BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    A structural theorem for local algorithms with applications to coding, testing, and privacy

    Dall'Agnol, M. and Gur, T. and Lachish, Oded (2023) A structural theorem for local algorithms with applications to coding, testing, and privacy. SIAM Journal on Computing 52 (6), pp. 1413-1463. ISSN 0097-5397.

    [img]
    Preview
    Text
    adaptive-daisies.pdf - Author's Accepted Manuscript
    Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

    Download (1MB) | Preview

    Abstract

    We prove a general structural theorem for a wide family of local algorithms, which includes property testers, local decoders, and PCPs of proximity. Namely, we show that the structure of every algorithm that makes $q$ adaptive queries and satisfies a natural robustness condition admits a sample-based algorithm with $n^{1- 1/O(q^2 \log^2 q)}$ sample complexity, following the definition of Goldreich and Ron (TOCT 2016). We prove that this transformation is nearly optimal. Our theorem also admits a scheme for constructing privacy-preserving local algorithms. %Along the way, we obtain a sunflower-based combinatorial representation of robust local algorithms. Using the unified view that our structural theorem provides, we obtain results regarding various types of local algorithms, including the following. - We strengthen the state-of-the-art lower bound for relaxed locally decodable codes, obtaining an \emph{exponential} improvement on the dependency in query complexity; this resolves an open problem raised by Gur and Lachish (SICOMP 2021). - We show that any (constant-query) testable property admits a sample-based tester with sublinear sample complexity; this resolves a problem left open in a work of Fischer, Lachish, and Vasudev (FOCS 2015), bypassing an exponential blowup caused by previous techniques in the case of adaptive testers. - We prove that the known separation between proofs of proximity and testers is essentially maximal; this resolves a problem left open by Gur and Rothblum (ECCC 2013, Computational Complexity 2018) regarding sublinear-time delegation of computation. Our techniques strongly rely on relaxed sunflower lemmas and the Hajnal–Szemer\'{e}di theorem.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): local decoding, algorithms, lower bounds
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences
    Depositing User: Oded Lachish
    Date Deposited: 22 Feb 2024 10:46
    Last Modified: 22 Feb 2024 14:01
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/53140

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    37Downloads
    6 month trend
    95Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item Edit/View Item