On Computing Total Variation Distance Between Mixtures of Product Distributions
Fuente:
arXiv
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
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| Formato: | Preprint |
| Publicado: |
2026
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| Acceso en línea: | |
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| _version_ | 1866911649008451584 |
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| author | Feng, Weiming Fu, Yucheng Yang, Minji Zhang, Anqi |
| author_facet | Feng, Weiming Fu, Yucheng Yang, Minji Zhang, Anqi |
| contents | We study the problem of approximating the total variation distance between two mixtures of product distributions over an $n$-dimensional discrete domain. Given two mixtures $\mathbb{P}$ and $\mathbb{Q}$ with $k_1$ and $k_2$ product distributions over $[q]^n$, respectively, we give a randomized algorithm that approximates $d_{\mathrm{TV}}\left({\mathbb{P}},{\mathbb{Q}}\right)$ within a multiplicative error of $(1\pm \varepsilon)$ in time $\mathrm{poly}((nq)^{k_1+k_2},1/\varepsilon)$. We also study the special case of mixtures of Boolean subcubes over $\{0,1\}^n$. For this class, we give a deterministic algorithm that exactly computes the total variation distance in time $\mathrm{poly}(n,2^{O(k_1+k_2)})$, and show that exact computation is $\#\mathsf{P}$-hard when $k_1+k_2=Θ(n)$. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_03839 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | On Computing Total Variation Distance Between Mixtures of Product Distributions Feng, Weiming Fu, Yucheng Yang, Minji Zhang, Anqi Data Structures and Algorithms Machine Learning Probability We study the problem of approximating the total variation distance between two mixtures of product distributions over an $n$-dimensional discrete domain. Given two mixtures $\mathbb{P}$ and $\mathbb{Q}$ with $k_1$ and $k_2$ product distributions over $[q]^n$, respectively, we give a randomized algorithm that approximates $d_{\mathrm{TV}}\left({\mathbb{P}},{\mathbb{Q}}\right)$ within a multiplicative error of $(1\pm \varepsilon)$ in time $\mathrm{poly}((nq)^{k_1+k_2},1/\varepsilon)$. We also study the special case of mixtures of Boolean subcubes over $\{0,1\}^n$. For this class, we give a deterministic algorithm that exactly computes the total variation distance in time $\mathrm{poly}(n,2^{O(k_1+k_2)})$, and show that exact computation is $\#\mathsf{P}$-hard when $k_1+k_2=Θ(n)$. |
| title | On Computing Total Variation Distance Between Mixtures of Product Distributions |
| topic | Data Structures and Algorithms Machine Learning Probability |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.03839 |