Concentration of Measure for the Analysis of Randomized Algorithms

Author(s): Devdatt P. Dubhashi, Alessandro Panconesi
Format: Hardback
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
ISBN-13: 9780521884273, 978-0521884273

Synopsis

Randomized algorithms have become a central part of the algorithms curriculum, based on their increasingly widespread use in modern applications. This book presents a coherent and unified treatment of probabilistic techniques for obtaining high probability estimates on the performance of randomized algorithms. It covers the basic toolkit from the ChernoffHoeffding bounds to more sophisticated techniques like martingales and isoperimetric inequalities, as well as some recent developments like Talagrand's inequality, transportation cost inequalities and log-Sobolev inequalities. Along the way, variations on the basic theme are examined, such as ChernoffHoeffding bounds in dependent settings. The authors emphasise comparative study of the different methods, highlighting respective strengths and weaknesses in concrete example applications. The exposition is tailored to discrete settings sufficient for the analysis of algorithms, avoiding unnecessary measure-theoretic details, thus making the book accessible to computer scientists as well as probabilists and discrete mathematicians.