@article{2008, abstract = {The paper describes a generalized iterative proportional fitting procedure that can be used for maximum likelihood estimation in a special class of the general log-linear model. The models in this class, called relational, apply to multivariate discrete sample spaces that do not necessarily have a Cartesian product structure and may not contain an overall effect. When applied to the cell probabilities, the models without the overall effect are curved exponential families and the values of the sufficient statistics are reproduced by the MLE only up to a constant of proportionality. The paper shows that Iterative Proportional Fitting, Generalized Iterative Scaling, and Improved Iterative Scaling fail to work for such models. The algorithm proposed here is based on iterated Bregman projections. As a by-product, estimates of the multiplicative parameters are also obtained. An implementation of the algorithm is available as an R-package.}, author = {Klimova, Anna and Rudas, Tamás}, journal = {Scandinavian Journal of Statistics}, number = {3}, pages = {832 -- 847}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {{Iterative scaling in curved exponential families}}, doi = {10.1111/sjos.12139}, volume = {42}, year = {2015}, } @article{2006, abstract = {The monotone secant conjecture posits a rich class of polynomial systems, all of whose solutions are real. These systems come from the Schubert calculus on flag manifolds, and the monotone secant conjecture is a compelling generalization of the Shapiro conjecture for Grassmannians (Theorem of Mukhin, Tarasov, and Varchenko). We present some theoretical evidence for this conjecture, as well as computational evidence obtained by 1.9 teraHertz-years of computing, and we discuss some of the phenomena we observed in our data. }, author = {Hein, Nicolas and Hillar, Christopher and Martin Del Campo Sanchez, Abraham and Sottile, Frank and Teitler, Zach}, journal = {Experimental Mathematics}, number = {3}, pages = {261 -- 269}, publisher = {Taylor & Francis}, title = {{The monotone secant conjecture in the real Schubert calculus}}, doi = {10.1080/10586458.2014.980044}, volume = {24}, year = {2015}, } @article{2014, abstract = {The concepts of faithfulness and strong-faithfulness are important for statistical learning of graphical models. Graphs are not sufficient for describing the association structure of a discrete distribution. Hypergraphs representing hierarchical log-linear models are considered instead, and the concept of parametric (strong-) faithfulness with respect to a hypergraph is introduced. Strong-faithfulness ensures the existence of uniformly consistent parameter estimators and enables building uniformly consistent procedures for a hypergraph search. The strength of association in a discrete distribution can be quantified with various measures, leading to different concepts of strong-faithfulness. Lower and upper bounds for the proportions of distributions that do not satisfy strong-faithfulness are computed for different parameterizations and measures of association.}, author = {Klimova, Anna and Uhler, Caroline and Rudas, Tamás}, journal = {Computational Statistics & Data Analysis}, number = {7}, pages = {57 -- 72}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Faithfulness and learning hypergraphs from discrete distributions}}, doi = {10.1016/j.csda.2015.01.017}, volume = {87}, year = {2015}, } @article{2025, abstract = {Small GTP-binding proteins of the Ras superfamily play diverse roles in intracellular trafficking. Among them, the Rab, Arf, and Rho families function in successive steps of vesicle transport, in forming vesicles from donor membranes, directing vesicle trafficking toward target membranes and docking vesicles onto target membranes. These proteins act as molecular switches that are controlled by a cycle of GTP binding and hydrolysis regulated by guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) and GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs). In this study we explored the role of GAPs in the regulation of the endocytic pathway using fluorescently labeled yeast mating pheromone α-factor. Among 25 non-essential GAP mutants, we found that deletion of the GLO3 gene, encoding Arf-GAP protein, caused defective internalization of fluorescently labeled α-factor. Quantitative analysis revealed that glo3Δ cells show defective α-factor binding to the cell surface. Interestingly, Ste2p, the α-factor receptor, was mis-localized from the plasma membrane to the vacuole in glo3Δ cells. Domain deletion mutants of Glo3p revealed that a GAP-independent function, as well as the GAP activity, of Glo3p is important for both α-factor binding and Ste2p localization at the cell surface. Additionally, we found that deletion of the GLO3 gene affects the size and number of Arf1p-residing Golgi compartments and causes a defect in transport from the TGN to the plasma membrane. Furthermore, we demonstrated that glo3Δ cells were defective in the late endosome-to-TGN transport pathway, but not in the early endosome-to-TGN transport pathway. These findings suggest novel roles for Arf-GAP Glo3p in endocytic recycling of cell surface proteins.}, author = {Kawada, Daiki and Kobayashi, Hiromu and Tomita, Tsuyoshi and Nakata, Eisuke and Nagano, Makoto and Siekhaus, Daria E and Toshima, Junko and Toshimaa, Jiro}, journal = {Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Molecular Cell Research}, number = {1}, pages = {144 -- 156}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{The yeast Arf-GAP Glo3p is required for the endocytic recycling of cell surface proteins}}, doi = {10.1016/j.bbamcr.2014.10.009}, volume = {1853}, year = {2015}, } @article{2030, abstract = {A hybrid-parallel direct-numerical-simulation method with application to turbulent Taylor-Couette flow is presented. The Navier-Stokes equations are discretized in cylindrical coordinates with the spectral Fourier-Galerkin method in the axial and azimuthal directions, and high-order finite differences in the radial direction. Time is advanced by a second-order, semi-implicit projection scheme, which requires the solution of five Helmholtz/Poisson equations, avoids staggered grids and renders very small slip velocities. Nonlinear terms are evaluated with the pseudospectral method. The code is parallelized using a hybrid MPI-OpenMP strategy, which, compared with a flat MPI parallelization, is simpler to implement, allows to reduce inter-node communications and MPI overhead that become relevant at high processor-core counts, and helps to contain the memory footprint. A strong scaling study shows that the hybrid code maintains scalability up to more than 20,000 processor cores and thus allows to perform simulations at higher resolutions than previously feasible. In particular, it opens up the possibility to simulate turbulent Taylor-Couette flows at Reynolds numbers up to O(105). This enables to probe hydrodynamic turbulence in Keplerian flows in experimentally relevant regimes.}, author = {Shi, Liang and Rampp, Markus and Hof, Björn and Avila, Marc}, journal = {Computers and Fluids}, number = {1}, pages = {1 -- 11}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{A hybrid MPI-OpenMP parallel implementation for pseudospectral simulations with application to Taylor-Couette flow}}, doi = {10.1016/j.compfluid.2014.09.021}, volume = {106}, year = {2015}, } @article{2035, abstract = {Considering a continuous self-map and the induced endomorphism on homology, we study the eigenvalues and eigenspaces of the latter. Taking a filtration of representations, we define the persistence of the eigenspaces, effectively introducing a hierarchical organization of the map. The algorithm that computes this information for a finite sample is proved to be stable, and to give the correct answer for a sufficiently dense sample. Results computed with an implementation of the algorithm provide evidence of its practical utility. }, author = {Edelsbrunner, Herbert and Jablonski, Grzegorz and Mrozek, Marian}, journal = {Foundations of Computational Mathematics}, number = {5}, pages = {1213 -- 1244}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{The persistent homology of a self-map}}, doi = {10.1007/s10208-014-9223-y}, volume = {15}, year = {2015}, } @article{2034, abstract = {Opacity is a generic security property, that has been defined on (non-probabilistic) transition systems and later on Markov chains with labels. For a secret predicate, given as a subset of runs, and a function describing the view of an external observer, the value of interest for opacity is a measure of the set of runs disclosing the secret. We extend this definition to the richer framework of Markov decision processes, where non-deterministicchoice is combined with probabilistic transitions, and we study related decidability problems with partial or complete observation hypotheses for the schedulers. We prove that all questions are decidable with complete observation and ω-regular secrets. With partial observation, we prove that all quantitative questions are undecidable but the question whether a system is almost surely non-opaquebecomes decidable for a restricted class of ω-regular secrets, as well as for all ω-regular secrets under finite-memory schedulers.