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VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//University of Liverpool Computer Science Seminar System//v2//EN
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DTSTAMP:20260922T191324Z
UID:Seminar-dept-384@lxserverM.csc.liv.ac.uk
ORGANIZER:CN=Lutz Oettershagen:MAILTO:Lutz.Oettershagen@liverpool.ac.uk
DTSTART:20150625T140000
DTEND:20150625T150000
SUMMARY:School Seminar Series
DESCRIPTION:Prof Stefan Kiefer: On the total variation distance of labelled Markov chains\n\nLabelled Markov chains (LMCs) are widely used in probabilistic verification, speech recognition, computational biology, and many other fields. Checking two LMCs for equivalence is a classical problem subject to extensive studies, while the total variation distance provides a natural measure for the ``inequivalence'' of two LMCs: it is the maximum difference between probabilities that the LMCs assign to the same event. In this talk I will emphasise algorithmic aspects: (1) we provide a polynomial-time algorithm for determining whether two LMCs have distance 1, i.e., whether they can almost always be distinguished; (2) we provide an algorithm for approximating the distance with arbitrary precision; and (3) we show that the threshold problem, i.e., whether the distance exceeds a given threshold, is NP-hard and hard for the square-root-sum problem. We also make a connection between the total variation distance and Bernoulli convolutions.\n\nhttps://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/research/seminars/abstract.php?id=384
LOCATION:Ashton Lecture Theater
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