As of May 31, 2023, we have updated our Code of Conduct.

Questions tagged [ds.algorithms]

Questions regarding well-defined instructions for completing a task, and relevant analysis in terms of time/memory/etc.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
-2 votes
1 answer
171 views

Is it possible to sort by only knowing the sign of pairwise sums?

I am currently thinking of how much structure one actually needs in order to be able to sort things at all. All comparison-based algorithms need a direct comparability, but are we able to remove this ...
multiplex's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
174 views

How many samples are needed to reconstruct a path?

Consider an input set of vertices $V$ and vertices $s,t\in V$. The goal is to learn some unknown shortest path from $s$ to $t$; the set of edges of the graph is hidden at first and there may be ...
R B's user avatar
  • 9,408
1 vote
0 answers
71 views

Mapping of entire balls using Locality Sensitive Hashing (LSH)

LSH functions are useful for approximate nearest neighbor search. They are usually defined, for distance metric $d$ and $c>1$ as follows: A family of hash functions is $(r, cr, p_1, p_2)$-LSH ...
R B's user avatar
  • 9,408
5 votes
0 answers
216 views

Is there a fast algorithm for inverting a sparse matrix?

I am doing research on a random-walk like problem. As a critical part of my solution, I need to invert a non-singular sparse matrix of size $n \times n$ and with $O(n)$ non-empty entries. I'm working ...
newbie's user avatar
  • 235
7 votes
2 answers
211 views

Determining how n-tuples are sorted as you search them?

I have a sorted list of $N$ n-tuples, but I do not know exactly how they were sorted. The person who sorted them did so by lexicographically ordering some permutation least-to-greatest. For example, ...
Display Name's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
83 views

How is additive error handled in this simple algorithm? 'Product of all elements'

Say we have two unit vectors $\hat{u}, \hat{v} \in \mathbb{R}^n$ where $\hat{u} = (u_1,...,u_n)$ and $\hat{v}$ approximates $\hat{u}$. $~\hat{v} = (u_1+\epsilon, ...,u_n+\epsilon)$ where $\epsilon = \...
stats_man97531's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
98 views

In external memory, is grouping equal elements easier than sorting?

Sorting an array will put equal elements adjacent to each other. So, in no model of computation can grouping equal elements be harder than sorting. In the RAM model, grouping equal elements is $O(n)$ ...
Display Name's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
95 views

Longest stack-sortable subsequence

Given an array of $n$ pairwise-different positive integers, the problem is to find the longest subsequence that is stack-sortable, i.e. avoiding the permutation pattern $231$. How fast can this ...
LeechLattice's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
187 views

Shortest s-t path when is allowed to ignore k weights

Given an undirected graph $G$ with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, with non-negative weights on the edges, what's the best algorithm that computes the shortest path from $s$ to $t$, where you are allowed ...
hqztrue's user avatar
  • 112
2 votes
0 answers
70 views

Complexity of comparing extended integer power towers

Inspired by this stackexchange question, is it an open problem to compare two power towers of positive integers if we additionally allow numbers lower in the tower to themselves be represented by ...
exfret's user avatar
  • 633
2 votes
0 answers
94 views

Finding 3SUM witness when promised a solution

Suppose we have a 3SUM instance given with the promise that there exists at least one solution. Is the trivial $O(n^2)$ (modulo logarithmic improvements) solution still the best algorithm or is there ...
karmanaut's user avatar
  • 1,177
1 vote
0 answers
112 views

Entropy bounds on solutions to problems in BPP and other complexity classes based on entropy demands

Has anyone studied the asymptotics of problems in complexity classes like $BPP$? The thought came to me that if a problem in $BPP$ only requires $O(log(n))$ bits of entropy to solve then, intuitively, ...
Jake's user avatar
  • 1,131
7 votes
1 answer
177 views

Arranging letters to make a word in a regular language

Fix a regular language $L$ on the alphabet $\{a, b\}$, and consider the following problem. I am given as input: some number $m \in \mathbb{N}$ of copies of the letter $a$, and some number $n \in \...
a3nm's user avatar
  • 8,234
12 votes
1 answer
883 views

What is the hardest instance for the group isomorphism problem?