}, author = {Bérard, Béatrice and Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Sznajder, Nathalie}, journal = { Information Processing Letters}, number = {1}, pages = {52 -- 59}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Probabilistic opacity for Markov decision processes}}, doi = {10.1016/j.ipl.2014.09.001}, volume = {115}, year = {2015}, } @article{2085, abstract = {We study the spectrum of a large system of N identical bosons interacting via a two-body potential with strength 1/N. In this mean-field regime, Bogoliubov's theory predicts that the spectrum of the N-particle Hamiltonian can be approximated by that of an effective quadratic Hamiltonian acting on Fock space, which describes the fluctuations around a condensed state. Recently, Bogoliubov's theory has been justified rigorously in the case that the low-energy eigenvectors of the N-particle Hamiltonian display complete condensation in the unique minimizer of the corresponding Hartree functional. In this paper, we shall justify Bogoliubov's theory for the high-energy part of the spectrum of the N-particle Hamiltonian corresponding to (non-linear) excited states of the Hartree functional. Moreover, we shall extend the existing results on the excitation spectrum to the case of non-uniqueness and/or degeneracy of the Hartree minimizer. In particular, the latter covers the case of rotating Bose gases, when the rotation speed is large enough to break the symmetry and to produce multiple quantized vortices in the Hartree minimizer. }, author = {Nam, Phan and Seiringer, Robert}, journal = {Archive for Rational Mechanics and Analysis}, number = {2}, pages = {381 -- 417}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{Collective excitations of Bose gases in the mean-field regime}}, doi = {10.1007/s00205-014-0781-6}, volume = {215}, year = {2015}, } @article{2166, abstract = {We consider the spectral statistics of large random band matrices on mesoscopic energy scales. We show that the correlation function of the local eigenvalue density exhibits a universal power law behaviour that differs from the Wigner-Dyson- Mehta statistics. This law had been predicted in the physics literature by Altshuler and Shklovskii in (Zh Eksp Teor Fiz (Sov Phys JETP) 91(64):220(127), 1986); it describes the correlations of the eigenvalue density in general metallic sampleswith weak disorder. Our result rigorously establishes the Altshuler-Shklovskii formulas for band matrices. In two dimensions, where the leading term vanishes owing to an algebraic cancellation, we identify the first non-vanishing term and show that it differs substantially from the prediction of Kravtsov and Lerner in (Phys Rev Lett 74:2563-2566, 1995). The proof is given in the current paper and its companion (Ann. H. Poincaré. arXiv:1309.5107, 2014). }, author = {Erdös, László and Knowles, Antti}, journal = {Communications in Mathematical Physics}, number = {3}, pages = {1365 -- 1416}, publisher = {Springer}, title = {{The Altshuler-Shklovskii formulas for random band matrices I: the unimodular case}}, doi = {10.1007/s00220-014-2119-5}, volume = {333}, year = {2015}, } @article{1832, abstract = {Linearizability of concurrent data structures is usually proved by monolithic simulation arguments relying on the identification of the so-called linearization points. Regrettably, such proofs, whether manual or automatic, are often complicated and scale poorly to advanced non-blocking concurrency patterns, such as helping and optimistic updates. In response, we propose a more modular way of checking linearizability of concurrent queue algorithms that does not involve identifying linearization points. We reduce the task of proving linearizability with respect to the queue specification to establishing four basic properties, each of which can be proved independently by simpler arguments. As a demonstration of our approach, we verify the Herlihy and Wing queue, an algorithm that is challenging to verify by a simulation proof. }, author = {Chakraborty, Soham and Henzinger, Thomas A and Sezgin, Ali and Vafeiadis, Viktor}, journal = {Logical Methods in Computer Science}, number = {1}, publisher = {International Federation of Computational Logic}, title = {{Aspect-oriented linearizability proofs}}, doi = {10.2168/LMCS-11(1:20)2015}, volume = {11}, year = {2015}, } @article{2271, abstract = {A class of valued constraint satisfaction problems (VCSPs) is characterised by a valued constraint language, a fixed set of cost functions on a finite domain. Finite-valued constraint languages contain functions that take on rational costs and general-valued constraint languages contain functions that take on rational or infinite costs. An instance of the problem is specified by a sum of functions from the language with the goal to minimise the sum. This framework includes and generalises well-studied constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) and maximum constraint satisfaction problems (Max-CSPs). Our main result is a precise algebraic characterisation of valued constraint languages whose instances can be solved exactly by the basic linear programming relaxation (BLP). For a general-valued constraint language Γ, BLP is a decision procedure for Γ if and only if Γ admits a symmetric fractional polymorphism of every arity. For a finite-valued constraint language Γ, BLP is a decision procedure if and only if Γ admits a symmetric fractional polymorphism of some arity, or equivalently, if Γ admits a symmetric fractional polymorphism of arity 2. Using these results, we obtain tractability of several novel and previously widely-open classes of VCSPs, including problems over valued constraint languages that are: (1) submodular on arbitrary lattices; (2) bisubmodular (also known as k-submodular) on arbitrary finite domains; (3) weakly (and hence strongly) tree-submodular on arbitrary trees. }, author = {Kolmogorov, Vladimir and Thapper, Johan and Živný, Stanislav}, journal = {SIAM Journal on Computing}, number = {1}, pages = {1 -- 36}, publisher = {SIAM}, title = {{The power of linear programming for general-valued CSPs}}, doi = {10.1137/130945648}, volume = {44}, year = {2015}, } @article{257, abstract = {For suitable pairs of diagonal quadratic forms in eight variables we use the circle method to investigate the density of simultaneous integer solutions and relate this to the problem of estimating linear correlations among sums of two squares.}, author = {Timothy Browning and Munshi, Ritabrata}, journal = {Forum Mathematicum}, number = {4}, pages = {2025 -- 2050}, publisher = {Walter de Gruyter GmbH}, title = {{Pairs of diagonal quadratic forms and linear correlations among sums of two squares}}, doi = {10.1515/forum-2013-6024}, volume = {27}, year = {2015}, } @inbook{258, abstract = {Given a number field k and a projective algebraic variety X defined over k, the question of whether X contains a k-rational point is both very natural and very difficult. In the event that the set X(k) of k-rational points is not empty, one can also ask how the points of X(k) are distributed. Are they dense in X under the Zariski topology? Are they dense in the set.}, author = {Browning, Timothy D}, booktitle = {Arithmetic and Geometry}, pages = {89 -- 113}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press}, title = {{A survey of applications of the circle method to rational points}}, doi = {10.1017/CBO9781316106877.009}, year = {2015}, } @article{259, abstract = {The Hasse principle and weak approximation is established for non-singular cubic hypersurfaces X over the function field }, author = {Timothy Browning and Vishe, Pankaj}, journal = {Geometric and Functional Analysis}, number = {3}, pages = {671 -- 732}, publisher = {Birkhäuser}, title = {{Rational points on cubic hypersurfaces over F_q(t) }}, doi = {10.1007/s00039-015-0328-5}, volume = {25}, year = {2015}, } @article{1598, abstract = {We consider Markov decision processes (MDPs) with specifications given as Büchi (liveness) objectives, and examine the problem of computing the set of almost-sure winning vertices such that the objective can be ensured with probability 1 from these vertices. We study for the first time the average-case complexity of the classical algorithm for computing the set of almost-sure winning vertices for MDPs with Büchi objectives. Our contributions are as follows: First, we show that for MDPs with constant out-degree the expected number of iterations is at most logarithmic and the average-case running time is linear (as compared to the worst-case linear number of iterations and quadratic time complexity). Second, for the average-case analysis over all MDPs we show that the expected number of iterations is constant and the average-case running time is linear (again as compared to the worst-case linear number of iterations and quadratic time complexity). Finally we also show that when all MDPs are equally likely, the probability that the classical algorithm requires more than a constant number of iterations is exponentially small.