Sublinear-Query Relative-Error Testing of Halfspaces.
X. Chen and A. De and Y. Huang and S. Nadimpalli and R. Servedio and T. Yang.
In 53rd International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP), 2026, pp. 61:1-61:19.


Abstract:

The relative-error property testing model was introduced in [CDHLNSY24] to facilitate the study of property testing for "sparse" Boolean-valued functions, i.e. ones for which only a small fraction of all input assignments satisfy the function. In this framework, the distance from the unknown target function $f$ that is being tested to a function $g$ is defined as $\mathrm{Vol}(f \mathop{\triangle} g)/\mathrm{Vol}(f)$, where the numerator is the fraction of inputs on which $f$ and $g$ disagree and the denominator is the fraction of inputs that satisfy $f$.

Recent work [CDHNSY26] has shown that over the Boolean domain $\{0,1\}^n$, any relative-error testing algorithm for the fundamental class of halfspaces (i.e. linear threshold functions) must make $\Omega(\log n)$ oracle calls. In this paper we complement the [CDHNSY26] lower bound by showing that halfspaces can be relative-error tested over $\mathbb{R}^n$ under the standard $N(0,I_n)$ Gaussian distribution using a sublinear number of oracle calls -- in particular, substantially fewer than would be required for learning. Our results use a wide range of tools including Hermite analysis, Gaussian isoperimetric inequalities, and geometric results on noise sensitivity and surface area.

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