Two groups $(G,\cdot)$ and $(H, \times)$ are said to be isomorphic iff there exists a homomorphism from $G$ to $H$ which is bijective. The group isomorphism problem is as follows: given two groups, ...
adc's user avatar
  • 177
3 votes
1 answer
233 views

How is SDP an extension of spectral algorithms?

In one of his lectures, Uri Feige described semidefinite programming (SDP) as ... an algorithmic technique that extends both linear programming and spectral algorithms. I know the basic ...
user2316602's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
94 views

The SQ argument in Balazs Szorenyi's paper

I am asking about the proof in Theorem 5 (page 6) of this paper, http://www.inf.u-szeged.hu/~szorenyi/Cikkek/sq_d0_ext.pdf Quite a few things about this short argument seem unclear to me, Towards the ...
gradstudent's user avatar
  • 1,443
11 votes
0 answers
253 views

Computational Complexity of the Frobenius Problem

The Frobenius problem takes as input $n$ positive integers $a_1,\ldots,a_n$ with $\gcd(a_1,\ldots,a_n)=1$ and asks for the largest integer $F$ that cannot be written in the form $F=a_1x_1+a_2x_2+\...
Alexis's user avatar
  • 219
1 vote
2 answers
139 views

Enumerate all allocations of points in a simplex

Consider the standard 2-simplex $\{(x,y)~|~x+y=1~;~ x,y\geq 0\}$. Given a set $M$ of $m$ points in this simplex, we allocate each point either to X or to Y by the following process: Fix two positive ...
Erel Segal-Halevi's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
121 views

Minimising the maximum distance to the centre of a cluster of points

I have a set of points $C_i$ on a two dimensional plane and I want to find a point $P$ such that the maximum distance from $P$ to any of the points is minimised, i.e. minimise(max($||P-C_i||$)). I've ...
DDobie's user avatar
  • 21
4 votes
1 answer
156 views

Generalizations of linear programming

Linear problems can be solved in polynomial time. So can semidefinite programs and, presumably, many other useful classes of optimization programs. Is there a survey/lecture notes describing ...
user2316602's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
42 views

Time complexity of finding a point of infinite order on a rank 1 elliptic curve over Q

As an outsider, it sounds like a lot of progress has been made on understanding rank 1 elliptic curves over Q. Much of the BSD conjecture is known for rank 1, and Heegner points provide a way in ...
PluckyBird's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
265 views

Example problem that is not in $2^{o(n)}$ but could be solved in $O(2^{cn})$ for any $c > 0$ (suggested by wording of ETH)

In the wikipedia article on Time Complexity it is written that: The exponential time hypothesis (ETH) is that 3SAT, the satisfiability problem of Boolean formulas in conjunctive normal form with, ...
StefanH's user avatar
  • 1,987
2 votes
2 answers
560 views

About learning a single Gaussian in total-variation distance

I am looking for the proof of this following result which I saw as being claimed as a "folklore" in a paper. It would be helpful if someone can share a reference where this has been shown! Let $G$ ...
gradstudent's user avatar
  • 1,443
6 votes
0 answers
195 views

Bottleneck $k$-link path in a complete DAG

Let $G$ be a complete DAG: It has vertices $v_1,\ldots,v_n$, and $v_iv_j$ is an edge if and only if $i<j$. Let $w(i,j)$ be the weight of the edge $v_iv_j$. The weight has the property that $w(i,j)&...
Chao Xu's user avatar
  • 4,367
1 vote
0 answers
14 views

Size of solutions in integer programming

Given a linear integer program $Ax\leq b$ with $A\in\mathbb Z^{m\times n}$ and $b\in\mathbb Z^m$ known is there a polynomial time algorithm to give tight upper bounds for $\log_2\|x\|_\infty$ and $\...
Turbo's user avatar
  • 12.6k
4 votes
0 answers
191 views

What's the fastest known algorithm for finding the diameter of a graph?

