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Reward Generalization in RLHF: A Topological Perspective

Tianyi Qiu, Fanzhi Zeng, Jiaming Ji, Dong Yan, Kaile Wang, Jiayi Zhou, Han Yang, Josef Dai, Xuehai Pan, Yaodong Yang

Year: 2024Venue: arXiv preprintArea: Alignment TrainingType: TheoreticalEmbeddings: 422

Intelligence

Status: succeeded | Model: google/gemini-3.1-flash-lite-preview | Prompt: intel-v1 | Confidence: 95%

Last extracted: 3/12/2026, 6:38:31 PM

Summary

The paper introduces a topological perspective on reward generalization in Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF). It characterizes RLHF information flow as an autoencoding process at the macro level and uses induced Bayesian networks (IBN) at the micro level to analyze dataset topologies. The authors propose a reward modeling method using tree-structured preference information, which reduces reward uncertainty and improves generalization performance on NLP tasks.

Entities (5)

RLHF · methodology · 100%Reward Model · component · 98%Induced Bayesian Networks · theoretical-framework · 95%Tree-structured preference information · technique · 95%Autoencoding framework · theoretical-framework · 92%

Relation Signals (3)

RLHF → utilizes → Reward Model

confidence 100% · RLHF optimizes the LLM against a reward model (RM) serving as a proxy of human evaluation.

Tree-structured preference information → improves → Reward Generalization

confidence 95% · it achieves an average win rate of 65% against baselines, thus improving reward generalization for free via topology design

Induced Bayesian Networks → models → Reward Generalization

confidence 95% · At the micro level, we present induced Bayesian networks to model the impact of dataset topologies on reward generalization.

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Abstract

Abstract:Existing alignment methods share a common topology of information flow, where reward information is collected from humans, modeled with preference learning, and used to tune language models. However, this shared topology has not been systematically characterized, nor have its alternatives been thoroughly explored, leaving the problems of low data efficiency and unreliable generalization unaddressed. As a solution, we introduce a theory of reward generalization in reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), focusing on the topology of information flow at both macro and micro levels. At the macro level, we portray the RLHF information flow as an autoencoding process over behavior distributions, formalizing the RLHF objective of distributional consistency between human preference and model behavior. At the micro level, we present induced Bayesian networks to model the impact of dataset topologies on reward generalization. Combining analysis on both levels, we propose reward modeling from tree-structured preference information. It is shown to reduce reward uncertainty by up to $\Theta(\log n/\log\log n)$ times compared to baselines, where $n$ is the dataset size. Validation on three NLP tasks shows that it achieves an average win rate of 65% against baselines, thus improving reward generalization for free via topology design, while reducing the amount of data requiring annotation.

