arXiv subjects

Yuval Peres

Publications and source records attributed to Yuval Peres.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Consensus with Bounded Space and Minimal Communication

Population protocols are a fundamental model in distributed computing, where many nodes with bounded memory and computational power have random pairwise interactions over time. This model has been studied in a rich body of literature aiming to understand the tradeoffs between the memory and time needed to perform computational tasks. We study the population protocol model focusing on the communication complexity needed to achieve consensus with high probability. When the number of memory states is $s = O(\log \log{n})$, the best upper bound known was given by a protocol with $O(n \log{n})$ communication, while the best lower bound was $Ω(n \log(n)/s)$ communication. We design a protocol that shows the lower bound is sharp. When each agent has $s=O(\log{n}^θ)$ states of memory, with $θ\in (0,1/2)$, consensus can be reached in time $O(\log(n))$ with $O(n \log{(n)}/s)$ communications with high probability.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2020

The local limit of uniform spanning trees

We show that the local limit of the uniform spanning tree on any finite, simple, connected, regular graph sequence with degree tending to infinity is the Poisson(1) branching process conditioned to survive forever. An extension to "almost" regular graphs and a quenched version are also given.

math.PR↗

arXiv2020

Subpolynomial trace reconstruction for random strings and arbitrary deletion probability

The insertion-deletion channel takes as input a bit string ${\bf x}\in\{0,1\}^{n}$, and outputs a string where bits have been deleted and inserted independently at random. The trace reconstruction problem is to recover $\bf x$ from many independent outputs (called "traces") of the insertion-deletion channel applied to $\bf x$. We show that if $\bf x$ is chosen uniformly at random, then $\exp(O(\log^{1/3} n))$ traces suffice to reconstruct $\bf x$ with high probability. For the deletion channel with deletion probability $q < 1/2$ the earlier upper bound was $\exp(O(\log^{1/2} n))$. The case of $q\geq 1/2$ or the case where insertions are allowed has not been previously analyzed, and therefore the earlier upper bound was as for worst-case strings, i.e., $\exp(O( n^{1/3}))$. We also show that our reconstruction algorithm runs in $n^{1+o(1)}$ time. A key ingredient in our proof is a delicate two-step alignment procedure where we estimate the location in each trace corresponding to a given bit of $\bf x$. The alignment is done by viewing the strings as random walks and comparing the increments in the walk associated with the input string and the trace, respectively.

math.PR↗

arXiv2020

Poisson Boundaries of Lamplighter Groups: Proof of the Kaimanovich-Vershik Conjecture

We answer positively a question of Kaimanovich and Vershik from 1979, showing that the final configuration of lamps for simple random walk on the lamplighter group over ${\Bbb Z}^d$ ($d \ge 3$) is the Poisson boundary. For $d \ge 5$, this had been shown earlier by Erschler (2011). We extend this to walks of more general types on more general groups.

math.PR↗

arXiv2020

Induced graphs of uniform spanning forests

Given a subgraph $H$ of a graph $G$, the induced graph of $H$ is the largest subgraph of $G$ whose vertex set is the same as that of $H$. Our paper concerns the induced graphs of the components of $\operatorname{WSF}(G)$, the wired spanning forest on $G$, and, to a lesser extent, $\operatorname{FSF}(G)$, the free uniform spanning forest. We show that the induced graph of each component of $\operatorname{WSF}(\mathbb Z^d$) is almost surely recurrent when $d\ge 8$. Moreover, the effective resistance between two points on the ray of the tree to infinity within a component grows linearly when $d\ge9$. For any vertex-transitive graph $G$, we establish the following resampling property: Given a vertex $o$ in $G$, let $\mathcal T_o$ be the component of $\operatorname{WSF}(G)$ containing $o$ and $\overline{\mathcal{T}_o}$ be its induced graph. Conditioned on $\overline{\mathcal{T}_o}$, the tree $\mathcal T_o$ is distributed as $\operatorname{WSF}(\overline{\mathcal{T}_o})$. For any graph $G$, we also show that if $\mathcal T_o$ is the component of $\operatorname{FSF}(G)$ containing $o$ and $\overline{\mathcal{T}_o}$ is its induced graph, then conditioned on $\overline{\mathcal{T}_o}$, the tree $\mathcal T_o$ is distributed as $\operatorname{FSF}(\overline{\mathcal{T}_o})$.

math.PR↗

arXiv2020

Adversarial hypothesis testing and a quantum Stein's Lemma for restricted measurements