Given a positively weighted graph what's the fastest algorithm for finding the diameter for that graph?
GEP's user avatar
  • 195
2 votes
0 answers
137 views

What is the competitive ratio of a $d$-way associative LRU cache?

In a caching problem, items arrive online, and the algorithm needs to decide which elements to keep in the cache. If the current item is not cached, we pay a penalty of $1$. It is well known that for ...
R B's user avatar
  • 9,408
0 votes
1 answer
131 views

Permuting the columns of a 0/1-matrix to avoid short segments

Consider an $n \times n$ table with $n$ stars such that each row contains at most $\log n$ stars. The stars break each row into segments (continuous parts of a row without stars). Let's call a segment ...
Alexander S. Kulikov's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
137 views

Evaluating addition chains

I hope this is a suitable place to ask this question. An addition chain of size $n$ is a sequence $x_1, \dots, x_n$, where $x_1$ is fixed to 1 and $x_i = x_j + x_k$ for some $j,k < i$. I am ...
japh's user avatar
  • 161
1 vote
0 answers
64 views

PTAS for projective clustering : survey

$(k,j)$-projective clustering is the natural generalisation for k-clustering, in which one needs to find $k$ $j$-flats in $\mathbb{R}^d$ that minimizes the cost function as defined below: Given a $j$-...
Sudipta Roy's user avatar
-4 votes
2 answers
96 views

Is it possible to have a sorting algorithm that computes faster than QuickSort? [closed]

Given an unsorted array, QuickSort has to touch each source element it is trying to sort multiple times before it declares an array as sorted. (notice how many times the 2 is touched [circled in red ...
user1886419's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
79 views

Pop desired elements on stacks of bounded capacity

Consider there are $k$ stacks containing a total of $n$ elements. Each element is either red or blue. We have complete knowledge of each element's location and color. Only push and pop are allowed on ...
Chao Xu's user avatar
  • 4,367
-1 votes
1 answer
69 views

Formally prove that the loops of this sorting algorithm will terminate [closed]

Given is the sorting algorithm Bubblesort ...
kathelk's user avatar
  • 117
5 votes
1 answer
235 views

Evaluation of an arithmetic formula where the time depends on the length of the arguments of gates

Let $(X,+,\cdot)$ be a commutative ring. Let $|\cdot|\colon X\to \mathbb{N}$ be a function that satisfies $|x+y|\leq |x|+|y|$ and $|xy|\leq |x|+|y|$. We call the function length, and length is always ...
Chao Xu's user avatar
  • 4,367
2 votes
1 answer
130 views

Find shortest prefix to generate original string by overlapping

Given a string $S$, I want to find the prefix string $P$ of shortest length, such that the original string $S$ can be generated by concatenating copies of $P$ (where overlapping is allowed). For ...
Robert Lee's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
193 views

How to write algorithms?

Reading research articles in theoretical computer science, I noticed that people often describe their algorithms in an enumerative way (i.e., they enumerate the steps of their algorithm and use "go to"...
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
120 views

Minimization version of matrix p-norms?

I considered a minimization version of matrix p-norms, defined for a matrix $A$ by $$ f_p(A)= \min_{x\neq 0} \frac{||Ax||_p}{||x||_p}. $$ Notice that $f_p(A) = 0$ if and only if $A$'s columns are ...
Octopus's user avatar
  • 31
3 votes
1 answer
89 views

What is the maximal load of a "latency-bounded" Cuckoo Hash?