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Reward Generalization in RLHF: A Topological Perspective Tianyi Qiu1 Fanzhi Zeng∗12 Jiaming Ji∗1 Dong Yan∗3 Kaile Wang1 Jiayi Zhou1 Yang Han1 Josef Dai1 Xuehai Pan1 Yaodong Yang1 1Center for AI Safety and Governance, Institute for AI, Peking University 2Tsinghua University 3Baichuan Inc Project leadEqual technical contributionCorrespondence to: Yaodong Yang <yaodong.yang@pku.edu.cn>, Tianyi Qiu <qiutianyi.qty@gmail.com>. Abstract Existing alignment methods share a common topology of information flow, where reward information is collected from humans, modeled with preference learning, and used to tune language models. However, this shared topology has not been systematically characterized, nor have its alternatives been thoroughly explored, leaving the problems of low data efficiency and unreliable generalization unaddressed. As a solution, we introduce a theory of reward generalization in reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), focusing on the topology of information flow at both macro and micro levels. At the macro level, we portray the RLHF information flow as an autoencoding process over behavior distributions, formalizing the RLHF objective of distributional consistency between human preference and model behavior. At the micro level, we present induced Bayesian networks to model the impact of dataset topologies on reward generalization. Combining analysis on both levels, we propose reward modeling from tree-structured preference information. It is shown to reduce reward uncertainty by up to Θ⁢(log⁡n/log⁡log⁡n)Θ ( n/ n)Θ ( log n / log log n ) times compared to baselines, where n is the dataset size. Validation on three NLP tasks shows that it achieves an average win rate of 65656565% against baselines, thus improving reward generalization for free via topology design, while reducing the amount of data requiring annotation. Reward Generalization in RLHF: A Topological Perspective Tianyi Qiu†thanks: Project lead†thanks: Equal technical contribution1 Fanzhi Zeng∗12 Jiaming Ji∗1 Dong Yan∗3 Kaile Wang1 Jiayi Zhou1 Yang Han1 Josef Dai1 Xuehai Pan1 Yaodong Yang†thanks: Correspondence to: Yaodong Yang <yaodong.yang@pku.edu.cn>, Tianyi Qiu <qiutianyi.qty@gmail.com>.1 1Center for AI Safety and Governance, Institute for AI, Peking University 2Tsinghua University 3Baichuan Inc. 1 Introduction Large language models (LLMs) pretrained on massive datasets display remarkably general capabilities (OpenAI, 2023), but due to the mismatch between dataset content and the preference of human users, those capabilities cannot be safely elicited without the alignment process (Ji et al., 2023b). Alignment methods, especially reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), are developed to correct harmful behaviors learned in pretraining (Ouyang et al., 2022; Ji et al., 2023a). RLHF optimizes the LLM against a reward model (RM) serving as a proxy of human evaluation. Prior to that, at the reward modeling stage of RLHF, the RM is trained on the preference dataset containing responses preferred and dispreferred by human evaluators (Christiano et al., 2017). RLHF is criticized for its lack of scalability to super-human models (Burns et al., 2023), but even for current models, RLHF still faces a trilemma: the incompatibility between high task diversity, low labeling cost, and alignment performance generalizable across diverse scenarios (Casper et al., 2023). In its essence, the trilemma is caused by insufficient reward generalization, i.e., the insufficient generalization performance of the RM. This insufficiency holds back the Pareto front between the amount of labeled preference data and generalizability of rewards across diverse scenarios, and is detrimental to alignment performance (Krueger, 2023). Alternatives to RLHF have been proposed (Rafailov et al., 2023; Song et al., 2024), but most of them continue to rely on preference data from humans or AI-based human proxies, employing pipelines similar to the RLHF process. Consequently, most of them still face the RLHF trilemma. The commonality shared across RLHF variants is their information topology, which we define as the layout of the information flow in the algorithmic process. Specifically, the RLHF information topology involves the condensation of preference information into an RM, and the subsequent reconstruction of a language model trained on signals from the RM (Bai et al., 2022a). Such topology is a key determinant in the generalization performance of alignment algorithms, but has not received systematic characterization. In the present study, we perform such characterization at both macro and micro levels, while also proposing alternative topologies with superior reward generalization performance. Concretely, our contributions include: • Macro-level characterization. We formalize the macro-level information topology of RLHF as an autoencoding process, and prove a criterion of convergence. Our autoencoding framework provides a unified basis for the theoretical analysis of RLHF, highlighting the objective of consistency between LLM behavior and human preference from a topological perspective. • Micro-level characterization. We introduce the theory of induced Bayesian networks (IBN) for reward generalization analysis at the micro level. For the first time, it introduces fine-grained information topologies (e.g., those in the preference data) into generalization bounds. • Algorithmic application. We propose a novel reward modeling method with tree-structured preference data, based on our theoretical results. We formally derive and experimentally demonstrate its superiority. On three NLP tasks, it achieves 65656565% win rate on average against baselines. It shows that a well-designed information topology improves performance for free, with easy changes leaving the pipeline untouched, while reducing the volume of data requiring human annotation (Table 4). 2 Related Work Reward Modeling in Alignment Training Learning human preferences is a key component of the alignment process. Many alignment methods, including RLHF (Christiano et al., 2017; Ouyang et al., 2022; Bai et al., 2022a), achieve this through reward modeling, the training of an RM that serves as a proxy for human evaluation (Leike et al., 2018). The systematic study of reward modeling began relatively recently, with the introduction of benchmarks (Lambert et al., 2024), empirical analyses (Wu et al., 2024), and directions such as process-based supervision (Lightman et al., 2023). We contribute by introducing the first theory of reward generalization with empirical support on LLMs, and a novel method of reward modeling from tree-structured preference data. In contrast to process-based supervision methods, our method improves RM performance for free by designing the dataset information topology without changing the pipeline code, while also reducing the volume of data requiring human annotation (Table 4). Meanwhile, some methods streamline RLHF by minimizing (Yuan et al., 2023; Dong et al., 2023; Gulcehre et al., 2023) or removing (Rafailov et al., 2023) the reliance on RMs. Concurrently, other research efforts (Bai et al., 2022b; Lee et al., 2023) focus on using AI for preference annotation to reduce costs. Our analysis is perfectly applicable to these methods as is, since (1) AI-based feedback mechanisms base their legitimacy on the empirically verified proximity of AI feedback to human feedback, and (2) RM alternatives such as direct policy optimization (DPO) (Rafailov et al., 2023) operate by directly implementing a closed-form optimal solution for RM-based RLHF training (with the preference dataset given), and therefore results on RM-based RLHF naturally transfer to DPO. Figure 1: The RLHF process is conceptualized as an autoencoding process. Encoding: Human preferences are compressed into the RM through data collection and preference labeling followed by RM training. Decoding: The reinforcement learning process restores a language model policy based on reward signals from the reward model. The entire process aims to achieve consistency between human preference and model behavior. Tree-Based Structure in the Inference Process LLMs can solve complex multi-step reasoning tasks by generating solutions the Chain-of-Thought (CoT) format (Nye et al., 2021; Prystawski et al., 2024). Using a tree-structured inference process, Tree of Thought (ToT), which generalizes CoT, empowers the language model to consider various reasoning paths at inference time (Yao et al., 2024; Mo and Xin, 2023). Unlike ToT which operates at inference time, our method introduces a tree-based dependence structure into the training data of the RM training process. Thus, both the methods themselves and the underlying mechanisms are fundamentally different for the two approaches. Generalization in Alignment Investigating goal misgeneralization Di Langosco et al. (2022); Shah et al. (2022) directly in LLMs is challenging, and there is currently limited related work in this area. Xiong et al. (2024); Ye et al. (2024) give detailed descriptions of generalization in RLHF under the strong assumption of linear reward. Typically, classical generalization bounds rely on narrowly defined complexity measures of the hypothesis class, making most such bounds too loose to be practical for deep neural networks Valle-Pérez and Louis (2020). We introduce the IBN method to derive empirically grounded reward generalization bounds, thus filling a gap within the literature. Symbol Definition Reference YY Response space (set of all possible LLM responses) §3 D=(yA,yB,δ)superscriptsuperscriptD=\(y^A,y^B,δ)\D = ( yitalic_A , yitalic_B , δ ) Preference dataset: pairs of responses yA,yBsuperscriptsuperscripty^A,y^Byitalic_A , yitalic_B with human judgment δ §3, Preference Dataset rH⁢(y)subscriptHr_H(y)rH ( y ) Idealized human reward function for response y §3, Idealized Human Text Distribution rRM⁢(y)subscriptRMr_RM(y)rRM ( y ) Reward model’s estimated reward for response y §3, Reward Model pH⁢(y)subscriptHp_H(y)pH ( y ) Idealized human preference distribution over YY §3, Idealized Human Text Distribution pLM⁢(y)subscriptLMp_LM(y)pLM ( y ) LLM’s learned behavior distribution after RLHF §3, Language Model GD⁢(,ED)superscriptsuperscriptG^D(Y,E^D)Gitalic_D ( Y , Eitalic_D ) Induced Bayesian Network (IBN): graph of responses and edges §4.2, Def. 4.1 EHPsubscriptHPE_HPEHP Preference edges (from human comparisons in D) §4.2, Def. 4.1 EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEIB Inductive bias edges (implicit correlations from pretraining) §4.2, Def. 4.1 ℱ⁢(M)ℱF(M)F ( M ) Structural function: measures clustering of responses under EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEIB §4.2, Def. 4.3 d⁢(y1,y2)subscript1subscript2d(y_1,y_2)d ( y1 , y2 ) Inference distance: variance in estimating r⁢(y1)−r⁢(y2)subscript1subscript2r(y_1)-r(y_2)r ( y1 ) - r ( y2 ) §4.2, Def. B.6 Table 1: Glossary of notations. 3 Macro-Level Information Topologies This section presents a formalism of the macro-level RLHF information topology, the autoencoding framework. It portrays RLHF as first encoding human preference data into the RM, rRM(⋅|⋅)r_RM(·|·)rroman_RM ( ⋅ | ⋅ ), and then decoding preference information from the RM to produce the aligned LM, pLM(⋅|⋅)p_LM(·|·)pLM ( ⋅ | ⋅ ). For any prompt x drawn from the prompt space XX and response y drawn from the response space YY, the reward rRM⁢(y|x)∈ℝsubscriptRMconditionalℝr_RM(y\,|\,x)∈Rrroman_RM ( y | x ) ∈ blackboard_R represents the quality of y as a response to x, and pLM⁢(y|x)subscriptLMconditionalp_LM(y\,|\,x)pLM ( y | x ) is the probability that LM outputs y when prompted with x. Our study does not concern the distribution of the prompt, so we consider only a fixed prompt x∈x ∈ X for simplicity. We shall omit the condition (⋅|x)(·\,|\,x)( ⋅ | x ) and simply write rRM⁢(y)subscriptRMr_RM(y)rroman_RM ( y ) and pLM⁢(y)subscriptLMp_LM(y)pLM ( y ). This approach can be seamlessly extended to settings with varied prompts. Below, we introduce the key elements in the macro-level topology of RLHF. Idealized Human Text Distribution pH:→ℝ≥0:subscriptH→subscriptℝabsent0p_H:Y _≥ 0pH : Y → blackboard_R≥ 0.111By default, we will represent a probability distribution with its probability density function (PDF) or probability mass function (PMF), and will denote with Δ⁢[S]Δdelimited-[] [S ]Δ [ S ] the space of all PDFs or PMFs over S (i.e., all distributions over S), depending on whether S is a set of discrete elements or not. It represents the probabilities of getting every possible response from an idealized human being whose behavior is in perfect alignment with collective human preferences. The determination of this distribution (Fishburn, 2015) exceeds the scope of the present study, since our analysis does not rely on the specifics of this distribution. Based on a straightforward generalization of the Bradley-Terry model (Bradley and Terry, 1952), we can further define the idealized human reward function rH:→ℝ:subscriptH→ℝr_H:Y : Y → blackboard_R satisfying (for a constant β) pH⁢(y0)=exp⁡(β⁢rH⁢(y0))∑y∈exp⁡(β⁢rH⁢(y))subscriptHsubscript0subscriptHsubscript0subscriptsubscriptHp_H(y_0)= (β r_H(y_0) ) _y% ∈Y (β r_H(y) )pH ( y0 ) = divide start_ARG exp ( β rH ( y0 ) ) end_ARG start_ARG ∑y ∈ Y exp ( β rH ( y ) ) end_ARG Preference Dataset D=(yD,iA,yD,iB,δD,i)superscriptsubscriptAsuperscriptsubscriptBsubscriptD= \(y_D,i^A,y_D,i^B, _D,i) \D = ( yitalic_D , iA , yitalic_D , iB , δitalic_D , i ) . In the RLHF pipeline, pairs of model-generated answers are selected given the prompt, and for each pair, a human evaluator is asked to compare the relative quality of the two answers. Here, D represents the dataset resulting from this process, where (yD,iA,yD,iB)superscriptsubscriptAsuperscriptsubscriptB(y_D,i^A,y_D,i^B)( yitalic_D , iA , yitalic_D , iB ) is a answer pair, and δD,isubscript _D,iδitalic_D , i is the human judgment, a numerical value representing the degree to which yD,iAsuperscriptsubscriptAy_D,i^Ayitalic_D , iA is preferred over yD,iBsuperscriptsubscriptBy_D,i^Byitalic_D , iB. Here, all yD,iA,yD,iBsuperscriptsubscriptAsuperscriptsubscriptBy_D,i^A,y_D,i^Byitalic_D , iA , yitalic_D , iB are elements of YY drawn in specific ways (depending on the information topology used, which we will specify in §4),222Below, we will not distinguish between yD,i∗superscriptsubscripty_D,i^*yitalic_D , i∗ as elements of YY and as random variables taking values in YY. The meaning should be clear from the context. We will also adopt this convention for other similar variables. and given yD,iA,yD,iBsuperscriptsubscriptAsuperscriptsubscriptBy_D,i^A,y_D,i^Byitalic_D , iA , yitalic_D , iB, we have δD,isubscript _D,iδitalic_D , i ∼Logistic⁢(log⁡pH⁢(yD,iA)pH⁢(yD,iB),1β)similar-toabsentLogisticsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptB1 ( p_H(y_D,i^% A)p_H(y_D,i^B), 1β )∼ Logistic ( log divide start_ARG pH ( yitalic_D , iA ) end_ARG start_ARG pH ( yitalic_D , iB ) end_ARG , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG ) =Logistic⁢(β⁢rH⁢(yD,iA)−β⁢rH⁢(yD,iB),1β)absentLogisticsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptB1 =Logistic (β r_H(y_D,i^A)-% β r_H(y_D,i^B), 1β )= Logistic ( β rH ( yitalic_D , iA ) - β rH ( yitalic_D , iB ) , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG ) where Logistic⁢(μ,s)LogisticLogistic(μ,s)Logistic ( μ , s ) stands for a logistic distribution with mean μ and scale s, and the random variable δD,isubscript _D,iδitalic_D , i is the score difference between yD,iAsuperscriptsubscriptAy_D,i^Ayitalic_D , iA and yD,iBsuperscriptsubscriptBy_D,i^Byitalic_D , iB as estimated by a human evaluator. The randomness here is due to the widespread presence of noise in human evaluation data. The fact that δD,isubscript _D,iδitalic_D , i follows a logistic distribution is again a corollary of the Bradley-Terry model. In practice, the strength of human preference is usually collected as discrete integer values or even binary labels, which can be seen as discretized δD,isubscript _D,iδitalic_D , i. In any given case, the finer-grained this discretization is, the more applicable our model will be. Reward Model rRM⁢(⋅)subscriptRM⋅r_RM(·)rRM ( ⋅ ). The RM is trained to rate the quality of responses, using contrastive learning on the dataset D. The training takes place on a base model that has undergone pretraining and supervised finetuning (SFT). rRM⁢(⋅)subscriptRM⋅r_RM(·)rRM ( ⋅ ) represents the RM resulting from the training process. Theoretically, the RM can be viewed as a finite-sample estimator of rHsubscriptHr_HrH based on D. We characterize the RM as a function-valued random variable that takes values in ℝsuperscriptℝR^Yblackboard_RY and depends on D. It follows the distribution prRM∈Δ⁢[ℝ]subscriptsubscriptRMΔdelimited-[]superscriptℝp_r_RM∈ [R^Y ]pitalic_r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT RM end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ∈ Δ [ blackboard_RY ]. We can equivalently view rRM⁢(⋅)subscriptRM⋅r_RM(·)rRM ( ⋅ ) as a mapping from every y∈y∈Yy ∈ Y to a real-valued random variable, and prRMsubscriptsubscriptRMp_r_RMpitalic_r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT RM end_POSTSUBSCRIPT as the joint distribution of those random variables. The posterior distribution of rHsubscriptHr_HrH after observing one sample (yD,iA,yD,iB,δD,i)superscriptsubscriptAsuperscriptsubscriptBsubscript(y_D,i^A,y_D,i^B, _D,i)( yitalic_D , iA , yitalic_D , iB , δitalic_D , i ) can be shown as β⁢rH⁢(yD,iA)∣β⁢rH⁢(yD,iB),δD,iconditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptBsubscript \ \ \;β r_H(y_D,i^A) % β r_H(y_D,i^B), _D,i\ β rH ( yitalic_D , iA ) ∣ β rH ( yitalic_D , iB ) , δitalic_D , i ∼Logistic⁢(β⁢rH⁢(yD,iB)+δD,i,1β)similar-toabsentLogisticsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptBsubscript1 \ Logistic (β r_H(y_D,i^B% )+ _D,i, 1β )∼ Logistic ( β rH ( yitalic_D , iB ) + δitalic_D , i , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG ) (1) This relationship is not sufficient for constructing the entire function rRMsubscriptRMr_RMrRM, since the inference above is only at the level of response pairs, while a full-fledged inference process (§4) works at the model level, taking into account the interdependence between different (rH⁢(yD,iA),rH⁢(yD,iB))subscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptB (r_H(y_D,i^A),r_H(y_D,i^B) )( rH ( yitalic_D , iA ) , rH ( yitalic_D , iB ) ) pairs. Language Model pLM⁢(⋅)subscriptLM⋅p_LM(·)pLM ( ⋅ ). The LM is tuned with reinforcement learning, optimizing for the rewards from rRMsubscriptRMr_RMrRM. pLM⁢(⋅)subscriptLM⋅p_LM(·)pLM ( ⋅ ) represents the language model that results from the training process. We characterize the LM as a function-valued random variable that takes values in Δ⁢[]Δdelimited-[] [Y ]Δ [ Y ] and depends on rRMsubscriptRMr_RMrRM. We can equivalently view pLM⁢(⋅)subscriptLM⋅p_LM(·)pLM ( ⋅ ) as a mapping from elements y∈y∈Yy ∈ Y to real-valued random variables pLM⁢(y)subscriptLMp_LM(y)pLM ( y ) (which are not mutually independent) satisfying ∑ypLM⁢(y)≡1subscriptsubscriptLM1 _yp_LM(y)≡ 1∑y pLM ( y ) ≡ 1. Zooming out, we consider the process pH⁢(⋅)→rH⁢(⋅)→pδ∣yA,yB⁢(⋅)→subscriptH⋅subscriptH⋅→subscriptconditionalsuperscriptsuperscript⋅p_H(·)→ r_H(·)→ p_δ y^A,y^B(·)proman_H ( ⋅ ) → rroman_H ( ⋅ ) → pitalic_δ ∣ yitalic_A , yitalic_B ( ⋅ ) to be inherent in the generation of human preference data. Our learning process D=(yA,yB,δ)→rRM⁢(y)→pLM⁢(y)superscriptsuperscript→subscriptRM→subscriptLMD=\(y^A,y^B,δ)\→ r_RM(y)→ p_LM(y)D = ( yitalic_A , yitalic_B , δ ) → rroman_RM ( y ) → proman_LM ( y ), on the other hand, is a mirror image of the preference generation process — rRM⁢(⋅)subscriptRM⋅r_RM(·)rroman_RM ( ⋅ ) can be viewed as a finite-sample Bayes estimator of rH⁢(⋅)subscriptH⋅r_H(·)rroman_H ( ⋅ ), and pLM⁢(⋅)subscriptLM⋅p_LM(·)proman_LM ( ⋅ ) as an approximation of pH⁢(⋅)subscriptH⋅p_H(·)proman_H ( ⋅ ). We demonstrate this correspondence with the following convergence theorem (proved in Appendix B.5). Theorem 3.1. If the reward modeling process (i.e., the encoding process) satisfies that lim|D|→+∞supy1,y2∈Var⁢[rRM⁢(y1)∣rRM⁢(y2)]=0subscript→subscriptsupremumsubscript1subscript2Vardelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript20 _|D|→+∞ _y_1,y_2∈YVar [r_% RM(y_1) r_RM(y_2) ]=0lim| D | → + ∞ supitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT Var [ rroman_RM ( y1 ) ∣ rroman_RM ( y2 ) ] = 0 and policy optimization (i.e., the decoding process) performs β-entropy-regularized RL, i.e., Ey∼pLM⁢[rRM⁢(y)]+β⁢Hy∼pLM⁢[y]subscriptEsimilar-tosubscriptLMdelimited-[]subscriptRMsubscriptHsimilar-tosubscriptLMdelimited-[] =\ \ \ \;E_y p_LM [r_% RM(y) ]+ _y p_LM [y ]Eitalic_y ∼ p start_POSTSUBSCRIPT LM end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ rroman_RM ( y ) ] + β Hitalic_y ∼ p start_POSTSUBSCRIPT LM end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ y ] =suppLM′∈Δ⁢[](Ey∼pLM′⁢[rRM⁢(y)]+β⁢Hy∼pLM′⁢[y])absentsubscriptsupremumsuperscriptsubscriptLM′Δdelimited-[]subscriptEsimilar-tosuperscriptsubscriptLM′delimited-[]subscriptRMsubscriptHsimilar-tosuperscriptsubscriptLM′delimited-[] = _p_LM ∈ [Y % ] (E_y p_LM [r_RM(y)% ]+ _y p_LM [y ] )= supitalic_p start_POSTSUBSCRIPT LM′ ∈ Δ [ Y ] end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( Eitalic_y ∼ p start_POSTSUBSCRIPT LM′ end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ rroman_RM ( y ) ] + β Hitalic_y ∼ p start_POSTSUBSCRIPT LM′ end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ y ] ) then, rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2)subscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2 r_RM(y_1)-r_RM(y_2)rRM ( y1 ) - rRM ( y2 ) →⁢rH⁢(y1)−rH⁢(y2)→subscriptHsubscript1subscriptHsubscript2 P→r_H(y_1)-r_H(y_2)overP start_ARG → end_ARG rH ( y1 ) - rH ( y2 ) pLM⁢(y)subscriptLM p_LM(y)pLM ( y ) →⁢pH⁢(y)→subscriptH d→p_H(y)overd start_ARG → end_ARG pH ( y ) uniformly for all (y1,y2)∈2subscript1subscript2superscript2(y_1,y_2)∈Y^2( y1 , y2 ) ∈ Y2 and for all y∈y∈Yy ∈ Y. Theorem 3.1 translates reward generalization bounds into results on alignment performance, and will be the foundation of the micro-level theory. While the theorem doesn’t directly state the rate of convergence, its proof in Appendix B.5 gives the translation from asymptotic bounds on Var⁢[rRM⁢(y1)∣rRM⁢(y2)]Vardelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2Var [r_RM(y_1) r_RM(y_2) ]Var [ rroman_RM ( y1 ) ∣ rroman_RM ( y2 ) ] to high-probability concentration bounds on rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2)subscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2r_RM(y_1)-r_RM(y_2)rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ), and, in turn, similar probability bounds on pLM⁢(⋅)subscriptLM⋅p_LM(·)proman_LM ( ⋅ ). Taken together with the asymptotic variance bounds in Table 2, this would imply asymptotic convergence rates for Theorem 3.1. In §4 below, we focus on variance bounds themselves, since they concern model performance under a fixed dataset size, aligning better with our experiment setting. 4 Micro-Level Information Topologies In this section, we work within the autoencoding framework proposed in §3, and zoom in on the encoding stage, focusing on reward generalization and how information topology influences it. Specifically, we study the fine-grained topology of the human preference dataset D=(yD,iA,yD,iB,δD,i)superscriptsubscriptAsuperscriptsubscriptBsubscriptD= \(y_D,i^A,y_D,i^B, _D,i) \D = ( yitalic_D , iA , yitalic_D , iB , δitalic_D , i ) , and how it affects generalization properties of the RM rRM⁢(⋅)subscriptRM⋅r_RM(·)rroman_RM ( ⋅ ). In addition to a general analysis, we study chain-based and tree-based information topologies as case studies. For simplicity, we use RyDsubscriptsuperscriptR^D_yRitalic_Ditalic_y as an abbreviation for the random variable β⁢rRM⁢(y)subscriptRMβ r_RM(y)β rroman_RM ( y ) under the human preference dataset D. Due to space constraints, we will selectively present key definitions, assumptions, and theorems. Please refer to Appendix B for the complete derivations. 4.1 Tree-Based and Chain-Based Information Topologies in Reward Modeling Figure 2: Tree-based and chain-based information topologies of the preference dataset D. The root node represents the shared prompt, while a Text node represents a segment of text serving as a constituent of full responses. The chain-based topology, highlighted in red, generates responses independently. The tree-based topology, highlighted in blue, generates a prefix tree (where root-to-leaf paths correspond to full responses) instead of independent responses, creating a dependence structure among the resulting responses. See Appendix C.6 for examples. We examine two types of information topologies: chain-based and tree-based, as illustrated in Figure 2. For both, the response pairs (yD,iA,yD,iB)superscriptsubscriptAsuperscriptsubscriptB(y_D,i^A,y_D,i^B)( yitalic_D , iA , yitalic_D , iB ) are independently and equiprobably sampled from 2superscript2S^2S2, where SS is a pool of responses. The difference lies in the dependence structure of SS. y1subscript1 [rgb]0.96,0.3,0.2 [named]pgfstrokecolorrgb% 0.96,0.3,0.2y_1y1y2subscript2 [rgb]0.29,0.56,0.89 [named]pgfstrokecolorrgb% 0.29,0.56,0.89y_2y2 Figure 3: The induced Bayesian network (IBN) that models reward generalization. Nodes represent possible responses, and edges represent reward correlations due to inductive biases (black) or pairwise comparison data (purple), each associated with a conditional reward distribution. Thick segments mark an inference path, providing evidence on the preferability of y2subscript2y_2y2 compared to y1subscript1y_1y1. Dashed curves carve out clustering structures. 1: In: Model M, prompt x, depth D, branching factor B. 2: Initialization: Set x as the label on root r. T ← r\r\ r The initial T contains only the root. 3: Procedure: Incrementally constructing T. 4: while T is not a perfect B-ary tree of depth D do 5: Identify a partial response to extend: 6: v ← any node at depth <Dabsent<D< D with <Babsent<B< B children 7: svsubscripts_vsitalic_v ← concatenation of string labels on path⁢(r,v)pathpath(r,v)path ( r , v ) 8: Expand the tree by completing a full response: 9: s¯vsubscript¯ s_vover¯ start_ARG s end_ARGv ← M⁢(sv)subscriptM(s_v)M ( sitalic_v ) Model completion of svsubscripts_vsitalic_v. 10: Separate s¯vsubscript¯ s_vover¯ start_ARG s end_ARGv into (D−depth⁢(v))depth(D-depth(v))( D - depth ( v ) ) nodes to construct a downward path from v to depth D. 11: end while Algorithm 1 Tree-Based Response Generation For the chain-based preference dataset, =S=YS = Y. That is, each of yD,iAsuperscriptsubscriptAy_D,i^Ayitalic_D , iA and yD,iBsuperscriptsubscriptBy_D,i^Byitalic_D , iB are independently generated, and no dependence exists within any subset of responses present in the dataset D. For the tree-based preference dataset, SS is no longer a vast space of possible responses, but a limited collection of responses whose elements are explicitly generated beforehand. Specifically, a prefix tree T of responses is constructed, where each node contains a text segment, each path starting from the root constitutes a (possibly) incomplete response obtained by concatenating the texts on the nodes, and each path leading from the root to a leaf constitutes a full response. T is generated by the post-SFT LM with Algorithm 1, and responses corresponding to the leaves constitute ⊂S⊂YS ⊂ Y. In other words, the response pairs (yD,iA,yD,iB)superscriptsubscriptAsuperscriptsubscriptB(y_D,i^A,y_D,i^B)( yitalic_D , iA , yitalic_D , iB ) in the tree-based dataset are independently sampled pairs of leaves in T. Through the common prefixes in T, a dependence structure is created in D. Examples of both topologies can be found in Appendix C.6 for examples. 