arXiv subjects

Nathan Lemons

Publications and source records attributed to Nathan Lemons.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Lower bounds on the number of rounds of the quantum approximate optimization algorithm required for guaranteed approximation ratios

The quantum approximate optimization algorithm, also known in its generalization as the quantum alternating operator ansatz, (QAOA) is a heuristic hybrid quantum-classical algorithm for finding high-quality approximate solutions to combinatorial optimization problems, such as maximum satisfiability. While the QAOA is well studied, theoretical results as to its runtime or approximation ratio guarantees are still relatively sparse. We provide some of the first lower bounds for the number of rounds (the dominant component of QAOA runtimes) required for the QAOA. For our main result, we (i) leverage a connection between quantum annealing times and the angles of the QAOA to derive a lower bound on the number of rounds of the QAOA with respect to the guaranteed approximation ratio. We apply and calculate this bound with Grover-style mixing unitaries and (ii) show that this type of QAOA requires at least a polynomial number of rounds to guarantee any constant approximation ratios for most problems. We also (iii) show that the bound depends only on the statistical values of the objective functions, and when the problem can be modeled as a $k$-local Hamiltonian, can be easily estimated from the coefficients of the Hamiltonians. For the conventional transverse-field mixer, (iv) our framework gives a trivial lower bound to all bounded-occurrence local cost problems and for all strictly $k$-local cost Hamiltonians matching known results that constant approximation ratio is obtainable with a constant-round QAOA for a few optimization problems from these classes. Using our proof framework, (v) we recover the Grover lower bound for unstructured search and, with small modification, show that our bound applies to any QAOA-style search protocol that starts in the ground state of the mixing unitaries.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Positive co-degree density of hypergraphs

The \emph{minimum positive co-degree} of a non-empty $r$-graph ${H}$, denoted $\delta_{r-1}^+( {H})$, is the maximum $k$ such that if $S$ is an $(r-1)$-set contained in a hyperedge of $ {H}$, then $S$ is contained in at least $k$ distinct hyperedges of $ {H}$. Given an $r$-graph ${F}$, we introduce the \emph{positive co-degree Tur\'an number} $\mathrm{co^+ex}(n, {F})$ as the maximum positive co-degree $\delta_{r-1}^+(H)$ over all $n$-vertex $r$-graphs $H$ that do not contain $F$ as a subhypergraph. In this paper we concentrate on the behavior of $\mathrm{co^+ex}(n, {F})$ for $3$-graphs $F$. In particular, we determine asymptotics and bounds for several well-known concrete $3$-graphs $F$ (e.g.\ $K_4^-$ and the Fano plane). We also show that, for $r$-graphs, the limit \[ \gamma^+(F) := \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} \frac{\mathrm{co^+ex}(n, {F})}{n} \] exists, and ``jumps'' from $0$ to $1/r$, i.e., it never takes on values in the interval $(0,1/r)$. Moreover, we characterize which $r$-graphs $F$ have $\gamma^+(F)=0$. Our motivation comes primarily from the study of (ordinary) co-degree Tur\'an numbers where a number of results have been proved that inspire our results.

math.CO↗

arXiv2020

Mobility Map Inference from Thermal Modeling of a Building

We consider the problem of inferring the mobility map, which is the distribution of the building occupants at each timestamp, from the temperatures of the rooms. We also want to explore the effects of noise in the temperature measurement, room layout, etc. in the reconstruction of the movement of people within the building. Our proposed algorithm tackles down the aforementioned challenges leveraging a parameter learner, the modified Least Square Estimator. In the absence of a complete data set with mobility map, room and ambient temperatures, and HVAC data in the public domain, we simulate a physics-based thermal model of the rooms in a building and evaluate the performance of our inference algorithm on this simulated data. We find an upper bound of the noise standard deviation (<= 1F) in the input temperature data of our model. Within this bound, our algorithm can reconstruct the mobility map with a reasonable reconstruction error. Our work can be used in a wide range of applications, for example, ensuring the physical security of office buildings, elderly and infant monitoring, building resources management, emergency building evacuation, and vulnerability assessment of HVAC data. Our work brings together multiple research areas, Thermal Modeling and Parameter Estimation, towards achieving a common goal of inferring the distribution of people within a large office building.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2020