Recall the classical hypothesis testing setting with two convex sets of probability distributions P and Q. One receives either n i.i.d. samples from a distribution p in P or from a distribution q in Q and wants to decide from which set the points were sampled. It is known that the optimal exponential rate at which errors decrease can be achieved by a simple maximum-likelihood ratio test which does not depend on p or q, but only on the sets P and Q. We consider an adaptive generalization of this model where the choice of p in P and q in Q can change in each sample in some way that depends arbitrarily on the previous samples. In other words, in the k'th round, an adversary, having observed all the previous samples in rounds 1,...,k-1, chooses p_k in P and q_k in Q, with the goal of confusing the hypothesis test. We prove that even in this case, the optimal exponential error rate can be achieved by a simple maximum-likelihood test that depends only on P and Q. We then show that the adversarial model has applications in hypothesis testing for quantum states using restricted measurements. For example, it can be used to study the problem of distinguishing entangled states from the set of all separable states using only measurements that can be implemented with local operations and classical communication (LOCC). The basic idea is that in our setup, the deleterious effects of entanglement can be simulated by an adaptive classical adversary. We prove a quantum Stein's Lemma in this setting: In many circumstances, the optimal hypothesis testing rate is equal to an appropriate notion of quantum relative entropy between two states. In particular, our arguments yield an alternate proof of Li and Winter's recent strengthening of strong subadditivity for quantum relative entropy.

cs.IT↗

arXiv2019

Biased infinity Laplacian Boundary Problem on finite graphs

We provide an algorithm, running in polynomial time in the number of vertices, computing the unique solution to the biased infinity Laplacian Boundary Problem on finite graphs. The algorithm is based on the general outline and approach taken in the corresponding algorithm for the unbiased case provided by Lazarus et al. The new ingredient is an adjusted (biased) notion of a slope of a function on a path in a graph. The algorithm can be used to determine efficiently numerical approximations to the viscosity solutions of biased infinity Laplacian PDEs.

math.CO↗

arXiv2019

Analyticity for rapidly determined properties of Poisson Galton--Watson trees

Let $T_λ$ be a Galton--Watson tree with Poisson($λ$) offspring, and let $A$ be a tree property. In this paper, are concerned with the regularity of the function $\mathbb{P}_λ(A):= \mathbb{P}(T_λ\vdash A)$. We show that if a property $A$ can be uniformly approximated by a sequence of properties $A_k$, depending only on the first $k$ vertices in the breadth first exploration of the tree, with a bound in probability of $\mathbb{P}_λ(A\triangle A_k) \le Ce^{-ck}$ over an interval $I = (λ_0, λ_1)$, then $\mathbb{P}_λ(A)$ is real analytic in $λ$ for $λ\in I$. We also present some applications of our results, particularly to properties that are not expressible in the first order language of trees.

math.PR↗

arXiv2019

Sorted Top-k in Rounds

We consider the sorted top-$k$ problem whose goal is to recover the top-$k$ items with the correct order out of $n$ items using pairwise comparisons. In many applications, multiple rounds of interaction can be costly. We restrict our attention to algorithms with a constant number of rounds $r$ and try to minimize the sample complexity, i.e. the number of comparisons. When the comparisons are noiseless, we characterize how the optimal sample complexity depends on the number of rounds (up to a polylogarithmic factor for general $r$ and up to a constant factor for $r=1$ or 2). In particular, the sample complexity is $Θ(n^2)$ for $r=1$, $Θ(n\sqrt{k} + n^{4/3})$ for $r=2$ and $\tildeΘ\left(n^{2/r} k^{(r-1)/r} + n\right)$ for $r \geq 3$. We extend our results of sorted top-$k$ to the noisy case where each comparison is correct with probability $2/3$. When $r=1$ or 2, we show that the sample complexity gets an extra $Θ(\log(k))$ factor when we transition from the noiseless case to the noisy case. We also prove new results for top-$k$ and sorting in the noisy case. We believe our techniques can be generally useful for understanding the trade-off between round complexities and sample complexities of rank aggregation problems.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2019

Non-Stochastic Multi-Player Multi-Armed Bandits: Optimal Rate With Collision Information, Sublinear Without

We consider the non-stochastic version of the (cooperative) multi-player multi-armed bandit problem. The model assumes no communication at all between the players, and furthermore when two (or more) players select the same action this results in a maximal loss. We prove the first $\sqrt{T}$-type regret guarantee for this problem, under the feedback model where collisions are announced to the colliding players. Such a bound was not known even for the simpler stochastic version. We also prove the first sublinear guarantee for the feedback model where collision information is not available, namely $T^{1-\frac{1}{2m}}$ where $m$ is the number of players.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2019

Perfect Bayesian Equilibria in Repeated Sales

A special case of Myerson's classic result describes the revenue-optimal equilibrium when a seller offers a single item to a buyer. We study a repeated sales extension of this model: a seller offers to sell a single fresh copy of an item to the same buyer every day via a posted price. The buyer's private value for the item is drawn initially from a publicly known distribution $F$ and remains the same throughout. A key aspect of this game is that the seller might try to learn the buyer's private value to extract more revenue, while the buyer is motivated to hide it. We study the Perfect Bayesian Equilibria (PBE) in this setting with varying levels of commitment power to the seller. We find that the seller having the commitment power to not raise prices subsequent to a purchase significantly improves revenue in a PBE.

cs.GT↗

arXiv2019

Gravitational allocation for uniform points on the sphere

Given a collection $\mathcal L$ of $n$ points on a sphere $\mathbf{S}^2_n$ of surface area $n$, a fair allocation is a partition of the sphere into $n$ parts each of area $1$, and each associated with a distinct point of $\mathcal L$. We show that if the $n$ points are chosen uniformly at random and the partition is defined by considering the gravitational field defined by the $n$ points, then the expected distance between a point on the sphere and the associated point of $\mathcal L$ is $O(\sqrt{\log n})$. We use our result to define a matching between two collections of $n$ independent and uniform points on the sphere, and prove that the expected distance between a pair of matched points is $O(\sqrt{\log n})$, which is optimal by a result of Ajtai, Komlós, and Tusnády.