4.2 Induced Bayesian Network RMs predict rewards by generalizing from preference comparison data to the full space of responses. To model reward generalization, we incorporate preference data (which are starting points of generalization) and inductive biases (which are drivers of generalization) in a unified network structure. Definition 4.1 (Induced Bayesian Network). Given response set YY and preference dataset D=(yD,iA,yD,iB,δD,i)i=1|D|superscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptAsuperscriptsubscriptBsubscript1D= \(y_D,i^A,y_D,i^B, _D,i) \_i=1^|% D|D = ( yitalic_D , iA , yitalic_D , iB , δitalic_D , i ) i = 1| D |, we define D’s induced Bayesian network (IBN) GD⁢(,ED)superscriptsuperscriptG^D(Y,E^D)Gitalic_D ( Y , Eitalic_D ) as a graph with nodes YY and edges ED=EIB∪EHPDsuperscriptsubscriptIBsuperscriptsubscriptHPE^D=E_IB∪ E_HP^DEitalic_D = Eroman_IB ∪ Eroman_HPitalic_D. The preference edges EHPDsuperscriptsubscriptHPE_HP^DEroman_HPitalic_D are defined by EHPD=ujD→WujD,vjDvjD:j=1⁢…⁢2⁢|D|superscriptsubscriptHPconditional-setsubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript→superscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript1…2 E_HP^D= \u_j^D W_u_j^D,v_% j^Dv_j^D:j=1… 2|D| \Eroman_HPitalic_D = uitalic_jitalic_D start_ARROW start_OVERACCENT Witalic_u start_POSTSUBSCRIPT jitalic_D , vitalic_jitalic_D end_POSTSUBSCRIPT end_OVERACCENT → end_ARROW vitalic_jitalic_D : j = 1 … 2 | D | where (ujD,vjD)=(yD,kA,yD,kB)if j=2⁢k−1(yD,kB,yD,kA)if j=2⁢k,subscriptsuperscriptsuperscriptsubscriptcasessuperscriptsubscriptAsuperscriptsubscriptBif j=2⁢k−1superscriptsubscriptBsuperscriptsubscriptAif j=2⁢k (u^D_j,v_j^D)= cases* (y_D,k^A,y_D% ,k^B )&if $j=2k-1$\\ (y_D,k^B,y_D,k^A )&if $j=2k$ cases*,( uitalic_Ditalic_j , vitalic_jitalic_D ) = start_ROW start_CELL ( yitalic_D , kA , yitalic_D , kB ) end_CELL start_CELL if j = 2 k - 1 end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL ( yitalic_D , kB , yitalic_D , kA ) end_CELL start_CELL if j = 2 k end_CELL end_ROW , and Wu,v(⋅|⋅)=pRv|Ru(⋅|⋅)W_u,v(·|·)=p_R_v|R_u(·|·)Witalic_u , v ( ⋅ | ⋅ ) = pitalic_R start_POSTSUBSCRIPT v | Ritalic_u end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( ⋅ | ⋅ ) is the conditional distribution between u’s and v’s rewards. Wu,vsubscriptW_u,vWitalic_u , v is assumed to be logistic (Assumption B.4), as supported by (1), a corollary of the Bradley-Terry model. Its parameter is determined by the human judgment δD,⌈j/2⌉subscript2 _D, j/2 δitalic_D , ⌈ j / 2 ⌉ that indicates the estimated reward difference. The inductive bias edges EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB characterize a priori correlations between responses in YY, stemming from factors such as semantic similarity (since a pretrained LM, which the RM is finetuned from, represents certain semantic features). Given the hypothesis distribution ⁢(⋅)⋅P(·)P ( ⋅ ) spanning all RM policies implementable with a finetuned model (Definition B.1), we have EIB=u→Wu,v:Ih∼⁢[h⁢(u),h⁢(v)]>CsubscriptIBconditional-setsubscript→subscriptIsimilar-toℎE_IB= \u W_u,vv:I_h % [h(u),h(v) ]>C \Eroman_IB = u start_ARROW start_OVERACCENT Witalic_u , v end_OVERACCENT → end_ARROW v : Iitalic_h ∼ P [ h ( u ) , h ( v ) ] > C where u,v∈u,v∈Yu , v ∈ Y, I⁢(⋅,⋅)I⋅I(·,·)I ( ⋅ , ⋅ ) is the mutual information, and C>00C>0C > 0 is a constant cutoff. Remark 4.2 (RM Inference and IBN Inference are Analogous). When RM training on D has converged, every sample in D (i.e., every edge in EHPsubscriptHPE_HPEroman_HP) serves as a soft constraint on the RM’s relative preference between the two compared responses, since any sample preference that is violated will create gradients that pull away from convergence. Thus, the RM policy that is converged upon represents the joint satisfaction of these soft constraints, enabling the RM to perform the equivalent of multi-hop inference on GDsuperscriptG^DGitalic_D. Thus, we consider an RM trained on dataset D approximately equivalent to an optimal inference machine on the IBN GDsuperscriptG^DGitalic_D, and consider the Bayesian uncertainty in IBN inference as a proxy to the RM’s uncertainty. We then define the inference distance d⁢(y1,y2)subscript1subscript2d(y_1,y_2)d ( y1 , y2 ) on an IBN as the variance of performing Bayesian inference on paths from y1subscript1y_1y1 to y2subscript2y_2y2 (Definition B.6), as a proxy for uncertainty in RM inference. We similarly define dIB⁢(y1,y2)subscriptIBsubscript1subscript2d_IB(y_1,y_2)droman_IB ( y1 , y2 ) where only edges in EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB are considered. Each domain (e.g., math, dialogue, coding) comes with its own YY and EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB. We measure its diversity and complexity with its structural function. Definition 4.3 (Structural Function). Given the YY and EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB of a domain, for any M∈ℤ+superscriptℤM ^+M ∈ blackboard_Z+, let ℱ⁢(M)ℱF (M )F ( M ) be the smallest d∈ℝ+superscriptℝd ^+d ∈ blackboard_R+ such that there exists a partition 1,⋯,M⁢(i⊆)subscript1⋯subscriptsubscriptC_1,·s,C_M\ (C_i % Y)C1 , ⋯ , Citalic_M ( Citalic_i ⊆ Y ) of YY satisfying Ey1,y2∈i⁢[dIB⁢(y1,y2)]≤dsubscriptEsubscript1subscript2subscriptdelimited-[]subscriptIBsubscript1subscript2E_y_1,y_2∈C_i [d_IB(y_1,y_2)% ]≤ dEitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Citalic_i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ droman_IB ( y1 , y2 ) ] ≤ d and 12⁢M≤|i|||≤2M,∀1≤i≤M.formulae-sequence12subscript2for-all1 12M≤ |C_i||Y|≤ 2M,% ∀ 1≤ i≤ M.divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 M end_ARG ≤ divide start_ARG | Citalic_i | end_ARG start_ARG | Y | end_ARG ≤ divide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG M end_ARG , ∀ 1 ≤ i ≤ M . We call ℱFF the structural function, as its asymptotic behavior reveals structural properties of EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB. Chain-Based RM Tree-Based RM AA (Large Var.) BB (Infinitesimal Var.) AA (Large Var.) BB (Infinitesimal Var.) ℱ∼I⋅M−αsimilar-toℱ⋅superscriptF I· M^-αF ∼ I ⋅ M- α O⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)1+α|D|α⁢log⁡log⁡|D|)⋅superscript1superscriptO ( I· ( |D| )^1+α|D|^α |D| )O ( divide start_ARG I ⋅ ( log | D | )1 + α end_ARG start_ARG | D |α log log | D | end_ARG ) O⁢(I22+α|D|α2+α)superscript22superscript2O ( I 22+α|D| α2+α )O ( divide start_ARG Idivide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG | D |divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG end_ARG ) O⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)2⁢α|D|α)⋅superscript2superscriptO ( I· ( |D| )^2α|D|^α )O ( divide start_ARG I ⋅ ( log | D | )2 α end_ARG start_ARG | D |α end_ARG ) O⁢(I22+α⁢(log⁡|D|)2⁢α2+α|D|α2+α)superscript22superscript22superscript2O ( I 22+α ( |D| ) 2α2+% α|D| α2+α )O ( divide start_ARG Idivide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG ( log | D | )divide start_ARG 2 α end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG | D |divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG end_ARG ) ℱ∼I⋅(log⁡M)−αsimilar-toℱ⋅superscriptF I· ( M )^-αF ∼ I ⋅ ( log M )- α O⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)−α)⋅superscriptO (I· ( |D| )^-α )O ( I ⋅ ( log | D | )- α ) O⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)−α)⋅superscriptO (I· ( |D| )^-α )O ( I ⋅ ( log | D | )- α ) ℱ=I⋅ω⁢((log⁡M)−ϵ)ℱ⋅superscriptitalic-ϵF=I·ω ( ( M )^-ε )F = I ⋅ ω ( ( log M )- ϵ ) O⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈|D|12⌉))ℱsuperscript12O (F ( |D| 12 ) )O ( F ( ⌈ | D |divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ⌉ ) ) O⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈(I⁢|D|)12(log⁡|D|)ϵ⌉))ℱsuperscript12superscriptitalic-ϵO (F ( (I|D| ) 12% ( |D| )^ε ) )O ( F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log | D | )ϵ end_ARG ⌉ ) ) O⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈|D|12⌉))ℱsuperscript12O (F ( |D| 12 ) )O ( F ( ⌈ | D |divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ⌉ ) ) O⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈(I⁢|D|)12(log⁡|D|)ϵ⌉))ℱsuperscript12superscriptitalic-ϵO (F ( (I|D| ) 12% ( |D| )^ε ) )O ( F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log | D | )ϵ end_ARG ⌉ ) ) Table 2: Reward generalization under combinations of different information topologies, different structural functions, and different variance regimes. As specified in Theorem 4.5, each cell contains the mean inference distance under that setting. Variance regime (columns): AA denotes the case when the variances of EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB paths are lower-bounded by a constant, and BB denotes the case when the variances become o⁢(1)1o(1)o ( 1 ). Structural function (rows): ℱFF, representing context diversity of the task at hand, is defined in Definition 4.3. α is an arbitrary postive constant, except in the case ℱ∼I⋅M−αsimilar-toℱ⋅superscriptF I· M^-αF ∼ I ⋅ M- α where 0<α<1010<α<10 < α < 1. Interpretation: In case AA of ℱ∼I⋅M−αsimilar-toℱ⋅superscriptF I· M^-αF ∼ I ⋅ M- α, tree-based information topology asymptotically outperforms chain-based information topology, while in case BB the reverse is true. This suggests that the comparative advantage of tree-based topology is learning in highly diverse contexts (i.e., ℱ∼I⋅M−αsimilar-toℱ⋅superscriptF I· M^-αF ∼ I ⋅ M- α) from limited human preference data (i.e., case AA). Remark 4.4 (Intuition on the Structural Function). The asymptotic behavior of ℱFF is a measure of the degree of isolation and decentralization in the graph G′⁢(,EIB)superscript′subscriptIBG (Y,E_IB)G′ ( Y , Eroman_IB ). Extremely dense graphs or centralized graphs, such as a clique or a star graph, possess an asymptotically constant ℱFF. Extremely decentralized graphs, such as a long chain, have ℱ⁢(M)=Θ⁢(M−1)ℱΘsuperscript1F(M)= (M^-1 )F ( M ) = Θ ( M- 1 ). Therefore, when ℱ⁢(M)∼I⋅g⁢(M)similar-toℱ⋅F(M) I· g(M)F ( M ) ∼ I ⋅ g ( M ) (where I is simply defined as ℱ⁢(1)ℱ1F(1)F ( 1 )), we interpret the asymptotic behavior of g as a measure of the diversity and complexity of the language modeling task at hand, since it characterizes isolation and decentralization in the output space YY. We will consider three representative asymptotic forms of the structural function: polynomial (Row 1 of Table 2), logarithmic (Row 2), and sublogarithmic (Row 3), with decreasing complexity. Figure 3 illustrates the 1,⋯,Msubscript1⋯subscriptC_1,·s,C_MC1 , ⋯ , Citalic_M partition. The inference path illustrated possesses a typical structure, where EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB edges constitute the intra-cluster trips, and EHPsubscriptHPE_HPEroman_HP edges perform the inter-cluster leaps. Refer to Appendix B for details. 4.3 Analysis of Two Information Topologies Finally, we present the results for the chain-based and tree-based information topologies. A dataset of chain-based topology is simply modeled as (yA,yB)superscriptsuperscript (y^A,y^B )( yitalic_A , yitalic_B ) pairs sampled independently from 2superscript2Y^2Y2. Our model for tree-based datasets is more complicated and can be found in Assumption B.19. Theorem 4.5 (RM Uncertainty in Chain-Based and Tree-Based Datasets). For a chain- or tree-based dataset D∈Dchain,DtreesubscriptchainsubscripttreeD∈ \D_chain,D_tree \D ∈ Droman_chain , Droman_tree , with probability 1−o⁢(1)111-o(1)1 - o ( 1 ), its mean inference distance Ey1,y2∈⁢[dD⁢(y1,y2)]subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscript1subscript2E_y_1,y_2 [d^D(y_1,y_2) ]Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_D ( y1 , y2 ) ] (Definition B.8), which measures the average uncertainty in RM inference, takes the asymptotics given in Table 2. Corollary 4.6. If the reward modeling process adopts either the chain-based or the tree-based information topology, and the policy optimization process performs β-entropy-regularized RL, then, rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2)subscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2 r_RM(y_1)-r_RM(y_2)rRM ( y1 ) - rRM ( y2 ) →⁢rH⁢(y1)−rH⁢(y2)→subscriptHsubscript1subscriptHsubscript2 P→r_H(y_1)-r_H(y_2)overP start_ARG → end_ARG rH ( y1 ) - rH ( y2 ) pLM⁢(y)subscriptLM p_LM(y)pLM ( y ) →⁢pH⁢(y)→subscriptH d→p_H(y)overd start_ARG → end_ARG pH ( y ) uniformly for all (y1,y2)∈2subscript1subscript2superscript2(y_1,y_2)∈Y^2( y1 , y2 ) ∈ Y2 and for all y∈y∈Yy ∈ Y. Asymptotics in Theorem 4.5 are summarized in Table 2. In case AA of ℱ∼I⋅M−αsimilar-toℱ⋅superscriptF I· M^-αF ∼ I ⋅ M- α, the tree-based information topology outperforms the chain-based one by a factor of (log⁡|D|)1−α⁢(log⁡log⁡|D|)−1=ω⁢(1)superscript1superscript11 ( |D| )^1-α ( |D| )^-1=ω(1)( log | D | )1 - α ( log log | D | )- 1 = ω ( 1 ), while in case BB the latter outperforms the former by (log⁡|D|)2⁢α/(2+α)=ω⁢(1)superscript221 ( |D| )^2α/ (2+α )=ω(1)( log | D | )2 α / ( 2 + α ) = ω ( 1 ). In all other cases, the two have asymptotically equivalent performance. This suggests that the comparative advantage of tree-based information topology is learning in highly diverse contexts (ℱ∼I⋅M−αsimilar-toℱ⋅superscriptF I· M^-αF ∼ I ⋅ M- α) from limited human preference data (case AA). To summarize §4, we have modeled both the information topology of the dataset and the inductive bias in RM training. We prove asymptotic bounds on reward generalization in the case of chain-based and tree-based information topologies, as two case studies. Comparing the two, we find that the latter is better suited for learning in highly diverse contexts from limited human preference data, signaling its great potential in practical application. 5 Algorithmic Experiments Theorem 4.5 suggests the superiority of the tree-based method of reward modeling. In this section, we aim to answer the following question: on tasks with diverse context and limited data, is the tree-based RM more effective in encoding preferences than chain-based ones? 5.1 Experiment Setup Tasks Specification We focuse on three key tasks: text conversation, dialogue summarization, and mathematical problem-solving. The H-RLHF dataset Bai et al. (2022a) feeds into our text conversation analysis, while the DialogSum dataset Chen et al. (2021), with its 13,460 dialogue instances and annotated summaries, is used for dialogue summarization. For mathematics, we utilize the GSM-8K dataset Cobbe et al. (2021), comprising 8,500 elementary math problems. Initial SFT Models Due to capability limitations of pre-trained model, we prepare an SFT model for each specific task, serving as the initial model for subsequent experiments, i.e., preference data sampling, reward modeling, and fine-tuning. For the text conversation task, we utilize Alpaca-7B Taori et al. (2023) based on the 52K conversation dataset since it has been widely recognized in dialogue scenarios. For the other tasks, we fine-tune the pre-trained model LLaMA2-7B Touvron et al. (2023) based on the respective datasets. Chain vs. SFT Tree (Ours) vs. SFT Tree (Ours) vs. Chain Datasets Win / Lose Win / Lose Win / Lose H-RLHF 0.72 / 0.28 0.78 / 0.22 0.74 / 0.26 GSM-8K 0.57 / 0.43 0.65 / 0.35 0.63 / 0.37 DialogueSum 0.58 / 0.42 0.66 / 0.34 0.58 / 0.42 Average 0.62 / 0.38 0.70 / 0.30 0.65 / 0.35 Table 3: Comparison of models fine-tuned by PPO with chain-based and tree-based RMs. Comparison Datasets Construction In constructing comparison datasets for each prompt xitalic_x, the vanilla procedure involves generating N model responses to construct a question-answer (QA) dataset, followed by random sampling of pairs for human preference evaluation. The divergence between tree-based RM and chain-based RM primarily lies in the QA dataset construction. The generation methodology for chain-based RM remains unaltered. In contrast, tree-based datasets involve constructing an answer tree per prompt xitalic_x, where paths from root to leaf delineate complete answers. An answer tree, with a depth limit of D, encompasses no more than 2Dsuperscript22^D2D answers, ensuring 2D≤Nsuperscript22^D≤ N2D ≤ N to uphold fairness across both QA datasets. Algorithm 1 gives an overview of the construction process of the tree-based dataset, while Algorithm 2 describes the details. Preference Labeling For each task we construct tree-based and chain-based preference datasets, both composed of ∼similar-to ∼20K preference pairs. We employ GPT-4 OpenAI (2023) as a proxy of human annotation, leveraging its high consistency with human preference (Zheng et al., 2024). For tree-based responses, we concatenate the prompt with their common prefix as context. For the chain-based ones with no common prefix, we performed annotation directly. Tree-based annotation leads to smaller content volume (and thus smaller cognitive load) for human annotators (Figure 4), while the number of preference pairs is content. Figure 4: RFT results for different preference dataset settings. In our tree-structured QA datasets, responses are labeled as complete or incomplete depending on whether they extend from the root to a leaf or an interval node (see Appendix C.2 for details). Evaluation Metrics To verify that the tree-based RM is a better preference encoder than the chain-based one, we fine-tune the initial SFT models using two RM-based preference decoders: proximal policy optimization (PPO) Schulman et al. (2017) and rejection sampling fine-tuning (RFT) Touvron et al. (2023). The methodology for evaluating model performance entails a comparative analysis of the models’ responses to held-out prompts, utilizing GPT-4 as the judge. For prompts used in our preference annotation and evaluation criteria, refer to Appendix C.4. Experimental Analysis with PPO The tree-based RM enhances the efficiency of preference encoding. Table 3 demonstrates on three key tasks that (1) compared to the chain-based scenario, the tree-based RM enables models to gain larger performance improvements, and (2) models fine-tuned with tree-based RMs outperform chain-based ones with an 65656565% win rate on average. Table 5 complements the finding with additional comparisons to DPO, and Table 6 reaches the same conclusion by comparing against ground-truth labels. Abilities of Fine-grained Distinction To assess the ability of the tree-based RM to distinguish fine-grained differences, we conduct RFT on the initial SFT model, Alpaca-7B, using different RMs. We sample N responses for each training prompt and select the highest-scoring one (Best of N, BoN) evaluated by corresponding RM, following Bai et al. (2022b). This optimal response is then used for further finetuning of Alpaca-7B. We execute RFT for N=22,⋯,29superscript22⋯superscript29N=2^2,·s,2^9N = 22 , ⋯ , 29. As shown in Figure 4, the tree-based RM significantly outperforms the chain-based ones in enhancing Alpaca-7B, showing a continuous uptrend as the sample size N grows. In contrast, the baseline RM exhibits insensitivity to variations in the number of sample answers. Chain Tree (w/ prefix) Tree (w/o prefix) H-RLHF 426.98 364.32 315.53 GSM-8K 324.85 282.01 244.92 DialogueSum 151.99 176.86 151.23 Average 301.27 274.40 237.22 Table 4: Average effective lengths of responses in tree-based and chain-based reward modeling. The number of response pairs is the same in both cases, which means response lengths is the only factor affecting annotation cost. The human evaluator is instructed to ignore the shared prefix in the tree-based case. Ablation Study on Preference Annotation Using RFT, we explore how different proportions of responses in preference data influence RM performance (Figure 4). Training RMs on preference data with complete responses leads to superior results. 6 Conclusion and Outlook In this study, we introduce macro- and micro-level theories of RLHF reward generalization from a topological perspective, and propose a tree-based method for reward modeling, validating its superiority over the chain-based baseline through both theoretical and experimental means. Limitations The present study has focused on the RLHF paradigm and has restricted attention to efficiency analysis. The scope of focus can potentially be extended to cover larger areas in the alignment field, such as the scaling analysis of oversight methods (Ji et al., 2023b). While part of our motivation for introducing the IBN method was to help understand goal misgeneralization (Di Langosco et al., 2022; Shah et al., 2022), further exploration on this front is still required, including drawing connections between IBN structures, out-of-distribution contexts, and optimization objectives. The empirically grounded nature of the IBN also means that the IBN structure can potentially be determined using experimental methods, but which is outside the scope of the present study. Extensions and Future Work Industry labs such as OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepSeek, and many others, have switched to the tree-structured format of branching dialogues, where the user creates a new branch in the conversation by editing a previous message in the dialogue history. In all these labs’ interfaces, the user can access the entire tree of conversation history by switching between different branches. This leads to the possibility of collecting preference comparison data between two arbitrary nodes in the conversation tree, which is a potential fit for applying the tree-based reward modeling method. 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Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 36. 1Table of Contents The appendices consist of the following parts. Appendix A: Additional Results This appendix contains a number of supplementary tables and figures, presenting results that help validate our claims. References to these tables and figures can be found in the main text. Appendix B: Formulations and Proofs This appendix contains the full derivation of all theoretical results in prior sections. Only a small number of key definitions, assumptions, and theorems were presented in the main text, and this appendix fills the remaining gaps. Appendix C: Experiment Details This appendix provides detailed information on the implementation of the experiments. It enables replication of our study, while also showing examples and statistics that help the reader gain an intuitive understanding of the experiment results. Appendix A Additional Results DPO Vs. SFT PPO-Tree Vs. SFT PPO-Tree Vs. DPO Datasets Win/Lose Win/Lose Win/Lose H-RLHF 0.66 / 0.34 0.78 / 0.22 0.73 / 0.37 GSM-8K 0.47 / 0.53 0.65 / 0.35 0.62 / 0.38 Dialoguesum 0.62 / 0.38 0.66 / 0.34 0.64 / 0.36 Table 5: Comparison of models fine-tuned by PPO with tree-based RMs and DPO. To ensure the consistency of the experimental data presentation, we reported the GPT-4 evaluation win rate on GSM-8K. This win rate is also based on the accuracy of solving math problems. During the evaluation, we provided the correct answers to GPT-4, hoping it could more accurately judge the soundness of intermediate steps in the responses of both models. Models SFT DPO PPO-Chain PPO-Tree Accuracy 0.36 0.41 0.43 0.51 Table 6: Accuracy on GSM-8K test set, at the final epoch. Figure 5: Comparison of models fine-tuned by PPO with tree-based and chain-based RMs across 7 epochs. Appendix B Formulations and Proofs B.1 The Induced Bayesian Network Formulation Definition B.1 (Hypothesis Distribution). Given a response set YY, the hypothesis distribution PP is a probability distribution over space ℛsuperscriptℛR^YRcaligraphic_Y. Here, PP stands for the distribution of the reward function which can be expressed by the pre-trained language models. Definition B.2 (Inductive Bias Edges). Given a response set YY and hypothesis distribution ⁢(⋅)⋅P(·)P ( ⋅ ), the inductive bias edges EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB are defined as follows. edge ⁢(yi,yj,δi,j)∈EIB⇔Ih∼⁢[h⁢(y1),h⁢(y2)]>Ciffedge subscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptIBsubscriptsimilar-toℎsubscript1ℎsubscript2edge (y_i,y_j, _i,j )∈ E_IB I_h% [h(y_1),h(y_2) ]>Cedge ( yitalic_i , yitalic_j , δitalic_i , j ) ∈ Eroman_IB ⇔ Iitalic_h ∼ P [ h ( y1 ) , h ( y2 ) ] > C (2) for yi,yj,i≠j,i,j∈1,2,…,||formulae-sequencesubscriptsubscript12…y_i,y_j,\;i≠ j,\;i,j∈\1,2,..., |Y |\yitalic_i , yitalic_j , i ≠ j , i , j ∈ 1 , 2 , … , | Y | . C is a constant which provides a lower bound on the mutual information of any edge in EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB over distribution PP. We define the inductive bias edges EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB to characterize the relevance of elements in YY before obtaining human rewards. The relevance may stem from factors such as semantic similarity among elements in YY. Definition B.3 (Induced Bayesian Network). Given a response set YY and any human preference dataset D=(yD,iA,yD,iB,δD,i)i=1|D|superscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptAsuperscriptsubscriptBsubscript1D= \(y_D,i^A,y_D,i^B, _D,i) \_i=1^|% D|D = ( yitalic_D , iA , yitalic_D , iB , δitalic_D , i ) i = 1| D |, we define D’s induced Bayesian network (IBN) GD⁢(,ED)superscriptsuperscriptG^D(Y,E^D)Gitalic_D ( Y , Eitalic_D ) as a graph with nodes YY and edges ED=EIB∪EHPDsuperscriptsubscriptIBsuperscriptsubscriptHPE^D=E_IB∪ E_HP^DEitalic_D = Eroman_IB ∪ Eroman_HPitalic_D. The preference edges EHPDsuperscriptsubscriptHPE_HP^DEroman_HPitalic_D are defined as EHPD=(ujD,vjD,WjD):j=1⁢…⁢2⁢|D|superscriptsubscriptHPconditional-setsuperscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript1…2E_HP^D= \(u_j^D,v_j^D,W_j^D):j=1… 2|D| \Eroman_HPitalic_D = ( uitalic_jitalic_D , vitalic_jitalic_D , Witalic_jitalic_D ) : j = 1 … 2 | D | where the j-th edge connects ujDsuperscriptsubscriptu_j^Duitalic_jitalic_D with vjDsuperscriptsubscriptv_j^Dvitalic_jitalic_D and contains information WjDsuperscriptsubscriptW_j^DWitalic_jitalic_D. Here, (ujD,vjD)=(yD,kA,yD,kB)if j=2⁢k−1(yD,kB,yD,kA)if j=2⁢ksubscriptsuperscriptsuperscriptsubscriptcasessuperscriptsubscriptAsuperscriptsubscriptBif j=2⁢k−1superscriptsubscriptBsuperscriptsubscriptAif j=2⁢k(u^D_j,v_j^D)= cases* (y_D,k^A,y_D,k^B% )&if $j=2k-1$\\ (y_D,k^B,y_D,k^A )&if $j=2k$ cases*( uitalic_Ditalic_j , vitalic_jitalic_D ) = start_ROW start_CELL ( yitalic_D , kA , yitalic_D , kB ) end_CELL start_CELL if j = 2 k - 1 end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL ( yitalic_D , kB , yitalic_D , kA ) end_CELL start_CELL if j = 2 k end_CELL end_ROW and WjD(⋅|⋅)=pRvjDD|RujDD(⋅|⋅)W^D_j(·|·)=p_R_v^D_j^D|R_u^D_j^D(·|·)Witalic_Ditalic_j ( ⋅ | ⋅ ) = pitalic_R start_POSTSUBSCRIPT vitalic_D start_POSTSUBSCRIPT j end_POSTSUBSCRIPTD | Ritalic_uitalic_D start_POSTSUBSCRIPT j end_POSTSUBSCRIPTD end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( ⋅ | ⋅ ) is a conditional distribution determined