Maximum size intersecting families of bounded minimum positive co-degree

Let $\mathcal{H}$ be an $r$-uniform hypergraph. The \emph{minimum positive co-degree} of $\mathcal{H}$, denoted by $\delta_{r-1}^+(\mathcal{H})$, is the minimum $k$ such that if $S$ is an $(r-1)$-set contained in a hyperedge of $\mathcal{H}$, then $S$ is contained in at least $k$ hyperedges of $\mathcal{H}$. For $r\geq k$ fixed and $n$ sufficiently large, we determine the maximum possible size of an intersecting $r$-uniform $n$-vertex hypergraph with minimum positive co-degree $\delta_{r-1}^+(\mathcal{H}) \geq k$ and characterize the unique hypergraph attaining this maximum. This generalizes the Erd\H os-Ko-Rado theorem which corresponds to the case $k=1$. Our proof is based on the delta-system method.

math.CO↗

arXiv2020

Induced and non-induced poset saturation problems

A subfamily $\mathcal{G}\subseteq \mathcal{F}\subseteq 2^{[n]}$ of sets is a non-induced (weak) copy of a poset $P$ in $\mathcal{F}$ if there exists a bijection $i:P\rightarrow \mathcal{G}$ such that $p\le_P q$ implies $i(p)\subseteq i(q)$. In the case where in addition $p\le_P q$ holds if and only if $i(p)\subseteq i(q)$, then $\mathcal{G}$ is an induced (strong) copy of $P$ in $\mathcal{F}$. We consider the minimum number $sat(n,P)$ [resp.\ $sat^*(n,P)$] of sets that a family $\mathcal{F}\subseteq 2^{[n]}$ can have without containing a non-induced [induced] copy of $P$ and being maximal with respect to this property, i.e., the addition of any $G\in 2^{[n]}\setminus \mathcal{F}$ creates a non-induced [induced] copy of $P$. We prove for any finite poset $P$ that $sat(n,P)\le 2^{|P|-2}$, a bound independent of the size $n$ of the ground set. For induced copies of $P$, there is a dichotomy: for any poset $P$ either $sat^*(n,P)\le K_P$ for some constant depending only on $P$ or $sat^*(n,P)\ge \log_2 n$. We classify several posets according to this dichotomy, and also show better upper and lower bounds on $sat(n,P)$ and $sat^*(n,P)$ for specific classes of posets. Our main new tool is a special ordering of the sets based on the colexicographic order. It turns out that if $P$ is given, processing the sets in this order and adding the sets greedily into our family whenever this does not ruin non-induced [induced] $P$-freeness, we tend to get a small size non-induced [induced] $P$-saturating family.

math.CO↗

arXiv2019

Efficient estimation of the modified Gromov-Hausdorff distance between unweighted graphs

Gromov-Hausdorff distances measure shape difference between the objects representable as compact metric spaces, e.g. point clouds, manifolds, or graphs. Computing any Gromov-Hausdorff distance is equivalent to solving an NP-Hard optimization problem, deeming the notion impractical for applications. In this paper we propose polynomial algorithm for estimating the so-called modified Gromov-Hausdorff (mGH) distance, whose topological equivalence with the standard Gromov-Hausdorff (GH) distance was established in M\'emoli F, 2012. We implement the algorithm for the case of compact metric spaces induced by unweighted graphs as part of Python library $\verb|scikit-tda|$, and demonstrate its performance on real-world and synthetic networks. The algorithm finds the mGH distances exactly on most graphs with the scale-free property. We use the computed mGH distances to successfully detect outliers in real-world social and computer networks.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2019

The Structure of Hypergraphs without long Berge cycles

We study the structure of $r$-uniform hypergraphs containing no Berge cycles of length at least $k$ for $k \leq r$, and determine that such hypergraphs have some special substructure. In particular we determine the extremal number of such hypergraphs, giving an affirmative answer to the conjectured value when $k=r$ and giving a a simple solution to a recent result of Kostochka-Luo when $k < r$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

Quantum Algorithm Implementations for Beginners

As quantum computers become available to the general public, the need has arisen to train a cohort of quantum programmers, many of whom have been developing classical computer programs for most of their careers. While currently available quantum computers have less than 100 qubits, quantum computing hardware is widely expected to grow in terms of qubit count, quality, and connectivity. This review aims to explain the principles of quantum programming, which are quite different from classical programming, with straightforward algebra that makes understanding of the underlying fascinating quantum mechanical principles optional. We give an introduction to quantum computing algorithms and their implementation on real quantum hardware. We survey 20 different quantum algorithms, attempting to describe each in a succinct and self-contained fashion. We show how these algorithms can be implemented on IBM's quantum computer, and in each case, we discuss the results of the implementation with respect to differences between the simulator and the actual hardware runs. This article introduces computer scientists, physicists, and engineers to quantum algorithms and provides a blueprint for their implementations.