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Joglekar, Manas and Shah, Nisarg}, journal = {Theoretical Computer Science}, number = {3}, pages = {71 -- 89}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Average case analysis of the classical algorithm for Markov decision processes with Büchi objectives}}, doi = {10.1016/j.tcs.2015.01.050}, volume = {573}, year = {2015}, } @article{1805, abstract = {We consider the problem of deciding whether the persistent homology group of a simplicial pair (K,L) can be realized as the homology H∗(X) of some complex X with L ⊂ X ⊂ K. We show that this problem is NP-complete even if K is embedded in double-struck R3. As a consequence, we show that it is NP-hard to simplify level and sublevel sets of scalar functions on double-struck S3 within a given tolerance constraint. This problem has relevance to the visualization of medical images by isosurfaces. We also show an implication to the theory of well groups of scalar functions: not every well group can be realized by some level set, and deciding whether a well group can be realized is NP-hard.}, author = {Attali, Dominique and Bauer, Ulrich and Devillers, Olivier and Glisse, Marc and Lieutier, André}, journal = {Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications}, number = {8}, pages = {606 -- 621}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Homological reconstruction and simplification in R3}}, doi = {10.1016/j.comgeo.2014.08.010}, volume = {48}, year = {2015}, } @article{333, abstract = {We present a hybrid intercalation battery based on a sodium/magnesium (Na/Mg) dual salt electrolyte, metallic magnesium anode, and a cathode based on FeS2 nanocrystals (NCs). Compared to lithium or sodium, metallic magnesium anode is safer due to dendrite-free electroplating and offers extremely high volumetric (3833 mAh cm-3) and gravimetric capacities (2205 mAh g-1). Na-ion cathodes, FeS2 NCs in the present study, may serve as attractive alternatives to Mg-ion cathodes due to the higher voltage of operation and fast, highly reversible insertion of Na-ions. In this proof-of-concept study, electrochemical cycling of the Na/Mg hybrid battery was characterized by high rate capability, high Coulombic efficiency of 99.8%, and high energy density. In particular, with an average discharge voltage of ∼1.1 V and a cathodic capacity of 189 mAh g-1 at a current of 200 mA g-1, the presented Mg/FeS2 hybrid battery delivers energy densities of up to 210 Wh kg-1, comparable to commercial Li-ion batteries and approximately twice as high as state-of-the-art Mg-ion batteries based on Mo6S8 cathodes. Further significant gains in the energy density are expected from the development of Na/Mg electrolytes with a broader electrochemical stability window. Fully based on Earth-abundant elements, hybrid Na-Mg batteries are highly promising for large-scale stationary energy storage. }, author = {Walter, Marc and Kravchyk, Kostiantyn and Ibáñez, Maria and Kovalenko, Maksym}, journal = {Chemistry of Materials}, number = {21}, pages = {7452 -- 7458}, publisher = {ACS}, title = {{Efficient and inexpensive sodium magnesium hybrid battery}}, doi = {10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b03531}, volume = {27}, year = {2015}, } @article{354, abstract = {A simple and effective method to introduce precise amounts of doping in nanomaterials produced from the bottom-up assembly of colloidal nanoparticles (NPs) is described. The procedure takes advantage of a ligand displacement step to incorporate controlled concentrations of halide ions while removing carboxylic acids from the NP surface. Upon consolidation of the NPs into dense pellets, halide ions diffuse within the crystal structure, doping the anion sublattice and achieving n-type electrical doping. Through the characterization of the thermoelectric properties of nanocrystalline PbS, we demonstrate this strategy to be effective to control charge transport properties on thermoelectric nanomaterials assembled from NP building blocks. This approach is subsequently extended to PbTexSe1-x@PbS core-shell NPs, where a significant enhancement of the thermoelectric figure of merit is achieved. }, author = {Ibáñez, Maria and Korkosz, Rachel and Luo, Zhishan and Riba, Pau and Cadavid, Doris and Ortega, Silvia and Cabot, Andreu and Kanatzidis, Mercouri}, journal = {Journal of the American Chemical Society}, number = {12}, pages = {4046 -- 4049}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, title = {{Electron doping in bottom up engineered thermoelectric nanomaterials through HCl mediated ligand displacement}}, doi = {10.1021/jacs.5b00091}, volume = {137}, year = {2015}, } @article{360, abstract = {A cation exchange-based route was used to produce Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS)-Ag2S nanoparticles with controlled composition. We report a detailed study of the formation of such CZTS-Ag2S nanoheterostructures and of their photocatalytic properties. When compared to pure CZTS, the use of nanoscale p-n heterostructures as light absorbers for photocatalytic water splitting provides superior photocurrents. We associate this experimental fact to a higher separation efficiency of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs. We believe this and other type-II nanoheterostructures will open the door to the use of CZTS, with excellent light absorption properties and made of abundant and environmental friendly elements, to the field of photocatalysis. }, author = {Yu, Xuelian and Liu, Jingjing and Genç, Aziz and Ibáñez, Maria and Luo, Zhishan and Shavel, Alexey and Arbiol, Jordi and Zhang, Guangjin and Zhang, Yihe and Cabot, Andreu}, journal = {Langmuir}, number = {38}, pages = {10555 -- 10561}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, title = {{Cu2ZnSnS4-Ag2S nanoscale p-n heterostructures as sensitizers for photoelectrochemical water splitting}}, doi = {10.1021/acs.langmuir.5b02490}, volume = {31}, year = {2015}, } @article{362, abstract = {Monodisperse Pd2Sn nanorods with tuned size and aspect ratio were prepared by co-reduction of metal salts in the presence of trioctylphosphine, amine, and chloride ions. Asymmetric Pd2Sn nanostructures were achieved by the selective desorption of a surfactant mediated by chlorine ions. A preliminary evaluation of the geometry influence on catalytic properties evidenced Pd2Sn nanorods to have improved catalytic performance. In view of these results, Pd2Sn nanorods were also evaluated for water denitration. }, author = {Lu, Zhishan and Ibáñez, Maria and Antolín, Ana and Genç, Aziz and Shavel, Alexey and Contreras, Sandra and Medina, Francesc and Arbiol, Jordi and Cabot, Andreu}, journal = {Langmuir}, number = {13}, pages = {3952 -- 3957}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, title = {{Size and aspect ratio control of Pd inf 2 inf Sn nanorods and their water denitration properties}}, doi = {10.1021/la504906q}, volume = {31}, year = {2015}, } @article{1731, abstract = {We consider two-player zero-sum games on graphs. These games can be classified on the basis of the information of the players and on the mode of interaction between them. On the basis of information the classification is as follows: (a) partial-observation (both players have partial view of the game); (b) one-sided complete-observation (one player has complete observation); and (c) complete-observation (both players have complete view of the game). On the basis of mode of interaction we have the following classification: (a) concurrent (both players interact simultaneously); and (b) turn-based (both players interact in turn). The two sources of randomness in these games are randomness in transition function and randomness in strategies. In general, randomized strategies are more powerful than deterministic strategies, and randomness in transitions gives more general classes of games. In this work we present a complete characterization for the classes of games where randomness is not helpful in: (a) the transition function probabilistic transition can be simulated by deterministic transition); and (b) strategies (pure strategies are as powerful as randomized strategies). As consequence of our characterization we obtain new undecidability results for these games. }, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Doyen, Laurent and Gimbert, Hugo and Henzinger, Thomas A}, journal = {Information and Computation}, number = {12}, pages = {3 -- 16}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Randomness for free}}, doi = {10.1016/j.ic.2015.06.003}, volume = {245}, year = {2015}, } @article{334, abstract = {A cation exchange-based route was used to produce Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS)-Ag2S nanoparticles with controlled composition. We report a detailed study of the formation of such CZTS-Ag2S nanoheterostructures and of their photocatalytic properties. When compared to pure CZTS, the use of nanoscale p-n heterostructures as light absorbers for photocatalytic water splitting provides superior photocurrents. We associate this experimental fact to a higher separation efficiency of the photogenerated electron-hole pairs. We believe this and other type-II nanoheterostructures will open the door to the use of CZTS, with excellent light absorption properties and made of abundant and environmental friendly elements, to the field of photocatalysis.