by δD,⌈j⌉subscript _D, j δitalic_D , ⌈ j ⌉. Specifying the conditional distributions instead of joint distributions avoids issues caused by the shift-invariance of reward scores. In the induced Bayesian network that we define, the edges between any two points are bidirectional. In other words, when defining an edge from y1subscript1y_1y1 to y2subscript2y_2y2, we also define an edge from y2subscript2y_2y2 to y1subscript1y_1y1, and the meanings of the weights on these two edges are equivalent. Therefore, in the subsequent sections, for the sake of simplification, we generally consider the induced Bayesian network as an undirected graph without loss of generality. Assumption B.4 (The Information of an Edge Follows a Logistic Distribution). Given any dataset D and induced Bayesian network GD⁢(,ED)superscriptsuperscriptG^D(Y,E^D)Gitalic_D ( Y , Eitalic_D ), we assume that whether the edge from y1subscript1y_1y1 to y2subscript2y_2y2 belongs to EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB or EHPDsuperscriptsubscriptHPE_HP^DEroman_HPitalic_D, the information WD=pRy2D|Ry1D(⋅|⋅)W^D=p_R_y_2^D|R_y_1^D(·|·)Witalic_D = pitalic_R start_POSTSUBSCRIPT y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end_POSTSUBSCRIPTD | Ritalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPTD end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( ⋅ | ⋅ ) is the probability density function of a logistic distribution, which means Ry2D|Ry1D=r∼Logistic⁢(r,1β(y1,y2))if (y1,y2)∈EIBLogistic⁢(r+δ,1βHP)if (y1,y2)∈EHPDconditionalsuperscriptsubscriptsubscript2superscriptsubscriptsubscript1similar-tocasesLogistic1subscriptsubscript1subscript2if (y1,y2)∈EIBLogistic1subscriptHPif (y1,y2)∈EHPDR_y_2^D|R_y_1^D=r cases*Logistic (r,% 1 _(y_1,y_2) )&if $(y_1,y_2)∈ E_IB$\\ Logistic (r+δ, 1 _HP )&if $(y_1% ,y_2)∈ E^D_HP$\\ cases*Ritalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end_POSTSUBSCRIPTD | Ritalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPTD = r ∼ start_ROW start_CELL Logistic ( r , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β( y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ) end_POSTSUBSCRIPT end_ARG ) end_CELL start_CELL if ( y1 , y2 ) ∈ Eroman_IB end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL Logistic ( r + δ , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG βroman_HP end_ARG ) end_CELL start_CELL if ( y1 , y2 ) ∈ Eitalic_Droman_HP end_CELL end_ROW (3) where β(y1,y2)subscriptsubscript1subscript2 _(y_1,y_2)β( y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ) end_POSTSUBSCRIPT is a constant related to (y1,y2)subscript1subscript2(y_1,y_2)( y1 , y2 ), βHPsubscriptHP _HPβroman_HP is a constant related to EHPDsuperscriptsubscriptHPE_HP^DEroman_HPitalic_D and δ is related to (y1,y2)subscript1subscript2(y_1,y_2)( y1 , y2 ), which represents human preference between y1subscript1y_1y1 and y2subscript2y_2y2. Here we assume that human preferences exhibit a certain degree of stability, which means that for any (y1,y2)∈EHPDsubscript1subscript2subscriptsuperscriptHP(y_1,y_2)∈ E^D_HP( y1 , y2 ) ∈ Eitalic_Droman_HP, βHPsubscriptHP _HPβroman_HP has upper and lower bounds. Thus, without loss of generality, we assume that for any (y1,y2)∈EHPDsubscript1subscript2subscriptsuperscriptHP(y_1,y_2)∈ E^D_HP( y1 , y2 ) ∈ Eitalic_Droman_HP, constant βHPsubscriptHP _HPβroman_HP is independent of EHPDsubscriptsuperscriptHPE^D_HPEitalic_Droman_HP. This is allowed because we focus on the asymptotics only. Definition B.5 (Inference Path). Given any dataset D and y1∈,y2∈formulae-sequencesubscript1subscript2y_1 ,y_2 1 ∈ Y , y2 ∈ Y, we call a sequence of edges S=(si,ti,Wi)∈ED:i=1⁢…⁢kconditional-setsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsuperscript1…S=\(s_i,t_i,W_i)∈ E^D:i=1… k\S = ( sitalic_i , titalic_i , Witalic_i ) ∈ Eitalic_D : i = 1 … k an inference path from y1subscript1y_1y1 to y2subscript2y_2y2 if y1=s1,tk=y2formulae-sequencesubscript1subscript1subscriptsubscript2y_1=s_1,t_k=y_2y1 = s1 , titalic_k = y2, and si=ti+1,∀i<kformulae-sequencesubscriptsubscript1for-alls_i=t_i+1,\ ∀ i<ksitalic_i = titalic_i + 1 , ∀ i < k. Assuming the independence between RsiDsubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptR^D_s_iRitalic_Ditalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT and Rti+1Dsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript1R^D_t_i+1Ritalic_Ditalic_t start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i + 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT conditional on Rsi+1Dsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript1R^D_s_i+1Ritalic_Ditalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i + 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT, one can uniquely determine the conditional distribution pRy2|Ry1(⋅|⋅)p_R_y_2|R_y_1(·|·)pitalic_R start_POSTSUBSCRIPT y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT | Ritalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( ⋅ | ⋅ ) based on Wi:i=1⁢…⁢kconditional-setsubscript1…\W_i:i=1… k\ Witalic_i : i = 1 … k , which we denote with WS(⋅|⋅)W_S(·|·)Witalic_S ( ⋅ | ⋅ ). There could be multiple possible inference paths between any pair of nodes. To choose the best one among them, we need to define the inference variance of any inference path. Definition B.6 (Inference Distance). Given any inference path S in GDsuperscriptG^DGitalic_D going from y1∈subscript1y_1 1 ∈ Y to y2∈subscript2y_2 2 ∈ Y, its inference variance IV⁢[S]IVdelimited-[]IV[S]IV [ S ] is defined as Var⁢[Ry2D|Ry1D]Vardelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript2subscriptsuperscriptsubscript1Var [R^D_y_2 |R^D_y_1 ]Var [ Ritalic_Ditalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT | Ritalic_Ditalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ]. The optimal inference path in GDsuperscriptG^DGitalic_D between y1subscript1y_1y1 and y2subscript2y_2y2, denoted by SoptD⁢(y1,y2)superscriptsubscriptoptsubscript1subscript2S_opt^D(y_1,y_2)Sroman_optitalic_D ( y1 , y2 ), is the inference path with the smallest inference variance. The inference distance dD⁢(y1,y2)superscriptsubscript1subscript2d^D(y_1,y_2)ditalic_D ( y1 , y2 ) between y1subscript1y_1y1 and y2subscript2y_2y2 is defined as IV⁢[SoptD⁢(y1,y2)]IVdelimited-[]superscriptsubscriptoptsubscript1subscript2IV[S_opt^D(y_1,y_2)]IV [ Sroman_optitalic_D ( y1 , y2 ) ]. Similarly, we define dIB⁢(y1,y2)subscriptIBsubscript1subscript2d_IB(y_1,y_2)droman_IB ( y1 , y2 ) to be the minimum inference variance of paths leading from y1subscript1y_1y1 to y2subscript2y_2y2 that only traverse edges in EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB. Here, the inference variance IV⁢[S]IVdelimited-[]IV[S]IV [ S ] and the inference distance dD⁢(y1,y2)superscriptsubscript1subscript2d^D(y_1,y_2)ditalic_D ( y1 , y2 ) measures the uncertainty over the value of Ry2Dsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript2R^D_y_2Ritalic_Ditalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT if one starts from the value of Ry1Dsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript1R^D_y_1Ritalic_Ditalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT and follows the inference path S. They reflect our ability to determine the relative human preference between y1subscript1y_1y1 and y2subscript2y_2y2 based on information in D. Example B.7. Intuitively, an inference path can be thought of as an argument on the question of how much the human would prefer A over B, and edges on the inference path are reasoning steps that the argument is comprised of. For example, if we have the following two edges (for ease of illustration, we are using “≈” in place of probability distributions): 1. r⁢("Python is best language ever")−r⁢("Java is best language ever")≈10"Python is best language ever""Java is best language ever"10r("Python is best language ever")-r("Java is best language ever"% )≈ 10r ( "Python is best language ever" ) - r ( "Java is best language ever" ) ≈ 10 // because the person likes dynamically-typed languages 2. r⁢("Java is best language ever")−r⁢("C is best language ever")≈5"Java is best language ever""C is best language ever"5r("Java is best language ever")-r("C is best language ever")≈ 5r ( "Java is best language ever" ) - r ( "C is best language ever" ) ≈ 5 // because the person likes memory-safe languages This gives us some evidence supporting the hypothesis • r⁢("Python is best language ever")−r⁢("C is best language ever")≈15"Python is best language ever""C is best language ever"15r("Python is best language ever")-r("C is best language ever")% ≈ 15r ( "Python is best language ever" ) - r ( "C is best language ever" ) ≈ 15 // because the person likes dynamically-typed languages and memory-safe languages But there are other inference paths too, and we need to take into account all possible inference paths going from Python to C, and synthesize all these pieces of evidence in a Bayesian manner, eventually producing our posterior distribution of the random variable r⁢("Python is best lang ever")−r⁢("C is best lang ever")"Python is best lang ever""C is best lang ever"r("Python is best lang ever")-r("C is best lang ever")r ( "Python is best lang ever" ) - r ( "C is best lang ever" ). Definition B.8 (Mean Inference Distance). The mean inference distance of a human preference dataset D is defined by Ey1,y2∈⁢[dD⁢(y1,y2)]subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscript1subscript2E_y_1,y_2 [d^D(y_1,y_2) ]Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_D ( y1 , y2 ) ] , where y1,y2subscript1subscript2y_1,y_2y1 , y2 are independently and equiprobably drawn. Remark B.9 (RM Inference and IBN Inference are Analogous). When the training of the RM on D has converged, every sample in D (i.e., every edge in EHPDsubscriptsuperscriptHPE^D_HPEitalic_Droman_HP) serves as a soft constraint on the RM’s relative preference between the two compared responses, since any sample preference that is violated will create gradients that pull away from convergence. Therefore, the RM policy that is converged upon represents the joint satisfaction of these soft constraints, which enables the RM to perform the equivalent of multi-hop inference on GDsuperscriptG^DGitalic_D. Thus, we consider an RM trained on dataset D to be approximately equivalent to an optimal inference machine on the IBN GDsuperscriptG^DGitalic_D, which allows us to use the mean inference distance as the quality criteria for datasets. From now on, we will use the mean inference distance as the criteria for evaluating a dataset’s quality. Also note that the inference variance focuses on the relative preference between two nodes, which avoids the problem of shift-invariant reward scores. Assumption B.10 (Conditional Independence). Given any induced Bayesian network GDsuperscriptG^DGitalic_D and any y1,y2∈subscript1subscript2y_1,y_2 1 , y2 ∈ Y, the optimal inference path from y1subscript1y_1y1 to y2subscript2y_2y2, SoptD⁢(y1,y2)superscriptsubscriptoptsubscript1subscript2S_opt^D(y_1,y_2)Sroman_optitalic_D ( y1 , y2 ), satisfies the following properties. p⁢(Ry1D,Ry2D|RsiD)=p⁢(Ry1D|RsiD)⋅p⁢(Ry2D|RsiD)subscriptsuperscriptsubscript1conditionalsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript2subscriptsuperscriptsubscript⋅conditionalsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript1subscriptsuperscriptsubscriptconditionalsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript2subscriptsuperscriptsubscriptp (R^D_y_1,R^D_y_2 |R^D_s_i )=p (R^D_y_% 1 |R^D_s_i )· p (R^D_y_2 |R^D_s_i )p ( Ritalic_Ditalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT , Ritalic_Ditalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT | Ritalic_Ditalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ) = p ( Ritalic_Ditalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT | Ritalic_Ditalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ) ⋅ p ( Ritalic_Ditalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 2 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT | Ritalic_Ditalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ) (4) for all sisubscripts_isitalic_i, where sisubscripts_isitalic_i is a node in optimal inference path SoptD⁢(y1,y2)superscriptsubscriptoptsubscript1subscript2S_opt^D(y_1,y_2)Sroman_optitalic_D ( y1 , y2 ). Note that this assumption is stronger than typical conditional independence assumptions, in that it ignores correlations caused by non-optimal paths which have a smaller influence on the inference result. It should be viewed as an approximation. B.2 Analysis of the Chain-Based Information Topology Lemma B.11 (Additive Variance for Independent Logistics). Given any optimal inference path Sopt=(si,ti,Wi)∈ED:i=1⁢…⁢nsubscriptoptconditional-setsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsuperscript1…S_opt=\(s_i,t_i,W_i)∈ E^D:i=1… n\Sroman_opt = ( sitalic_i , titalic_i , Witalic_i ) ∈ Eitalic_D : i = 1 … n , if WisubscriptW_iWitalic_i satisfied the following equation Wi[⋅∣rsi]=Logistic(rsi+δi,1βi),∀rsi∈ℝ,∀i∈[n]W_i [\ · r_s_i ]=Logistic (r_s_i+% _i, 1 _i ),∀ r_s_i ,\ ∀ i% ∈[n]Witalic_i [ ⋅ ∣ ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ] = Logistic ( ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT + δitalic_i , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG βitalic_i end_ARG ) , ∀ ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ∈ blackboard_R , ∀ i ∈ [ n ] (5) for some (δ1,⋯,δn)∈ℝn,(β1,⋯,βn)∈(ℝ+)nformulae-sequencesubscript1⋯subscriptsuperscriptℝsubscript1⋯subscriptsuperscriptsuperscriptℝ( _1,·s, _n)∈R^n,( _1,·s, _n)% ∈ (R^+ )^n( δ1 , ⋯ , δitalic_n ) ∈ blackboard_Rn , ( β1 , ⋯ , βitalic_n ) ∈ ( blackboard_R+ )n,333The δisubscript _iδitalic_i here corresponds to the δjDsubscriptsuperscriptδ^D_jδitalic_Ditalic_j in the original dataset. then we have Var⁢[RtnD|Rs1D]=∑i=1nVar⁢[RtiD−RsiD]Vardelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript1superscriptsubscript1Vardelimited-[]subscriptsuperscriptsubscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptVar [R^D_t_n|R^D_s_1 ]= _i=1^nVar% [R^D_t_i-R^D_s_i ]Var [ Ritalic_Ditalic_t start_POSTSUBSCRIPT n end_POSTSUBSCRIPT | Ritalic_Ditalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ] = ∑i = 1n Var [ Ritalic_Ditalic_t start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT - Ritalic_Ditalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ] (6) Proof. Construct a sequence of mutually independent Logistics X1,⋯,Xnsubscript1⋯subscriptX_1,·s,X_nX1 , ⋯ , Xitalic_n where Xi∼Logistic⁢(δi,1βi)similar-tosubscriptLogisticsubscript1subscriptX_i ( _i, 1 _i)Xitalic_i ∼ Logistic ( δitalic_i , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG βitalic_i end_ARG ). Let S1=Rs1subscript1subscriptsubscript1S_1=R_s_1S1 = Ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT be an arbitrary real-valued random variable with a PDF, let Si=RsisubscriptsubscriptsubscriptS_i=R_s_iSitalic_i = Ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT for i∈[n]delimited-[]i∈[n]i ∈ [ n ], hereby we specially define Sn+1=Rtnsubscript1subscriptsubscriptS_n+1=R_t_nSitalic_n + 1 = Ritalic_t start_POSTSUBSCRIPT n end_POSTSUBSCRIPT. It is easy to prove that Si+1=Si+Xisubscript1subscriptsubscriptS_i+1=S_i+X_iSitalic_i + 1 = Sitalic_i + Xitalic_i. This is because for i∈[n]delimited-[]i∈[n]i ∈ [ n ], when fixes Si=rsisubscriptsubscriptsubscriptS_i=r_s_iSitalic_i = ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT, we have p⁢(Si+1|Si=rsi)conditionalsubscript1subscriptsubscriptsubscript \ \ =p (S_i+1|S_i=r_s_i )p ( Sitalic_i + 1 | Sitalic_i = ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ) =p⁢(Rti|Rsi=rsi)absentconditionalsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscript =p (R_t_i|R_s_i=r_s_i )= p ( Ritalic_t start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT | Ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT = ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ) (7) =Wi⁢[Rti|Rsi=rsi]absentsubscriptdelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscript =W_i [R_t_i|R_s_i=r_s_i ]= Witalic_i [ Ritalic_t start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT | Ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT = ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ] (8) =Logistic⁢(Si+1,rsi+δi,1βi)absentLogisticsubscript1subscriptsubscriptsubscript1subscript =Logistic(S_i+1,r_s_i+ _i, 1 _i% )= Logistic ( Sitalic_i + 1 , ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT + δitalic_i , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG βitalic_i end_ARG ) (9) Therefore, we have Si+1|Si=rsi∼Logistic⁢(rsi+δi,1βi)conditionalsubscript1subscriptsubscriptsubscriptsimilar-toLogisticsubscriptsubscriptsubscript1subscript \ \ S_i+1|S_i=r_s_i (r_% s_i+ _i, 1 _i)Sitalic_i + 1 | Sitalic_i = ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ∼ Logistic ( ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT + δitalic_i , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG βitalic_i end_ARG ) ⇔Si+1−rsi|Si=rsi∼Logistic⁢(δi,1βi)iffabsentsubscript1conditionalsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsimilar-toLogisticsubscript1subscript S_i+1-r_s_i|S_i=r_s_i (% _i, 1 _i)⇔ Sitalic_i + 1 - ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT | Sitalic_i = ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ∼ Logistic ( δitalic_i , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG βitalic_i end_ARG ) ∀Si=rsifor-allsubscriptsubscriptsubscript \ ∀ S_i=r_s_i∀ Sitalic_i = ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT (10) ⇔Si+1−Si∼Logistic⁢(δi,1βi)iffabsentsimilar-tosubscript1subscriptLogisticsubscript1subscript S_i+1-S_i ( _i, 1β% _i)⇔ Sitalic_i + 1 - Sitalic_i ∼ Logistic ( δitalic_i , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG βitalic_i end_ARG ) (11) ⇔Si+1−Si=Xiiffabsentsubscript1subscriptsubscript S_i+1-S_i=X_i⇔ Sitalic_i + 1 - Sitalic_i = Xitalic_i (12) ⇔Si+1=Si+Xiiffabsentsubscript1subscriptsubscript S_i+1=S_i+X_i⇔ Sitalic_i + 1 = Sitalic_i + Xitalic_i (13) The proof above also demonstrates that SisubscriptS_iSitalic_i and XisubscriptX_iXitalic_i are independent, since for any given value of SisubscriptS_iSitalic_i, XisubscriptX_iXitalic_i follows the same distribution. Furthermore, we will prove that SisubscriptS_iSitalic_i and XjsubscriptX_jXitalic_j are independent, for ∀for-all∀ Si,Xj,i≤jsubscriptsubscriptS_i,X_j,i≤ jSitalic_i , Xitalic_j , i ≤ j. Due to the Assumption B.10, we have p⁢(Sj+1=sj+1,Si=si|Sj=sj)=formulae-sequencesubscript1subscript1subscriptconditionalsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptabsent p (S_j+1=s_j+1,S_i=s_i |S_% j=s_j )=p ( Sitalic_j + 1 = sitalic_j + 1 , Sitalic_i = sitalic_i | Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) = p⁢(Sj+1=sj+1|Sj=sj)⋅p⁢(Si=si|Sj=sj)⋅subscript1conditionalsubscript1subscriptsubscriptsubscriptconditionalsubscriptsubscriptsubscript p (S_j+1=s_j+1 |S_j=s_j% )· p (S_i=s_i |S_j=s_j )p ( Sitalic_j + 1 = sitalic_j + 1 | Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) ⋅ p ( Sitalic_i = sitalic_i | Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) ⟺Xj=Sj+1−Sj⁢p⁢(Xj=xj,Si=si|Sj=sj)=subscriptsubscript1subscript⟺formulae-sequencesubscriptsubscriptsubscriptconditionalsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptabsent $X_j=S_j+1-S_j$ p % (X_j=x_j,S_i=s_i |S_j=s_j )=start_OVERACCENT Xitalic_j = Sitalic_j + 1 - Sitalic_j end_OVERACCENT start_ARG ⟺ end_ARG p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j , Sitalic_i = sitalic_i | Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) = p⁢(Xj=xj|Sj=sj)⋅p⁢(Si=si|Sj=sj)⋅subscriptconditionalsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptconditionalsubscriptsubscriptsubscript \ p (X_j=x_j |S_j=s_% j )· p (S_i=s_i |S_j=s_j )p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j | Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) ⋅ p ( Sitalic_i = sitalic_i | Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) (14) ⇔p⁢(Xj=xj,Si=si,Sj=sj)⋅p⁢(Sj=sj)=iffabsent⋅formulae-sequencesubscriptsubscriptformulae-sequencesubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptabsent p (X_j=x_j,S_i=s_i,S_j=s_j )· p% (S_j=s_j )=⇔ p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j , Sitalic_i = sitalic_i , Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) ⋅ p ( Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) = p⁢(Xj=xj,Sj=sj)⋅p⁢(Si=si,Sj=sj)⋅formulae-sequencesubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptformulae-sequencesubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscript \ \ \ p (X_j=x_j,S_j=s_j )% · p (S_i=s_i,S_j=s_j )p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j , Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) ⋅ p ( Sitalic_i = sitalic_i , Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) (15) ⇔Xj⟂Sj ⁢p⁢(Xj=xj,Si=si,Sj=sj)=p⁢(Xj=xj)⋅p⁢(Si=si,Sj=sj)Xj⟂Sj iffformulae-sequencesubscriptsubscriptformulae-sequencesubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscript⋅subscriptsubscriptformulae-sequencesubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscript $X_j S_j$ p (X_j=x_j% ,S_i=s_i,S_j=s_j )=p (X_j=x_j )· p (S_i=s_% i,S_j=s_j )overXj⟂Sj start_ARG ⇔ end_ARG p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j , Sitalic_i = sitalic_i , Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) = p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j ) ⋅ p ( Sitalic_i = sitalic_i , Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) (16) ⇔p(Xj=xj|Si=si,Sj=sj)=p(Xj=xj) \, p (X_j=x_j |S_i=s_i,S_j=s_j% )=p (X_j=x_j )⇔ p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j | Sitalic_i = sitalic_i , Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) = p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j ) (17) for xj,si,sj∈ℛsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptℛx_j,s_i,s_j _j , sitalic_i , sitalic_j ∈ R. p⁢(Xj=xj|Si=si)subscriptconditionalsubscriptsubscriptsubscript \ \ =p (X_j=x_j|S_i=s_i )p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j | Sitalic_i = sitalic_i ) =p⁢(Xj=xj,Si=si)p⁢(Si=si)absentformulae-sequencesubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscript = p (X_j=x_j,S_i=s_i )p (S_i=s_i% )= divide start_ARG p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j , Sitalic_i = sitalic_i ) end_ARG start_ARG p ( Sitalic_i = sitalic_i ) end_ARG (18) =∫ℛp⁢(Xj=xj,Si=si,Sj=sj)p⁢(Si=si)⁢sjabsentsubscriptℛformulae-sequencesubscriptsubscriptformulae-sequencesubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptdifferential-dsubscript = _R p (X_j=x_j,S_i=s_i,S_j=s_% j )p (S_i=s_i )\,ds_j= ∫R divide start_ARG p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j , Sitalic_i = sitalic_i , Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) end_ARG start_ARG p ( Sitalic_i = sitalic_i ) end_ARG d sitalic_j (19) =∫ℛp(Xj=xj|Si=si,Sj=sj)⋅p⁢(Si=si,Sj=sj)p⁢(Si=si)dsj = _Rp (X_j=x_j |S_i=s_i,S_j=s_% j )· p (S_i=s_i,S_j=s_j )p (S_i=s_i% )\,ds_j= ∫R p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j | Sitalic_i = sitalic_i , Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) ⋅ divide start_ARG p ( Sitalic_i = sitalic_i , Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) end_ARG start_ARG p ( Sitalic_i = sitalic_i ) end_ARG d sitalic_j (20) =p⁢(Xj=xj)⋅∫ℛp⁢(Si=si,Sj=sj)p⁢(Si=si)⁢sjabsent⋅subscriptsubscriptsubscriptℛformulae-sequencesubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptdifferential-dsubscript =p (X_j=x_j )· _R p (S_% i=s_i,S_j=s_j )p (S_i=s_i )\,ds_j= p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j ) ⋅ ∫R divide start_ARG p ( Sitalic_i = sitalic_i , Sitalic_j = sitalic_j ) end_ARG start_ARG p ( Sitalic_i = sitalic_i ) end_ARG d sitalic_j (21) =p⁢(Xj=xj)absentsubscriptsubscript =p (X_j=x_j )= p ( Xitalic_j = xitalic_j ) (22) ∀xj,si,sj∈ℛfor-allsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptℛ∀ x_j,s_i,s_j ∀ xitalic_j , sitalic_i , sitalic_j ∈ R. Therefore, XjsubscriptX_jXitalic_j and SisubscriptS_iSitalic_i are independent, ∀i,j∈[n],i≤jformulae-sequencefor-alldelimited-[]∀ i,j∈[n],i≤ j∀ i , j ∈ [ n ] , i ≤ j. We also show that Cov⁢(Xi,Xj)=0Covsubscriptsubscript0Cov (X_i,X_j )=0Cov ( Xitalic_i , Xitalic_j ) = 0 for i,j∈[n],i<jformulae-sequencedelimited-[]i,j∈[n],i<ji , j ∈ [ n ] , i < j. Cov⁢(Xi,Xj)Covsubscriptsubscript \ \ =Cov (X_i,X_j )Cov ( Xitalic_i , Xitalic_j ) =Cov⁢(Xj,Si+1−Si)absentCovsubscriptsubscript1subscript =Cov (X_j,S_i+1-S_i )= Cov ( Xitalic_j , Sitalic_i + 1 - Sitalic_i ) (23) =Cov⁢(Xj,Si+1)−Cov⁢(Xj,Si)Xm,Sn independent for n≤m.absentCovsubscriptsubscript1CovsubscriptsubscriptXm,Sn independent for n≤m. =Cov (X_j,S_i+1 )-Cov (X_j,S% _i ) $X_m,S_n$ independent for $n≤ m$.