cs.ET↗

arXiv2017

Hyperbolicity, degeneracy, and expansion of random intersection graphs

We establish the conditions under which several algorithmically exploitable structural features hold for random intersection graphs, a natural model for many real-world networks where edges correspond to shared attributes. Specifically, we fully characterize the degeneracy of random intersection graphs, and prove that the model asymptotically almost surely produces graphs with hyperbolicity at least $\log{n}$. Further, we prove that in the parametric regime where random intersection graphs are degenerate an even stronger notion of sparseness, so called bounded expansion, holds with high probability. We supplement our theoretical findings with experimental evaluations of the relevant statistics.

cs.SI↗

arXiv2016

Detection of Cyber-Physical Faults and Intrusions from Physical Correlations

Cyber-physical systems are critical infrastructures that are crucial both to the reliable delivery of resources such as energy, and to the stable functioning of automatic and control architectures. These systems are composed of interdependent physical, control and communications networks described by disparate mathematical models creating scientific challenges that go well beyond the modeling and analysis of the individual networks. A key challenge in cyber-physical defense is a fast online detection and localization of faults and intrusions without prior knowledge of the failure type. We describe a set of techniques for the efficient identification of faults from correlations in physical signals, assuming only a minimal amount of available system information. The performance of our detection method is illustrated on data collected from a large building automation system.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2015

Online and quasi-online colorings of wedges and intervals

We consider proper online colorings of hypergraphs defined by geometric regions. We prove that there is an online coloring algorithm that colors $N$ intervals of the real line using $Θ(\log N/k)$ colors such that for every point $p$, contained in at least $k$ intervals, not all the intervals containing $p$ have the same color. We also prove the corresponding result about online coloring a family of wedges (quadrants) in the plane that are the translates of a given fixed wedge. These results contrast the results of the first and third author showing that in the quasi-online setting 12 colors are enough to color wedges (independent of $N$ and $k$). We also consider quasi-online coloring of intervals. In all cases we present efficient coloring algorithms.

math.CO↗

arXiv2013

The phase transition in inhomogeneous random intersection graphs

We analyze the component evolution in inhomogeneous random intersection graphs when the average degree is close to 1. As the average degree increases, the size of the largest component in the random intersection graph goes through a phase transition. We give bounds on the size of the largest components before and after this transition. We also prove that the largest component after the transition is unique. These results are similar to the phase transition in Erdős-Rényi random graphs; one notable difference is that the jump in the size of the largest component varies in size depending on the parameters of the random intersection graph.

cs.DM↗

arXiv2011

Two-part set systems

The two part Sperner theorem of Katona and Kleitman states that if $X$ is an $n$-element set with partition $X_1 \cup X_2$, and $\cF$ is a family of subsets of $X$ such that no two sets $A, B \in \cF$ satisfy $A \subset B$ (or $B \subset A$) and $A \cap X_i=B \cap X_i$ for some $i$, then $|\cF| \le {n \choose \lfloor n/2 \rfloor}$. We consider variations of this problem by replacing the Sperner property with the intersection property and considering families that satisfiy various combinations of these properties on one or both parts $X_1$, $X_2$. Along the way, we prove the following new result which may be of independent interest: let $\cF, \cG$ be families of subsets of an $n$-element set such that $\cF$ and $\cG$ are both intersecting and cross-Sperner, meaning that if $A \in \cF$ and $B \in \cG$, then $A \not\subset B$ and $B \not\subset A$. Then $|\cF| +|\cG| < 2^{n-1}$ and there are exponentially many examples showing that this bound is tight.

math.CO↗

arXiv2011

Saturating Sperner families

A family $\cF \subseteq 2^{[n]}$ saturates the monotone decreasing property $\cP$ if $\cF$ satisfies $\cP$ and one cannot add any set to $\cF$ such that property $\cP$ is still satisfied by the resulting family. We address the problem of finding the minimum size of a family saturating the $k$-Sperner property and the minimum size of a family that saturates the Sperner property and that consists only of $l$-sets and $(l+1)$-sets.

math.CO↗

arXiv2011

Cross-Sperner families

A pair of families $(\cF,\cG)$ is said to be \emph{cross-Sperner} if there exists no pair of sets $F \in \cF, G \in \cG$ with $F \subseteq G$ or $G \subseteq F$. There are two ways to measure the size of the pair $(\cF,\cG)$: with the sum $|\cF|+|\cG|$ or with the product $|\cF|\cdot |\cG|$. We show that if $\cF, \cG \subseteq 2^{[n]}$, then $|\cF||\cG| \le 2^{2n-4}$ and $|\cF|+|\cG|$ is maximal if $\cF$ or $\cG$ consists of exactly one set of size $\lceil n/2 \rceil$ provided the size of the ground set $n$ is large enough and both $\cF$ and $\cG$ are non-empty.

math.CO↗