提出更简单的对数近似算法,同时优化决策树的平均与最坏情况成本。
Simpler Logarithmic Approximation Algorithms for the Optimal Decision Tree and Adaptive Set Cover
- 基于分离子族问题设计贪心策略,将测试代价最小化。
- 在最坏情况下近似比小于3.65,平均情况约7.3,均优于已有方法。
- 适用于需要高效决策的场景,如诊断系统、自适应搜索等。
我们研究从给定假设集识别未知假设的决策树构建问题,涵盖平均代价和最坏情况代价两种标准。经典方法虽已实现$/mathcal{O}("log n)$的近似比($n$为假设数量),但分析复杂。本文提出一种新算法,其分析更简洁,并同时达到$/mathcal{O}("log n)$近似比。最坏情况下的常数因子低于3.65(以2为底对数),平均情况约为7.3。该算法通过贪心选择解决新提出的分离子族问题——即寻找能将假设集划分为小块的最廉价测试子族。我们证明该问题可转化为经典的最大覆盖问题。核心思想是将假设对视作团图边,通过切割形成小连通块。作为应用,我们还给出了自适应集合覆盖问题的$/mathcal{O}("log (k\cdot n))$近似解,其中$k$为可能实现数。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
We study a well-known task of constructing a decision tree identifying an unknown hypothesis from a given ground set of hypotheses under both the average- and worst-case cost. The Optimal Decision Tree problem has been extensively studied in the literature and $\mathcal{O}(\log n)$-approximation guarantees are known for both cost criteria (here $n$ is the number of hypotheses). Although the algorithms achieving this approximation ratio are usually relatively simple, their analysis often turns out to be quite technical. Hereby, we show a new algorithm with a simplified analysis which simultaneously achieves an $\mathcal{O}(\log n)$-approximation for both cost criteria. Moreover, the leading constant under the $\mathcal{O}$-notation in the approximation ratio is relatively small, below $3.65$ for the worst-case cost and twice as much for the average-case cost, assuming base $2$ logarithm. Our algorithm for the Optimal Decision Tree behaves greedily with respect to the hereby introduced Separating Subfamily problem which asks for the cheapest subfamily of tests which partitions the hypotheses into pieces of small enough size. We show that the Separating Subfamily can itself be reduced to an instance of the well-known Maximum Coverage problem. At the core of our approach lies exploiting properties of cutting a clique into small pieces, where edges represent pairs of hypotheses to be separated. As an application of our result we also provide an $\mathcal{O}(\log (k\cdot n))$-approximation for the Adaptive Set Cover problem, where $k$ is the number of possible realizations.
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