= Cov ( Xitalic_j , Sitalic_i + 1 ) - Cov ( Xitalic_j , Sitalic_i ) Xitalic_m , Sitalic_n independent for n ≤ m . (24) =0absent0 =0= 0 (25) Finally, for rs1,S1=rs1subscriptsubscript1subscript1subscriptsubscript1r_s_1,S_1=r_s_1ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT , S1 = ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT, we have Var⁢[Sn+1|S1=rs1]Vardelimited-[]conditionalsubscript1subscript1subscriptsubscript1 \ \ =Var [S_n+1|S_1=r_s_1 ]Var [ Sitalic_n + 1 | S1 = ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ] =Var⁢[S1+∑i=1nXi|S1=rs1]absentVardelimited-[]subscript1conditionalsuperscriptsubscript1subscriptsubscript1subscriptsubscript1 =Var [S_1+ _i=1^nX_i |S_1=r_s_1% ]= Var [ S1 + ∑i = 1n Xitalic_i | S1 = ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ] (26) =Var⁢[∑i=1nXi|S1=rs1]absentVardelimited-[]conditionalsuperscriptsubscript1subscriptsubscript1subscriptsubscript1 =Var [ _i=1^nX_i |S_1=r_s_1 ]= Var [ ∑i = 1n Xitalic_i | S1 = ritalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ] (27) =Var⁢[∑i=1nXi]absentVardelimited-[]superscriptsubscript1subscript =Var [ _i=1^nX_i ]= Var [ ∑i = 1n Xitalic_i ] (28) =∑i=1nVar⁢[Xi]absentsuperscriptsubscript1Vardelimited-[]subscript = _i=1^nVar [X_i ]= ∑i = 1n Var [ Xitalic_i ] (29) Therefore, Var⁢[RtnD|Rs1D]=Var⁢[Sn+1|S1]=∑i=1nVar⁢[Xi]Vardelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript1Vardelimited-[]conditionalsubscript1subscript1superscriptsubscript1Vardelimited-[]subscriptVar [R^D_t_n|R^D_s_1 ]=Var [S_n+1% |S_1 ]= _i=1^nVar [X_i ]Var [ Ritalic_Ditalic_t start_POSTSUBSCRIPT n end_POSTSUBSCRIPT | Ritalic_Ditalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ] = Var [ Sitalic_n + 1 | S1 ] = ∑i = 1n Var [ Xitalic_i ] (30) where XisubscriptX_iXitalic_i is simply RtiD−RsiDsubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptR^D_t_i-R^D_s_iRitalic_Ditalic_t start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT - Ritalic_Ditalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT, for i∈[n]delimited-[]i∈[n]i ∈ [ n ]. ∎ In the following part, we will utilize XisubscriptX_iXitalic_i as defined in the Lemma B.11 to assist in the proof. Lemma B.12 (Threshold of Connectivity for G⁢(n,p)G(n,p)G ( n , p )). In a random graph G⁢(n,p)G(n,p)G ( n , p ), if the expected number of edges m=(n2)⁢pbinomial2m=n 2pm = ( binomial start_ARG n end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ) p satisfies m≥2⁢n⁢log⁡n2m≥ 2n nm ≥ 2 n log n, we have limn→+∞P⁢[G⁢(n,p)⁢ is connected]=1−O⁢(1n)subscript→Pdelimited-[] is connected11 _n→+∞P [G(n,p) is connected ]=1-O (% 1n )limitalic_n → + ∞ P [ G ( n , p ) is connected ] = 1 - O ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG n end_ARG ) (31) Lemma B.12 is proved in Durrett (2007) as Theorem 2.8.3. The subsequent proofs will all be contingent on G⁢(n,p)G(n,p)G ( n , p ) being connected, hence we will refer to the Lemma B.12 without citation in the following text. Lemma B.13 (Expected Distance in Random Graph). For any random graph G⁢(n,p)G(n,p)G ( n , p ), let k=n⁢pk=npk = n p be the expected average degree which satisfies 2⁢log⁡n≤k≤n22 n≤ k≤ n2 log n ≤ k ≤ n. We have E⁢[dG⁢(x,y)|x,y⁢ are connected in ⁢G]=Θ⁢(logk⁡n)Edelimited-[]conditionalsubscript are connected in ΘsubscriptE[d_G(x,y)|x,y are connected in G]= ( _kn)E [ ditalic_G ( x , y ) | x , y are connected in G ] = Θ ( logitalic_k n ) (32) where x,yx,yx , y are two nodes that are independently and randomly drawn, dG⁢(x,y)subscriptd_G(x,y)ditalic_G ( x , y ) stands for the distance between x,yx,yx , y in G, and the expectation is taken over the randomness of G and the choice of x,yx,yx , y. Lemma B.13 is a direct corollary of Theorem 2.4.1 in Durrett (2007). Definition B.14 (Structural Function). Given any M∈ℤ+superscriptℤM ^+M ∈ blackboard_Z+, let ℱ⁢(M)ℱF (M )F ( M ) be the smallest d∈ℝ+superscriptℝd ^+d ∈ blackboard_R+ such that there exists a partition 1,⋯,M⁢(i⊆)subscript1⋯subscriptsubscriptC_1,·s,C_M\ (C_i % Y)C1 , ⋯ , Citalic_M ( Citalic_i ⊆ Y ) of YY satisfying444Recall that a partition is a series of non-intersecting subsets whose union equals the full set. Ey1,y2∈i⁢[dIB⁢(y1,y2)]≤d,∀isubscriptEsubscript1subscript2subscriptdelimited-[]subscriptIBsubscript1subscript2for-allE_y_1,y_2∈C_i [d_IB(y_1,y_2)% ]≤ d,\ ∀ iEitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Citalic_i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ droman_IB ( y1 , y2 ) ] ≤ d , ∀ i (33) and 12⁢M≤|i|||≤2M,∀1≤i≤Mformulae-sequence12subscript2for-all1 12M≤ |C_i||Y|≤ 2M,% ∀ 1≤ i≤ Mdivide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 M end_ARG ≤ divide start_ARG | Citalic_i | end_ARG start_ARG | Y | end_ARG ≤ divide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG M end_ARG , ∀ 1 ≤ i ≤ M (34) We will call ℱFF the structural function, since its asymptotic behavior reveals structural properties of EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB. Remark B.15 (Intuition on the Structural Function). The asymptotic behavior of ℱFF can be understood as a measure of the degree of isolation and decentralization in the graph G′⁢(,EIB)superscript′subscriptIBG (Y,E_IB)G′ ( Y , Eroman_IB ). Extremely dense graphs or centralized graphs, such as a clique or a star graph, possess an asymptotically constant ℱFF. Extremely decentralized graphs, such as a long chain, have ℱ⁢(M)=Θ⁢(M−1)ℱΘsuperscript1F(M)= (M^-1 )F ( M ) = Θ ( M- 1 ). Therefore, when ℱ⁢(M)∼I⋅g⁢(M)similar-toℱ⋅F(M) I· g(M)F ( M ) ∼ I ⋅ g ( M ) (where I is simply defined as ℱ⁢(1)ℱ1F(1)F ( 1 )), we interpret the asymptotic behavior of g as a measure of the diversity and complexity of the language modeling task at hand, since it characterizes isolation and decentralization in the output space YY. Assumption B.16 (Nontrivial Inference Distance via EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB). We will always assume ||≫|D|much-greater-than|Y| |D|| Y | ≫ | D |. Relatedly, we will assume ℱ⁢(1)=Ey1,y2∈⁢[dIB⁢(y1,y2)]≫βHPℱ1subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]subscriptIBsubscript1subscript2much-greater-thansubscriptHPF (1 )=E_y_1,y_2∈Y [d_% IB(y_1,y_2) ] _HPF ( 1 ) = Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ droman_IB ( y1 , y2 ) ] ≫ βroman_HP (35) which we will approximate as ℱ⁢(1)≔I=ω⁢(1)⁢(|D|→+∞)≔ℱ11→F (1 ) I=ω(1)\ (|D|→+∞)F ( 1 ) ≔ I = ω ( 1 ) ( | D | → + ∞ ). For readability’s sake, however, we may sometimes omit this term when doing so doesn’t hurt the validity of the derivation. Furthermore, we assume that there exists a non-decreasing function f⁢(u):[1,+∞)→[0,+∞):→10f(u):[1,+∞)→[0,+∞)f ( u ) : [ 1 , + ∞ ) → [ 0 , + ∞ ) with a monotone derivative, and f⁢(u)f(u)f ( u ) satisfies that f⁢(u)ℱ⁢(⌊u⌋)ℱ f(u)F( u )divide start_ARG f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG F ( ⌊ u ⌋ ) end_ARG and f⁢(u)ℱ⁢(⌈u⌉)ℱ f(u)F( u )divide start_ARG f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG F ( ⌈ u ⌉ ) end_ARG are (uniformly) bounded from above and below by positive constants. In other words, f⁢(u)f(u)f ( u ) is a extension of ℱ⁢(M)ℱF(M)F ( M ) that preserves its asymptotic behaviors while being differentiable. Proposition B.17 (Path Structure in Chain-Based Dataset). Given any chain-based dataset D=DchainsubscriptchainD=D_chainD = Droman_chain and M∈ℤ+superscriptℤM ^+M ∈ blackboard_Z+ satisfying 2⁢M⁢log⁡M≤|Dchain|≤M22subscriptchainsuperscript22M M≤ |D_chain |≤ M^22 M log M ≤ | Droman_chain | ≤ M2, with probability 1−o⁢(1)⁢(|D|→+∞)11→1-o(1)\ ( |D |→+∞)1 - o ( 1 ) ( | D | → + ∞ ), there exists an inference path with an inference variance of O⁢(log|D|/M⁡M⋅(1+ℱ⁢(M)))⋅subscript1ℱO ( _|D|/MM· (1+F(M) ) )O ( log| D | / M M ⋅ ( 1 + F ( M ) ) ) (36) As a corollary, with probability 1−o⁢(1)⁢(|D|→+∞)11→1-o(1)\ ( |D |→+∞)1 - o ( 1 ) ( | D | → + ∞ ), the mean inference distance of DchainsubscriptchainD_chainDroman_chain, Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDchain⁢(y1,y2)]subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscriptchainsubscript1subscript2E_y_1,y_2 [d^D_chain(y_1,y_2% ) ]Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_chain ( y1 , y2 ) ], satisfies that Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDchain⁢(y1,y2)]=O⁢(minM: 2⁢M⁢log⁡M≤|D|≤M2⁡log|D|/M⁡M⋅(1+ℱ⁢(M)))subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscriptchainsubscript1subscript2subscript:2superscript2⋅subscript1ℱE_y_1,y_2 [d^D_chain(y_1,y_2% ) ]=O ( _M\;:\;2M M≤|D|≤ M^2 \ _|D|/MM% · (1+F(M) ) \ )Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_chain ( y1 , y2 ) ] = O ( minitalic_M : 2 M log M ≤ | D | ≤ M2 log| D | / M M ⋅ ( 1 + F ( M ) ) ) (37) Proof. By Definition B.14, we consider a partition 1,⋯,M⁢(i⊆)subscript1⋯subscriptsubscriptC_1,·s,C_M\ (C_i % Y)C1 , ⋯ , Citalic_M ( Citalic_i ⊆ Y ) of YY. For y1,y2∈subscript1subscript2y_1,y_2 1 , y2 ∈ Y, an optimal inference path from y1subscript1y_1y1 to y2subscript2y_2y2 can be define as S=(si,ti,Wi)∈ED:i=1⁢…⁢kconditional-setsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsuperscript1…S=\(s_i,t_i,W_i)∈ E^D:i=1… k\S = ( sitalic_i , titalic_i , Witalic_i ) ∈ Eitalic_D : i = 1 … k , where s1=y1,tk=y2,ti=si+1formulae-sequencesubscript1subscript1formulae-sequencesubscriptsubscript2subscriptsubscript1s_1=y_1,t_k=y_2,t_i=s_i+1s1 = y1 , titalic_k = y2 , titalic_i = sitalic_i + 1. To consider the relationship between s1,…,sk,sk+1=tksubscript1…subscriptsubscript1subscripts_1,…,s_k,s_k+1=t_ks1 , … , sitalic_k , sitalic_k + 1 = titalic_k and CisubscriptC_iCitalic_i, we assume that there exists u1,…,um∈[k+1],1=u1<u2<…<um≤k+1,um+1=k+2formulae-sequencesubscript1…subscriptdelimited-[]11subscript1subscript2…subscript1subscript12u_1,…,u_m∈[k+1],1=u_1<u_2<…<u_m≤ k+1,u_m+1=k+2u1 , … , uitalic_m ∈ [ k + 1 ] , 1 = u1 < u2 < … < uitalic_m ≤ k + 1 , uitalic_m + 1 = k + 2 and v1,…,vm∈[M]subscript1…subscriptdelimited-[]v_1,…,v_m∈[M]v1 , … , vitalic_m ∈ [ M ] such that si∈Cvlsubscriptsubscriptsubscripts_i∈ C_v_lsitalic_i ∈ Citalic_v start_POSTSUBSCRIPT l end_POSTSUBSCRIPT for ul≤i<ul+1,l∈[m+1]formulae-sequencesubscriptsubscript1delimited-[]1u_l≤ i<u_l+1,l∈[m+1]uitalic_l ≤ i < uitalic_l + 1 , l ∈ [ m + 1 ]. According to Lemma B.11, we have Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDchain⁢(y1,y2)]subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscriptchainsubscript1subscript2 _y_1,y_2 [d^D_chain% (y_1,y_2) ]Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_chain ( y1 , y2 ) ] =∑i=1sVar⁢[Ri+1−Ri]absentsuperscriptsubscript1Vardelimited-[]subscript1subscript = _i=1^sVar [R_i+1-R_i ]= ∑i = 1s Var [ Ritalic_i + 1 - Ritalic_i ] (38) =∑i=1m∑j=uiui+1−2Var⁢[Rj+1−Rj]+∑i=2mVar⁢[Rui+1−Rui]absentsuperscriptsubscript1superscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscript12Vardelimited-[]subscript1subscriptsuperscriptsubscript2Vardelimited-[]subscriptsubscript1subscriptsubscript = _i=1^m _j=u_i^u_i+1-2Var [R_j+1% -R_j ]+ _i=2^mVar [R_u_i+1-R_u_i ]= ∑i = 1m ∑j = u start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPTuitalic_i + 1 - 2 Var [ Ritalic_j + 1 - Ritalic_j ] + ∑i = 2m Var [ Ritalic_u start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i + 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT - Ritalic_u start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ] (39) ∑j=uiui+1−2Var⁢[Rj+1−Rj]superscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscript12Vardelimited-[]subscript1subscript _j=u_i^u_i+1-2Var [R_j+1-R_j ]∑j = u start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPTuitalic_i + 1 - 2 Var [ Ritalic_j + 1 - Ritalic_j ] represents the distance between two points within the same CisubscriptC_iCitalic_i. Meanwhile, (Rui,Rui+1)subscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscript1(R_u_i,R_u_i+1)( Ritalic_u start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT , Ritalic_u start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i + 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ) are elements of EHPDsuperscriptsubscriptHPE_HP^D\;Eroman_HPitalic_D for ∀i=2,…,mfor-all2…\;∀ i=2,…,m∀ i = 2 , … , m, due to Assumption B.4, Var⁢[Rui+1−Rui]Vardelimited-[]subscriptsubscript1subscriptsubscriptVar [R_u_i+1-R_u_i ]Var [ Ritalic_u start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i + 1 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT - Ritalic_u start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ] is a constant. Thus, by the Definition B.14, we have Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDchain⁢(y1,y2)]=O⁢(m⋅ℱ⁢(ℳ)+m−1)subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscriptchainsubscript1subscript2⋅ℱℳ1E_y_1,y_2 [d^D_chain(y_1,y_2% ) ]=O (m·F (M )+m-1 )Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_chain ( y1 , y2 ) ] = O ( m ⋅ F ( M ) + m - 1 ) (40) Next, we estimate the value of m. Under the current setting, we can regard CisubscriptC_iCitalic_i as points, and m−11m-1m - 1 essentially represents the expected distance between any two points in the random graph G⁢(M,|D|/M2)superscript2G(M,|D|/M^2)G ( M , | D | / M2 ) with CisubscriptC_iCitalic_i as the node. Therefore, by the Lemma B.13, we have: m−1=Θ⁢(log|D|/M⁡M)1Θsubscriptm-1= ( _|D|/MM )m - 1 = Θ ( log| D | / M M ) (41) with probability 1−o⁢(1)⁢(|D|→+∞)11→1-o(1)\ ( |D |→+∞)1 - o ( 1 ) ( | D | → + ∞ ), when M∈ℤ+superscriptℤM ^+M ∈ blackboard_Z+ satisfying 2⁢M⁢log⁡M≤|Dchain|≤M22subscriptchainsuperscript22M M≤ |D_chain |≤ M^22 M log M ≤ | Droman_chain | ≤ M2. Therefore, by (40) and (41), Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDchain⁢(y1,y2)]=O⁢(minM: 2⁢M⁢log⁡M≤|D|≤M2⁡log|D|/M⁡M⋅(1+ℱ⁢(M)))subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscriptchainsubscript1subscript2subscript:2superscript2⋅subscript1ℱE_y_1,y_2 [d^D_chain(y_1,y_2% ) ]=O ( _M\;:\;2M M≤|D|≤ M^2 \ _|D|/MM% · (1+F(M) ) \ )Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_chain ( y1 , y2 ) ] = O ( minitalic_M : 2 M log M ≤ | D | ≤ M2 log| D | / M M ⋅ ( 1 + F ( M ) ) ) (42) which completes the proof. ∎ Theorem B.18 (Mean Inference Distance of Chain-Based Dataset). For any chain-based dataset D=DchainsubscriptchainD=D_chainD = Droman_chain, with probability 1−o⁢(1)⁢(|D|→+∞)11→1-o(1)\ ( |D |→+∞)1 - o ( 1 ) ( | D | → + ∞ ), its mean inference distance Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDchain⁢(y1,y2)]subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscriptchainsubscript1subscript2E_y_1,y_2 [d^D_chain(y_1,y_2% ) ]Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_chain ( y1 , y2 ) ] satisfies555To avoid dividing by zero, log⁡M Mlog M should be replaced with c+log⁡Mc+ Mc + log M here for some constant c. However this won’t affect the derivation, and for simplicity we will omit the extra c. The same holds for the remaining two cases. Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDchain⁢(y1,y2)]subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscriptchainsubscript1subscript2 =\ E_y_1,y_2 [d^D_% chain(y_1,y_2) ]Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_chain ( y1 , y2 ) ] =O⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)1+α|D|α⁢log⁡log⁡|D|)(ℱ⁢(M)∼I⋅M−α,α>0; variance of ⁢EIB⁢ dominant)O⁢(I22+α⁢|D|−α2+α)(ℱ⁢(M)∼I⋅M−α,α>0; variance approaches ⁢0)O⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)−α)(ℱ⁢(M)∼I⋅(log⁡M)−α,α>0)O⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈|D|12⌉))(ℱ⁢(M)=I⋅ω⁢((log⁡M)−ϵ),∀ϵ>0; variance of ⁢EIB⁢ dominant)O⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈(I⁢|D|)12(log⁡|D|)ϵ⌉))(ℱ⁢(M)=I⋅ω⁢((log⁡M)−ϵ),∀ϵ>0; variance approaches ⁢0)absentcases⋅superscript1superscriptformulae-sequencesimilar-toℱ⋅superscript0 variance of subscriptIB dominantsuperscript22superscript2formulae-sequencesimilar-toℱ⋅superscript0 variance approaches 0⋅superscriptformulae-sequencesimilar-toℱ⋅superscript0ℱsuperscript12formulae-sequenceℱ⋅superscriptitalic-ϵfor-allitalic-ϵ0 variance of subscriptIB dominantℱsuperscript12superscriptitalic-ϵformulae-sequenceℱ⋅superscriptitalic-ϵfor-allitalic-ϵ0 variance approaches 0 = cases*O ( I· ( |D| )^1+α% |D|^α |D| )&$(F(M) I· M^-α,% α>0; variance of E_IB dominant)$\\ O (I 22+α|D|^- α2+α )&$( % F(M) I· M^-α,\ α>0; variance approaches 0)$\\ O (I· ( |D| )^-α )&$(F(M) I% · ( M )^-α,α>0)$\\ O (F ( |D| 12 )% )&$(F(M)=I·ω ( ( M )^-ε% ),∀ε>0; variance of E_IB dominant)% $\\ O (F ( (I|D| ) 12% ( |D| )^ε ) )&$(F(M)=% I·ω ( ( M )^-ε ),∀ε>0;% variance approaches 0)$ cases*= start_ROW start_CELL O ( divide start_ARG I ⋅ ( log | D | )1 + α end_ARG start_ARG | D |α log log | D | end_ARG ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) ∼ I ⋅ M- α , α > 0 ; variance of Eroman_IB dominant ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( Idivide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG | D |- divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) ∼ I ⋅ M- α , α > 0 ; variance approaches 0 ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( I ⋅ ( log | D | )- α ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) ∼ I ⋅ ( log M )- α , α > 0 ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( F ( ⌈ | D |divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ⌉ ) ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) = I ⋅ ω ( ( log M )- ϵ ) , ∀ ϵ > 0 ; variance of Eroman_IB dominant ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log | D | )ϵ end_ARG ⌉ ) ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) = I ⋅ ω ( ( log M )- ϵ ) , ∀ ϵ > 0 ; variance approaches 0 ) end_CELL end_ROW Proof. Observe that, given any constant α independent of |D||D|| D |, since for any u such that f⁢(u)<αf (u )< ( u ) < α, we can take u0<usubscript0u_0<u0 < u satisftying f⁢(u0)=αsubscript0f(u_0)= ( u0 ) = α and verify that f⁢(u)=Ω⁢(f⁢(u0))Ωsubscript0f(u)= (f(u_0))f ( u ) = Ω ( f ( u0 ) ), and thus, combined with Proposition B.17, we have Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDchain⁢(y1,y2)]subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscriptchainsubscript1subscript2 _y_1,y_2 [d^D_chain% (y_1,y_2) ]Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_chain ( y1 , y2 ) ] =O⁢(minM: 2⁢M⁢log⁡M≤|D|≤M2⁡log|D|/M⁡M⋅(1+ℱ⁢(M)))absentsubscript:2superscript2⋅subscript1ℱ =O ( _M\;:\;2M M≤|D|≤ M^2 \ _|D|/M% M· (1+F(M) ) \ )= O ( minitalic_M : 2 M log M ≤ | D | ≤ M2 log| D | / M M ⋅ ( 1 + F ( M ) ) ) (43) =O⁢(minM: 2⁢M⁢log⁡M≤|D|≤M2,M≤ℱ−1⁢(βHP)⁡log|D|/M⁡M⋅ℱ⁢(M))absentsubscript:2superscript2superscriptℱ1subscriptHPsubscript⋅ℱ =O ( _M\;:\;2M M≤|D|≤ M^2,\;M≤F% ^-1( _HP) \ _|D|/MM·F(M) \ )= O ( minitalic_M : 2 M log M ≤ | D | ≤ M2 , M ≤ F- 1 ( β start_POSTSUBSCRIPT HP ) end_POSTSUBSCRIPT log| D | / M M ⋅ F ( M ) ) (44) As a direct corollary of Assumption B.16, we can construct the differentiable function g⁢(u;|D|)≔log|D|/u⁡u⋅f⁢(u)≔subscript⋅g(u;|D|) _|D|/uu· f(u)g ( u ; | D | ) ≔ log| D | / u u ⋅ f ( u ) (45) making g⁢(u;|D|)log|D|/⌊u⌋⁡⌊u⌋⋅ℱ⁢(⌊u⌋)⋅subscriptℱ g(u;|D|) _|D|/ u u ·F(% u )divide start_ARG g ( u ; | D | ) end_ARG start_ARG log| D | / ⌊ u ⌋ ⌊ u ⌋ ⋅ F ( ⌊ u ⌋ ) end_ARG (46) and g⁢(u;|D|)log|D|/⌈u⌉⁡⌈u⌉⋅ℱ⁢(⌈u⌉)⋅subscriptℱ g(u;|D|) _|D|/ u u ·F( u% )divide start_ARG g ( u ; | D | ) end_ARG start_ARG log| D | / ⌈ u ⌉ ⌈ u ⌉ ⋅ F ( ⌈ u ⌉ ) end_ARG (47) both bounded from above and below by positive constants. In other words, g⁢(u;|D|)g(u;|D|)g ( u ; | D | ) is a extension of (37) that preserves its asymptotic behaviors while being differentiable. Therefore, to find the aymptotically tightest bounded provided by (37) boils down to minimizing g⁢(u;|D|)g(u;|D|)g ( u ; | D | ) w.r.t. u. Now, to minimizing g⁢(u;|D|)g(u;|D|)g ( u ; | D | ) w.r.t. u, we differentiate g. d⁢g⁢(u,|D|)d⁢udd dg(u,|D|)dudivide start_ARG d g ( u , | D | ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG =d⁢f⁢(u)d⁢u⁢log|D|/u⁡u+f⁢(u)⁢[1u⁢log⁡|D|u+log⁡u⁢log2⁡|D|u]absentddsubscriptdelimited-[]1superscript2 = df(u)du _|D|/uu+f(u) [ % 1u |D|u+ uu ^2 |D|u ]= divide start_ARG d f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG log| D | / u u + f ( u ) [ divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG u log divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG end_ARG + divide start_ARG log u end_ARG start_ARG u log2 divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG end_ARG ] (48) =d⁢f⁢(u)d⁢u⁢log|D|/u⁡u+f⁢(u)u⁢log⁡|D|u⋅(1+log|D|/u⁡u)absentddsubscript⋅1subscript = df(u)du _|D|/uu+ f(u)u% |D|u· (1+ _|D|/uu )= divide start_ARG d f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG log| D | / u u + divide start_ARG f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG u log divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG end_ARG ⋅ ( 1 + log| D | / u u ) (49) Next, we will proceed and examine the cases below individually. • Case 1: f⁢(u)∼I⋅u−α,α>0formulae-sequencesimilar-to⋅superscript0f(u) I· u^-α,\ α>0f ( u ) ∼ I ⋅ u- α , α > 0. In this case, d⁢g⁢(u,|D|)d⁢udd dg(u,|D|)dudivide start_ARG d g ( u , | D | ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG =d⁢f⁢(u)d⁢u⁢log|D|/u⁡u+f⁢(u)u⁢log⁡|D|u⋅(1+log|D|/u⁡u)absentddsubscript⋅1subscript = df(u)du _|D|/uu+ f(u)u% |D|u· (1+ _|D|/uu )= divide start_ARG d f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG log| D | / u u + divide start_ARG f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG u log divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG end_ARG ⋅ ( 1 + log| D | / u u ) (50) =(d⁢f⁢(u)d⁢u+f⁢(u)u⁢log⁡|D|u)⋅log|D|/u⁡u⋅(1+o⁢(1))absent⋅ddsubscript11 = ( df(u)du+ f(u)u % |D|u )· _|D|/uu·(1+o(1))= ( divide start_ARG d f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG + divide start_ARG f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG u log divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG end_ARG ) ⋅ log| D | / u u ⋅ ( 1 + o ( 1 ) ) (51) =(−α⁢u−α−1+u−αu⁢log⁡|D|u)⋅log|D|/u⁡u⋅(I+o⁢(I))absent⋅superscript1superscriptsubscript = (-α u^-α-1+ u^-αu |D|u% )· _|D|/uu·(I+o(I))= ( - α u- α - 1 + divide start_ARG u- α end_ARG start_ARG u log divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG end_ARG ) ⋅ log| D | / u u ⋅ ( I + o ( I ) ) (52) Therefore, d⁢g⁢(u,|D|)d⁢u=o⁢(1)d1 dg(u,|D|)du=o(1)divide start_ARG d g ( u , | D | ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG = o ( 1 ) ⇔α⁢u−α−1=u−αu⁢log⁡|D|uiffabsentsuperscript1superscript α u^-α-1= u^-αu |D|u⇔ α u- α - 1 = divide start_ARG u- α end_ARG start_ARG u log divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG end_ARG (53) ⇔log⁡|D|u=α−1iffabsentsuperscript1 |D|u=α^-1⇔ log divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG = α- 1 (54) ⇔u=|D|eα−1=Θ⁢(|D|)iffabsentsuperscriptsuperscript1Θ u= |D|e^α^-1= (|D|)⇔ u = divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG eitalic_α start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT - 1 end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT end_ARG = Θ ( | D | ) (55) But u=Θ⁢(|D|)Θu= (|D|)u = Θ ( | D | ) violates the constraint 2⁢u⁢log⁡u≤|D|22u u≤|D|2 u log u ≤ | D |, and it can be easily verified that the optimal choice of u, uoptsubscriptoptu_opturoman_opt, is Θ⁢(|D|log⁡|D|)Θ ( |D| |D| )Θ ( divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG log | D | end_ARG ). Accordingly, minu⁡g⁢(u;|D|)subscript _ug(u;|D|)minitalic_u g ( u ; | D | ) =Θ⁢(loglog⁡|D|⁡|D|⋅ℱ⁢(|D|log⁡|D|))absentΘsubscript⋅ℱ = ( _ |D||D|·F ( |D|% |D| ) )= Θ ( logroman_log | D | | D | ⋅ F ( divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG log | D | end_ARG ) ) (56) =Θ⁢(log⁡|D|log⁡log⁡|D|⋅ℱ⁢(|D|log⁡|D|))absentΘ⋅ℱ = ( |D| |D|·F (% |D| |D| ) )= Θ ( divide start_ARG log | D | end_ARG start_ARG log log | D | end_ARG ⋅ F ( divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG log | D | end_ARG ) ) (57) =Θ⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)1+α|D|α⁢log⁡log⁡|D|)absentΘ⋅superscript1superscript = ( I· ( |D| )^1+α|D|^% α |D| )= Θ ( divide start_ARG I ⋅ ( log | D | )1 + α end_ARG start_ARG | D |α log log | D | end_ARG ) (58) Note, however, that this bound only applies if uopt≤f−1⁢(βHP)subscriptoptsuperscript1subscriptHPu_opt≤ f^-1( _HP)uroman_opt ≤ f- 1 ( βroman_HP ). Otherwise, we would be minimizing log|D|/u⁡usubscript _|D|/uulog| D | / u u, which means taking u=|D|u= |D|u = square-root start_ARG | D | end_ARG and getting the bound O⁢(1)1O(1)O ( 1 ). • Case 2: f⁢(u)∼I⋅(log⁡u)−α,α>0formulae-sequencesimilar-to⋅superscript0f(u) I· ( u )^-α,\ α>0f ( u ) ∼ I ⋅ ( log u )- α , α > 0. In this case, d⁢g⁢(u,|D|)d⁢udd dg(u,|D|)dudivide start_ARG d g ( u , | D | ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG =d⁢f⁢(u)d⁢u⁢log|D|/u⁡u+f⁢(u)u⁢log⁡|D|u⋅(1+log|D|/u⁡u)absentddsubscript⋅1subscript = df(u)du _|D|/uu+ f(u)u% |D|u· (1+ _|D|/uu )= divide start_ARG d f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG log| D | / u u + divide start_ARG f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG u log divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG end_ARG ⋅ ( 1 + log| D | / u u ) (59) =d⁢f⁢(u)d⁢u⁢log|D|/u⁡u+f⁢(u)u⁢log⁡|D|u⋅log|D|/u⁡u⋅(1+log⁡|D|−log⁡ulog⁡u)absentddsubscript⋅subscript1 = df(u)du _|D|/uu+ f(u)u% |D|u· _|D|/uu· (1+ |D|- u u )= divide start_ARG d f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG log| D | / u u + divide start_ARG f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG u log divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG end_ARG ⋅ log| D | / u u ⋅ ( 1 + divide start_ARG log | D | - log u end_ARG start_ARG log u end_ARG ) (60) =(d⁢f⁢(u)d⁢u+f⁢(u)u⁢log⁡|D|u+f⁢(u)u⁢log⁡u)⋅log|D|/u⁡uabsent⋅ddsubscript = ( df(u)du+ f(u)u % |D|u+ f(u)u u )· _|D|/uu= ( divide start_ARG d f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG + divide start_ARG f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG u log divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG end_ARG + divide start_ARG f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG u log u end_ARG ) ⋅ log| D | / u u (61) ∼(−αu⁢log⁡u+1u⁢log⁡|D|u+1u⁢log⁡u)⋅(log⁡u)−α⋅log|D|/u⁡u⋅Isimilar-toabsent⋅11superscriptsubscript⋅ (- αu u+ 1u |D|u+% 1u u )· ( u )^-α· _|D|/uu· I∼ ( - divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG u log u end_ARG + divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG u log divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG end_ARG + divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG u log u end_ARG ) ⋅ ( log u )- α ⋅ log| D | / u u ⋅ I (62) Therefore, d⁢g⁢(u,|D|)d⁢u=o⁢(1)d1 dg(u,|D|)du=o(1)divide start_ARG d g ( u , | D | ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG = o ( 1 ) ⇔−αu⁢log⁡u+1u⁢log⁡|D|u+1u⁢log⁡u=0iffabsent110 - αu u+ 1u |D|u+ 1% u u=0⇔ - divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG u log u end_ARG + divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG u log divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG end_ARG + divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG u log u end_ARG = 0 (63) ⇔α⁢log⁡u=(α−1)⁢log⁡|D|iffabsent1 α u=(α-1) |D|⇔ α log u = ( α - 1 ) log | D | (64) ⇔u=|D|α−1αiffabsentsuperscript1 u=|D| α-1α⇔ u = | D |divide start_ARG α - 1 end_ARG start_ARG α end_ARG (65) Taking into account the constraint |D|≤u2superscript2|D|≤ u^2| D | ≤ u2, it can be verified that uopt=|D|max⁡(12,α−1α)subscriptoptsuperscript121u_opt=|D| ( 12, α-1α )uroman_opt = | D |max ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG , divide start_ARG α - 1 end_ARG start_ARG α end_ARG ). Accordingly, minu⁡g⁢(u;|D|)subscript _ug(u;|D|)minitalic_u g ( u ; | D | ) =Θ⁢(f⁢(uopt))absentΘsubscriptopt = (f (u_opt ) )= Θ ( f ( uroman_opt ) ) (66) =Θ⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)−α)absentΘ⋅superscript = (I· ( |D| )^-α )= Θ ( I ⋅ ( log | D | )- α ) (67) Note, however, that this bound only applies if uopt≤f−1⁢(βHP)subscriptoptsuperscript1subscriptHPu_opt≤ f^-1( _HP)uroman_opt ≤ f- 1 ( βroman_HP ). • Case 3: f⁢(u)=I⋅ω⁢((log⁡u)−ϵ),∀ϵ>0formulae-sequence⋅superscriptitalic-ϵfor-allitalic-ϵ0f(u)=I·ω ( ( u )^-ε ),\ ∀% ε>0f ( u ) = I ⋅ ω ( ( log u )- ϵ ) , ∀ ϵ > 0. In this case, d⁢g⁢(u,|D|)d⁢u=(d⁢f⁢(u)d⁢u+f⁢(u)u⁢log⁡|D|u+f⁢(u)u⁢log⁡u)⋅log|D|/u⁡udd⋅ddsubscript dg(u,|D|)du= ( df(u)du% + f(u)u |D|u+ f(u)u u )· _|D|/uudivide start_ARG d g ( u , | D | ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG = ( divide start_ARG d f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG + divide start_ARG f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG u log divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u end_ARG end_ARG + divide start_ARG f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG u log u end_ARG ) ⋅ log| D | / u u (68) While we have d⁢f⁢(u)d⁢uf⁢(u)d df(u)duf(u)divide start_ARG divide start_ARG d f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG f ( u ) end_ARG =d⁢log⁡f⁢(u)d⁢uabsentdd = d f(u)du= divide start_ARG d log f ( u ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG (69) =o⁢(1u⁢log⁡u)absent1 =o ( 1u u )= o ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG u log u end_ARG ) (70) where (70) utilizes the monotonicity of f’s derivative. Therefore d⁢g⁢(u,|D|)d⁢u>0d0 dg(u,|D|)du>0divide start_ARG d g ( u , | D | ) end_ARG start_ARG d u end_ARG > 0 if uopt≥|D|γsubscriptoptsuperscriptu_opt≥|D|^γuroman_opt ≥ | D |γ for some γ>00γ>0γ > 0 and sufficiently large |D||D|| D |. Given the constraint 2⁢u⁢log⁡u≤|D|≤u22superscript22u u≤|D|≤ u^22 u log u ≤ | D | ≤ u2, this means that it would be impossible to obtain any bound better than g⁢(|D|12;|D|)=Θ⁢(ℱ⁢(|D|12))superscript12Θℱsuperscript12g (|D| 12;|D| )= (F (|D| % 12 ) )g ( | D |divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ; | D | ) = Θ ( F ( | D |divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ) ) (71) Also note that this bound only applies if uopt≤f−1⁢(βHP)subscriptoptsuperscript1subscriptHPu_opt≤ f^-1( _HP)uroman_opt ≤ f- 1 ( βroman_HP ). • Addition: |D|≫u2much-greater-thansuperscript2|D| u^2| D | ≫ u2. Proposition B.17 does not apply when |D|≫u2much-greater-thansuperscript2|D| u^2| D | ≫ u2. However, in this case there are, with probability 1−o⁢(1)111-o(1)1 - o ( 1 ), Θ⁢(|D|u2)Θsuperscript2 ( |D|u^2 )Θ ( divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG u2 end_ARG ) parallel edges between the start and end clusters. By Lemma B.22,666We placed Lemma B.22 in the next subsection due to the length of the proof. the inference variance associated with the path between the two cluster is Θ⁢(u2|D|)Θsuperscript2 ( u^2|D| )Θ ( divide start_ARG