Skip to yearly menu bar Skip to main content


Poster

Distance Estimation for High-Dimensional Discrete Distributions

Kuldeep S. Meel · Danqi Liao


Abstract: Given two distributions PP and QQ over a high-dimensional domain {0,1}n{0,1}n, and a parameter εε, the goal of distance estimation is to determine the statistical distance between PP and QQ, up to an additive tolerance ±ε±ε. Since exponential lower bounds (in nn) are known for the problem in the standard sampling model, research has focused on richer query models where one can draw conditional samples. This paper presents the first polynomial query distance estimator in the conditional sampling model (CONDCOND). We base our algorithm on the relatively weaker \textit{subcube conditional} sampling (SUBCONDSUBCOND) oracle, which draws samples from the distribution conditioned on some of the dimensions. SUBCONDSUBCOND is a promising model for widespread practical use because it captures the natural behavior of discrete samplers. Our algorithm makes ˜O(n3/ε5)~O(n3/ε5) queries to SUBCONDSUBCOND.

Live content is unavailable. Log in and register to view live content