}, author = {Yu, Xuelian and Liu, Jingjing and Genç, Aziz and Ibáñez, Maria and Luo, Zhishan and Shavel, Alexey and Arbiol, Jordi and Zhang, Guangjin and Zhang, Yihe and Cabot, Andreu}, journal = {Langmuir}, number = {38}, pages = {10555 -- 10561}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, title = {{Cu2ZnSnS4–Ag2S Nanoscale p–n heterostructures as sensitizers for photoelectrochemical water splitting}}, doi = {10.1021/acs.langmuir.5b02490}, volume = {31}, year = {2015}, } @article{361, abstract = {We report the synthesis and photocatalytic and magnetic characterization of colloidal nanoheterostructures formed by combining a Pt-based magnetic metal alloy (PtCo, PtNi) with Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS). While CZTS is one of the main candidate materials for solar energy conversion, the introduction of a Pt-based alloy on its surface strongly influences its chemical and electronic properties, ultimately determining its functionality. In this regard, up to a 15-fold increase of the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity was obtained with CZTS–PtCo when compared with CZTS. Furthermore, two times higher hydrogen evolution rates were obtained for CZTS–PtCo when compared with CZTS–Pt, in spite of the lower precious metal loading of the former. Besides, the magnetic properties of the PtCo nanoparticles attached to the CZTS nanocrystals were retained in the heterostructures, which could facilitate catalyst purification and recovery for its posterior recycling and/or reutilization.}, author = {Yu, Xuelian and An, Xiaoqiang and Genç, Aziz and Ibáñez, Maria and Arbiol, Jordi and Zhang, Yihe and Cabot, Andreu}, journal = {Journal of Physical Chemistry C}, number = {38}, pages = {21882 -- 21888}, publisher = {American Chemical Society}, title = {{Cu2ZnSnS4–PtM (M = Co, Ni) nanoheterostructures for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution}}, doi = {10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b06199}, volume = {119}, year = {2015}, } @article{1856, abstract = {The traditional synthesis question given a specification asks for the automatic construction of a system that satisfies the specification, whereas often there exists a preference order among the different systems that satisfy the given specification. Under a probabilistic assumption about the possible inputs, such a preference order is naturally expressed by a weighted automaton, which assigns to each word a value, such that a system is preferred if it generates a higher expected value. We solve the following optimal synthesis problem: given an omega-regular specification, a Markov chain that describes the distribution of inputs, and a weighted automaton that measures how well a system satisfies the given specification under the input assumption, synthesize a system that optimizes the measured value. For safety specifications and quantitative measures that are defined by mean-payoff automata, the optimal synthesis problem reduces to finding a strategy in a Markov decision process (MDP) that is optimal for a long-run average reward objective, which can be achieved in polynomial time. For general omega-regular specifications along with mean-payoff automata, the solution rests on a new, polynomial-time algorithm for computing optimal strategies in MDPs with mean-payoff parity objectives. Our algorithm constructs optimal strategies that consist of two memoryless strategies and a counter. The counter is in general not bounded. To obtain a finite-state system, we show how to construct an ε-optimal strategy with a bounded counter, for all ε > 0. Furthermore, we show how to decide in polynomial time if it is possible to construct an optimal finite-state system (i.e., a system without a counter) for a given specification. We have implemented our approach and the underlying algorithms in a tool that takes qualitative and quantitative specifications and automatically constructs a system that satisfies the qualitative specification and optimizes the quantitative specification, if such a system exists. We present some experimental results showing optimal systems that were automatically generated in this way.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Henzinger, Thomas A and Jobstmann, Barbara and Singh, Rohit}, journal = {Journal of the ACM}, number = {1}, publisher = {ACM}, title = {{Measuring and synthesizing systems in probabilistic environments}}, doi = {10.1145/2699430}, volume = {62}, year = {2015}, } @article{388, abstract = {We use ultrafast optical spectroscopy to observe binding of charged single-particle excitations (SE) in the magnetically frustrated Mott insulator Na2IrO3. Above the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature (TN) the system response is due to both Hubbard excitons (HE) and their constituent unpaired SE. The SE response becomes strongly suppressed immediately below TN. We argue that this increase in binding energy is due to a unique interplay between the frustrated Kitaev and the weak Heisenberg-type ordering term in the Hamiltonian, mediating an effective interaction between the spin-singlet SE. This interaction grows with distance causing the SE to become trapped in the HE, similar to quark confinement inside hadrons. This binding of charged particles, induced by magnetic ordering, is a result of a confinement-deconfinement transition of spin excitations. This observation provides evidence for spin liquid type behavior which is expected in Na2IrO3.}, author = {Alpichshev, Zhanybek and Mahmood, Fahad and Cao, Gang and Gedik, Nuh}, journal = {Physical Review Letters}, number = {1}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {{Confinement deconfinement transition as an indication of spin liquid type behavior in Na2IrO3}}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.017203}, volume = {114}, year = {2015}, } @inproceedings{1661, abstract = {The computation of the winning set for one-pair Streett objectives and for k-pair Streett objectives in (standard) graphs as well as in game graphs are central problems in computer-aided verification, with application to the verification of closed systems with strong fairness conditions, the verification of open systems, checking interface compatibility, well-formed ness of specifications, and the synthesis of reactive systems. We give faster algorithms for the computation of the winning set for (1) one-pair Streett objectives (aka parity-3 problem) in game graphs and (2) for k-pair Streett objectives in graphs. For both problems this represents the first improvement in asymptotic running time in 15 years.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Henzinger, Monika H and Loitzenbauer, Veronika}, booktitle = {Proceedings - Symposium on Logic in Computer Science}, location = {Kyoto, Japan}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{Improved algorithms for one-pair and k-pair Streett objectives}}, doi = {10.1109/LICS.2015.34}, volume = {2015-July}, year = {2015}, } @article{473, abstract = {We prove that nonlinear Gibbs measures can be obtained from the corresponding many-body, grand-canonical, quantum Gibbs states, in a mean-field limit where the temperature T diverges and the interaction strength behaves as 1/T. We proceed by characterizing the interacting Gibbs state as minimizing a functional counting the free-energy relatively to the non-interacting case. We then perform an infinite-dimensional analogue of phase-space semiclassical analysis, using fine properties of the quantum relative entropy, the link between quantum de Finetti measures and upper/lower symbols in a coherent state basis, as well as Berezin-Lieb type inequalities. Our results cover the measure built on the defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger functional on a finite interval, as well as smoother interactions in dimensions d 2.}, author = {Lewin, Mathieu and Phan Thanh, Nam and Rougerie, Nicolas}, journal = {Journal de l'Ecole Polytechnique - Mathematiques}, pages = {65 -- 115}, publisher = {Ecole Polytechnique}, title = {{Derivation of nonlinear gibbs measures from many-body quantum mechanics}}, doi = {10.5802/jep.18}, volume = {2}, year = {2015}, } @article{477, abstract = {Dendritic cells are potent antigen-presenting cells endowed with the unique ability to initiate adaptive immune responses upon inflammation. Inflammatory processes are often associated with an increased production of serotonin, which operates by activating specific receptors. However, the functional role of serotonin receptors in regulation of dendritic cell functions is poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that expression of serotonin receptor 5-HT7 (5-HT7TR) as well as its downstream effector Cdc42 is upregulated in dendritic cells upon maturation. Although dendritic cell maturation was independent of 5-HT7TR, receptor stimulation affected dendritic cell morphology through Cdc42-mediated signaling. In addition, basal activity of 5-HT7TR was required for the proper expression of the chemokine receptor CCR7, which is a key factor that controls dendritic cell migration. Consistent with this, we observed that 5-HT7TR enhances chemotactic motility of dendritic cells in vitro by modulating their directionality and migration velocity. Accordingly, migration of dendritic cells in murine colon explants was abolished after pharmacological receptor inhibition. Our results indicate that there is a crucial role for 5-HT7TR-Cdc42-mediated signaling in the regulation of dendritic cell morphology and motility, suggesting that 5-HT7TR could be a new target for treatment of a variety of inflammatory and immune disorders.