# Name for class of algorithms preserving accuracy/confidence

I am considering the following class of algorithms:

The algorithm has access to some probabilistic oracle (procedure) $f$ in addition to input.

The answer of procedure $f$ (we may assume it is boolean) may be incorrect with probability at most $p<1/3$. The error of different calls to $f$ are independent (thus we may increase the confidence of the result by repeatedly calling $f$ with the same argument and taking majority).

The algorithm can call multiple times $f$ with any values.

We request that whatever the bound on error probability $p$ (unknown to the algorithm), the algorithm itselft must return its correct answer with error probability at most $p$.

The question is: Is there any standard name for that class of 'confidence-preserving' algorithms?

For the sake of illustration, if we want to find the maximum of $3$ items and only have access to the items through some probabilistic oracle $f$ for comparing any pair of items, we can compare each pair $3$ times and take majority vote. The probability that each pair is ordered incorrectly is at most $3p^2$, hence the probability that we do not deduce the maximum correctly is at most $9p^2$. This is less than $p$ so the algorithm belongs to our class.

• These are called Monte-Carlo algorithms. You can find out more here or on Wikipedia. – Raphael Jul 31 '14 at 14:23
• I do not agree. The Monte-Carlo classification and BPP class seem unrelated to my question. Here my question is about how the algorithm propagates the error of a probabilistic oracle. – Joseph Stack Jul 31 '14 at 16:48
• Well, the oracle is a Monte Carlo algorithm (kind of, 1/3 may be troublesome). About your algorithm we can not say anything since you don't give it. "Exploit repeatedly" is too vague. If you are only interested in the name for the property of answering correctly with a certain probability, we are back at BPP/Monte-Carlo. – Raphael Jul 31 '14 at 17:04
• I am interested in the name of the property "the algorithm answers correctly with 90% probability as long as each oracle call is correct with 90% probability, and with 99% probability if each oracle call is correct with 99% probability". I think this is unrelated to BPP/Monte Carlo as it is a property of how the oracle is exploited – Joseph Stack Jul 31 '14 at 18:05
• I don't know whether this kind of algorithm has a name. Why do you want to know the name? How will you use that information? It's possible that you might fare better on this site by posing a technical question, rather than a terminology question. – D.W. Jul 31 '14 at 20:58

• @Raphael, good points. Since you asked: A non-trivial example would be the Goldreich-Levin Theorem. Naive algorithms like Gaussian elimination don't work at all if the oracle is even slightly noisy (wrong with even modest probability); it takes some non-trivial ideas to deal with an oracle that is wrong with probability $1/4$, and even more to deal with an oracle that is wrong with probability $1/2-\epsilon$. So I think the naive algorithms like Gaussian elimination count as examples of algorithms that aren't obviously bad, and that don't have the described property. – D.W. Aug 4 '14 at 6:43
• @Raphael Remember that 1) I am describing a class/property of algorithms, I am not asking which problems admit such algorithms, and 2) the algorithm must satisfy the property for all (small enough) $p$ even though $p$ is not known. There is a logarithmic cost to increase confidence. It is for instance not trivial to evaluate in linear time a boolean formula to guarantee the confidence-preserving property when variables are evaluated with a probabilistic oracle. – Joseph Stack Aug 4 '14 at 9:17