Combinatorial Pen Testing (or Consumer Surplus of Deferred-Acceptance Auctions)

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Ganesh, Aadityan, Hartline, Jason
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Ganesh, Aadityan
Hartline, Jason
author_facet Ganesh, Aadityan
Hartline, Jason
contents Pen testing is the problem of selecting high-capacity resources when the only way to measure the capacity of a resource expends its capacity. We have a set of $n$ pens with unknown amounts of ink and our goal is to select a feasible subset of pens maximizing the total ink in them. We are allowed to learn about the ink levels by writing with them, but this uses up ink that was previously in the pens. We identify optimal and near optimal pen testing algorithms by drawing analogues to auction theoretic frameworks of deferred-acceptance auctions and virtual values. Our framework allows the conversion of any near optimal deferred-acceptance mechanism into a near optimal pen testing algorithm. Moreover, these algorithms guarantee an additional overhead of at most $(1+o(1)) \ln n$ in the approximation factor to the omniscient algorithm that has access to the ink levels in the pens. We use this framework to give pen testing algorithms for various combinatorial constraints like matroid, knapsack, and general downward-closed constraints, and also for online environments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2301_12462
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Combinatorial Pen Testing (or Consumer Surplus of Deferred-Acceptance Auctions)
Ganesh, Aadityan
Hartline, Jason
Computer Science and Game Theory
Data Structures and Algorithms
Theoretical Economics
Pen testing is the problem of selecting high-capacity resources when the only way to measure the capacity of a resource expends its capacity. We have a set of $n$ pens with unknown amounts of ink and our goal is to select a feasible subset of pens maximizing the total ink in them. We are allowed to learn about the ink levels by writing with them, but this uses up ink that was previously in the pens. We identify optimal and near optimal pen testing algorithms by drawing analogues to auction theoretic frameworks of deferred-acceptance auctions and virtual values. Our framework allows the conversion of any near optimal deferred-acceptance mechanism into a near optimal pen testing algorithm. Moreover, these algorithms guarantee an additional overhead of at most $(1+o(1)) \ln n$ in the approximation factor to the omniscient algorithm that has access to the ink levels in the pens. We use this framework to give pen testing algorithms for various combinatorial constraints like matroid, knapsack, and general downward-closed constraints, and also for online environments.
title Combinatorial Pen Testing (or Consumer Surplus of Deferred-Acceptance Auctions)
topic Computer Science and Game Theory
Data Structures and Algorithms
Theoretical Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.12462