}, author = {Holst, Katrin and Guseva, Daria and Schindler, Susann and Sixt, Michael K and Braun, Armin and Chopra, Himpriya and Pabst, Oliver and Ponimaskin, Evgeni}, journal = {Journal of Cell Science}, number = {15}, pages = {2866 -- 2880}, publisher = {Company of Biologists}, title = {{The serotonin receptor 5-HT7R regulates the morphology and migratory properties of dendritic cells}}, doi = {10.1242/jcs.167999}, volume = {128}, year = {2015}, } @article{523, abstract = {We consider two-player games played on weighted directed graphs with mean-payoff and total-payoff objectives, two classical quantitative objectives. While for single-dimensional games the complexity and memory bounds for both objectives coincide, we show that in contrast to multi-dimensional mean-payoff games that are known to be coNP-complete, multi-dimensional total-payoff games are undecidable. We introduce conservative approximations of these objectives, where the payoff is considered over a local finite window sliding along a play, instead of the whole play. For single dimension, we show that (i) if the window size is polynomial, deciding the winner takes polynomial time, and (ii) the existence of a bounded window can be decided in NP ∩ coNP, and is at least as hard as solving mean-payoff games. For multiple dimensions, we show that (i) the problem with fixed window size is EXPTIME-complete, and (ii) there is no primitive-recursive algorithm to decide the existence of a bounded window.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Doyen, Laurent and Randour, Mickael and Raskin, Jean}, journal = {Information and Computation}, number = {6}, pages = {25 -- 52}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Looking at mean-payoff and total-payoff through windows}}, doi = {10.1016/j.ic.2015.03.010}, volume = {242}, year = {2015}, } @article{532, abstract = {Ethylene is a gaseous phytohormone that plays vital roles in plant growth and development. Previous studies uncovered EIN2 as an essential signal transducer linking ethylene perception on ER to transcriptional regulation in the nucleus through a “cleave and shuttle” model. In this study, we report another mechanism of EIN2-mediated ethylene signaling, whereby EIN2 imposes the translational repression of EBF1 and EBF2 mRNA. We find that the EBF1/2 3′ UTRs mediate EIN2-directed translational repression and identify multiple poly-uridylates (PolyU) motifs as functional cis elements of 3′ UTRs. Furthermore, we demonstrate that ethylene induces EIN2 to associate with 3′ UTRs and target EBF1/2 mRNA to cytoplasmic processing-body (P-body) through interacting with multiple P-body factors, including EIN5 and PABs. Our study illustrates translational regulation as a key step in ethylene signaling and presents mRNA 3′ UTR functioning as a “signal transducer” to sense and relay cellular signaling in plants.}, author = {Li, Wenyang and Ma, Mengdi and Feng, Ying and Li, Hongjiang and Wang, Yichuan and Ma, Yutong and Li, Mingzhe and An, Fengying and Guo, Hongwei}, journal = {Cell}, number = {3}, pages = {670 -- 683}, publisher = {Cell Press}, title = {{EIN2-directed translational regulation of ethylene signaling in arabidopsis}}, doi = {10.1016/j.cell.2015.09.037}, volume = {163}, year = {2015}, } @article{524, abstract = {We consider concurrent games played by two players on a finite-state graph, where in every round the players simultaneously choose a move, and the current state along with the joint moves determine the successor state. We study the most fundamental objective for concurrent games, namely, mean-payoff or limit-average objective, where a reward is associated to each transition, and the goal of player 1 is to maximize the long-run average of the rewards, and the objective of player 2 is strictly the opposite (i.e., the games are zero-sum). The path constraint for player 1 could be qualitative, i.e., the mean-payoff is the maximal reward, or arbitrarily close to it; or quantitative, i.e., a given threshold between the minimal and maximal reward. We consider the computation of the almost-sure (resp. positive) winning sets, where player 1 can ensure that the path constraint is satisfied with probability 1 (resp. positive probability). Almost-sure winning with qualitative constraint exactly corresponds to the question of whether there exists a strategy to ensure that the payoff is the maximal reward of the game. Our main results for qualitative path constraints are as follows: (1) we establish qualitative determinacy results that show that for every state either player 1 has a strategy to ensure almost-sure (resp. positive) winning against all player-2 strategies, or player 2 has a spoiling strategy to falsify almost-sure (resp. positive) winning against all player-1 strategies; (2) we present optimal strategy complexity results that precisely characterize the classes of strategies required for almost-sure and positive winning for both players; and (3) we present quadratic time algorithms to compute the almost-sure and the positive winning sets, matching the best known bound of the algorithms for much simpler problems (such as reachability objectives). For quantitative constraints we show that a polynomial time solution for the almost-sure or the positive winning set would imply a solution to a long-standing open problem (of solving the value problem of turn-based deterministic mean-payoff games) that is not known to be solvable in polynomial time.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Ibsen-Jensen, Rasmus}, journal = {Information and Computation}, number = {6}, pages = {2 -- 24}, publisher = {Elsevier}, title = {{Qualitative analysis of concurrent mean payoff games}}, doi = {10.1016/j.ic.2015.03.009}, volume = {242}, year = {2015}, } @inproceedings{1481, abstract = {Simple board games, like Tic-Tac-Toe and CONNECT-4, play an important role not only in the development of mathematical and logical skills, but also in the emotional and social development. In this paper, we address the problem of generating targeted starting positions for such games. This can facilitate new approaches for bringing novice players to mastery, and also leads to discovery of interesting game variants. We present an approach that generates starting states of varying hardness levels for player 1 in a two-player board game, given rules of the board game, the desired number of steps required for player 1 to win, and the expertise levels of the two players. Our approach leverages symbolic methods and iterative simulation to efficiently search the extremely large state space. We present experimental results that include discovery of states of varying hardness levels for several simple grid-based board games. The presence of such states for standard game variants like 4×4 Tic-Tac-Toe opens up new games to be played that have never been played as the default start state is heavily biased. }, author = {Ahmed, Umair and Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Gulwani, Sumit}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence}, location = {Austin, TX, USA}, pages = {745 -- 752}, publisher = {AAAI Press}, title = {{Automatic generation of alternative starting positions for simple traditional board games}}, volume = {2}, year = {2015}, } @inproceedings{1732, abstract = {We consider partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs), that are a standard framework for robotics applications to model uncertainties present in the real world, with temporal logic specifications. All temporal logic specifications in linear-time temporal logic (LTL) can be expressed as parity objectives. We study the qualitative analysis problem for POMDPs with parity objectives that asks whether there is a controller (policy) to ensure that the objective holds with probability 1 (almost-surely). While the qualitative analysis of POMDPs with parity objectives is undecidable, recent results show that when restricted to finite-memory policies the problem is EXPTIME-complete. While the problem is intractable in theory, we present a practical approach to solve the qualitative analysis problem. We designed several heuristics to deal with the exponential complexity, and have used our implementation on a number of well-known POMDP examples for robotics applications. Our results provide the first practical approach to solve the qualitative analysis of robot motion planning with LTL properties in the presence of uncertainty.