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1 vote
1 answer
197 views

Probability distribution on Python-dictionary-like objects?

I would like to examine information-theoretical properties of random variables that take as values objects which are akin to dictionaries in the Python programing language. That is, each sample of the ...
3 votes
4 answers
1k views

Apply doubly stochastic matrix M to a probability vector, then entropy increases?

Consider a vector $p =(p_1,\dots,p_n)$, $p_i>0$, $\sum p_i = 1$ and a matrix $M_{ij}$, which is doubly stochastic: $\sum_i M_{ij} = 1, \sum_j M_{ij} = 1, M_{ij} > 0$. Question 1 Just apply ...
2 votes
0 answers
68 views

What is an efficient non-adaptive group testing scheme if the number of defectives, $d$, grows proportionally to the number of items, $n$?

Suppose that for some $p \in \left(0, 1\right)$ and some $n \in \mathbb{N}$, we have $n$ independent Bernoulli random variables, $X_{1}, X_{2}, \dots, X_{n}$, each with mean $p$. We shall call $X_{1}, ...
6 votes
1 answer
527 views

Can information be extracted more precisely using more random trials?

Write $n$ iid draws of $(x,y)$ as $(x^n, y^n)$. Fix $R\in (0,H(x))$. What is the min of $n^{-1}H(y^n|f(x^n))$ over maps $f$ with range $\lbrace 1,\dots,\exp nR\}$, taking $n\to \infty$?
1 vote
1 answer
105 views

What is the distribution of a Cartesian power of a collection of iid uniform points? (renewed)

The following question was asked recently at https://mathoverflow.net/questions/326631/what-is-the-distribution-of-a-cartesian-power-of-a-collection-of-iid-uniform-poi : Take a rectangle with ...
2 votes
1 answer
199 views

Do enough permutations of an initial set probably cover most permutations?

Fix $\alpha, \epsilon \in(0,1)$. Take $(S_n)_n$ to be any sequence of sets with each $S_n$ containing $ \lceil (n!)^\alpha\rceil$ permutations of $n$ elements. Also build another sequence of sets $(...
4 votes
1 answer
264 views

Information for discovering an item-colour assignment in a combinatorial game

We are given a set $S=\{i_1, i_2, \ldots, i_n\}$ of items and a set $C=\{c_1, c_2, \ldots, c_m\}$ of colours. Each item in $S$ is tinted with one colour $c\in C$. Let $\mathcal{A}$ be the set of all ...
1 vote
1 answer
106 views

Almost-parallel corners of the hypercube in high dimensions

Say I would like a collection of k "almost-parallel" boolean vectors $X_1,...,X_k \in \{\pm 1\}^n$, such that $(X_i,X_j)/n \approx 1-\epsilon$ for some small $\epsilon$. How many ways are ...
9 votes
0 answers
467 views

Measuring the randomness of texts

The question concerns statistic properties of random words in a finite alphabet $A$. By $A^{<\omega}$ we denote the set of all words in the alphabet $A$, i.e. finite sequences of elements of $A$. ...
8 votes
3 answers
411 views

Identifying a subset with as few tests as possible

Informal description: You are given a set of $n$ blood samples, each having probability $p$ of being infected with a disease. Your goal is to determine the set $P$ of infected samples with as few ...
10 votes
1 answer
846 views

A Johnson-Lindenstrauss lemma for finite fields?

Given $m$ points in $\mathbb{R}^N$, the Johnson-Lindenstrauss lemma guarantees the existence of a linear operator $\mathbb{R}^N\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^n$ that nearly preserves pairwise distances between ...
7 votes
3 answers
330 views

Quantifying the noninvertibility of a function

Given a function $f$ from a finite set $X$ to itself, it seems natural to consider $\kappa_f := (\sum_{x \in X} |f^{-1}(x)|^2)/|X|$ as a measure of the non-invertibility of $f$: it equals 1 if $f$ is ...
4 votes
1 answer
839 views

A balls into bins problem with combinatorial constraints

We are given $m$ balls and $n$ bins, with $m \ge n$. Each bin can contain at most $c$ balls (we assume that $c$ is an even integer). In a sequential fashion, at each time step, one ball is placed into ...
16 votes
6 answers
3k views

analog of principle of inclusion-exclusion

When I teach elementary probability to my finite math students, a common error is to mix up the concepts of disjointness and independence. At some point I thought that it might be helpful to some ...
7 votes
3 answers
790 views

Expected cardinality of a randomly chosen element of the family of subsets of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ with at most $k$-elements

Assume that $1\le k \le n$ and let $\mathscr{Z}$ be the family of all subsets of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ with at most $k$ elements. Pick a random element $X$ of $\mathscr{Z}$ (we consider the probablity ...
3 votes
0 answers
178 views

Partitioning the coupons collected in the classical coupon collector's problem

Suppose that there is an urn containing $n$ different coupons, from which $m$ coupons are being collected, equally likely, with replacement. Let $C(m)$ be the whole set of the $m$ collected coupons. ...
15 votes
2 answers
3k views

Bounding sum of multinomial coefficients by highest entropy one

When does the following hold? $$\sum_{(i_1,\ldots,i_k)\in E} \frac{n!}{i_1! \ldots i_k!} \le \exp(n H^*)$$ where $H^*=\max_{(i_1,\ldots,i_k)\in E} -(\frac{i_1}{n}\log \frac{i_1}{n}+\ldots +\frac{...
9 votes
1 answer
640 views

Inner product over finite fields

Let $F$ be a finite field, For every $c \in F$, let $X_1, X_2,..., X_9, Y_1,..., Y_9$ be independent non-zero random variables over $F$. Denote $X=(X_1,...,X_9)$, $Y=(Y_1,...,Y_9)$, also let $\...
5 votes
3 answers
1k views

A conjecture about the entropy of matrix vector products

Consider a random $m$ by $n$ partial circulant matrix $M$ whose entries are chosen independently and uniformly from $\{0,1\}$ and let $m < n$. Now consider a random $n$ dimensional vector $v$ ...
3 votes
1 answer
376 views

The degrees in a random subgraph

Fix some positive integers $N$ and $d_k$, $k=1,2,\dots$ with $N=\sum_{k=1}^\infty d_k$. Suppose you have a graph $G$ taken randomly uniformly among the set of all (unoriented) graphs with $N$ ...
3 votes
0 answers
143 views

finding rank-3 tensors compatible with a rank-2 tensor projection

I am interested in the following problem: Consider a rank-3 symmetric tensor $\boldsymbol{\sigma}$ with $\sigma_{ijk}$ where $\sigma_{ijk}$ can be 0 or 1, and the symmetry is with respect to any ...
2 votes
0 answers
979 views

How to calculate/approximate expectation of function of a binomial random variable?

Hi, I am stuck at following problem in my research. Suppose that $M=m$ is a random variable with binomial distribution with parameters $n,p$. The constants $r$ and $\gamma$ are greater than zero. $\...
4 votes
1 answer
2k views

Square of Binomial Coefficient

Background I'm modeling Genetic Algorithm(GA) with Markov chains and deriving the expression for the expectation of the first hittig time in the MC with 1 absorbing state and $l-1$ transient states. ...