TCSLib

20 Boolean Analysis — Bernoulli Cost

20.1 Overview

This module compares the fixed-size restriction model \(R_k\) (uniform over restrictions with exactly \(k\) free variables) with the Bernoulli restriction model \(R_p\), and shows that switching from \(R_k\) to \(R_p\) costs nothing asymptotically: if the bad event has probability at most \((5kw/n)^s\) under every \(R_k\), then under \(R_p\) it has probability at most \((10pw)^s\) plus an exponentially small tail \(e^{-np/3}\) that vanishes as \(n \to \infty \).

20.2 Declarations

Definition 20.1 Restrictions with a fixed number of free variables

For natural numbers \(n\) and \(k\), this is the finite set of restrictions on \(n\) variables whose set of free variables has cardinality exactly \(k\).

Definition 20.2 Fixed-size restriction probability \(R_k\)

The probability of an event under the fixed-size restriction model \(R_k\), which is uniform over restrictions with exactly \(k\) free variables. It is defined as the fraction of restrictions with exactly \(k\) free variables that satisfy the event.

Definition 20.3 Binomial probability mass function
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The binomial probability mass function, \(\Pr [\mathrm{Bin}(n,p) = k] = \binom {n}{k}\, p^k\, (1-p)^{n-k}\).

Lemma 20.4 Fixed-size restriction probability is nonnegative

For any event, the fixed-size restriction probability satisfies \(0 \le \mathrm{fixedSizeRestrProb}\, (\mathrm{event})\, k\).

Lemma 20.5 Fixed-size restriction probability is at most one

For any event, the fixed-size restriction probability satisfies \(\mathrm{fixedSizeRestrProb}\, (\mathrm{event})\, k \le 1\).

Lemma 20.6 Binomial PMF is nonnegative
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If \(0 \le p \le 1\), then \(0 \le \mathrm{binomialPMF}\, n\, p\, k\) for every \(k\).

Lemma 20.7 Binomial PMF sums to one
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If \(0 \le p \le 1\), then the binomial PMF sums to \(1\) over \(k\) ranging in \(\{ 0, \dots , n\} \), i.e. \(\sum _{k=0}^{n} \mathrm{binomialPMF}\, n\, p\, k = 1\). This is the binomial theorem applied to \((p + (1-p))^n = 1\).

Lemma 20.8 Decomposition of Bernoulli probability by free-variable count

For \(0 \le p \le 1\) and any event, the Bernoulli\((p)\) restriction probability decomposes according to the number of free variables:

\[ \Pr _{R_p}[\mathrm{event}] = \sum _{k=0}^{n} \mathrm{binomialPMF}\, n\, p\, k \cdot \mathrm{fixedSizeRestrProb}\, (\mathrm{event})\, k, \]

because conditioning \(R_p\) on having exactly \(k\) free variables yields exactly the model \(R_k\).

Lemma 20.9 Chernoff upper-tail bound for the binomial distribution

For \(0 \lt p \le 1\), the upper tail of the binomial distribution beyond \(2np\) is exponentially small: summing \(\mathrm{binomialPMF}\, n\, p\, k\) over those \(k \in \{ 0, \dots , n\} \) with \(k \gt 2np\) is at most \(e^{-np/3}\).

Theorem 20.10 Bernoulli restriction cost, exact version

Let \(n \gt 0\), \(0 \lt p \le 1\), and \(w, s \gt 0\). If the event satisfies \(\mathrm{fixedSizeRestrProb}\, (\mathrm{event})\, k \le (5kw/n)^s\) for every \(k \le n\), then under the Bernoulli model,

\[ \Pr _{R_p}[\mathrm{event}] \le (10pw)^s + e^{-np/3}. \]
Lemma 20.11 Eventual smallness of the exponential tail
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For any \(p \gt 0\) and any \(\varepsilon \gt 0\), there exists \(N\) such that for all \(m \ge N\) one has \(e^{-mp/3} \lt \varepsilon \); that is, the tail term decays to \(0\).

Theorem 20.12 Bernoulli restriction cost, asymptotic version

Let \(0 \lt p \le 1\), \(w, s \gt 0\), and \(\varepsilon \gt 0\). Then there exists \(N\) such that for every \(n \ge N\) with \(n \gt 0\) and every event satisfying \(\mathrm{fixedSizeRestrProb}\, (\mathrm{event})\, k \le (5kw/n)^s\) for all \(k \le n\), one has \(\Pr _{R_p}[\mathrm{event}] \le (10pw)^s + \varepsilon \). Asymptotically the exponential tail vanishes, leaving only the leading bound \((10pw)^s\).