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Chmelik, Martin and Gupta, Raghav and Kanodia, Ayush}, location = {Seattle, WA, United States}, pages = {325 -- 330}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{Qualitative analysis of POMDPs with temporal logic specifications for robotics applications}}, doi = {10.1109/ICRA.2015.7139019}, year = {2015}, } @misc{5431, abstract = {We consider finite-state concurrent stochastic games, played by k>=2 players for an infinite number of rounds, where in every round, each player simultaneously and independently of the other players chooses an action, whereafter the successor state is determined by a probability distribution given by the current state and the chosen actions. We consider reachability objectives that given a target set of states require that some state in the target set is visited, and the dual safety objectives that given a target set require that only states in the target set are visited. We are interested in the complexity of stationary strategies measured by their patience, which is defined as the inverse of the smallest non-zero probability employed. Our main results are as follows: We show that in two-player zero-sum concurrent stochastic games (with reachability objective for one player and the complementary safety objective for the other player): (i) the optimal bound on the patience of optimal and epsilon-optimal strategies, for both players is doubly exponential; and (ii) even in games with a single non-absorbing state exponential (in the number of actions) patience is necessary. In general we study the class of non-zero-sum games admitting epsilon-Nash equilibria. We show that if there is at least one player with reachability objective, then doubly-exponential patience is needed in general for epsilon-Nash equilibrium strategies, whereas in contrast if all players have safety objectives, then the optimal bound on patience for epsilon-Nash equilibrium strategies is only exponential.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Ibsen-Jensen, Rasmus and Hansen, Kristoffer}, issn = {2664-1690}, pages = {25}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{The patience of concurrent stochastic games with safety and reachability objectives}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:IST-2015-322-v1-1}, year = {2015}, } @misc{5434, abstract = {DEC-POMDPs extend POMDPs to a multi-agent setting, where several agents operate in an uncertain environment independently to achieve a joint objective. DEC-POMDPs have been studied with finite-horizon and infinite-horizon discounted-sum objectives, and there exist solvers both for exact and approximate solutions. In this work we consider Goal-DEC-POMDPs, where given a set of target states, the objective is to ensure that the target set is reached with minimal cost. We consider the indefinite-horizon (infinite-horizon with either discounted-sum, or undiscounted-sum, where absorbing goal states have zero-cost) problem. We present a new method to solve the problem that extends methods for finite-horizon DEC- POMDPs and the RTDP-Bel approach for POMDPs. We present experimental results on several examples, and show our approach presents promising results.}, author = {Anonymous, 1 and Anonymous, 2}, issn = {2664-1690}, pages = {16}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{Optimal cost indefinite-horizon reachability in goal DEC-POMDPs}}, year = {2015}, } @inproceedings{1657, abstract = {We consider Markov decision processes (MDPs) with multiple limit-average (or mean-payoff) objectives. There exist two different views: (i) ~the expectation semantics, where the goal is to optimize the expected mean-payoff objective, and (ii) ~the satisfaction semantics, where the goal is to maximize the probability of runs such that the mean-payoff value stays above a given vector. We consider optimization with respect to both objectives at once, thus unifying the existing semantics. Precisely, the goal is to optimize the expectation while ensuring the satisfaction constraint. Our problem captures the notion of optimization with respect to strategies that are risk-averse (i.e., Ensure certain probabilistic guarantee). Our main results are as follows: First, we present algorithms for the decision problems, which are always polynomial in the size of the MDP. We also show that an approximation of the Pareto curve can be computed in time polynomial in the size of the MDP, and the approximation factor, but exponential in the number of dimensions. Second, we present a complete characterization of the strategy complexity (in terms of memory bounds and randomization) required to solve our problem. }, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Komárková, Zuzana and Kretinsky, Jan}, location = {Kyoto, Japan}, pages = {244 -- 256}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{Unifying two views on multiple mean-payoff objectives in Markov decision processes}}, doi = {10.1109/LICS.2015.32}, year = {2015}, } @inproceedings{1656, abstract = {Recently there has been a significant effort to handle quantitative properties in formal verification and synthesis. While weighted automata over finite and infinite words provide a natural and flexible framework to express quantitative properties, perhaps surprisingly, some basic system properties such as average response time cannot be expressed using weighted automata, nor in any other know decidable formalism. In this work, we introduce nested weighted automata as a natural extension of weighted automata which makes it possible to express important quantitative properties such as average response time. In nested weighted automata, a master automaton spins off and collects results from weighted slave automata, each of which computes a quantity along a finite portion of an infinite word. Nested weighted automata can be viewed as the quantitative analogue of monitor automata, which are used in run-time verification. We establish an almost complete decidability picture for the basic decision problems about nested weighted automata, and illustrate their applicability in several domains. In particular, nested weighted automata can be used to decide average response time properties.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Henzinger, Thomas A and Otop, Jan}, booktitle = {Proceedings - Symposium on Logic in Computer Science}, location = {Kyoto, Japan}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{Nested weighted automata}}, doi = {10.1109/LICS.2015.72}, volume = {2015-July}, year = {2015}, } @misc{5429, abstract = {We consider Markov decision processes (MDPs) with multiple limit-average (or mean-payoff) objectives. There have been two different views: (i) the expectation semantics, where the goal is to optimize the expected mean-payoff objective, and (ii) the satisfaction semantics, where the goal is to maximize the probability of runs such that the mean-payoff value stays above a given vector. We consider the problem where the goal is to optimize the expectation under the constraint that the satisfaction semantics is ensured, and thus consider a generalization that unifies the existing semantics. Our problem captures the notion of optimization with respect to strategies that are risk-averse (i.e., ensures certain probabilistic guarantee). Our main results are algorithms for the decision problem which are always polynomial in the size of the MDP. We also show that an approximation of the Pareto-curve can be computed in time polynomial in the size of the MDP, and the approximation factor, but exponential in the number of dimensions. Finally, we present a complete characterization of the strategy complexity (in terms of memory bounds and randomization) required to solve our problem.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Komarkova, Zuzana and Kretinsky, Jan}, issn = {2664-1690}, pages = {41}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{Unifying two views on multiple mean-payoff objectives in Markov decision processes}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:IST-2015-318-v1-1}, year = {2015}, } @misc{5435, abstract = {We consider Markov decision processes (MDPs) with multiple limit-average (or mean-payoff) objectives. There have been two different views: (i) the expectation semantics, where the goal is to optimize the expected mean-payoff objective, and (ii) the satisfaction semantics, where the goal is to maximize the probability of runs such that the mean-payoff value stays above a given vector. We consider the problem where the goal is to optimize the expectation under the constraint that the satisfaction semantics is ensured, and thus consider a generalization that unifies the existing semantics. Our problem captures the notion of optimization with respect to strategies that are risk-averse (i.e., ensures certain probabilistic guarantee). Our main results are algorithms for the decision problem which are always polynomial in the size of the MDP. We also show that an approximation of the Pareto-curve can be computed in time polynomial in the size of the MDP, and the approximation factor, but exponential in the number of dimensions. Finally, we present a complete characterization of the strategy complexity (in terms of memory bounds and randomization) required to solve our problem.