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Paper:

TR26-159 | 21st August 2026 21:24

Sorting from Counterexamples

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TR26-159
Authors: Noga Alon, Shay Moran, Shlomo Moran
Publication: 30th August 2026 08:18
Downloads: 4
Keywords: 


Abstract:

Consider the following problem of learning an unknown linear order on $n$ items. In each round, the learner guesses a complete ordering of the items and receives either confirmation that the guess is correct or a counterexample:
a pair of items in the wrong order. The goal is to identify the unknown order using as few queries as possible. We study this problem when up to $k$ of the returned counterexamples may be untruthful, where $k$ is not known in advance. We determine the optimal query complexity up to constant factors:
\[
\Theta(n\log n + nk).
\]
Thus, while the noiseless complexity matches the classical complexity of sorting, each untruthful counterexample incurs an additional cost of order $n$. The upper bound is based on a geometric representation of permutations and Gr\"unbaum's theorem, while the lower bound combines sorting arguments with a Condorcet-type construction. We also study the case where the target ranking has a low-dimensional geometric representation: each item is represented by a point in $\mathbb{R}^d$, and the ranking is obtained by projecting the points onto an unknown direction. For these classes we give an upper bound of $O(d^2\log n+dk)$ and a lower bound of $\Omega(d\log n+dk)$, leaving a factor of $d$ gap in the noiseless term.



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