Without Adding Substructures

We investigate models of relations over a bounded continuous segment of real numbers, along with the natural linear order over the reals being provided as a "hard-coded" relation. This paper presents a generalization of a lemma from [Ben-Eliezer, Fischer, Levi and Yoshida, ITCS 2021], showing that with a small amount of modification (measured in terms of the Lebesgue measure) we can replace such a model with a "pixelated" one that has a finite description, in a way that preserves all universally quantified statements over the relations, or in other words, without adding any new substructures.

math.LO↗

arXiv2023

Support Testing in the Huge Object Model

The Huge Object model is a distribution testing model in which we are given access to independent samples from an unknown distribution over the set of strings $\{0,1\}^n$, but are only allowed to query a few bits from the samples. We investigate the problem of testing whether a distribution is supported on $m$ elements in this model. It turns out that the behavior of this property is surprisingly intricate, especially when also considering the question of adaptivity. We prove lower and upper bounds for both adaptive and non-adaptive algorithms in the one-sided and two-sided error regime. Our bounds are tight when $m$ is fixed to a constant (and the distance parameter $\varepsilon$ is the only variable). For the general case, our bounds are at most $O(\log m)$ apart. In particular, our results show a surprising $O(\log \varepsilon^{-1})$ gap between the number of queries required for non-adaptive testing as compared to adaptive testing. For one sided error testing, we also show that a $O(\log m)$ gap between the number of samples and the number of queries is necessary. Our results utilize a wide variety of combinatorial and probabilistic methods.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2023

Ordered Graph Limits and Their Applications

The emerging theory of graph limits exhibits an analytic perspective on graphs, showing that many important concepts and tools in graph theory and its applications can be described more naturally (and sometimes proved more easily) in analytic language. We extend the theory of graph limits to the ordered setting, presenting a limit object for dense vertex-ordered graphs, which we call an orderon. As a special case, this yields limit objects for matrices whose rows and columns are ordered, and for dynamic graphs that expand (via vertex insertions) over time. Along the way, we devise an ordered locality-preserving variant of the cut distance between ordered graphs, showing that two graphs are close with respect to this distance if and only if they are similar in terms of their ordered subgraph frequencies. We show that the space of orderons is compact with respect to this distance notion, which is key to a successful analysis of combinatorial objects through their limits. We derive several applications of the ordered limit theory in extremal combinatorics, sampling, and property testing in ordered graphs. In particular, we prove a new ordered analogue of the well-known result by Alon and Stav [RS\&A'08] on the furthest graph from a hereditary property; this is the first known result of this type in the ordered setting. Unlike the unordered regime, here the random graph model $G(n, p)$ with an ordering over the vertices is not always asymptotically the furthest from the property for some $p$. However, using our ordered limit theory, we show that random graphs generated by a stochastic block model, where the blocks are consecutive in the vertex ordering, are (approximately) the furthest. Additionally, we describe an alternative analytic proof of the ordered graph removal lemma [Alon et al., FOCS'17].

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

MC-finiteness of restricted set partition functions

A sequence $s(n)$ of integers is MC-finite if for every $m \in \mathbb{N}^+$ the sequence $s^m(n) = s(n) \bmod{m}$ is ultimately periodic. We discuss various ways of proving and disproving MC-finiteness. Our examples are mostly taken from set partition functions, but our methods can be applied to many more integer sequences.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

Refining the Adaptivity Notion in the Huge Object Model

The Huge Object model for distribution testing, first defined by Goldreich and Ron in 2022, combines the features of classical string testing and distribution testing. In this model we are given access to independent samples from an unknown distribution $P$ over the set of strings $\{0,1\}^n$, but are only allowed to query a few bits from the samples. The distinction between adaptive and non-adaptive algorithms, which occurs naturally in the realm of string testing (while being irrelevant for classical distribution testing), plays a substantial role also in the Huge Object model. In this work we show that the full picture in the Huge Object model is much richer than just that of the ``adaptive vs. non-adaptive'' dichotomy. We define and investigate several models of adaptivity that lie between the fully-adaptive and the completely non-adaptive extremes. These models are naturally grounded by observing the querying process from each sample independently, and considering the ``algorithmic flow'' between them. For example, if we allow no information at all to cross over between samples (up to the final decision), then we obtain the locally bounded adaptive model, arguably the ``least adaptive'' one apart from being completely non-adaptive. A slightly stronger model allows only a ``one-way'' information flow. Even stronger (but still far from being fully adaptive) models follow by taking inspiration from the setting of streaming algorithms. To show that we indeed have a hierarchy, we prove a chain of exponential separations encompassing most of the models that we define.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2023