u2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ), and therefore Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDchain⁢(y1,y2)]subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscriptchainsubscript1subscript2 =\ \;E_y_1,y_2 [d^D_% chain(y_1,y_2) ]Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_chain ( y1 , y2 ) ] (72) =O⁢(minM≤|D|⁡ℱ⁢(M)+M2|D|)absentsubscriptℱsuperscript2 =O ( _M≤ |D| \F(M)+ M^2% |D| \ )= O ( minitalic_M ≤ square-root start_ARG | D | end_ARG F ( M ) + divide start_ARG M2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ) (73) =O⁢(ℱ⁢(M)+M2|D|)where ⁢M⁢ satisfies that ⁢ℱ⁢(M)=Θ⁢(M2|D|)formulae-sequenceabsentℱsuperscript2where satisfies that ℱΘsuperscript2 =O (F(M)+ M^2|D| ) % M satisfies that F(M)= ( M^2|D| )= O ( F ( M ) + divide start_ARG M2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ) where M satisfies that F ( M ) = Θ ( divide start_ARG M2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ) (74) where the asymptotic tightness of (74) can be verified from the monotonicity of ℱ⁢(M)ℱF(M)F ( M ) and M2|D|superscript2 M^2|D|divide start_ARG M2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG. – Case 1 Addition. Solving u2|D|=I⋅u−αsuperscript2⋅superscript u^2|D|=I· u^-αdivide start_ARG u2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG = I ⋅ u- α results in uopt=(I⁢|D|)12+αsubscriptoptsuperscript12u_opt= (I|D| ) 12+αuroman_opt = ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG, and the resulting bound is f⁢((I⁢|D|)12+α)+(I⁢|D|)22+α|D|=Θ⁢(I22+α⁢|D|−α2+α)superscript12superscript22Θsuperscript22superscript2f ( (I|D| ) 12+α )+ (I|D| )^% 22+α|D|= (I 22+α|D|^- α% 2+α )f ( ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG ) + divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG = Θ ( Idivide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG | D |- divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG ) (75) which improves upon the previous bound when uopt>f−1⁢(βHP)subscriptoptsuperscript1subscriptHPu_opt>f^-1( _HP)uroman_opt > f- 1 ( βroman_HP ). – Case 2 Addition. Solving u2|D|=I⋅(log⁡u)−αsuperscript2⋅superscript u^2|D|=I·( u)^-αdivide start_ARG u2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG = I ⋅ ( log u )- α results in uopt=Θ⁢((I⁢|D|)12(log⁡(I⁢|D|))α2)subscriptoptΘsuperscript12superscript2u_opt= ( (I|D| ) 12 ( % (I|D| ) ) α2 )uroman_opt = Θ ( divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log ( I | D | ) )divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG ) f⁢((I⁢|D|)12(log⁡(I⁢|D|))α2)+I⁢|D|(log⁡(I⁢|D|))α|D|=Θ⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)−α)superscript12superscript2superscriptΘ⋅superscriptf ( (I|D| ) 12 ( (I|D| )% ) α2 )+ I|D| ( (I|D|% ) )^α|D|= (I· ( |D| )^-α% )f ( divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log ( I | D | ) )divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG ) + divide start_ARG divide start_ARG I | D | end_ARG start_ARG ( log ( I | D | ) )α end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG = Θ ( I ⋅ ( log | D | )- α ) (76) which matches the previous bound, but has a larger range of application since it doesn’t require uopt≤f−1⁢(βHP)subscriptoptsuperscript1subscriptHPu_opt≤ f^-1( _HP)uroman_opt ≤ f- 1 ( βroman_HP ). – Case 3 Addition. Solving u2|D|=I⋅(log⁡u)−ϵsuperscript2⋅superscriptitalic-ϵ u^2|D|=I·( u)^-εdivide start_ARG u2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG = I ⋅ ( log u )- ϵ results in uopt=Θ⁢((I⁢|D|)12(log⁡(I⁢|D|))ϵ)=Θ⁢((I⁢|D|)12(log⁡|D|)ϵ),∀ϵformulae-sequencesubscriptoptΘsuperscript12superscriptitalic-ϵΘsuperscript12superscriptitalic-ϵfor-allitalic-ϵu_opt= ( (I|D| ) 12 ( % (I|D| ) )^ε )= ( (I|D| % ) 12 ( |D| )^ε ),\ ∀ _opt = Θ ( divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log ( I | D | ) )ϵ end_ARG ) = Θ ( divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log | D | )ϵ end_ARG ) , ∀ ϵ, and the resulting bound is O⁢(f⁢((I⁢|D|)12(log⁡|D|)ϵ))superscript12superscriptitalic-ϵO (f ( (I|D| ) 12 ( |D| )^% ε ) )O ( f ( divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log | D | )ϵ end_ARG ) ), which may be either tighter or looser than the previous bound, but doesn’t require uopt≤f−1⁢(βHP)subscriptoptsuperscript1subscriptHPu_opt≤ f^-1( _HP)uroman_opt ≤ f- 1 ( βroman_HP ). Aggregating all cases enumerated above, we have Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDchain⁢(y1,y2)]subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscriptchainsubscript1subscript2 =\ E_y_1,y_2 [d^D_% chain(y_1,y_2) ]Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_chain ( y1 , y2 ) ] =O⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)1+α|D|α⁢log⁡log⁡|D|)(ℱ⁢(M)∼I⋅M−α,α>0; variance of ⁢EIB⁢ dominant)O⁢(I22+α⁢|D|−α2+α)(ℱ⁢(M)∼I⋅M−α,α>0; variance approaches ⁢0)O⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)−α)(ℱ⁢(M)∼I⋅(log⁡M)−α,α>0)O⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈|D|12⌉))(ℱ⁢(M)=I⋅ω⁢((log⁡M)−ϵ),∀ϵ>0; variance of ⁢EIB⁢ dominant)O⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈(I⁢|D|)12(log⁡|D|)ϵ⌉))(ℱ⁢(M)=I⋅ω⁢((log⁡M)−ϵ),∀ϵ>0; variance approaches ⁢0)absentcases⋅superscript1superscriptformulae-sequencesimilar-toℱ⋅superscript0 variance of subscriptIB dominantsuperscript22superscript2formulae-sequencesimilar-toℱ⋅superscript0 variance approaches 0⋅superscriptformulae-sequencesimilar-toℱ⋅superscript0ℱsuperscript12formulae-sequenceℱ⋅superscriptitalic-ϵfor-allitalic-ϵ0 variance of subscriptIB dominantℱsuperscript12superscriptitalic-ϵformulae-sequenceℱ⋅superscriptitalic-ϵfor-allitalic-ϵ0 variance approaches 0 = cases*O ( I· ( |D| )^1+α% |D|^α |D| )&$(F(M) I· M^-α,% α>0; variance of E_IB dominant)$\\ O (I 22+α|D|^- α2+α )&$( % F(M) I· M^-α,\ α>0; variance approaches 0)$\\ O (I· ( |D| )^-α )&$(F(M) I% · ( M )^-α,α>0)$\\ O (F ( |D| 12 )% )&$(F(M)=I·ω ( ( M )^-ε% ),∀ε>0; variance of E_IB dominant)% $\\ O (F ( (I|D| ) 12% ( |D| )^ε ) )&$(F(M)=% I·ω ( ( M )^-ε ),∀ε>0;% variance approaches 0)$ cases*= start_ROW start_CELL O ( divide start_ARG I ⋅ ( log | D | )1 + α end_ARG start_ARG | D |α log log | D | end_ARG ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) ∼ I ⋅ M- α , α > 0 ; variance of Eroman_IB dominant ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( Idivide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG | D |- divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) ∼ I ⋅ M- α , α > 0 ; variance approaches 0 ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( I ⋅ ( log | D | )- α ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) ∼ I ⋅ ( log M )- α , α > 0 ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( F ( ⌈ | D |divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ⌉ ) ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) = I ⋅ ω ( ( log M )- ϵ ) , ∀ ϵ > 0 ; variance of Eroman_IB dominant ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log | D | )ϵ end_ARG ⌉ ) ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) = I ⋅ ω ( ( log M )- ϵ ) , ∀ ϵ > 0 ; variance approaches 0 ) end_CELL end_ROW where the variance conditions correspond to whether or not uopt≤f−1⁢(βHP)subscriptoptsuperscript1subscriptHPu_opt≤ f^-1( _HP)uroman_opt ≤ f- 1 ( βroman_HP ). This completes the proof. ∎ B.3 Analysis of the Tree-Based Information Topology Assumption B.19 (Structure of EHPsubscriptHPE_HPEroman_HP for Tree-Structured Datasets). A tree-structured dataset DtreesubscripttreeD_treeDroman_tree is a human preference dataset generated via the following steps:777Note that |Dtree|subscripttree|D_tree|| Droman_tree | is the count of preference pairs sampled from the tree, which may differ from the size of the tree itself. • Generate a tree of responses of height 2⁢h2ℎ2h2 h, following the procedure in Algorithm 1. The tree contains B2superscript2B^2B2 leaves, each of them corresponding to an element of YY (as is the case for any node in the tree). The B2superscript2B^2B2 leaves are evenly distributed across B subtrees of height hℎh. • Equiprobably and independently sample |Dtree|subscripttree|D_tree|| Droman_tree | pairs of leaves to form DtreesubscripttreeD_treeDroman_tree. Accordingly, EHPDtreesubscriptsuperscriptsubscripttreeHPE^D_tree_HPEitalic_Droman_treeroman_HP is constructed as follows. • B nodes y1,⋯,yBsubscript1⋯subscripty_1,·s,y_By1 , ⋯ , yitalic_B in YY will be picked independently and uniformly at random. They will serve as the roots of the B subtrees. • For each yisubscripty_iyitalic_i, pick B nodes within ℱ⁢(B1+γ)ℱsuperscript1F (B^1+γ )F ( B1 + γ ) EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB-inference distance888Here, EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB-inference distance refers to the minimum inference variance of any inference path only traversing edges in EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB. from yisubscripty_iyitalic_i uniformly at random, forming the leaves of the subtree rooted at yisubscripty_iyitalic_i. Here, γ is a positive constant whose value won’t affect later derivations. Let S⊆S YS ⊆ Y be the set of the resulting B2superscript2B^2B2 nodes. Note that we assume that no element y will be present in more than one subtree. • Independently sample |Dtree|subscripttree|D_tree|| Droman_tree | pairs from B uniformly at random. These pairs, along with the human evaluation labels δ, then form DtreesubscripttreeD_treeDroman_tree. Here, we view leaves in the same height-hℎh subtree as significantly similar, and leaves not sharing a height-hℎh subtree as entirely dissimilar. The ℱ⁢(B1+γ)ℱsuperscript1F (B^1+γ )F ( B1 + γ ) distance bound results from the observation that when given the roots of the B subtrees, the union of the potential span of the B subtrees covers an o⁢(1)1o(1)o ( 1 ) portion of YY, which we denote with B−γsuperscriptB^-γB- γ, and therefore the potential span of each subtree should cover a B−(1+γ)superscript1B^-(1+γ)B- ( 1 + γ ) portion. This is an approximation to the actual situation where similarity gradually decreases as lowest common ancestor becomes higher and higher up. Also, in service to later analysis and in line with practice, we will assume that |Dtree|≥3⁢B⁢log⁡Bsubscripttree3|D_tree|≥ 3B B| Droman_tree | ≥ 3 B log B, which, by Lemma B.12, guarantees with probability 1−O⁢(1B)111-O ( 1B )1 - O ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG B end_ARG ) the reachability between all the B subtrees by inter-subtree edges in EHPDtreesubscriptsuperscriptsubscripttreeHPE^D_tree_HPEitalic_Droman_treeroman_HP. Proposition B.20 (Path Structure in Tree-Structured Dataset). Given any tree-structured dataset D=DtreesubscripttreeD=D_treeD = Droman_tree containing B2superscript2B^2B2 leaves, then with probability 1−o⁢(1)⁢(|Dtree|→+∞)11→subscripttree1-o(1)\ ( |D_tree |→+∞)1 - o ( 1 ) ( | Droman_tree | → + ∞ ), there exists an inference path with an inference variance of O⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+log|D|/B⁡B⋅(1+ℱ⁢(⌈B1+γ⌉)))(3⁢B⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B2)O⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+B2|D|+ℱ⁢(⌈B1+γ⌉))(B2⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B4)O⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+B4|D|)(|D|≥B4⁢log⁡B)casesℱ⋅subscript1ℱsuperscript13superscript2ℱsuperscript2ℱsuperscript1superscript2superscript4ℱsuperscript4superscript4 cases*O (F( B B )+ _|D|/BB% · (1+F( B^1+γ ) ) )&$ (3B% B≤|D|≤ B^2 )$\\ O (F( B B )+ B^2|D|+F% ( B^1+γ ) )&$ (B^2 B≤|D|≤ B^4 )$% \\ O (F( B B )+ B^4|D| )&$% (|D|≥ B^4 B )$ cases* start_ROW start_CELL O ( F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + log| D | / B B ⋅ ( 1 + F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ) ) ) end_CELL start_CELL ( 3 B log B ≤ | D | ≤ B2 ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + divide start_ARG B2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG + F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ) ) end_CELL start_CELL ( B2 log B ≤ | D | ≤ B4 ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + divide start_ARG B4 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ) end_CELL start_CELL ( | D | ≥ B4 log B ) end_CELL end_ROW (77) As a corollary, with probability 1−o⁢(1)⁢(|Dtree|→+∞)11→subscripttree1-o(1)\ ( |D_tree |→+∞)1 - o ( 1 ) ( | Droman_tree | → + ∞ ), the mean inference distance of DtreesubscripttreeD_treeDroman_tree, Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDtree⁢(y1,y2)]subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscripttreesubscript1subscript2E_y_1,y_2 [d^D_tree(y_1,y_2) ]Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_tree ( y1 , y2 ) ], satisfies that Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDtree⁢(y1,y2)]subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscripttreesubscript1subscript2 =\ \;E_y_1,y_2 [d^D_% tree(y_1,y_2) ]Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_tree ( y1 , y2 ) ] (78) =O(minminB: 3⁢B⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B2[ℱ(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+log|D|/B⋅(1+ℱ(⌈B1+γ⌉))], =O ( \ _B\;:\;3B B≤|D|≤ B^2 [% F( B B )+ _|D|/BB· (1+F% ( B^1+γ ) ) ], . .= O ( min minitalic_B : 3 B log B ≤ | D | ≤ B2 [ F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + log| D | / B B ⋅ ( 1 + F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ) ) ] , minB:B2⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B4⁡[ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+B2|D|+ℱ⁢(⌈B1+γ⌉)],subscript:superscript2superscript4ℱsuperscript2ℱsuperscript1 =\ \;O( \ . . _B\;:\;B^2 B≤|D|% ≤ B^4 [F( B B )+ B^2|D|+% F( B^1+γ ) ], . .minitalic_B : B2 log B ≤ | D | ≤ B4 [ F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + divide start_ARG B2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG + F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ) ] , minB:|D|≥B4⁢log⁡B[ℱ(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+B4|D|]) =\ \;O( \ . . _B\;:\;|D|≥ B^4 B% [F( B B )+ B^4|D| ]% \ )minitalic_B : | D | ≥ B4 log B [ F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + divide start_ARG B4 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ] ) (79) =O(minminB: 3⁢B⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B2[ℱ(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+log|D|/B⋅(1+ℱ(⌈B1+γ⌉))], =O ( \ _B\;:\;3B B≤|D|≤ B^2 [% F( B B )+ _|D|/BB· (1+F% ( B^1+γ ) ) ], . .= O ( min minitalic_B : 3 B log B ≤ | D | ≤ B2 [ F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + log| D | / B B ⋅ ( 1 + F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ) ) ] , minB:B2⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B4⁡[ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+B2|D|],subscript:superscript2superscript4ℱsuperscript2 =\ \;O( \ . . _B\;:\;B^2 B≤|D|% ≤ B^4 [F( B B )+ B^2|D|% ], . .minitalic_B : B2 log B ≤ | D | ≤ B4 [ F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + divide start_ARG B2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ] , minB:|D|≥B4⁢log⁡B[ℱ(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+B4|D|]) =\ \;O( \ . . _B\;:\;|D|≥ B^4 B% [F( B B )+ B^4|D| ]% \ )minitalic_B : | D | ≥ B4 log B [ F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + divide start_ARG B4 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ] ) (80) Proof. Let S1,⋯,SBsubscript1⋯subscriptS_1,·s,S_BS1 , ⋯ , Sitalic_B denote the B depth-hℎh subtrees, where every Si⊆subscriptS_i YSitalic_i ⊆ Y correspondes to the set of leaves in the i-th subtree. Let S=⋃iSisubscriptsubscriptS= _iS_iS = ⋃i Sitalic_i, and define the mapping σ:S→[B]:→delimited-[]σ:S→[B]σ : S → [ B ] satisfying y∈Sσ⁢(y),∀y∈Sformulae-sequencesubscriptfor-ally∈ S_σ(y),∀ y∈ Sy ∈ Sitalic_σ ( y ) , ∀ y ∈ S. Let oi∈subscripto_i∈Yoitalic_i ∈ Y be the root of the i-th subtree. We construct an auxiliary graph G′⁢([B],E′)superscript′delimited-[]superscript′G ([B],E )G′ ( [ B ] , E′ ) where E′=(σ⁢(u),σ⁢(v)):(u,v,W)∈EHPDsuperscript′conditional-setsubscriptsuperscriptHPE =\(σ(u),σ(v)):(u,v,W)∈ E^D_HP\E′ = ( σ ( u ) , σ ( v ) ) : ( u , v , W ) ∈ Eitalic_Droman_HP . To prove (77), we examine the three cases individually. • Case 1: 3⁢B⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B23superscript23B B≤|D|≤ B^23 B log B ≤ | D | ≤ B2. Define P⊆[B]2superscriptdelimited-[]2P [B]^2P ⊆ [ B ]2 to be the set of pairs (a,b)(a,b)( a , b ) such that there exists a path on G′ from a to b containing no more than Θ⁢(log|D|/B⁡B)Θsubscript ( _|D|/BB)Θ ( log| D | / B B ) edges. By Lemma B.13, no more than |P|≥(1−o⁢(1))⁢B211superscript2|P|≥(1-o(1))B^2| P | ≥ ( 1 - o ( 1 ) ) B2. Let 1,⋯,⌈Blog⁡B⌉subscript1⋯subscriptC_1,·s,C_ B B C1 , ⋯ , C⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ be a partition satisfying the properties specified in Definition B.14. Given any y∈y∈Yy ∈ Y satisfying y∈ksubscripty∈C_ky ∈ Citalic_k for some k, we have P⁢[∄vi∈k]Pdelimited-[]not-existssubscriptsubscript [ ∃ v_i∈C_k ]P [ ∄ vitalic_i ∈ Citalic_k ] =(1−|k||Y|)Babsentsuperscript1subscript = (1- |C_k||Y| )^B= ( 1 - divide start_ARG | Citalic_k | end_ARG start_ARG | Y | end_ARG )B (81) =(1−Θ⁢(log⁡B))Babsentsuperscript1Θ = (1- ( BB ) )^B= ( 1 - Θ ( divide start_ARG log B end_ARG start_ARG B end_ARG ) )B (82) =e−Θ⁢(log⁡B)absentsuperscriptΘ =e^- ( B)= e- Θ ( log B ) (83) =o⁢(1)absent1 =o(1)= o ( 1 ) (84) Therefore, for randomly picked y1,y2∈subscript1subscript2y_1,y_2∈Yy1 , y2 ∈ Y, with probability 1−o⁢(1)111-o(1)1 - o ( 1 ), there exists ossubscripto_soitalic_s located in the same isubscriptC_iCitalic_i as y1subscript1y_1y1, otsubscripto_toitalic_t located in the same isubscriptC_iCitalic_i as y2subscript2y_2y2, and a path on G′ leading from s to t of length no more than Θ⁢(log|D|/B⁡B)Θsubscript ( _|D|/BB)Θ ( log| D | / B B ). Therefore, with probability 1−o⁢(1)111-o(1)1 - o ( 1 ), we have an inference path from y1subscript1y_1y1 to y2subscript2y_2y2 of the following structure: – An initial segment leading from y1subscript1y_1y1 to some ossubscripto_soitalic_s, with an inference variance no more than ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)ℱF ( B B )F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ). – An finishing segment leading from some otsubscripto_toitalic_t to y2subscript2y_2y2, with an inference variance no more than ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)ℱF ( B B )F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ). – No more than Θ⁢(log|D|/B⁡B)Θsubscript ( _|D|/BB)Θ ( log| D | / B B ) edges Q=(ui,vi,Wi)∈EHPDsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptsuperscriptHPQ= (u_i,v_i,W_i )∈ E^D_HPQ = ( uitalic_i , vitalic_i , Witalic_i ) ∈ Eitalic_Droman_HP, so that all the (σ⁢(ui),σ⁢(vi))subscriptsubscript (σ(u_i),σ(v_i) )( σ ( uitalic_i ) , σ ( vitalic_i ) ) forming the s-t path on G′. – For every pair (a,b)∈vi,ui+1:1≤i<|Q|∪(os,u1),(v|Q|,ot)conditional-setsubscriptsubscript11subscriptsubscript1subscriptsubscript(a,b)∈\v_i,u_i+1:1≤ i<|Q|\∪\(o_s,u_1),(v_|Q|,o_t)\( a , b ) ∈ vitalic_i , uitalic_i + 1 : 1 ≤ i < | Q | ∪ ( oitalic_s , u1 ) , ( v| Q | , oitalic_t ) , a segment with inference variance no more than ℱ⁢(⌈B1+γ⌉)ℱsuperscript1F ( B^1+γ )F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ) leading from a to b. By Lemma B.11, the inference variance of the constructed path is Θ⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+(log|D|/B⁡B+1)⋅(1+ℱ⁢(⌈B1+γ⌉))−1)Θℱ⋅subscript11ℱsuperscript11 =\ \ (F ( B% B )+ ( _|D|/BB+1 )· (1+ % F ( B^1+γ ) )-1 )Θ ( F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + ( log| D | / B B + 1 ) ⋅ ( 1 + F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ) ) - 1 ) (85) =Θ⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+log|D|/B⁡B⋅(1+ℱ⁢(⌈B1+γ⌉)))absentΘℱ⋅subscript1ℱsuperscript1 = (F ( B B % )+ _|D|/BB· (1+F ( B^1+% γ ) ) )= Θ ( F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + log| D | / B B ⋅ ( 1 + F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ) ) ) (86) • Case 2: B2⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B4superscript2superscript4B^2 B≤|D|≤ B^4B2 log B ≤ | D | ≤ B4. In this case, G′ is dense with (with probability 1−o⁢(1)111-o(1)1 - o ( 1 )) Θ⁢(|D|B2)Θsuperscript2 ( |D|B^2 )Θ ( divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG B2 end_ARG ) parallel edges between any pair of nodes. By Lemma B.22, the inference variance of Θ⁢(|D|B2)=ω⁢(1)Θsuperscript21 ( |D|B^2 )=ω(1)Θ ( divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG B2 end_ARG ) = ω ( 1 ) parallel edges can be reduced to B2|D|superscript2 B^2|D|divide start_ARG B2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG. Therefore, with probability 1−o⁢(1)111-o(1)1 - o ( 1 ), we have an inference path from y1subscript1y_1y1 to y2subscript2y_2y2 of the following structure: – An initial segment leading from y1subscript1y_1y1 to some ossubscripto_soitalic_s, with an inference variance no more than ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)ℱF ( B B )F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ). Connected to this segment, is another segment traveling within SssubscriptS_sSitalic_s with inference variance ℱ⁢(⌈B1+γ⌉)ℱsuperscript1F ( B^1+γ )F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ). – An finishing segment leading from some otsubscripto_toitalic_t to y2subscript2y_2y2, with an inference variance no more than ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)ℱF ( B B )F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ). Connected to this segment, is another segment traveling within SssubscriptS_sSitalic_s with inference variance ℱ⁢(⌈B1+γ⌉)ℱsuperscript1F ( B^1+γ )F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ). – A collection of Θ⁢(|D|B2)Θsuperscript2 ( |D|B^2 )Θ ( divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG B2 end_ARG ) parallel edges between SssubscriptS_sSitalic_s and StsubscriptS_tSitalic_t, with variance approximately Θ⁢(B2|D|)Θsuperscript2 ( B^2|D| )Θ ( divide start_ARG B2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ). The inference variance of the constructed path is ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+B2|D|+ℱ⁢(⌈B1+γ⌉)ℱsuperscript2ℱsuperscript1F ( B B )+ B^2|% D|+F ( B^1+γ )F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + divide start_ARG B2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG + F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ) (87) • Case 3: |D|≥B4⁢log⁡Bsuperscript4|D|≥ B^4 B| D | ≥ B4 log B. In this case, given any a,b∈Sa,b∈ Sa , b ∈ S, with probability 1−o⁢(1)111-o(1)1 - o ( 1 ), there are Θ⁢(|D|B4)Θsuperscript4 ( |D|B^4 )Θ ( divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG B4 end_ARG ) parallel edges between a and b. Therefore, with probability 1−o⁢(1)111-o(1)1 - o ( 1 ), we have an inference path from y1subscript1y_1y1 to y2subscript2y_2y2 of the following structure: – An initial segment leading from y1subscript1y_1y1 to some ossubscripto_soitalic_s, with an inference variance no more than ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)ℱF ( B B )F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ). – An finishing segment leading from some otsubscripto_toitalic_t to y2subscript2y_2y2, with an inference variance no more than ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)ℱF ( B B )F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ). – A collection of Θ⁢(|D|B4)Θsuperscript4 ( |D|B^4 )Θ ( divide start_ARG | D | end_ARG start_ARG B4 end_ARG ) parallel edges between ossubscripto_soitalic_s and otsubscripto_toitalic_t, with variance approximately Θ⁢(B4|D|)Θsuperscript4 ( B^4|D| )Θ ( divide start_ARG B4 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ). The inference variance of the constructed path is ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+B4|D|ℱsuperscript4F ( B B )+ B^4|% D|F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + divide start_ARG B4 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG (88) ∎ Theorem B.21 (Mean Inference Distance of Tree-Based Dataset). For any tree-structured dataset D=DtreesubscripttreeD=D_treeD = Droman_tree, with probability 1−o⁢(1)⁢(|D|→+∞)11→1-o(1)\ ( |D |→+∞)1 - o ( 1 ) ( | D | → + ∞ ), its mean inference distance Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDtree⁢(y1,y2)]subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscripttreesubscript1subscript2E_y_1,y_2 [d^D_tree(y_1,y_2) ]Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_tree ( y1 , y2 ) ] satisfies Ey1,y2∈⁢[dDtree⁢(y1,y2)]subscriptEsubscript1subscript2delimited-[]superscriptsubscripttreesubscript1subscript2 =\ E_y_1,y_2 [d^D_% tree(y_1,y_2) ]Eitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ ditalic_Droman_tree ( y1 , y2 ) ] =O⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)2⁢α|D|α)(ℱ⁢(M)∼I⋅M−α,α>0; variance of ⁢EIB⁢ dominant)O⁢(I22+α⁢|D|−α2+α⁢(log⁡|D|)2⁢α2+α)(ℱ⁢(M)∼I⋅M−α,α>0; variance approaches ⁢0)O⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)−α)(ℱ⁢(M)∼I⋅(log⁡M)−α,α>0)O⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈|D|12⌉))(ℱ⁢(M)=I⋅ω⁢((log⁡M)−ϵ),∀ϵ>0; variance of ⁢EIB⁢ dominant)O⁢(ℱ⁢(⌈(I⁢|D|)12(log⁡|D|)ϵ⌉))(ℱ⁢(M)=I⋅ω⁢((log⁡M)−ϵ),∀ϵ>0; variance approaches ⁢0)absentcases⋅superscript2superscriptformulae-sequencesimilar-toℱ⋅superscript0 variance of subscriptIB dominantsuperscript22superscript2superscript22formulae-sequencesimilar-toℱ⋅superscript0 variance approaches 0⋅superscriptformulae-sequencesimilar-toℱ⋅superscript0ℱsuperscript12formulae-sequenceℱ⋅superscriptitalic-ϵfor-allitalic-ϵ0 variance of subscriptIB dominantℱsuperscript12superscriptitalic-ϵformulae-sequenceℱ⋅superscriptitalic-ϵfor-allitalic-ϵ0 variance approaches 0 = cases*O ( I· ( |D| )^2α% |D|^α )&$(F(M) I· M^-α,\ α>0;% variance of E_IB dominant)$\\ O (I 22+α|D|^- α2+α ( |D| % ) 2α2+α )&$(F(M) I· M^-α,% \ α>0; variance approaches 0)$\\ O (I· ( |D| )^-α )&$(F(M) I% · ( M )^-α,α>0)$\\ O (F ( |D| 12 )% )&$(F(M)=I·ω ( ( M )^-ε% ),∀ε>0; variance of E_IB dominant)% $\\ O (F ( (I|D| ) 12% ( |D| )^ε ) )&$(F(M)=% I·ω ( ( M )^-ε ),∀ε>0;% variance approaches 0)$ cases*= start_ROW start_CELL O ( divide start_ARG I ⋅ ( log | D | )2 α end_ARG start_ARG | D |α end_ARG ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) ∼ I ⋅ M- α , α > 0 ; variance of Eroman_IB dominant ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( Idivide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG | D |- divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG ( log | D | )divide start_ARG 2 α end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) ∼ I ⋅ M- α , α > 0 ; variance approaches 0 ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( I ⋅ ( log | D | )- α ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) ∼ I ⋅ ( log M )- α , α > 0 ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( F ( ⌈ | D |divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ⌉ ) ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) = I ⋅ ω ( ( log M )- ϵ ) , ∀ ϵ > 0 ; variance of Eroman_IB dominant ) end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL O ( F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log | D | )ϵ end_ARG ⌉ ) ) end_CELL start_CELL ( F ( M ) = I ⋅ ω ( ( log M )- ϵ ) , ∀ ϵ > 0 ; variance approaches 0 ) end_CELL end_ROW Proof. Let us examine the following cases individually. • Case 1: f⁢(u)∼I⋅u−α,α>0formulae-sequencesimilar-to⋅superscript0f(u) I· u^-α,\ α>0f ( u ) ∼ I ⋅ u- α , α > 0. minminB: 3⁢B⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B2[ℱ(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+log|D|/B⋅(1+ℱ(⌈B1+γ⌉))], =\ ; \ _B\;:\;3B B≤|D|≤ B^2% [F( B B )+ _|D|/BB· (1+% F( B^1+γ ) ) ], .min minitalic_B : 3 B log B ≤ | D | ≤ B2 [ F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + log| D | / B B ⋅ ( 1 + F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ) ) ] , minB:B2⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B4⁡[ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+B2|D|],subscript:superscript2superscript4ℱsuperscript2 =\ \; \ . . _B\;:\;B^2 B≤|D|% ≤ B^4 [F( B B )+ B^2|D|% ], . .minitalic_B : B2 log B ≤ | D | ≤ B4 [ F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + divide start_ARG B2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ] , minB:|D|≥B4⁢log⁡B[ℱ(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+B4|D|] =\ \; \ . _B\;:\;|D|≥ B^4 B [% F( B B )+ B^4|D| ] \minitalic_B : | D | ≥ B4 log B [ F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + divide start_ARG B4 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ] (89) ∼minminB: 3⁢B⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B2[I⋅B−α(logB)α+log|D|/B], \ _B\;:\;3B B≤|D|≤ B^2 [I· B% ^-α ( B )^α+ _|D|/BB ], .