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arXiv · 2104.09413

Linear-time uniform generation of random sparse contingency tables with specified marginals

Andrii Arman·Pu Gao·Nicholas Wormald
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Abstract

We give an algorithm that generates a uniformly random contingency table with specified marginals, i.e. a matrix with non-negative integer values and specified row and column sums. Such algorithms are useful in statistics and combinatorics. When $\Delta^4< M/5$, where $\Delta$ is the maximum of the row and column sums and $M$ is the sum of all entries of the matrix, our algorithm runs in time linear in $M$ in expectation. Most previously published algorithms for this problem are approximate samplers based on Markov chain Monte Carlo, whose provable bounds on the mixing time are typically polynomials with rather large degrees.

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Andrii Arman, Pu Gao, Nicholas Wormald. 2021-04-19. Linear-time uniform generation of random sparse contingency tables with specified marginals. https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.09413

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