math.PR↗

arXiv2019

Stable matchings in high dimensions via the Poisson-weighted infinite tree

We consider the stable matching of two independent Poisson processes in $\mathbb{R}^d$ under an asymmetric color restriction. Blue points can only match to red points, while red points can match to points of either color. It is unknown whether there exists a choice of intensities of the red and blue processes under which all points are matched. We prove that for any fixed intensities, there are unmatched blue points in sufficiently high dimension. Indeed, if the ratio of red to blue intensities is $ρ$ then the intensity of unmatched blue points converges to $e^{-ρ}/(1+ρ)$ as $d\to\infty$. We also establish analogous results for certain multi-color variants. Our proof uses stable matching on the Poisson-weighted infinite tree (PWIT), which can be analyzed via differential equations. The PWIT has been used in many settings as a scaling limit for models involving complete graphs with independent edge weights, but we believe that this is the first rigorous application to high-dimensional Euclidean space. Finally, we analyze the asymmetric matching problem under a hierarchical metric, and show that there are unmatched points for all intensities.

math.PR↗

arXiv2019

Communication cost of consensus for nodes with limited memory

Motivated by applications in blockchains and sensor networks, we consider a model of $n$ nodes trying to reach consensus on their majority bit. Each node $i$ is assigned a bit at time zero, and is a finite automaton with $m$ bits of memory (i.e., $2^m$ states) and a Poisson clock. When the clock of $i$ rings, $i$ can choose to communicate, and is then matched to a uniformly chosen node $j$. The nodes $j$ and $i$ may update their states based on the state of the other node. Previous work has focused on minimizing the time to consensus and the probability of error, while our goal is minimizing the number of communications. We show that when $m>3 \log\log\log(n)$, consensus can be reached at linear communication cost, but this is impossible if $m<\log\log\log(n)$. We also study a synchronous variant of the model, where our upper and lower bounds on $m$ for achieving linear communication cost are $2\log\log\log(n)$ and $\log\log\log(n)$, respectively. A key step is to distinguish when nodes can become aware of knowing the majority bit and stop communicating. We show that this is impossible if their memory is too low.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2018

Occupation measure of random walks and wired spanning forests in balls of Cayley graphs

We show that for finite-range, symmetric random walks on general transient Cayley graphs, the expected occupation time of any given ball of radius $r$ is $O(r^{5/2})$.. We also study the volume-growth property of the wired spanning forests on general Cayley graphs, showing that the expected number of vertices in the component of the identity inside any given ball of radius $r$ is $O(r^{11/2})$.

math.PR↗

arXiv2018

Extendable self-avoiding walks

The connective constant mu of a graph is the exponential growth rate of the number of n-step self-avoiding walks starting at a given vertex. A self-avoiding walk is said to be forward (respectively, backward) extendable if it may be extended forwards (respectively, backwards) to a singly infinite self-avoiding walk. It is called doubly extendable if it may be extended in both directions simultaneously to a doubly infinite self-avoiding walk. We prove that the connective constants for forward, backward, and doubly extendable self-avoiding walks, denoted respectively by mu^F, mu^B, mu^FB, exist and satisfy mu = mu^F = mu^B = mu^FB for every infinite, locally finite, strongly connected, quasi-transitive directed graph. The proofs rely on a 1967 result of Furstenberg on dimension, and involve two different arguments depending on whether or not the graph is unimodular.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

The Component Graph of the Uniform Spanning Forest: Transitions in Dimensions $9,10,11,\ldots$

We prove that the uniform spanning forests of $\mathbb{Z}^d$ and $\mathbb{Z}^{\ell}$ have qualitatively different connectivity properties whenever $\ell >d \geq 4$. In particular, we consider the graph formed by contracting each tree of the uniform spanning forest down to a single vertex, which we call the component graph. We introduce the notion of ubiquitous subgraphs and show that the set of ubiquitous subgraphs of the component graph changes whenever the dimension changes and is above $8$. To separate dimensions $5,6,7,$ and $8$, we prove a similar result concerning ubiquitous subhypergraphs in the component hypergraph. Our result sharpens a theorem of Benjamini, Kesten, Peres, and Schramm, who proved that the diameter of the component graph increases by one every time the dimension increases by four.

math.PR↗

arXiv2018

Which domains have two-sided supporting unit spheres at every boundary point?

We prove the quantitative equivalence of two important geometrical conditions, pertaining to the regularity of a domain $Ω\subset\mathbb{R}^N$. These are: (i) the uniform two-sided supporting sphere condition, and (ii) the Lipschitz continuity of the outward unit normal vector. In particular, the answer to the question posed in our title is: "Those domains, whose unit normal is well defined and has Lipschitz constant one." We also offer an extension to infinitely dimensional spaces $L^p$, $p\in (1,\infty)$.

math.CA↗