cs.DSApr 16, 2026

Tight Bounds for Learning Polyhedra with a Margin

Authors: Shyamal PatelSantosh Vempala

Organizations: Columbia University · Georgia Tech

Abstract

We give an algorithm for PAC learning intersections of kk halfspaces with a ρρ margin to within error ε\varepsilon that runs in time poly(k,ε1,ρ1)exp(O(nlog(1/ρ)logk))\textsf{poly}(k, \varepsilon^{-1}, ρ^{-1}) \cdot \exp \left(O(\sqrt{n \log(1/ρ) \log k})\right). Notably, this improves on prior work which had an exponential dependence on either kk or ρ1ρ^{-1} and matches known cryptographic and Statistical Query lower bounds up to the logarithmic factors in kk and ρρ in the exponent. Our learning algorithm extends to the more general setting when we are only promised that most points have distance at least ρρ from the boundary of the polyhedron, making it applicable to continuous distributions as well.

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