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Komarkova, Zuzana and Kretinsky, Jan}, issn = {2664-1690}, pages = {51}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{Unifying two views on multiple mean-payoff objectives in Markov decision processes}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:IST-2015-318-v2-1}, year = {2015}, } @misc{5436, abstract = {Recently there has been a significant effort to handle quantitative properties in formal verification and synthesis. While weighted automata over finite and infinite words provide a natural and flexible framework to express quantitative properties, perhaps surprisingly, some basic system properties such as average response time cannot be expressed using weighted automata, nor in any other know decidable formalism. In this work, we introduce nested weighted automata as a natural extension of weighted automata which makes it possible to express important quantitative properties such as average response time. In nested weighted automata, a master automaton spins off and collects results from weighted slave automata, each of which computes a quantity along a finite portion of an infinite word. Nested weighted automata can be viewed as the quantitative analogue of monitor automata, which are used in run-time verification. We establish an almost complete decidability picture for the basic decision problems about nested weighted automata, and illustrate their applicability in several domains. In particular, nested weighted automata can be used to decide average response time properties.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Henzinger, Thomas A and Otop, Jan}, issn = {2664-1690}, pages = {29}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{Nested weighted automata}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:IST-2015-170-v2-2}, year = {2015}, } @inproceedings{1659, abstract = {The target discounted-sum problem is the following: Given a rational discount factor 0 < λ < 1 and three rational values a, b, and t, does there exist a finite or an infinite sequence w ε(a, b)∗ or w ε(a, b)w, such that Σ|w| i=0 w(i)λi equals t? The problem turns out to relate to many fields of mathematics and computer science, and its decidability question is surprisingly hard to solve. We solve the finite version of the problem, and show the hardness of the infinite version, linking it to various areas and open problems in mathematics and computer science: β-expansions, discounted-sum automata, piecewise affine maps, and generalizations of the Cantor set. We provide some partial results to the infinite version, among which are solutions to its restriction to eventually-periodic sequences and to the cases that λ λ 1/2 or λ = 1/n, for every n ε N. We use our results for solving some open problems on discounted-sum automata, among which are the exact-value problem for nondeterministic automata over finite words and the universality and inclusion problems for functional automata.}, author = {Boker, Udi and Henzinger, Thomas A and Otop, Jan}, booktitle = {LICS}, issn = {1043-6871 }, location = {Kyoto, Japan}, pages = {750 -- 761}, publisher = {IEEE}, title = {{The target discounted-sum problem}}, doi = {10.1109/LICS.2015.74}, year = {2015}, } @inproceedings{1610, abstract = {The edit distance between two words w1, w2 is the minimal number of word operations (letter insertions, deletions, and substitutions) necessary to transform w1 to w2. The edit distance generalizes to languages L1,L2, where the edit distance is the minimal number k such that for every word from L1 there exists a word in L2 with edit distance at most k. We study the edit distance computation problem between pushdown automata and their subclasses. The problem of computing edit distance to pushdown automata is undecidable, and in practice, the interesting question is to compute the edit distance from a pushdown automaton (the implementation, a standard model for programs with recursion) to a regular language (the specification). In this work, we present a complete picture of decidability and complexity for deciding whether, for a given threshold k, the edit distance from a pushdown automaton to a finite automaton is at most k.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Henzinger, Thomas A and Ibsen-Jensen, Rasmus and Otop, Jan}, booktitle = {42nd International Colloquium}, isbn = {978-3-662-47665-9}, location = {Kyoto, Japan}, number = {Part II}, pages = {121 -- 133}, publisher = {Springer Nature}, title = {{Edit distance for pushdown automata}}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-662-47666-6_10}, volume = {9135}, year = {2015}, } @misc{5437, abstract = {We consider the core algorithmic problems related to verification of systems with respect to three classical quantitative properties, namely, the mean-payoff property, the ratio property, and the minimum initial credit for energy property. The algorithmic problem given a graph and a quantitative property asks to compute the optimal value (the infimum value over all traces) from every node of the graph. We consider graphs with constant treewidth, and it is well-known that the control-flow graphs of most programs have constant treewidth. Let $n$ denote the number of nodes of a graph, $m$ the number of edges (for constant treewidth graphs $m=O(n)$) and $W$ the largest absolute value of the weights. Our main theoretical results are as follows. First, for constant treewidth graphs we present an algorithm that approximates the mean-payoff value within a multiplicative factor of $\epsilon$ in time $O(n \cdot \log (n/\epsilon))$ and linear space, as compared to the classical algorithms that require quadratic time. Second, for the ratio property we present an algorithm that for constant treewidth graphs works in time $O(n \cdot \log (|a\cdot b|))=O(n\cdot\log (n\cdot W))$, when the output is $\frac{a}{b}$, as compared to the previously best known algorithm with running time $O(n^2 \cdot \log (n\cdot W))$. Third, for the minimum initial credit problem we show that (i)~for general graphs the problem can be solved in $O(n^2\cdot m)$ time and the associated decision problem can be solved in $O(n\cdot m)$ time, improving the previous known $O(n^3\cdot m\cdot \log (n\cdot W))$ and $O(n^2 \cdot m)$ bounds, respectively; and (ii)~for constant treewidth graphs we present an algorithm that requires $O(n\cdot \log n)$ time, improving the previous known $O(n^4 \cdot \log (n \cdot W))$ bound. We have implemented some of our algorithms and show that they present a significant speedup on standard benchmarks. }, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Ibsen-Jensen, Rasmus and Pavlogiannis, Andreas}, issn = {2664-1690}, pages = {27}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{Faster algorithms for quantitative verification in constant treewidth graphs}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:IST-2015-330-v2-1}, year = {2015}, } @misc{5430, abstract = {We consider the core algorithmic problems related to verification of systems with respect to three classical quantitative properties, namely, the mean- payoff property, the ratio property, and the minimum initial credit for energy property. The algorithmic problem given a graph and a quantitative property asks to compute the optimal value (the infimum value over all traces) from every node of the graph. We consider graphs with constant treewidth, and it is well-known that the control-flow graphs of most programs have constant treewidth. Let n denote the number of nodes of a graph, m the number of edges (for constant treewidth graphs m = O ( n ) ) and W the largest absolute value of the weights. Our main theoretical results are as follows. First, for constant treewidth graphs we present an algorithm that approximates the mean-payoff value within a mul- tiplicative factor of ∊ in time O ( n · log( n/∊ )) and linear space, as compared to the classical algorithms that require quadratic time. Second, for the ratio property we present an algorithm that for constant treewidth graphs works in time O ( n · log( | a · b · n | )) = O ( n · log( n · W )) , when the output is a b , as compared to the previously best known algorithm with running time O ( n 2 · log( n · W )) . Third, for the minimum initial credit problem we show that (i) for general graphs the problem can be solved in O ( n 2 · m ) time and the associated decision problem can be solved in O ( n · m ) time, improving the previous known O ( n 3 · m · log( n · W )) and O ( n 2 · m ) bounds, respectively; and (ii) for constant treewidth graphs we present an algorithm that requires O ( n · log n ) time, improving the previous known O ( n 4 · log( n · W )) bound. We have implemented some of our algorithms and show that they present a significant speedup on standard benchmarks.