Cuckoo Hashing is a method for storing key-value stores (or just a set of keys) with a constant worst-case lookup time. They use two hash functions $h_1,h_2:\mathbb K\to [n]$, where $\mathbb K$ is ...
R B's user avatar
  • 9,408
18 votes
1 answer
2k views

Algorithm whose running time depends on P vs. NP

Is there a known, explicit example of an algorithm with the property such that if $P\neq NP$ then this algorithm doesn't run in polynomial time and if $P=NP$ then it does run in polynomial time?
user2925716's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
324 views

Algorithm for identifying unprovable statements

I understand that this may depend on the specific set of axioms, but is there a general way (algorithm) for automatically detecting unprovable statements within a set of axioms? For example: If there ...
Avi Tal's user avatar
  • 1,566
9 votes
3 answers
839 views

Non-Orthogonal Vectors Problem

Consider the following problems: Orthogonal Vectors Problem Input: A set $S$ of $n$ Boolean vectors each of length $d$. Question: Do there exist distinct vectors $v_1$ and $v_2 \in S$ ...
Michael Wehar's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
100 views

On the goal of learned clause database reduction in CDCL SAT solvers

Modern SAT solvers frequently reduce the size of their learned clause database in order to keep its size as manageable as possible. This has as effect not to slow down the speed of unit propagations. ...
RTK's user avatar
  • 311
7 votes
1 answer
173 views

Lower bound for enumerating k closest pair of points

Consider 1 dimensional points $x_1, \dots x_n, x_i \in \mathbb{R}$ where the distance between any two points is defined as $d(x_i, x_j) = \vert x_i - x_j \vert$. The goal is to enumerate all $n^2$ ...
karmanaut's user avatar
  • 1,177
14 votes
1 answer
551 views

Sorting with an average of $\mathrm{lg}(n!)+o(n)$ comparisons

Is there a comparison-based sorting algorithm that uses an average of $\mathrm{lg}(n!)+o(n)$ comparisons? Existence of a worst-case $\mathrm{lg}(n!)+o(n)$ comparison algorithm is an open problem (...
Dmytro Taranovsky's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
94 views

Lower bound for reversing a list using queues

How do you prove (or disprove) that a list of length $n$ cannot be reversed in time $o(n \log n)$ using $O(1)$ queues? Each queue is FIFO. Time refers to the number of operations on the queues. ...
Dmytro Taranovsky's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
136 views

Finding $n$ many different primes efficiently

I want to find $n$ many different primes on RAM. I can find $O(\frac{n}{\log n})$ many primes in the interval $1$ to $n$ in $O(n)$ running time. A brute force way is to find $O(\frac{n}{\log n})$ many ...
old's user avatar
  • 420
14 votes
1 answer
1k views

Deciding whether an interval contains a prime number

What is the complexity of deciding whether an interval of the natural numbers contains a prime? A variant of the Sieve of Eratosthenes gives an $\tilde O(L)$ algorithm, where $L$ is the length of the ...
Elliot Gorokhovsky's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
232 views

Impagliazzo lemma, unclear detail in its proof

In Arora-Barak's book on page 378 in the proof of Impagliazzo's Hard Core lemma why did they choose the number 50 in this line: Set $t = \frac{50n}{\epsilon^2}$ ? How this choice then yields the size ...
user2925716's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
278 views

What does "hold uniformly" mean in the context of asymptotic analysis?

What does "hold uniformly" mean in the statement of Theorem 1.7 in A Faster Subquadratic Algorithm for Finding Outlier Correlations? Here's the theorem text ("hold uniformly" is in the last line):
Elliot Gorokhovsky's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
753 views

Fast algorithm to find a maximum connected subgraph of k vertices

Given an undirected graph $G = (V, E)$ and a function $f: 2^V \to \mathbb{R}^+,$ where $2^V$ is the set of all subsets of $V$. Find a connected subgraph $T = (V_T, E_T)$ of k vertices such that $f(V_T)...
Thomas Edison's user avatar

1
3 4
5
6 7
36