arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Mark Braverman.
In this paper we examine the rate of convergence of one of the standard algorithms for emulating exit probabilities of Brownian motion, the Walk on Spheres (WoS) algorithm. We obtain the complete characterization of the rate of convergence of WoS in terms of the local geomnetry of a domain.
In this paper, we study a game called ``Mafia,'' in which different players have different types of information, communication and functionality. The players communicate and function in a way that resembles some real-life situations. We consider two types of operations. First, there are operations that follow an open democratic discussion. Second, some subgroups of players who may have different interests make decisions based on their own group interest. A key ingredient here is that the identity of each subgroup is known only to the members of that group. In this paper, we are interested in the best strategies for the different groups in such scenarios and in evaluating their relative power. The main focus of the paper is the question: How large and strong should a subgroup be in order to dominate the game? The concrete model studied here is based on the popular game ``Mafia.'' In this game, there are three groups of players: Mafia, detectives and ordinary citizens. Initially, each player is given only his/her own identity, except the mafia, who are given the identities of all mafia members. At each ``open'' round, a vote is made to determine which player to eliminate. Additionally, there are collective decisions made by the mafia where they decide to eliminate a citizen. Finally, each detective accumulates data on the mafia/citizen status of players. The citizens win if they eliminate all mafia members. Otherwise, the mafia wins. We first find a randomized strategy that is optimal in the absence of detectives. This leads to a stochastic asymptotic analysis where it is shown that the two groups have comparable probabilities of winning exactly when the total population size is $R$ and the mafia size is of order $\sqrt{R}$. We then show that even a single detective changes the qualitative behavior of the game dramatically. Here, the mafia and citizens have comparable winning probabilities only for a mafia size linear in $R$. Finally, we provide a summary of simulations complementing the theoretical results obtained in the paper.
We point out a simple poly-time log-space routing algorithm in ad hoc networks with guaranteed delivery using universal exploration sequences.
In this paper we settle most of the open questions on algorithmic computability of Julia sets. In particular, we present an algorithm for constructing quadratics whose Julia sets are uncomputable. We also show that a filled Julia set of a polynomial is always computable.
In this paper we study noisy sorting without re-sampling. In this problem there is an unknown order $a_{π(1)} < ... < a_{π(n)}$ where $π$ is a permutation on $n$ elements. The input is the status of $n \choose 2$ queries of the form $q(a_i,x_j)$, where $q(a_i,a_j) = +$ with probability at least $1/2+\ga$ if $π(i) > π(j)$ for all pairs $i \neq j$, where $\ga > 0$ is a constant and $q(a_i,a_j) = -q(a_j,a_i)$ for all $i$ and $j$. It is assumed that the errors are independent. Given the status of the queries the goal is to find the maximum likelihood order. In other words, the goal is find a permutation $σ$ that minimizes the number of pairs $σ(i) > σ(j)$ where $q(σ(i),σ(j)) = -$. The problem so defined is the feedback arc set problem on distributions of inputs, each of which is a tournament obtained as a noisy perturbations of a linear order. Note that when $\ga < 1/2$ and $n$ is large, it is impossible to recover the original order $π$. It is known that the weighted feedback are set problem on tournaments is NP-hard in general. Here we present an algorithm of running time $n^{O(γ^{-4})}$ and sampling complexity $O_γ(n \log n)$ that with high probability solves the noisy sorting without re-sampling problem. We also show that if $a_{σ(1)},a_{σ(2)},...,a_{σ(n)}$ is an optimal solution of the problem then it is ``close'' to the original order. More formally, with high probability it holds that $\sum_i |σ(i) - π(i)| = Θ(n)$ and $\max_i |σ(i) - π(i)| = Θ(\log n)$. Our results are of interest in applications to ranking, such as ranking in sports, or ranking of search items based on comparisons by experts.
In this paper we consider the computational complexity of uniformizing a domain with a given computable boundary. We give nontrivial upper and lower bounds in two settings: when the approximation of boundary is given either as a list of pixels, or by a Turing Machine.
We completely characterize the conformal radii of Siegel disks in the family $$P_θ(z)=e^{2πiθ}z+z^2,$$ corresponding to {\bf computable} parameters $θ$. As a consequence, we constructively produce quadratic polynomials with {\bf non-computable} Julia sets.
In this note we give answers to questions posed to us by J.Milnor and M.Shub, which shed further light on the structure of non-computable Julia sets.
We show that under the definition of computability which is natural from the point of view of applications, there exist non-computable quadratic Julia sets.
We give a detailed treatment of the ``bit-model'' of computability and complexity of real functions and subsets of R^n, and argue that this is a good way to formalize many problems of scientific computation. In the introduction we also discuss the alternative Blum-Shub-Smale model. In the final section we discuss the issue of whether physical systems could defeat the Church-Turing Thesis.
In this paper we prove that parabolic Julia sets of rational functions are locally computable in polynomial time.
We develop a notion of computability and complexity of functions over the reals, which seems to be very natural when one tries to determine just how "difficult" a certain function is. This notion can be viewed as an extension of both BSS computability [Blum, Cucker, Shub, Smale 1998], and bit computability in the tradition of computable analysis [Weihrauch 2000] as it relies on the latter but allows some discontinuities and multiple values.