The paper proposes a surprisingly simple characterization of a large class of models of distributed computing, via an agreement function: for each set of processes, the function determines the best level of set consensus these processes can reach. We show that the task computability of a large class of fair adversaries that includes, in particular superset-closed and symmetric one, is precisely captured by agreement functions.
Taubenfeld introduced in @cite_12 the notion of a symmetric progress conditions, which is equivalent to our symmetric adversaries.
@cite_12
2080219236 2962919088 2066313543 2116579833
We introduce a new methodology for the numerical solution of Partial Differential Equations in general spatial domains: our algorithms are based on the use of the well-known Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) approach in conjunction with a certain "Fourier continuation" (FC) method for the resolution of the Gibbs phenomenon. Unlike previous alternating direction methods of order higher than one, which can only deliver unconditional stability for rectangular domains, the present high-order algorithms possess the desirable property of unconditional stability for general domains; the computational time required by our algorithms to advance a solution by one time-step, in turn, grows in an essentially linear manner with the number of spatial discretization points used. In this paper we demonstrate the FC-AD methodology through a variety of examples concerning the Heat and Laplace Equations in two and three-dimensional domains with smooth boundaries. Applications of the FC-AD methodology to Hyperbolic PDEs together with a theoretical discussion of the method will be put forth in a subsequent contribution. The numerical examples presented in this text demonstrate the unconditional stability and high-order convergence of the proposed algorithms, as well the very significant improvements they can provide (in one of our examples we demonstrate a one thousand improvement factor) over the computing times required by some of the most efficient alternative general-domain solvers. We investigate the training and performance of generative adversarial networks using the Maximum Mean Discrepancy (MMD) as critic, termed MMD GANs. As our main theoretical contribution, we clarify the situation with bias in GAN loss functions raised by recent work: we show that gradient estimators used in the optimization process for both MMD GANs and Wasserstein GANs are unbiased, but learning a discriminator based on samples leads to biased gradients for the generator parameters. We also discuss the issue of kernel choice for the MMD critic, and characterize the kernel corresponding to the energy distance used for the Cramer GAN critic. Being an integral probability metric, the MMD benefits from training strategies recently developed for Wasserstein GANs. In experiments, the MMD GAN is able to employ a smaller critic network than the Wasserstein GAN, resulting in a simpler and faster-training algorithm with matching performance. We also propose an improved measure of GAN convergence, the Kernel Inception Distance, and show how to use it to dynamically adapt learning rates during GAN training. A new PDE solver was introduced recently, in Part I of this two-paper sequence, on the basis of two main concepts: the well-known Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) approach, on one hand, and a certain ''Fourier Continuation'' (FC) method for the resolution of the Gibbs phenomenon, on the other. Unlike previous alternating direction methods of order higher than one, which only deliver unconditional stability for rectangular domains, the new high-order FC-AD (Fourier-Continuation Alternating-Direction) algorithm yields unconditional stability for general domains-at an O(Nlog(N)) cost per time-step for an N point spatial discretization grid. In the present contribution we provide an overall theoretical discussion of the FC-AD approach and we extend the FC-AD methodology to linear hyperbolic PDEs. In particular, we study the convergence properties of the newly introduced FC(Gram) Fourier Continuation method for both approximation of general functions and solution of the alternating-direction ODEs. We also present (for parabolic PDEs on general domains, and, thus, for our associated elliptic solvers) a stability criterion which, when satisfied, ensures unconditional stability of the FC-AD algorithm. Use of this criterion in conjunction with numerical evaluation of a series of singular values (of the alternating-direction discrete one-dimensional operators) suggests clearly that the fifth-order accurate class of parabolic and elliptic FC-AD solvers we propose is indeed unconditionally stable for all smooth spatial domains and for arbitrarily fine discretizations. To illustrate the FC-AD methodology in the hyperbolic PDE context, finally, we present an example concerning the Wave Equation-demonstrating sixth-order spatial and fourth-order temporal accuracy, as well as a complete absence of the debilitating ''dispersion error'', also known as ''pollution error'', that arises as finite-difference and finite-element solvers are applied to solution of wave propagation problems. We prove that uniqueness of the stationary chain, or equivalently, of the @math -measure, compatible with an attractive regular probability kernel is equivalent to either one of the following two assertions for this chain: (1) it is a finitary coding of an i.i.d. process with countable alphabet, (2) the concentration of measure holds at exponential rate. We show in particular that if a stationary chain is uniquely defined by a kernel that is continuous and attractive, then this chain can be sampled using a coupling-from-the-past algorithm. For the original Bramson-Kalikow model we further prove that there exists a unique compatible chain if and only if the chain is a finitary coding of a finite alphabet i.i.d. process. Finally, we obtain some partial results on conditions for phase transition for general chains of infinite order.