Counting Finite Topologies

In this paper we study the number of finite topologies on an $n$-element set subject to various restrictions.

math.CO↗

arXiv2022

Testing of Index-Invariant Properties in the Huge Object Model

The study of distribution testing has become ubiquitous in the area of property testing, both for its theoretical appeal, as well as for its applications in other fields of Computer Science. The original distribution testing model relies on samples drawn independently from the distribution to be tested. However, when testing distributions over the $n$-dimensional Hamming cube $\left\{0,1\right\}^{n}$ for a large $n$, even reading a few samples is infeasible. To address this, Goldreich and Ron [ITCS 2022] have defined a model called the huge object model, in which the samples may only be queried in a few places. In this work, we initiate a study of a general class of properties in the huge object model, those that are invariant under a permutation of the indices of the vectors in $\left\{0,1\right\}^{n}$, while still not being necessarily fully symmetric as per the definition used in traditional distribution testing. We prove that every index-invariant property satisfying a bounded VC-dimension restriction admits a property tester with a number of queries independent of n. To complement this result, we argue that satisfying only index-invariance or only a VC-dimension bound is insufficient to guarantee a tester whose query complexity is independent of n. Moreover, we prove that the dependency of sample and query complexities of our tester on the VC-dimension is tight. As a second part of this work, we address the question of the number of queries required for non-adaptive testing. We show that it can be at most quadratic in the number of queries required for an adaptive tester of index-invariant properties. This is in contrast with the tight exponential gap for general non-index-invariant properties. Finally, we provide an index-invariant property for which the quadratic gap between adaptive and non-adaptive query complexities for testing is almost tight.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2022

Exploring the Gap between Tolerant and Non-tolerant Distribution Testing

The framework of distribution testing is currently ubiquitous in the field of property testing. In this model, the input is a probability distribution accessible via independently drawn samples from an oracle. The testing task is to distinguish a distribution that satisfies some property from a distribution that is far from satisfying it in the $\ell_1$ distance. The task of tolerant testing imposes a further restriction, that distributions close to satisfying the property are also accepted. This work focuses on the connection of the sample complexities of non-tolerant ("traditional") testing of distributions and tolerant testing thereof. When limiting our scope to label-invariant (symmetric) properties of distribution, we prove that the gap is at most quadratic. Conversely, the property of being the uniform distribution is indeed known to have an almost-quadratic gap. When moving to general, not necessarily label-invariant properties, the situation is more complicated, and we show some partial results. We show that if a property requires the distributions to be non-concentrated, then it cannot be non-tolerantly tested with $o(\sqrt{n})$ many samples, where $n$ denotes the universe size. Clearly, this implies at most a quadratic gap, because a distribution can be learned (and hence tolerantly tested against any property) using $\mathcal{O}(n)$ many samples. Being non-concentrated is a strong requirement on the property, as we also prove a close to linear lower bound against their tolerant tests. To provide evidence for other general cases (where the properties are not necessarily label-invariant), we show that if an input distribution is very concentrated, in the sense that it is mostly supported on a subset of size $s$ of the universe, then it can be learned using only $\mathcal{O}(s)$ many samples. The learning procedure adapts to the input, and works without knowing $s$ in advance.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2022

Extensions and Limits of the Specker-Blatter Theorem

The original Specker-Blatter Theorem (1983) was formulated for classes of structures $\mathcal{C}$ of one or several binary relations definable in Monadic Second Order Logic MSOL. It states that the number of such structures on the set $[n]$ is modularly C-finite (MC-finite). In previous work we extended this to structures definable in CMSOL, MSOL extended with modular counting quantifiers. The first author also showed that the Specker-Blatter Theorem does not hold for one quaternary relation (2003). If the vocabulary allows a constant symbol $c$, there are $n$ possible interpretations on $[n]$ for $c$. We say that a constant $c$ is {\em hard-wired} if $c$ is always interpreted by the same element $j \in [n]$. In this paper we show: 1. The Specker-Blatter Theorem also holds for CMSOL when hard-wired constants are allowed. The proof method of Specker and Blatter does not work in this case. 2. The Specker-Blatter Theorem does not hold already for $\mathcal{C}$ with one ternary relation definable in First Order Logic FOL. This was left open since 1983. Using hard-wired constants allows us to show MC-finiteness of counting functions of various restricted partition functions which were not known to be MC-finite till now. Among them we have the restricted Bell numbers $B_{r,A}$, restricted Stirling numbers of the second kind $S_{r,A}$ or restricted Lah-numbers $L_{r,A}$. Here $r$ is an non-negative integer and $A$ is an ultimately periodic set of non-negative integers.