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Ibsen-Jensen, Rasmus and Pavlogiannis, Andreas}, issn = {2664-1690}, pages = {31}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{Faster algorithms for quantitative verification in constant treewidth graphs}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:IST-2015-319-v1-1}, year = {2015}, } @misc{5439, abstract = {The target discounted-sum problem is the following: Given a rational discount factor 0 < λ < 1 and three rational values a, b, and t, does there exist a finite or an infinite sequence w ε(a, b)∗ or w ε(a, b)w, such that Σ|w| i=0 w(i)λi equals t? The problem turns out to relate to many fields of mathematics and computer science, and its decidability question is surprisingly hard to solve. We solve the finite version of the problem, and show the hardness of the infinite version, linking it to various areas and open problems in mathematics and computer science: β-expansions, discounted-sum automata, piecewise affine maps, and generalizations of the Cantor set. We provide some partial results to the infinite version, among which are solutions to its restriction to eventually-periodic sequences and to the cases that λ λ 1/2 or λ = 1/n, for every n ε N. We use our results for solving some open problems on discounted-sum automata, among which are the exact-value problem for nondeterministic automata over finite words and the universality and inclusion problems for functional automata. }, author = {Boker, Udi and Henzinger, Thomas A and Otop, Jan}, issn = {2664-1690}, pages = {20}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{The target discounted-sum problem}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:IST-2015-335-v1-1}, year = {2015}, } @misc{5438, abstract = {The edit distance between two words w1, w2 is the minimal number of word operations (letter insertions, deletions, and substitutions) necessary to transform w1 to w2. The edit distance generalizes to languages L1, L2, where the edit distance is the minimal number k such that for every word from L1 there exists a word in L2 with edit distance at most k. We study the edit distance computation problem between pushdown automata and their subclasses. The problem of computing edit distance to a pushdown automaton is undecidable, and in practice, the interesting question is to compute the edit distance from a pushdown automaton (the implementation, a standard model for programs with recursion) to a regular language (the specification). In this work, we present a complete picture of decidability and complexity for deciding whether, for a given threshold k, the edit distance from a pushdown automaton to a finite automaton is at most k. }, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Henzinger, Thomas A and Ibsen-Jensen, Rasmus and Otop, Jan}, issn = {2664-1690}, pages = {15}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{Edit distance for pushdown automata}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:IST-2015-334-v1-1}, year = {2015}, } @misc{5440, abstract = {Evolution occurs in populations of reproducing individuals. The structure of the population affects the outcome of the evolutionary process. Evolutionary graph theory is a powerful approach to study this phenomenon. There are two graphs. The interaction graph specifies who interacts with whom for payoff in the context of evolution. The replacement graph specifies who competes with whom for reproduction. The vertices of the two graphs are the same, and each vertex corresponds to an individual of the population. The fitness (or the reproductive rate) is a non-negative number, and depends on the payoff. A key quantity is the fixation probability of a new mutant. It is defined as the probability that a newly introduced mutant (on a single vertex) generates a lineage of offspring which eventually takes over the entire population of resident individuals. The basic computational questions are as follows: (i) the qualitative question asks whether the fixation probability is positive; and (ii) the quantitative approximation question asks for an approximation of the fixation probability. Our main results are as follows: First, we consider a special case of the general problem, where the residents do not reproduce. We show that the qualitative question is NP-complete, and the quantitative approximation question is #P-complete, and the hardness results hold even in the special case where the interaction and the replacement graphs coincide. Second, we show that in general both the qualitative and the quantitative approximation questions are PSPACE-complete. The PSPACE-hardness result for quantitative approximation holds even when the fitness is always positive.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Ibsen-Jensen, Rasmus and Nowak, Martin}, issn = {2664-1690}, pages = {18}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{The complexity of evolutionary games on graphs}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:IST-2015-323-v2-2}, year = {2015}, } @misc{5432, abstract = {Evolution occurs in populations of reproducing individuals. The structure of the population affects the outcome of the evolutionary process. Evolutionary graph theory is a powerful approach to study this phenomenon. There are two graphs. The interaction graph specifies who interacts with whom in the context of evolution.The replacement graph specifies who competes with whom for reproduction. The vertices of the two graphs are the same, and each vertex corresponds to an individual of the population. A key quantity is the fixation probability of a new mutant. It is defined as the probability that a newly introduced mutant (on a single vertex) generates a lineage of offspring which eventually takes over the entire population of resident individuals. The basic computational questions are as follows: (i) the qualitative question asks whether the fixation probability is positive; and (ii) the quantitative approximation question asks for an approximation of the fixation probability. Our main results are: (1) We show that the qualitative question is NP-complete and the quantitative approximation question is #P-hard in the special case when the interaction and the replacement graphs coincide and even with the restriction that the resident individuals do not reproduce (which corresponds to an invading population taking over an empty structure). (2) We show that in general the qualitative question is PSPACE-complete and the quantitative approximation question is PSPACE-hard and can be solved in exponential time. }, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Ibsen-Jensen, Rasmus and Nowak, Martin}, issn = {2664-1690}, pages = {29}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{The complexity of evolutionary games on graphs}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:IST-2015-323-v1-1}, year = {2015}, } @misc{5444, abstract = {A comprehensive understanding of the clonal evolution of cancer is critical for understanding neoplasia. Genome-wide sequencing data enables evolutionary studies at unprecedented depth. However, classical phylogenetic methods often struggle with noisy sequencing data of impure DNA samples and fail to detect subclones that have different evolutionary trajectories. We have developed a tool, called Treeomics, that allows us to reconstruct the phylogeny of a cancer with commonly available sequencing technologies. Using Bayesian inference and Integer Linear Programming, robust phylogenies consistent with the biological processes underlying cancer evolution were obtained for pancreatic, ovarian, and prostate cancers. Furthermore, Treeomics correctly identified sequencing artifacts such as those resulting from low statistical power; nearly 7% of variants were misclassified by conventional statistical methods. These artifacts can skew phylogenies by creating illusory tumor heterogeneity among distinct samples. Importantly, we show that the evolutionary trees generated with Treeomics are mathematically optimal.}, author = {Reiter, Johannes and Makohon-Moore, Alvin and Gerold, Jeffrey and Bozic, Ivana and Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Iacobuzio-Donahue, Christine and Vogelstein, Bert and Nowak, Martin}, issn = {2664-1690}, pages = {25}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{Reconstructing robust phylogenies of metastatic cancers}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:IST-2015-399-v1-1}, year = {2015}, } @misc{5443, abstract = {POMDPs are standard models for probabilistic planning problems, where an agent interacts with an uncertain environment. We study the problem of almost-sure reachability, where given a set of target states, the question is to decide whether there is a policy to ensure that the target set is reached with probability 1 (almost-surely). While in general the problem is EXPTIME-complete, in many practical cases policies with a small amount of memory suffice. Moreover, the existing solution to the problem is explicit, which first requires to construct explicitly an exponential reduction to a belief-support MDP. In this work, we first study the existence of observation-stationary strategies, which is NP-complete, and then small-memory strategies. We present a symbolic algorithm by an efficient encoding to SAT and using a SAT solver for the problem. We report experimental results demonstrating the scalability of our symbolic (SAT-based) approach.}, author = {Chatterjee, Krishnendu and Chmelik, Martin and Davies, Jessica}, issn = {2664-1690}, pages = {23}, publisher = {IST Austria}, title = {{A symbolic SAT-based algorithm for almost-sure reachability with small strategies in POMDPs}}, doi = {10.15479/AT:IST-2015-325-v2-1}, year = {2015}, }