HDP-book Exercise 2.2.8

HDP-book Exercise 2.2.8

高维概率 练习 2.2.8 讨论

题目

Exercise 2.2.8 (Boosting randomized algorithms). Imagine we have an algorithm for solving some decision problem (e.g. is a given number $p$ a prime?). Suppose the algorithm makes a decision at random and returns the correct answer with probability $\frac{1}{2}+\delta$ with some $\delta >0$, which is just a bit better than a random guess. To improve the performance, we run the algorithm $N$ times and take the majority vote. Show that, for any $ϵ\in (0,1)$, the answer is correct with probability at least $1-ϵ$, as long as

$$N\ge \frac{1}{2{\delta }^2}\ln \left(\frac{1}{ϵ}\right)$$

Hint: Apply Hoeffding’s inequality for $X_i$ being the indicators of the wrong answers.

简单翻译一下就是：随机猜，每一次猜对的概率为 $\frac{1}{2}+\delta$。 需要猜多少次才能确保猜对的概率至少是 $1-ϵ$？ 提示是考虑猜错的情况。

预备知识

Theorem 2.2.6 (Hoeffding’s inequality for general bounded random variables). Let $X_1,\cdots ,X_N$ be independent random variables. Assume that