math.LO↗

arXiv2019

Hard properties with (very) short PCPPs and their applications

We show that there exist properties that are maximally hard for testing, while still admitting PCPPs with a proof size very close to linear. Specifically, for every fixed $\ell$, we construct a property $\mathcal{P}^{(\ell)}\subseteq\{0,1\}^n$ satisfying the following: Any testing algorithm for $\mathcal{P}^{(\ell)}$ requires $Ω(n)$ many queries, and yet $\mathcal{P}^{(\ell)}$ has a constant query PCPP whose proof size is $O(n\cdot \log^{(\ell)}n)$, where $\log^{(\ell)}$ denotes the $\ell$ times iterated log function (e.g., $\log^{(2)}n = \log \log n$). The best previously known upper bound on the PCPP proof size for a maximally hard to test property was $O(n \cdot \mathrm{poly}\log{n})$. As an immediate application, we obtain stronger separations between the standard testing model and both the tolerant testing model and the erasure-resilient testing model: for every fixed $\ell$, we construct a property that has a constant-query tester, but requires $Ω(n/\log^{(\ell)}(n))$ queries for every tolerant or erasure-resilient tester.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2019

Longest paths in 2-edge-connected cubic graphs

We prove almost tight bounds on the length of paths in $2$-edge-connected cubic graphs. Concretely, we show that (i) every $2$-edge-connected cubic graph of size $n$ has a path of length $Ω\left(\frac{\log^2{n}}{\log{\log{n}}}\right)$, and (ii) there exists a $2$-edge-connected cubic graph, such that every path in the graph has length $O(\log^2{n})$.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2018

Earthmover Resilience and Testing in Ordered Structures

One of the main challenges in property testing is to characterize those properties that are testable with a constant number of queries. For unordered structures such as graphs and hypergraphs this task has been mostly settled. However, for ordered structures such as strings, images, and ordered graphs, the characterization problem seems very difficult in general. In this paper, we identify a wide class of properties of ordered structures - the earthmover resilient (ER) properties - and show that the "good behavior" of such properties allows us to obtain general testability results that are similar to (and more general than) those of unordered graphs. A property P is ER if, roughly speaking, slight changes in the order of the elements in an object satisfying P cannot make this object far from P. The class of ER properties includes, e.g., all unordered graph properties, many natural visual properties of images, such as convexity, and all hereditary properties of ordered graphs and images. A special case of our results implies, building on a recent result of Alon and the authors, that the distance of a given image or ordered graph from any hereditary property can be estimated (with good probability) up to a constant additive error, using a constant number of queries.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2017

Improved bounds for testing Dyck languages

In this paper we consider the problem of deciding membership in Dyck languages, a fundamental family of context-free languages, comprised of well-balanced strings of parentheses. In this problem we are given a string of length $n$ in the alphabet of parentheses of $m$ types and must decide if it is well-balanced. We consider this problem in the property testing setting, where one would like to make the decision while querying as few characters of the input as possible. Property testing of strings for Dyck language membership for $m=1$, with a number of queries independent of the input size $n$, was provided in [Alon, Krivelevich, Newman and Szegedy, SICOMP 2001]. Property testing of strings for Dyck language membership for $m \ge 2$ was first investigated in [Parnas, Ron and Rubinfeld, RSA 2003]. They showed an upper bound and a lower bound for distinguishing strings belonging to the language from strings that are far (in terms of the Hamming distance) from the language, which are respectively (up to polylogarithmic factors) the $2/3$ power and the $1/11$ power of the input size $n$. Here we improve the power of $n$ in both bounds. For the upper bound, we introduce a recursion technique, that together with a refinement of the methods in the original work provides a test for any power of $n$ larger than $2/5$. For the lower bound, we introduce a new problem called Truestring Equivalence, which is easily reducible to the $2$-type Dyck language property testing problem. For this new problem, we show a lower bound of $n$ to the power of $1/5$.

cs.DS↗