arXiv subjects

Simon Briend

Publications and source records attributed to Simon Briend.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

History estimation in random recursive trees: Pointwise approach via iterated Jordan centralities

We study the problem of estimating the arrival times of vertices in a uniform random recursive tree from its unlabeled structure. We adopt a pointwise perspective and analyze the distribution of the relative estimation error, and derive tail bounds that are uniform in both the vertex and the tree size. For the ranking induced by Jordan centrality, the probability that the estimate exceeds the true arrival time by a factor $S$ decays on the order of $1/S$, while the probability of underestimating the arrival time by a factor $1/S$ decays exponentially in $S$. We introduce a refined centrality measure whose overestimation tail decays on the order of $(\log S)/S^{2}$, at the cost of a heavier lower tail of order $1/S^{2}$. These results reveal a tradeoff between upper- and lower-tail performance in arrival-time estimation that is invisible to the previously studied risk functional. Nevertheless, the refined centrality measure attains the optimal order of the risk for all its parameter values.

math.PR↗

arXiv2025

Does freezing impede the growth of random recursive trees?

Uniform attachment with freezing is an extension of the classical model of random recursive trees, in which trees are recursively built by attaching new vertices to old ones. In the model of uniform attachment with freezing, vertices are allowed to freeze, in the sense that new vertices cannot be attached to already frozen ones. We study the impact of removing attachment and/or freezing steps on the height of the trees. We show in particular that removing an attachment step can increase the expected height, and that freezing cannot substantially decrease the height of random recursive trees. Our methods are based on coupling arguments.

math.PR↗

arXiv2024

Leaf Stripping on Uniform Attachment Trees

In this note we analyze the performance of a simple root-finding algorithm in uniform attachment trees. The leaf-stripping algorithm recursively removes all leaves of the tree for a carefully chosen number of rounds. We show that, with probability $1 - \epsilon$, the set of remaining vertices contains the root and has a size only depending on $\epsilon$ but not on the size of the tree.

math.PR↗

arXiv2024

Random friend trees

We study a random recursive tree model featuring complete redirection called the random friend tree and introduced by Saram\"aki and Kaski. Vertices are attached in a sequential manner one by one by selecting an existing target vertex and connecting to one of its neighbours (or friends), chosen uniformly at random. This model has interesting emergent properties, such as a highly skewed degree sequence. In contrast to the preferential attachment model, these emergent phenomena stem from a local rather than a global attachment mechanism. The structure of the resulting tree is also strikingly different from both the preferential attachment tree and the uniform random recursive tree: every edge is incident to a macro-hub of asymptotically linear degree, and with high probability all but at most $n^{9/10}$ vertices in a tree of size $n$ are leaves. We prove various results on the neighbourhood of fixed vertices and edges, and we study macroscopic properties such as the diameter and the degree distribution, providing insights into the overall structure of the tree. We also present a number of open questions on this model and related models.

math.PR↗

arXiv2024

Estimating the history of a random recursive tree

This paper studies the problem of estimating the order of arrival of the vertices in a random recursive tree. Specifically, we study two fundamental models: the uniform attachment model and the linear preferential attachment model. We propose an order estimator based on the Jordan centrality measure and define a family of risk measures to quantify the quality of the ordering procedure. Moreover, we establish a minimax lower bound for this problem, and prove that the proposed estimator is nearly optimal. Finally, we numerically demonstrate that the proposed estimator outperforms degree-based and spectral ordering procedures.

stat.ML↗

arXiv2023

On the quality of randomized approximations of Tukey's depth

Tukey's depth (or halfspace depth) is a widely used measure of centrality for multivariate data. However, exact computation of Tukey's depth is known to be a hard problem in high dimensions. As a remedy, randomized approximations of Tukey's depth have been proposed. In this paper we explore when such randomized algorithms return a good approximation of Tukey's depth. We study the case when the data are sampled from a log-concave isotropic distribution. We prove that, if one requires that the algorithm runs in polynomial time in the dimension, the randomized algorithm correctly approximates the maximal depth $1/2$ and depths close to zero. On the other hand, for any point of intermediate depth, any good approximation requires exponential complexity.

stat.ML↗

arXiv2023

Broadcasting in random recursive dags

A uniform $k$-{\sc dag} generalizes the uniform random recursive tree by picking $k$ parents uniformly at random from the existing nodes. It starts with $k$ ''roots''. Each of the $k$ roots is assigned a bit. These bits are propagated by a noisy channel. The parents' bits are flipped with probability $p$, and a majority vote is taken. When all nodes have received their bits, the $k$-{\sc dag} is shown without identifying the roots. The goal is to estimate the majority bit among the roots. We identify the threshold for $p$ as a function of $k$ below which the majority rule among all nodes yields an error $c+o(1)$ with $c<1/2$. Above the threshold the majority rule errs with probability $1/2+o(1)$.

stat.ML↗

arXiv2022

Archaeology of random recursive dags and Cooper-Frieze random networks

We study the problem of finding the root vertex in large growing networks. We prove that it is possible to construct confidence sets of size independent of the number of vertices in the network that contain the root vertex with high probability in various models of random networks. The models include uniform random recursive dags and uniform Cooper-Frieze random graphs.

math.PR↗