∼ min minitalic_B : 3 B log B ≤ | D | ≤ B2 [ I ⋅ B- α ( log B )α + log| D | / B B ] , minB:B2⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B4⁡[I⋅B−α⁢(log⁡B)α+B2|D|],subscript:superscript2superscript4⋅superscriptsuperscriptsuperscript2 =\ \; \ . . _B\;:\;B^2 B≤|D|% ≤ B^4 [I· B^-α ( B )^α+ B^2|% D| ], . .minitalic_B : B2 log B ≤ | D | ≤ B4 [ I ⋅ B- α ( log B )α + divide start_ARG B2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ] , minB:|D|≥B4⁢log⁡B[I⋅B−α(logB)α+B4|D|] =\ \; \ . _B\;:\;|D|≥ B^4 B [% I· B^-α ( B )^α+ B^4|D| ] \minitalic_B : | D | ≥ B4 log B [ I ⋅ B- α ( log B )α + divide start_ARG B4 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ] (90) =min⁡Ω⁢(1),Θ⁢(((I⁢|D|)12+α⁢(log⁡|D|)α2+α)2|D|),Θ⁢(((I⁢|D|)14+α⁢(log⁡|D|)α4+α)4|D|)absentΩ1Θsuperscriptsuperscript12superscript22Θsuperscriptsuperscript14superscript44 = \ (1), ( ( (I|D| )^% 12+α ( |D| ) α2+α )^2% |D| ), ( ( (I|D| ) 14+α% ( |D| ) α4+α )^4|D| ) \= min Ω ( 1 ) , Θ ( divide start_ARG ( ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG ( log | D | )divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG )2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ) , Θ ( divide start_ARG ( ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 4 + α end_ARG ( log | D | )divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG 4 + α end_ARG )4 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ) (91) =Θ⁢(I22+α⁢|D|−α2+α⁢(log⁡|D|)2⁢α2+α)absentΘsuperscript22superscript2superscript22 = (I 22+α|D| -α2+α% ( |D| ) 2α2+α )= Θ ( Idivide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG | D |divide start_ARG - α end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG ( log | D | )divide start_ARG 2 α end_ARG start_ARG 2 + α end_ARG ) (92) for the case of uopt>f−1⁢(βHP)subscriptoptsuperscript1subscriptHPu_opt>f^-1( _HP)uroman_opt > f- 1 ( βroman_HP ), and minB: 3⁢B⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B2⁡[I⋅B−α⁢(log⁡B)α+log|D|/B⁡B⁢(1+ℱ⁢(⌈B1+γ⌉))]subscript:3superscript2⋅superscriptsuperscriptsubscript1ℱsuperscript1 =\ ; _B\;:\;3B B≤|D|≤ B^2 [I· B% ^-α ( B )^α+ _|D|/BB (1+F( B% ^1+γ ) ) ]minitalic_B : 3 B log B ≤ | D | ≤ B2 [ I ⋅ B- α ( log B )α + log| D | / B B ( 1 + F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ) ) ] (93) =Θ⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)2⁢α|D|α)absentΘ⋅superscript2superscript = ( I· ( |D| )^2α|D|^% α )= Θ ( divide start_ARG I ⋅ ( log | D | )2 α end_ARG start_ARG | D |α end_ARG ) (94) for the case of uopt≤f−1⁢(βHP)subscriptoptsuperscript1subscriptHPu_opt≤ f^-1( _HP)uroman_opt ≤ f- 1 ( βroman_HP ). • Case 2: f⁢(u)∼I⋅(log⁡u)−α,α>0formulae-sequencesimilar-to⋅superscript0f(u) I· ( u )^-α,\ α>0f ( u ) ∼ I ⋅ ( log u )- α , α > 0. minminB: 3⁢B⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B2[ℱ(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+log|D|/B⋅(1+ℱ(⌈B1+γ⌉))], =\ ; \ _B\;:\;3B B≤|D|≤ B^2% [F( B B )+ _|D|/BB· (1+% F( B^1+γ ) ) ], .min minitalic_B : 3 B log B ≤ | D | ≤ B2 [ F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + log| D | / B B ⋅ ( 1 + F ( ⌈ B1 + γ ⌉ ) ) ] , minB:B2⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B4⁡[ℱ⁢(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+B2|D|],subscript:superscript2superscript4ℱsuperscript2 =\ \; \ . . _B\;:\;B^2 B≤|D|% ≤ B^4 [F( B B )+ B^2|D|% ], . .minitalic_B : B2 log B ≤ | D | ≤ B4 [ F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + divide start_ARG B2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ] , minB:|D|≥B4⁢log⁡B[ℱ(⌈Blog⁡B⌉)+B4|D|] =\ \; \ . _B\;:\;|D|≥ B^4 B [% F( B B )+ B^4|D| ] \minitalic_B : | D | ≥ B4 log B [ F ( ⌈ divide start_ARG B end_ARG start_ARG log B end_ARG ⌉ ) + divide start_ARG B4 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ] (95) ∼minminB: 3⁢B⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B2[I⋅(logB)−α+log|D|/B⋅(1+I⋅(logB)−α(1+γ)−α)], \ _B\;:\;3B B≤|D|≤ B^2 [I·% ( B )^-α+ _|D|/BB· (1+I· ( B% )^-α (1+γ )^-α ) ], .∼ min minitalic_B : 3 B log B ≤ | D | ≤ B2 [ I ⋅ ( log B )- α + log| D | / B B ⋅ ( 1 + I ⋅ ( log B )- α ( 1 + γ )- α ) ] , minB:B2⁢log⁡B≤|D|≤B4⁡[I⋅(log⁡B)−α+B2|D|],subscript:superscript2superscript4⋅superscriptsuperscript2 =\ \; \ . . _B\;:\;B^2 B≤|D|% ≤ B^4 [I· ( B )^-α+ B^2|D| ],% . .minitalic_B : B2 log B ≤ | D | ≤ B4 [ I ⋅ ( log B )- α + divide start_ARG B2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ] , minB:|D|≥B4⁢log⁡B[I⋅(logB)−α+B4|D|] =\ \; \ . _B\;:\;|D|≥ B^4 B [% I· ( B )^-α+ B^4|D| ] \minitalic_B : | D | ≥ B4 log B [ I ⋅ ( log B )- α + divide start_ARG B4 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ] (96) =min⁡I⋅(log⁡|D|)−α,Θ⁢(((I⁢|D|)12⁢(log⁡|D|)−α2)2|D|),Θ⁢(((I⁢|D|)14⁢(log⁡|D|)−α4)4|D|)absent⋅superscriptΘsuperscriptsuperscript12superscript22Θsuperscriptsuperscript14superscript44 = \I· ( |D| )^-α, (% ( (I|D| ) 12 ( |D| )^- α% 2 )^2|D| ), ( ( (I|D| ) % 14 ( |D| )^- α4 )^4|D| ) \= min I ⋅ ( log | D | )- α , Θ ( divide start_ARG ( ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ( log | D | )- divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG )2 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ) , Θ ( divide start_ARG ( ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 4 end_ARG ( log | D | )- divide start_ARG α end_ARG start_ARG 4 end_ARG )4 end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG ) =Θ⁢(I⋅(log⁡|D|)−α)absentΘ⋅superscript = (I· ( |D| )^-α )= Θ ( I ⋅ ( log | D | )- α ) (97) • Case 3: f⁢(u)=ω⁢((log⁡u)−ϵ),∀ϵ>0formulae-sequencesuperscriptitalic-ϵfor-allitalic-ϵ0f(u)=ω ( ( u )^-ε ),\ ∀ε>0f ( u ) = ω ( ( log u )- ϵ ) , ∀ ϵ > 0. In this case, finding the asymptotic minimum requires solving Bk|D|=I⋅(log⁡u)−ϵsuperscript⋅superscriptitalic-ϵ B^k|D|=I·( u)^-εdivide start_ARG Bitalic_k end_ARG start_ARG | D | end_ARG = I ⋅ ( log u )- ϵ for k=2,424k=2,4k = 2 , 4, which results in Bopt=Θ⁢((I⁢|D|)1k(log⁡(I⁢|D|))ϵ)=Θ⁢((I⁢|D|)1k(log⁡|D|)ϵ),∀ϵformulae-sequencesubscriptoptΘsuperscript1superscriptitalic-ϵΘsuperscript1superscriptitalic-ϵfor-allitalic-ϵB_opt= ( (I|D| ) 1k ( % (I|D| ) )^ε )= ( (I|D| % ) 1k ( |D| )^ε ), ∀ _opt = Θ ( divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG k end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log ( I | D | ) )ϵ end_ARG ) = Θ ( divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG k end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log | D | )ϵ end_ARG ) , ∀ ϵ (98) Picking k=22k=2k = 2 minimizes this value, and the resulting bound is O⁢(f⁢((I⁢|D|)12(log⁡|D|)ϵ⁢log⁡(I⁢|D|)12(log⁡|D|)ϵ))=O⁢(f⁢((I⁢|D|)12(log⁡|D|)ϵ))superscript12superscriptitalic-ϵsuperscript12superscriptitalic-ϵsuperscript12superscriptitalic-ϵO (f ( (I|D| ) 12 ( |D| )^% ε (I|D| ) 12 ( |D| )^% ε ) )=O (f ( (I|D| ) 12% ( |D| )^ε ) )O ( f ( divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log | D | )ϵ end_ARG log divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log | D | )ϵ end_ARG ) ) = O ( f ( divide start_ARG ( I | D | )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( log | D | )ϵ end_ARG ) ). Additionally, when |D|<ℱ−1⁢(βHP)superscriptℱ1subscriptHP |D|<F^-1( _HP)square-root start_ARG | D | end_ARG < F- 1 ( βroman_HP ), we have the upper bound O⁢(ℱ⁢(|D|))ℱO (F ( |D| ) )O ( F ( square-root start_ARG | D | end_ARG ) ). ∎ B.4 Analysis Under the High-Density Regime Lemma B.22. Suppose that we have observed k samples (yA,yB,δi)i=1ksuperscriptsubscriptsuperscriptAsuperscriptBsubscript1 \(y^A,y^B, _i) \_i=1^k ( yA , yB , δitalic_i ) i = 1k whose elements yA∈,yB∈formulae-sequencesuperscriptAsuperscriptBy^A∈Y,y^B∈YyA ∈ Y , yB ∈ Y are fixed, but whose δisubscript _iδitalic_i are independent and identically distributed. Assuming a uniformly distributed prior prH⁢(yA)∣rH⁢(yB)=u0⁢(⋅)subscriptconditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptBsubscript0⋅p_r_H(y^A) r_H(y^B)=u_0(·)pitalic_r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yA ) ∣ rH ( yB ) = u0 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( ⋅ ),999To be exact, here prH⁢(yA)∣rH⁢(yB)=u0⁢(⋅)subscriptconditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptBsubscript0⋅p_r_H(y^A) r_H(y^B)=u_0(·)pitalic_r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yA ) ∣ rH ( yB ) = u0 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( ⋅ ) is uniformly distributed on [−L,L][-L,L][ - L , L ] for a large L∈ℝ+superscriptℝL ^+L ∈ blackboard_R+, and the derivation below concerns the limit at L→+∞→L→+∞L → + ∞. the posterior conditional distribution prH⁢(yD,iA)∣rH⁢(yD,iB),δ1,⋯,δksubscriptconditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptBsubscript1⋯subscriptp_r_H(y_D,i^A) r_H(y_D,i^B),% _1,·s, _kpitalic_r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yitalic_D , iA ) ∣ rH ( yitalic_D , iB ) , δ1 , ⋯ , δitalic_k end_POSTSUBSCRIPT satisfies prH⁢(yA)∣rH⁢(yB)=u0,δ1=d1,⋯,δk=dk⁢(v0)=βk⁢exp⁡(β⁢∑i=1k(v0−u0−di))∏i=1k[1+exp⁡(β⁢(v0−u0−di))]2∫−∞+∞βk⁢exp⁡(β⁢∑i=1k(v−u0−di))∏i=1k[1+exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−di))]2⁢dvsubscriptformulae-sequenceconditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptBsubscript0formulae-sequencesubscript1subscript1⋯subscriptsubscriptsubscript0superscriptsuperscriptsubscript1subscript0subscript0subscriptsuperscriptsubscriptproduct1superscriptdelimited-[]1subscript0subscript0subscript2superscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsuperscriptsubscript1subscript0subscriptsuperscriptsubscriptproduct1superscriptdelimited-[]1subscript0subscript2differential-dp_r_H(y^A) r_H(y^B)=u_0, _1=% d_1,·s, _k=d_k(v_0)= β^k (βΣ% _i=1^k(v_0-u_0-d_i) ) _i=1^k [1+ (β(v% _0-u_0-d_i) ) ]^2 _-∞^+∞ β^k% (β _i=1^k(v-u_0-d_i) ) _i=1^k [1+% (β(v-u_0-d_i) ) ]^2dvpitalic_r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yA ) ∣ rH ( yB ) = u0 , δ1 = d1 , ⋯ , δitalic_k = ditalic_k end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( v0 ) = divide start_ARG divide start_ARG βitalic_k exp ( β ∑i = 1k ( v0 - u0 - ditalic_i ) ) end_ARG start_ARG ∏i = 1k [ 1 + exp ( β ( v0 - u0 - ditalic_i ) ) ]2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ∫- ∞+ ∞ divide start_ARG βitalic_k exp ( β ∑i = 1k ( v - u0 - ditalic_i ) ) end_ARG start_ARG ∏i = 1k [ 1 + exp ( β ( v - u0 - ditalic_i ) ) ]2 end_ARG d v end_ARG (99) which we abbreviate as prH⁢(yA)∣rH⁢(yB)=u0,δ=d⁢(v0)subscriptformulae-sequenceconditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptBsubscript0subscript0p_r_H(y^A) r_H(y^B)=u_0,δ=d(v% _0)pitalic_r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yA ) ∣ rH ( yB ) = u0 , δ = d end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( v0 ), and the posterior conditional variance Var⁢[rH⁢(yA)∣rH⁢(yB)]δ=dVarsubscriptdelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptBVar [r_H(y^A) r_H(y^B)% ]_δ=dVar [ rH ( yA ) ∣ rH ( yB ) ]δ = d (i.e., the variance of the univariate distribution in (99), the value of which stays constant under different values of rH⁢(yB)subscriptHsuperscriptr_H(y^B)rH ( yitalic_B )) satisfies that when k→+∞→k→+∞k → + ∞, with probability 1−O⁢(k−100)1superscript1001-O (k^-100 )1 - O ( k- 100 ),101010Here, the randomness results from the sampling of di∼Logistic⁢(rH⁢(yA)−rH⁢(yB),1β)similar-tosubscriptLogisticsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscript1d_i (r_H(y^A)-r_H(y^B), % 1β )ditalic_i ∼ Logistic ( rH ( yitalic_A ) - rH ( yitalic_B ) , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG ). Var⁢[rH⁢(yA)∣rH⁢(yB)]δ=d=Θ⁢(k−1)Varsubscriptdelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptBΘsuperscript1Var [r_H(y^A) r_H(y^B)% ]_δ=d= (k^-1 )Var [ rH ( yA ) ∣ rH ( yB ) ]δ = d = Θ ( k- 1 ) (100) Proof. Let us first analyze the numerator, which we denote with g⁢(v0)subscript0g(v_0)g ( v0 ). g⁢(v0)subscript0 g(v_0)g ( v0 ) =∏i=1kβ⁢exp⁡(β⁢(v0−u0−δi))[1+exp⁡(β⁢(v0−u0−δi))]2absentsuperscriptsubscriptproduct1subscript0subscript0subscriptsuperscriptdelimited-[]1subscript0subscript0subscript2 = _i=1^k β (β(v_0-u_0- _i% ) ) [1+ (β(v_0-u_0- _i) ) ]^2= ∏i = 1k divide start_ARG β exp ( β ( v0 - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β ( v0 - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) ]2 end_ARG (101) =∏i=1kβ⁢h⁢(exp⁡(β⁢(v0−u0−δi)))⁢ where ⁢h⁢(x)=x(1+x)2absentsuperscriptsubscriptproduct1ℎsubscript0subscript0subscript where ℎsuperscript12 = _i=1^kβ h ( (β(v_0-u_0- _% i) ) ) where h(x)= x(1+x)^2= ∏i = 1k β h ( exp ( β ( v0 - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) ) where h ( x ) = divide start_ARG x end_ARG start_ARG ( 1 + x )2 end_ARG (102) Differentiating g, we have d⁢log⁡g⁢(v)d⁢vdd d g(v)dvdivide start_ARG d log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG =∑i=1k[d⁢h⁢(exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi)))d⁢v⋅1h⁢(exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi)))]absentsuperscriptsubscript1delimited-[]⋅dℎsubscript0subscriptd1ℎsubscript0subscript = _i=1^k [ dh ( (β(v-u_% 0- _i) ) )dv· 1h ( (β% (v-u_0- _i) ) ) ]= ∑i = 1k [ divide start_ARG d h ( exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG ⋅ divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG h ( exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) ) end_ARG ] (103) =∑i=1k[(1−exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi)))⋅β⁢exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))[1+exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))]3⋅1h⁢(exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi)))]absentsuperscriptsubscript1delimited-[]⋅1subscript0subscriptsubscript0subscriptsuperscriptdelimited-[]1subscript0subscript31ℎsubscript0subscript = _i=1^k [ (1- (β(v-u_0-δ% _i) ) )·β (β(v-u_0- _i) ) % [1+ (β(v-u_0- _i) ) ]^3· 1h (% (β(v-u_0- _i) ) ) ]= ∑i = 1k [ divide start_ARG ( 1 - exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) ) ⋅ β exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) ]3 end_ARG ⋅ divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG h ( exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) ) end_ARG ] =β⁢∑i=1k1−exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))1+exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))absentsuperscriptsubscript11subscript0subscript1subscript0subscript =β _i=1^k 1- (β(v-u_0- _i)% )1+ (β(v-u_0- _i) )= β ∑i = 1k divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG (104) ≔∑i=1kli⁢(v)≔absentsuperscriptsubscript1subscript _i=1^kl_i(v)≔ ∑i = 1k litalic_i ( v ) (105) where li⁢(v)=β⁢1−exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))1+exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))subscript1subscript0subscript1subscript0subscriptl_i(v)=β 1- (β(v-u_0- _i) )1+ (% β(v-u_0- _i) )litalic_i ( v ) = β divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG. Recall that δi∣rH⁢(yA),rH⁢(yB)∼Logistic⁢(rH⁢(yA)−rH⁢(yB),1β)similar-toconditionalsubscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptLogisticsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscript1 _i r_H(y^A),r_H(y^B) % (r_H(y^A)-r_H(y^B), 1β )δitalic_i ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) , rH ( yitalic_B ) ∼ Logistic ( rH ( yitalic_A ) - rH ( yitalic_B ) , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG ) (106) and so we have E⁢[1−exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))1+exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))∣rH⁢(yA)=v,rH⁢(yB)=u0]Edelimited-[]formulae-sequenceconditional1subscript0subscript1subscript0subscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscript0 =\ \ E [ 1- (β(v-u_0-% _i) )1+ (β(v-u_0- _i) ) r_ % H(y^A)=v,r_H(y^B)=u_0 ]E [ divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) = v , rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 ] (107) =∫−∞[pδi∣rH⁢(yA)=v,rH⁢(yB)=u0⁢(−s+v−u0)⋅1−exp⁡(β⁢s)1+exp⁡(β⁢s)]⁢ds(substituting ⁢s⁢ for ⁢t−v+u0⁢)absentsuperscriptsubscriptdelimited-[]⋅subscriptformulae-sequenceconditionalsubscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscript0subscript011differential-d(substituting for subscript0) = _-∞^∞ [p_ _i r_H(y^A% )=v,r_H(y^B)=u_0(-s+v-u_0)· 1- (β s% )1+ (β s ) ]ds\ \ (substituting % s for t-v+u_0)= ∫- ∞ [ pitalic_δ start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) = v , rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( - s + v - u0 ) ⋅ divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β s ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β s ) end_ARG ] d s (substituting s for t - v + u0 ) =0absent0 =0= 0 (108) where the last step results from the fact that 1−exp⁡x1+exp⁡x11 1- x1+ xdivide start_ARG 1 - exp x end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp x end_ARG is an odd function, and that pδi∣rH⁢(yA),rH⁢(yB)⁢(⋅)subscriptconditionalsubscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptsuperscript⋅p_ _i r_H(y^A),r_H(y^B)(·)pitalic_δ start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i ∣ ritalic_H ( yitalic_A ) , ritalic_H ( yitalic_B ) end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( ⋅ ) is symmetric around rH⁢(yA)−rH⁢(yB)subscriptsuperscriptsubscriptsuperscriptr_H(y^A)-r_H(y^B)ritalic_H ( yitalic_A ) - ritalic_H ( yitalic_B ). Furthermore, for any sufficiently small x>00x>0x > 0, E⁢[1−exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))1+exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))∣rH⁢(yA)=v−x,rH⁢(yB)=u0]Edelimited-[]formulae-sequenceconditional1subscript0subscript1subscript0subscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscript0 =\ \ E [ 1- (β(v-u_0-% _i) )1+ (β(v-u_0- _i) ) r_ % H(y^A)=v-x,r_H(y^B)=u_0 ]E [ divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) = v - x , rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 ] (109) =∫−∞[pδi∣rH⁢(yA)=v−x,rH⁢(yB)=u0⁢(−s+x+rH⁢(yA)−rH⁢(yB))⋅1−exp⁡(β⁢s)1+exp⁡(β⁢s)]⁢dsabsentsuperscriptsubscriptdelimited-[]⋅subscriptformulae-sequenceconditionalsubscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscript0subscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscript11differential-d = _-∞^∞ [p_ _i r_H(y^A% )=v-x,r_H(y^B)=u_0 (-s+x+r_H(y^A)-r_H(y% ^B) )· 1- (β s )1+ (β s )% ]ds= ∫- ∞ [ pitalic_δ start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) = v - x , rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( - s + x + rH ( yitalic_A ) - rH ( yitalic_B ) ) ⋅ divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β s ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β s ) end_ARG ] d s (110) =∫0∞[(pδi∣rH⁢(yA)=v−x,rH⁢(yB)=u0(s−x+rH(yA)−rH(yB)) = _0^∞ [ (p_ _i r_H(y^A% )=v-x,r_H(y^B)=u_0 (s-x+r_H(y^A)-r_H(y^% B) ) . .= ∫0∞ [ ( pitalic_δ start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) = v - x , rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( s - x + rH ( yitalic_A ) - rH ( yitalic_B ) ) −pδi∣rH⁢(yA)=v−x,rH⁢(yB)=u0(−s−x+rH(yA)−rH(yB)))⋅1−exp⁡(β⁢s)1+exp⁡(β⁢s)]ds _-∞^∞\ \ \ \ . .-p_ _% i r_H(y^A)=v-x,r_H(y^B)=u_0 (-s-x+r_H% (y^A)-r_H(y^B) ) )· 1- (β s% )1+ (β s ) ]ds- pitalic_δ start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) = v - x , rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( - s - x + rH ( yitalic_A ) - rH ( yitalic_B ) ) ) ⋅ divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β s ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β s ) end_ARG ] d s (111) =∫0∞[(pδi∣rH⁢(yA)=v−x,rH⁢(yB)=u0(s−x+rH(yA)−rH(yB)) = _0^∞ [ (p_ _i r_H(y^A% )=v-x,r_H(y^B)=u_0 (s-x+r_H(y^A)-r_H(y^% B) ) . .= ∫0∞ [ ( pitalic_δ start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) = v - x , rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( s - x + rH ( yitalic_A ) - rH ( yitalic_B ) ) −pδi∣rH⁢(yA)=v−x,rH⁢(yB)=u0(s+x+rH(yA)−rH(yB)))⋅1−exp⁡(β⁢s)1+exp⁡(β⁢s)]ds _-∞^∞\ \ \ \ . .-p_ _% i r_H(y^A)=v-x,r_H(y^B)=u_0 (s+x+r_H% (y^A)-r_H(y^B) ) )· 1- (β s % )1+ (β s ) ]ds- pitalic_δ start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) = v - x , rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( s + x + rH ( yitalic_A ) - rH ( yitalic_B ) ) ) ⋅ divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β s ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β s ) end_ARG ] d s (112) =∫0∞[(β⁢exp⁡(β⁢(s−x))[1+exp⁡(β⁢(s−x))]2−β⁢exp⁡(β⁢(s+x))[1+exp⁡(β⁢(s+x))]2)⋅1−exp⁡(β⁢s)1+exp⁡(β⁢s)]⁢dsabsentsuperscriptsubscript0delimited-[]⋅superscriptdelimited-[]12superscriptdelimited-[]1211differential-d = _0^∞ [ ( β (β(s-x)% ) [1+ (β(s-x) ) ]^2- β (% β(s+x) ) [1+ (β(s+x) ) ]^2 )·% 1- (β s )1+ (β s ) ]ds= ∫0∞ [ ( divide start_ARG β exp ( β ( s - x ) ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β ( s - x ) ) ]2 end_ARG - divide start_ARG β exp ( β ( s + x ) ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β ( s + x ) ) ]2 end_ARG ) ⋅ divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β s ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β s ) end_ARG ] d s (113) =O⁢(x2)+∫x∞[(β⁢exp⁡(β⁢(s−x))[1+exp⁡(β⁢(s−x))]2−β⁢exp⁡(β⁢(s+x))[1+exp⁡(β⁢(s+x))]2)⋅1−exp⁡(β⁢s)1+exp⁡(β⁢s)]⁢dsabsentsuperscript2superscriptsubscriptdelimited-[]⋅superscriptdelimited-[]12superscriptdelimited-[]1211differential-d =O (x^2 )+ _x^∞ [ ( β % (β(s-x) ) [1+ (β(s-x) ) ]^2- % β (β(s+x) ) [1+ (β(s+x) ) ]^% 2 )· 1- (β s )1+ (β s )% ]ds= O ( x2 ) + ∫x∞ [ ( divide start_ARG β exp ( β ( s - x ) ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β ( s - x ) ) ]2 end_ARG - divide start_ARG β exp ( β ( s + x ) ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β ( s + x ) ) ]2 end_ARG ) ⋅ divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β s ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β s ) end_ARG ] d s (114) =O⁢(x2)+∫x∞−2⁢x⋅[d⁢β⁢exp⁡(β⁢z)[1+exp⁡(β⁢z)]2|sd⁢z+O⁢(x⁢supz∈[s−x,s+x]|d2⁢β⁢exp⁡(β⁢z)[1+exp⁡(β⁢z)]2d⁢z2|)]⋅1−exp⁡(β⁢s)1+exp⁡(β⁢s)⁢dsabsentsuperscript2superscriptsubscript⋅2delimited-[]evaluated-atdsuperscriptdelimited-[]12dsubscriptsupremumsuperscriptd2superscriptdelimited-[]12dsuperscript211differential-d =O (x^2 )+ _x^∞ \-2x· [ % d β (β z ) [1+ (β z % ) ]^2 |_sdz+O (x _z∈[s-x,s+x] | % d^2 β (β z ) [1+ (β z% ) ]^2dz^2 | ) ]· 1- % (β s )1+ (β s ) \ds= O ( x2 ) + ∫x∞ - 2 x ⋅ [ divide start_ARG d divide start_ARG β exp ( β z ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β z ) ]2 end_ARG |s end_ARG start_ARG d z end_ARG + O ( x supitalic_z ∈ [ s - x , s + x ] | divide start_ARG d2 divide start_ARG β exp ( β z ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β z ) ]2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG d z2 end_ARG | ) ] ⋅ divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β s ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β s ) end_ARG d s =O⁢(x2)+∫x∞−2⁢x⋅[(1−exp⁡(β⁢s))⋅β2⁢exp⁡(β⁢s)[1+exp⁡(β⁢s)]3+O⁢(x⁢exp⁡(−s+x))]⋅1−exp⁡(β⁢s)1+exp⁡(β⁢s)⁢dsabsentsuperscript2superscriptsubscript⋅2delimited-[]⋅1superscript2superscriptdelimited-[]1311differential-d =O (x^2 )+ _x^∞ \-2x· [ % (1- (β s ) )·β^2 (β s )% [1+ (β s ) ]^3+O (x (-s+x) ) ]% · 1- (β s )1+ (β s ) \% ds= O ( x2 ) + ∫x∞ - 2 x ⋅ [ divide start_ARG ( 1 - exp ( β s ) ) ⋅ β2 exp ( β s ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β s ) ]3 end_ARG + O ( x exp ( - s + x ) ) ] ⋅ divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β s ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β s ) end_ARG d s =O⁢(x2)−2⁢β⁢x⁢∫β⁢x∞(1−exp⁡(β⁢s))2⋅exp⁡(β⁢s)[1+exp⁡(β⁢s)]4⁢d⁢(β⁢s)absentsuperscript22superscriptsubscript⋅superscript12superscriptdelimited-[]14d =O (x^2 )-2β x _β x^∞ \ % (1- (β s ) )^2· (β s )% [1+ (β s ) ]^4 \d(β s)= O ( x2 ) - 2 β x ∫β x∞ divide start_ARG ( 1 - exp ( β s ) )2 ⋅ exp ( β s ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β s ) ]4 end_ARG d ( β s ) (115) =O⁢(x2)−2⁢β⁢x⋅e2⁢β⁢x+13(1+eβ⁢x)3absentsuperscript2⋅2superscript213superscript1superscript3 =O (x^2 )-2β x· e^2β x+ 13% (1+e^β x )^3= O ( x2 ) - 2 β x ⋅ divide start_ARG e2 β x + divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG ( 1 + eitalic_β x )3 end_ARG (116) =−13⁢β⁢x+O⁢(x2)(x→0)absent13superscript2→0 =- 13β x+O(x^2) \ (x→ 0)= - divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG β x + O ( x2 ) ( x → 0 ) (117) From (117) we have ∫rH⁢(yA)+x−x1.5rH⁢(yA)+x+x1.5E⁢[d⁢li⁢(v)d⁢v⁢d⁢v]superscriptsubscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptAsuperscript1.5subscriptHsuperscriptAsuperscript1.5Edelimited-[]dsubscriptdd _r_H(y^A)+x-x^1.5^r_H(y^% A)+x+x^1.5E [ dl_i(v)dv% dv ]∫r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yA ) + x - x1.5 end_POSTSUBSCRIPTrH ( y start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT A ) + x + x1.5 end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT E [ divide start_ARG d litalic_i ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG d v ] =E⁢[li⁢(rH⁢(yA)+x+x1.5)−li⁢(rH⁢(yA)+x−x1.5)]absentEdelimited-[]subscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptAsuperscript1.5subscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptAsuperscript1.5 =E [l_i(r_H(y^A)+x+x^1.5)-l_i% (r_H(y^A)+x-x^1.5) ]= E [ litalic_i ( rH ( yA ) + x + x1.5 ) - litalic_i ( rH ( yA ) + x - x1.5 ) ] (118) =−23⁢β2⁢x1.5+O⁢(x2)absent23superscript2superscript1.5superscript2 =- 23β^2x^1.5+O(x^2)= - divide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG β2 x1.5 + O ( x2 ) (119) It can be easily verified that d⁢li⁢(v)d⁢vdsubscriptd dl_i(v)dvdivide start_ARG d litalic_i ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG is 2⁢β32superscript32β^32 β3-Lipschitz continuous, and therefore supv∈[rH⁢(yA)+x−x1.5,rH⁢(yA)+x+x1.5]E⁢[d⁢li⁢(v)d⁢v]−infv∈[rH⁢(yA)+x−x1.5,rH⁢(yA)+x+x1.5]E⁢[d⁢li⁢(v)d⁢v]=O⁢(x1.5)subscriptsupremumsubscriptHsuperscriptAsuperscript1.5subscriptHsuperscriptAsuperscript1.5Edelimited-[]dsubscriptdsubscriptinfimumsubscriptHsuperscriptAsuperscript1.5subscriptHsuperscriptAsuperscript1.5Edelimited-[]dsubscriptdsuperscript1.5 _v∈[r_H(y^A)+x-x^1.5,r_H(y^A)+x+x% ^1.5]E [ dl_i(v)dv ]- _% v∈[r_H(y^A)+x-x^1.5,r_H(y^A)+x+x^1.5% ]E [ dl_i(v)dv ]=O(x^1.5)supitalic_v ∈ [ r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yA ) + x - x1.5 , rH ( yA ) + x + x1.5 ] end_POSTSUBSCRIPT E [ divide start_ARG d litalic_i ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG ] - infitalic_v ∈ [ r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yA ) + x - x1.5 , rH ( yA ) + x + x1.5 ] end_POSTSUBSCRIPT E [ divide start_ARG d litalic_i ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG ] = O ( x1.5 ) Since111111The range of supsupremum and infinfimum are omitted to save space. infE⁢[d⁢li⁢(v)d⁢v]≤∫rH⁢(yA)+x−x1.5rH⁢(yA)+x+x1.5E⁢[d⁢li⁢(v)d⁢v⁢d⁢v]2⁢x1.5≤supE⁢[d⁢li⁢(v)d⁢v]infimumEdelimited-[]dsubscriptdsuperscriptsubscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptAsuperscript1.5subscriptHsuperscriptAsuperscript1.5Edelimited-[]dsubscriptdd2superscript1.5supremumEdelimited-[]dsubscriptd [ dl_i(v)dv ]≤ % _r_H(y^A)+x-x^1.5^r_H(y^A)+x+x^1% .5E [ dl_i(v)dvdv ]% 2x^1.5≤ [ dl_i(v)dv ]inf E [ divide start_ARG d litalic_i ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG ] ≤ divide start_ARG ∫r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yA ) + x - x1.5 end_POSTSUBSCRIPTrH ( y start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT A ) + x + x1.5 end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT E [ divide start_ARG d litalic_i ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG d v ] end_ARG start_ARG 2 x1.5 end_ARG ≤ sup E [ divide start_ARG d litalic_i ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG ] (120) and ∫rH⁢(yA)+x−x1.5rH⁢(yA)+x+x1.5E⁢[d⁢li⁢(v)d⁢v⁢d⁢v]2⁢x1.5=−13⁢β2+O⁢(x12)superscriptsubscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptAsuperscript1.5subscriptHsuperscriptAsuperscript1.5Edelimited-[]dsubscriptdd2superscript1.513superscript2superscript12 _r_H(y^A)+x-x^1.5^r_H(y^A)+% x+x^1.5E [ dl_i(v)dvdv% ]2x^1.5=- 13β^2+O(x 12)divide start_ARG ∫r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yA ) + x - x1.5 end_POSTSUBSCRIPTrH ( y start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT A ) + x + x1.5 end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT E [ divide start_ARG d litalic_i ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG d v ] end_ARG start_ARG 2 x1.5 end_ARG = - divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG β2 + O ( xdivide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ) (121) We have E⁢[d⁢li⁢(v)d⁢v|li(rH(yA)+x]=−13⁢β2+O⁢(x12)E [ dl_i(v)dv |_l_i(r_% H(y^A)+x ]=- 13β^2+O(x 12)E [ divide start_ARG d litalic_i ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG |l start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i ( rH ( yA ) + x end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ] = - divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG β2 + O ( xdivide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ) (122) Turning our attention back to (117), given any γ∈(25,12)2512γ∈ ( 25, 12 )γ ∈ ( divide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 5 end_ARG , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ), for any sufficiently large k and x≥k−γsuperscriptx≥ k^-γx ≥ k- γ, by Chernoff bounds we have121212In the following derivation, we will sometimes omit the conditions in the probabilities and expectations to save space. Conditions should be clear from the context. P[d⁢log⁡g⁢(v)d⁢vE⁢[β⁢∑i=1k1−exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))1+exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))]∉(1−10⁢log⁡k1−γ2,1+10⁢log⁡k1−γ2)∣rH(yA)=v−x,rH(yB)=u0] =\ \ P [ d g(v)% dvE [β _i=1^k 1- (β(v-u_% 0- _i) )1+ (β(v-u_0- _i) ) ]% ∉ (1- 10 kk 1-γ2,1+ 10 kk^% 1-γ2 ) r_H(y^A)=v-x,r_H(y^B)=u_% 0 ]P [ divide start_ARG divide start_ARG d log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG E [ β ∑i = 1k divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG ] end_ARG ∉ ( 1 - divide start_ARG 10 log k end_ARG start_ARG kdivide start_ARG 1 - γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG , 1 + divide start_ARG 10 log k end_ARG start_ARG kdivide start_ARG 1 - γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG ) ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) = v - x , rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 ] =P⁢[∑i=1k1−exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))1+exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))k⁢E⁢[1−exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))1+exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))]∉(1−10⁢log⁡k1−γ2,1+10⁢log⁡k1−γ2)]absentPdelimited-[]superscriptsubscript11subscript0subscript1subscript0subscriptEdelimited-[]1subscript0subscript1subscript0subscript110superscript12110superscript12 =P [ _i=1^k 1- (β(v-u_% 0- _i) )1+ (β(v-u_0- _i) )k% E [ 1- (β(v-u_0- _i) )1+ % (β(v-u_0- _i) ) ]∉ (1- 10 kk% 1-γ2,1+ 10 kk 1-γ2 ) ]= P [ divide start_ARG ∑i = 1k divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG k E [ divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG ] end_ARG ∉ ( 1 - divide start_ARG 10 log k end_ARG start_ARG kdivide start_ARG 1 - γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG , 1 + divide start_ARG 10 log k end_ARG start_ARG kdivide start_ARG 1 - γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG ) ] (123) ≤2⁢exp⁡(13⋅(10⁢k−1−γ2⁢log⁡k)2⋅k⁢E⁢[1−exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))1+exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))])absent2⋅13superscript10superscript122Edelimited-[]1subscript0subscript1subscript0subscript ≤ 2 ( 13· (10k^- 1-γ2% k )^2· kE [ 1- (β(v-u_0-δ% _i) )1+ (β(v-u_0- _i) ) ] )≤ 2 exp ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG ⋅ ( 10 k- divide start_ARG 1 - γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG log k )2 ⋅ k E [ divide start_ARG 1 - exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG start_ARG 1 + exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) end_ARG ] ) (124) ≤2⁢exp⁡(13⋅(10⁢k−1−γ2⁢log⁡k)2⋅k⋅(−13⁢β⁢k−γ+O⁢(k−2⁢γ)))absent2⋅13superscript10superscript12213superscriptsuperscript2 ≤ 2 ( 13· (10k^- 1-γ2% k )^2· k· (- 13β k^-γ+O (k^-2% γ ) ) )≤ 2 exp ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG ⋅ ( 10 k- divide start_ARG 1 - γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG log k )2 ⋅ k ⋅ ( - divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG β k- γ + O ( k- 2 γ ) ) ) (125) =o⁢(k−log⁡k)absentsuperscript =o(k^- k)= o ( k- log k ) (126) =o⁢(k−α)(k→+∞),∀ constant ⁢αabsentsuperscript→for-all constant =o(k^-α) (k→+∞), \ ∀ constant α= o ( k- α ) ( k → + ∞ ) , ∀ constant α (127) where (125) results from the observation that (109) is non-increasing with increased x when x>00x>0x > 0. From (122), a similar bound for d2⁢log⁡g⁢(v)d⁢v2superscriptd2dsuperscript2 d^2 g(v)dv^2divide start_ARG d2 log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v2 end_ARG P[d2⁢log⁡g⁢(v)d⁢v2E⁢[d2⁢log⁡g⁢(v)d⁢v2]∉(1−10⁢log⁡k12,1+10⁢log⁡k12)∣rH(yA)=v−x,rH(yB)=u0]=o(k−α)P [ d^2 g(v)dv^2% E [ d^2 g(v)dv^2 ]% ∉ (1- 10 kk 12,1+ 10 kk 12% ) r_H(y^A)=v-x,r_H(y^B)=u_0 ]=o(k^-% α)P [ divide start_ARG divide start_ARG d2 log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v2 end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG E [ divide start_ARG d2 log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v2 end_ARG ] end_ARG ∉ ( 1 - divide start_ARG 10 log k end_ARG start_ARG kdivide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG , 1 + divide start_ARG 10 log k end_ARG start_ARG kdivide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG ) ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) = v - x , rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 ] = o ( k- α ) (128) can be analogously proven at x=k−γsuperscriptx=k^-γx = k- γ. Furthermore, it can be verified that d⁢log⁡g⁢(v)d⁢vdd d g(v)dvdivide start_ARG d log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG is β2⁢ksuperscript2β^2kβ2 k-Lipschitz continuous, and therefore for any sufficiently large k, we have P⁢[d⁢g⁢(v)d⁢vE⁢[d⁢g⁢(v)d⁢v]∉(1−11⁢log⁡k1−γ2,1+11⁢log⁡k1−γ2),∀v∈[rH⁢(yA)+k−γ,rH⁢(yA)+k]∣rH⁢(yB)=u0]Pdelimited-[]formulae-sequenceddEdelimited-[]d111superscript12111superscript12for-allconditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscript0 =\ \ P [ dg(v)% dvE [ dg(v)dv ]∉% (1- 11 kk 1-γ2,1+ 11 kk 1-% γ2 ),∀ v∈[r_H(y^A)+k^-γ,r_H(% y^A)+k] r_H(y^B)=u_0 ]P [ divide start_ARG divide start_ARG d g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG E [ divide start_ARG d g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG ] end_ARG ∉ ( 1 - divide start_ARG 11 log k end_ARG start_ARG kdivide start_ARG 1 - γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG , 1 + divide start_ARG 11 log k end_ARG start_ARG kdivide start_ARG 1 - γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG ) , ∀ v ∈ [ rH ( yitalic_A ) + k- γ , rH ( yitalic_A ) + k ] ∣ rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 ] =1−P[∃t∈[rH(yA)+k−γ,rH(yA)+k]:d⁢log⁡g⁢(v)d⁢v|v=tE⁢[d⁢log⁡g⁢(v)d⁢v|v=t]∉(1−10⁢log⁡k1−γ2,1+10⁢log⁡k1−γ2)] =1-P [∃ t∈[r_H(y^A)+k^-γ,r% _H(y^A)+k]: d g(v)dv |_v=% tE [ d g(v)dv |_v=t % ]∉ (1- 10 kk 1-γ2,1+ 10 kk^% 1-γ2 ) ]= 1 - P [ ∃ t ∈ [ rH ( yitalic_A ) + k- γ , rH ( yitalic_A ) + k ] : divide start_ARG divide start_ARG d log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG |v = t end_ARG start_ARG E [ divide start_ARG d log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG |v = t ] end_ARG ∉ ( 1 - divide start_ARG 10 log k end_ARG start_ARG kdivide start_ARG 1 - γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG , 1 + divide start_ARG 10 log k end_ARG start_ARG kdivide start_ARG 1 - γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG ) ] ≥1−∑i=0k11P⁢[d⁢log⁡g⁢(v)d⁢v|v=rH⁢(yA)+k−γ+k−10⁢iE⁢[d⁢log⁡g⁢(v)d⁢v|v=rH⁢(yA)+k−γ+k−10⁢i]∉(1−10⁢log⁡k1−γ2,1+10⁢log⁡k1−γ2)]absent1superscriptsubscript0superscript11Pdelimited-[]evaluated-atddsubscriptHsuperscriptsuperscriptsuperscript10Edelimited-[]evaluated-atddsubscriptHsuperscriptsuperscriptsuperscript10110superscript12110superscript12 ≥ 1- _i=0^k^11P [ d% g(v)dv |_v=r_H(y^A)+k^-γ+k^-10i% E [ d g(v)dv |_v=r_H% (y^A)+k^-γ+k^-10i ]∉ (1- 10 kk 1-% γ2,1+ 10 kk 1-γ2 ) ]≥ 1 - ∑i = 0k start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 11 end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT P [ divide start_ARG divide start_ARG d log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG |v = r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yitalic_A ) + k- γ + k- 10 i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT end_ARG start_ARG E [ divide start_ARG d log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG |v = r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yitalic_A ) + k- γ + k- 10 i end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ] end_ARG ∉ ( 1 - divide start_ARG 10 log k end_ARG start_ARG kdivide start_ARG 1 - γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG , 1 + divide start_ARG 10 log k end_ARG start_ARG kdivide start_ARG 1 - γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG ) ] (129) ≥1−o⁢(∑i=0k11k−log⁡k)absent1superscriptsubscript0superscript11superscript ≥ 1-o ( _i=0^k^11k^- k )≥ 1 - o ( ∑i = 0k start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 11 end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT k- log k ) (130) =1−o⁢(k−α)(k→+∞),∀ constant ⁢αabsent1superscript→for-all constant =1-o(k^-α) (k→+∞), \ ∀ constant% α= 1 - o ( k- α ) ( k → + ∞ ) , ∀ constant α (131) In particular, with probability 1−o⁢(k−α)1superscript1-o(k^-α)1 - o ( k- α ), d⁢g⁢(v)d⁢vdd dg(v)dvdivide start_ARG d g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG will be (uniformly) negative on v∈[rH⁢(yA)+k−γ,rH⁢(yA)+k]subscriptHsuperscriptsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptv∈[r_H(y^A)+k^-γ,r_H(y^A)+k]v ∈ [ rH ( yitalic_A ) + k- γ , rH ( yitalic_A ) + k ]. Next, let us turn our attention back to log⁡g⁢(v) g(v)log g ( v ). log⁡g⁢(v)=k⁢log⁡β−∑i=1kβ⁢(δi−v+u0)+2⁢log⁡[1+exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−δi))]superscriptsubscript1subscriptsubscript021subscript0subscript g(v)=k β- _i=1^k \β( _i-v+u_0)+2 % [1+ (β(v-u_0- _i)) ] \log g ( v ) = k log β - ∑i = 1k β ( δitalic_i - v + u0 ) + 2 log [ 1 + exp ( β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ) ] (132) For sufficiently large x>00x>0x > 0, E⁢[β⁢(δi−v+u0)+2⁢log⁡[1+eβ⁢(v−u0−δi)]∣rH⁢(yA)=v−x,rH⁢(yB)=u0]Edelimited-[]formulae-sequencesubscriptsubscript0conditional21superscriptsubscript0subscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscript0 =\ \ E [β( _i-v+u_0)+2 % [1+e^β(v-u_0- _i) ] r_H(y^A)=v-x,r_% H(y^B)=u_0 ]E [ β ( δitalic_i - v + u0 ) + 2 log [ 1 + eitalic_β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ] ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) = v - x , rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 ] (133) =−β⁢x+2⁢∫−∞pδi∣rH⁢(yA)=v−x,rH⁢(yB)=u0⁢(−s+x+rH⁢(yA)−rH⁢(yB))⋅log⁡(1+eβ⁢s)⁢dsabsent2superscriptsubscript⋅subscriptformulae-sequenceconditionalsubscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscript0subscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscript1superscriptdifferential-d =-β x+2 _-∞^∞ \p_ _i r_% H(y^A)=v-x,r_H(y^B)=u_0 (-s+x+r_H(y^A)-% r_H(y^B) )· (1+e^β s ) \ds= - β x + 2 ∫- ∞ pitalic_δ start_POSTSUBSCRIPT i ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) = v - x , rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( - s + x + rH ( yitalic_A ) - rH ( yitalic_B ) ) ⋅ log ( 1 + eitalic_β s ) d s (134) =−β⁢x+2⁢∫−∞β⁢exp⁡(β⁢(−s+x))[1+exp⁡(β⁢(−s+x))]2⋅log⁡(1+eβ⁢s)⁢dsabsent2superscriptsubscript⋅superscriptdelimited-[]121superscriptdifferential-d =-β x+2 _-∞^∞ \ β (% β(-s+x) ) [1+ (β(-s+x) ) ]^2· % (1+e^β s ) \ds= - β x + 2 ∫- ∞ divide start_ARG β exp ( β ( - s + x ) ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β ( - s + x ) ) ]2 end_ARG ⋅ log ( 1 + eitalic_β s ) d s (135) =−β⁢x+2⁢∫−∞x2β⁢exp⁡(β⁢(−s+x))[1+exp⁡(β⁢(−s+x))]2⋅log⁡(1+eβ⁢s)⁢dsabsent2superscriptsubscript2⋅superscriptdelimited-[]121superscriptdifferential-d =-β x+2 _-∞ x2 \ β % (β(-s+x) ) [1+ (β(-s+x) ) ]^2% · (1+e^β s ) \ds= - β x + 2 ∫- ∞divide start_ARG x end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG divide start_ARG β exp ( β ( - s + x ) ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β ( - s + x ) ) ]2 end_ARG ⋅ log ( 1 + eitalic_β s ) d s +2⁢∫x2∞β⁢exp⁡(β⁢(−s+x))[1+exp⁡(β⁢(−s+x))]2⋅log⁡(1+eβ⁢s)⁢ds2superscriptsubscript2⋅superscriptdelimited-[]121superscriptdifferential-d =-β x\ \ +2 _ x2^∞ \ % β (β(-s+x) ) [1+ (β(-s+x) ) ]% ^2· (1+e^β s ) \ds+ 2 ∫divide start_ARG x end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG∞ divide start_ARG β exp ( β ( - s + x ) ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β ( - s + x ) ) ]2 end_ARG ⋅ log ( 1 + eitalic_β s ) d s (136) =−β⁢x+2⁢∫−∞x2O⁢(eβ⁢(s−x))⋅O⁢(s)⁢dsabsent2superscriptsubscript2⋅superscriptdifferential-d =-β x+2 _-∞ x2 \O (e^β(s-x% ) )· O(s) \ds= - β x + 2 ∫- ∞divide start_ARG x end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG O ( eitalic_β ( s - x ) ) ⋅ O ( s ) d s +2⁢∫x2∞β⁢exp⁡(β⁢(−s+x))[1+exp⁡(β⁢(−s+x))]2⋅(β+o⁢(1))⁢s⁢ds2superscriptsubscript2⋅superscriptdelimited-[]121differential-d =-β x\ \ +2 _ x2^∞ \ % β (β(-s+x) ) [1+ (β(-s+x) ) ]% ^2·(β+o(1))s \ds+ 2 ∫divide start_ARG x end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG∞ divide start_ARG β exp ( β ( - s + x ) ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β ( - s + x ) ) ]2 end_ARG ⋅ ( β + o ( 1 ) ) s d s (137) =−β⁢x+O⁢(poly⁢(e−x))+(2⁢β+o⁢(1))⁢∫x2∞β⁢exp⁡(β⁢(−s+x))[1+exp⁡(β⁢(−s+x))]2⋅s⁢dsabsentpolysuperscript21superscriptsubscript2⋅superscriptdelimited-[]12differential-d =-β x+O(poly(e^-x))+(2β+o(1)) _ x2% ^∞ \ β (β(-s+x) ) [1+ (% β(-s+x) ) ]^2· s \ds= - β x + O ( poly ( e- x ) ) + ( 2 β + o ( 1 ) ) ∫divide start_ARG x end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG∞ divide start_ARG β exp ( β ( - s + x ) ) end_ARG start_ARG [ 1 + exp ( β ( - s + x ) ) ]2 end_ARG ⋅ s d s (138) =−β⁢x+O⁢(poly⁢(e−x))+(2⁢β+o⁢(1))⁢s1+eβ⁢(−s+x)−[s+1β⁢log⁡(1+eβ⁢(−s+x))]|x2∞absentpolysuperscriptevaluated-at211superscriptdelimited-[]11superscript2 =-β x+O(poly(e^-x))+(2β+o(1)) \ s1% +e^β(-s+x)- [s+ 1β (1+e^β(-s+x) )% ] \ |_ x2^∞= - β x + O ( poly ( e- x ) ) + ( 2 β + o ( 1 ) ) divide start_ARG s end_ARG start_ARG 1 + eitalic_β ( - s + x ) end_ARG - [ s + divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG log ( 1 + eitalic_β ( - s + x ) ) ] |divide start_ARG x end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG∞ (139) =−β⁢x+O⁢(poly⁢(e−x))+(2⁢β+o⁢(1))⁢xabsentpolysuperscript21 =-β x+O(poly(e^-x))+(2β+o(1))x= - β x + O ( poly ( e- x ) ) + ( 2 β + o ( 1 ) ) x (140) =β⁢x+o⁢(x)(x→+∞)absent→ =β x+o(x) (x→+∞)= β x + o ( x ) ( x → + ∞ ) (141) Let k→∞→k→∞k → ∞ and take any x≥kx≥ kx ≥ k (therefore we also have x→∞→x→∞x → ∞). We will then analyze the tail probabilities of the random variable log⁡g⁢(v)=∑i=1khi⁢(v)superscriptsubscript1subscriptℎ g(v)= _i=1^kh_i(v)log g ( v ) = ∑i = 1k hitalic_i ( v ) when rH⁢(yA)=v−x,rH⁢(yB)=u0formulae-sequencesubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscript0r_H(y^A)=v-x,r_H(y^B)=u_0ritalic_H ( yitalic_A ) = v - x , ritalic_H ( yitalic_B ) = u0, where hi⁢(v)=β⁢(δi−v+u0)+2⁢log⁡[1+eβ⁢(v−u0−δi)]subscriptℎsubscriptsubscript021superscriptsubscript0subscripth_i(v)=β( _i-v+u_0)+2 [1+e^β(v-u_0- _i) ]hitalic_i ( v ) = β ( δitalic_i - v + u0 ) + 2 log [ 1 + eitalic_β ( v - u0 - δitalic_i ) ] (142) First, note that with probability 1−O⁢(e−β⁢x23)1superscriptsuperscript231-O (e^-β x 23 )1 - O ( e- β x start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT divide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ), all of the δisubscript _iδitalic_i fall within an O⁢(x23)superscript23O(x 23)O ( xdivide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG ) distance from rH⁢(yA)−rH⁢(yB)subscriptsuperscriptsubscriptsuperscriptr_H(y^A)-r_H(y^B)ritalic_H ( yitalic_A ) - ritalic_H ( yitalic_B ). Therefore, we can restrict our attention to the case of |δi−rH⁢(yA)+rH⁢(yB)|=O⁢(x23)subscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsuperscript23 | _i-r_H(y^A)+r_H(y^B) |=O (x 23 )| δitalic_i - ritalic_H ( yitalic_A ) + ritalic_H ( yitalic_B ) | = O ( xdivide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG ) (143) which should only lead to the loss of O⁢(e−β⁢x23)superscriptsuperscript23O (e^-β x 23 )O ( e- β x start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT divide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) probability mass. This further leads to maxδ⁡hi⁢(v)−minδ⁡hi⁢(v)≤c⋅x23subscriptsubscriptℎsubscriptsubscriptℎ⋅superscript23 _δh_i(v)- _δh_i(v)≤ c· x 23maxitalic_δ hitalic_i ( v ) - minitalic_δ hitalic_i ( v ) ≤ c ⋅ xdivide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG (144) for some constant c. Therefore, by Hoeffding’s inequality (Hoeffding, 1994), we have131313In the following derivation, we will sometimes omit the conditions in the probabilities and expectations to save space. Conditions should be clear from the context. P[log⁡g⁢(v)E⁢[log⁡g⁢(v)]∉[1−10k−13,1+10k−13]∣rH(yA)=v−x,rH(yB)=u0] =\ \ P [ g(v)E [% g(v) ]∉[1-10k^- 13,1+10k^- 13] r_% H(y^A)=v-x,r_H(y^B)=u_0 ]P [ divide start_ARG log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG E [ log g ( v ) ] end_ARG ∉ [ 1 - 10 k- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG , 1 + 10 k- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG ] ∣ rH ( yitalic_A ) = v - x , rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 ] (145) =O⁢(poly⁢(e−k13⁢x/x23))+O⁢(e−β⁢x23)absentpolysuperscriptsuperscript13superscript23superscriptsuperscript23 =O (poly (e^-k 13x/x 23% ) )+O (e^-β x 23 )= O ( poly ( e- k start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG x / xdivide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) ) + O ( e- β x start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT divide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) (146) =O⁢(poly⁢(e−k13⁢x13))absentpolysuperscriptsuperscript13superscript13 =O (poly (e^-k 13x 13% ) )= O ( poly ( e- k start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG xdivide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) ) (147) Furthermore, it can be verified that log⁡g⁢(v) g(v)log g ( v ) is β⁢kβ kβ k-Lipschitz continuous, and therefore for any sufficiently large k and ϵ=k−12italic-ϵsuperscript12ε=k^- 12ϵ = k- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG, we have P⁢[log⁡g⁢(v)E⁢[log⁡g⁢(v)]∈[1−11⁢k−13,1+11⁢k−13],∀v>rH⁢(yA)+k∣rH⁢(yB)=u0]Pdelimited-[]formulae-sequenceEdelimited-[]111superscript13111superscript13for-allsubscriptHsuperscriptconditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscript0 =\ \ P [ g(v)E [% g(v) ]∈[1-11k^- 13,1+11k^- 13],∀ v>r_% H(y^A)+k r_H(y^B)=u_0 ]P [ divide start_ARG log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG E [ log g ( v ) ] end_ARG ∈ [ 1 - 11 k- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG , 1 + 11 k- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG ] , ∀ v > rH ( yitalic_A ) + k ∣ rH ( yitalic_B ) = u0 ] (148) =1−P[∃v>rH(yA)+k:log⁡g⁢(v)E⁢[log⁡g⁢(v)]∉[1−11k−13,1+11k−13]] =1-P [∃ v>r_H(y^A)+k: g(v% )E [ g(v) ]∉[1-11k^- 13,1+11k^- % 13] ]= 1 - P [ ∃ v > rH ( yitalic_A ) + k : divide start_ARG log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG E [ log g ( v ) ] end_ARG ∉ [ 1 - 11 k- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG , 1 + 11 k- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG ] ] (149) ≥1−∑i=0∞P⁢[log⁡g⁢(rH⁢(yA)+k+i⁢ϵ)E⁢[log⁡g⁢(rH⁢(yA)+k+i⁢ϵ)]∉[1−10⁢k−13,1+10⁢k−13]]absent1superscriptsubscript0Pdelimited-[]subscriptHsuperscriptitalic-ϵEdelimited-[]subscriptHsuperscriptitalic-ϵ110superscript13110superscript13 ≥ 1- _i=0^∞P [ g(r_H% (y^A)+k+iε)E [ g(r_H(y^A)+k+iε% ) ]∉[1-10k^- 13,1+10k^- 13] ]≥ 1 - ∑i = 0∞ P [ divide start_ARG log g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) + k + i ϵ ) end_ARG start_ARG E [ log g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) + k + i ϵ ) ] end_ARG ∉ [ 1 - 10 k- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG , 1 + 10 k- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG ] ] (150) =1−O⁢(∑i=0∞poly⁢(exp⁡(−k13⁢(rH⁢(yA)+k+i⁢ϵ)13)))absent1superscriptsubscript0polysuperscript13superscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptitalic-ϵ13 =1-O ( _i=0^∞poly ( (-k^% 13 (r_H(y^A)+k+iε ) 13 )% ) )= 1 - O ( ∑i = 0∞ poly ( exp ( - kdivide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG ( rH ( yitalic_A ) + k + i ϵ )divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG ) ) ) (151) =1−O⁢(poly⁢(e−x))absent1polysuperscript =1-O (poly (e^-x ) )= 1 - O ( poly ( e- x ) ) (152) where (150) utilizes the Lipschitz continuity of log⁡g⁢(v) g(v)log g ( v ) on intervals of length ϵitalic-ϵεϵ. Combining (152), (131), (122), (117), we know that when k→+∞→k→+∞k → + ∞, with probability 1−o⁢(k−α)⁢(∀α)1superscriptfor-all1-o (k^-α )\ (∀α)1 - o ( k- α ) ( ∀ α ), the following jointly holds: log⁡g⁢(v)=−(β+o⁢(1))⁢k⁢|v−rH⁢(yA)|,∀v:|v−rH⁢(yA)|≥k:1subscriptHsuperscriptfor-allsubscriptHsuperscript g(v)=-(β+o(1))k |v-r_H(y^A) |, % ∀ v: |v-r_H(y^A) |≥ klog g ( v ) = - ( β + o ( 1 ) ) k | v - rH ( yitalic_A ) | , ∀ v : | v - rH ( yitalic_A ) | ≥ k (153) sgn⁢d⁢log⁡g⁢(v)d⁢v=(−1)v>rH,∀v:|v−rH⁢(yA)|∈[k−γ,k):sgnddsuperscript1subscript1subscriptHfor-allsubscriptHsuperscriptsuperscript \; d g(v)dv=(-1)^% 1_v>r_H, ∀ v: |v-r_H(y^A) |% ∈[k^-γ,k)sgn divide start_ARG d log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG = ( - 1 )1italic_v > r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H end_POSTSUBSCRIPT , ∀ v : | v - rH ( yitalic_A ) | ∈ [ k- γ , k ) (154) d⁢log⁡g⁢(v)d⁢v|rH⁢(yA)±k−γ=k⁢β⁢(∓13⁢β⁢k−γ+O⁢(k−2⁢γ))=∓13⁢β2⁢k1−γ+O⁢(k1−2⁢γ)evaluated-atddplus-or-minussubscriptHsuperscriptsuperscriptminus-or-plus13superscriptsuperscript2minus-or-plus13superscript2superscript1superscript12 d g(v)dv |_r_H(y^A% )± k^-γ=kβ (∓ 13β k^-γ+O(k^-2γ)% )=∓ 13β^2k^1-γ+O(k^1-2γ)divide start_ARG d log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v end_ARG |r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yitalic_A ) ± k- γ end_POSTSUBSCRIPT = k β ( ∓ divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG β k- γ + O ( k- 2 γ ) ) = ∓ divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG β2 k1 - γ + O ( k1 - 2 γ ) (155) d2⁢log⁡g⁢(v)d⁢v2|rH⁢(yA)±k−γ=13⁢β2⁢k+O⁢(k1−γ2)evaluated-atsuperscriptd2dsuperscript2plus-or-minussubscriptHsuperscriptsuperscript13superscript2superscript12 d^2 g(v)dv^2 |_r_% H(y^A)± k^-γ= 13β^2k+O (k^1- % γ2 )divide start_ARG d2 log g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG d v2 end_ARG |r start_POSTSUBSCRIPT H ( yitalic_A ) ± k- γ end_POSTSUBSCRIPT = divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG β2 k + O ( k1 - divide start_ARG γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ) (156) Combining (155) and (156) with the second-order Taylor approximation at v=rH⁢(yA)±k−13plus-or-minussubscriptHsuperscriptsuperscript13v=r_H(y^A)± k^- 13v = rH ( yitalic_A ) ± k- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG,141414Note that the third-order derivative of log⁡g⁢(v) g(v)log g ( v ) is bounded by k, up to a constant factor. for any x∈[0,k−13]0superscript13x∈ [0,k^- 13 ]x ∈ [ 0 , k- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG ] we have log⁡g⁢(rH⁢(yA)±k−γ)g⁢(rH⁢(yA)±k−γ∓x)plus-or-minussubscriptHsuperscriptsuperscriptminus-or-plusplus-or-minussubscriptHsuperscriptsuperscript =\ g(r_H(y^A)± k^-γ)g(r% _H(y^A)± k^-γ∓ x)log divide start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ± k- γ ) end_ARG start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ± k- γ ∓ x ) end_ARG =(−13⁢β2⁢x⁢k1−γ+O⁢(x⁢k1−2⁢γ))+(16⁢β2⁢x2⁢k+O⁢(x2⁢k1−γ2))+O⁢(x3⁢k)absent13superscript2superscript1superscript1216superscript2superscript2superscript2superscript12superscript3 = (- 13β^2xk^1-γ+O(xk^1-2γ) % )+ ( 16β^2x^2k+O (x^2k^1- γ2 )% )+O(x^3k)= ( - divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG β2 x k1 - γ + O ( x k1 - 2 γ ) ) + ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 6 end_ARG β2 x2 k + O ( x2 k1 - divide start_ARG γ end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ) ) + O ( x3 k ) (157) In particular, log⁡g⁢(rH⁢(yA)±k−γ)g⁢(rH⁢(yA))plus-or-minussubscriptHsuperscriptsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscript g(r_H(y^A)± k^-γ)g(r_H(y% ^A))log divide start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ± k- γ ) end_ARG start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) end_ARG =−13⁢β2⁢k1−2⁢γ+16⁢β2⁢k1−2⁢γ+O⁢(k1−52⁢γ)absent13superscript2superscript1216superscript2superscript12superscript152 =- 13β^2k^1-2γ+ 16β^2k^1-2% γ+O (k^1- 52γ )= - divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG β2 k1 - 2 γ + divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 6 end_ARG β2 k1 - 2 γ + O ( k1 - divide start_ARG 5 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG γ ) (158) Recall that γ∈(25,12)2512γ∈ ( 25, 12 )γ ∈ ( divide start_ARG 2 end_ARG start_ARG 5 end_ARG , divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG ). Substracting (157) from (158), and then substituting k−γ−xsuperscriptk^-γ-xk- γ - x with t, we have log⁡g⁢(rH⁢(yA)±t)g⁢(rH⁢(yA))plus-or-minussubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscript g(r_H(y^A)± t)g(r_H(y^A))log divide start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ± t ) end_ARG start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) end_ARG =−13⁢β2⁢t⁢k1−γ+16⁢β2⁢(2⁢k−γ−t)⁢t⁢k+O⁢(k1−52⁢γ)absent13superscript2superscript116superscript22superscriptsuperscript152 =- 13β^2tk^1-γ+ 16β^2(2k^-% γ-t)tk+O (k^1- 52γ )= - divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 3 end_ARG β2 t k1 - γ + divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 6 end_ARG β2 ( 2 k- γ - t ) t k + O ( k1 - divide start_ARG 5 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG γ ) (159) =−16⁢β2⁢t2⁢k+O⁢(k1−52⁢γ)absent16superscript2superscript2superscript152 =- 16β^2t^2k+O (k^1- 52γ )= - divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 6 end_ARG β2 t2 k + O ( k1 - divide start_ARG 5 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG γ ) (160) To summarize, we have obtained the following asymptotic bounds for values of g⁢(v)g(v)g ( v ), g⁢(rH⁢(yA)+t)g⁢(rH⁢(yA))=subscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptabsent g(r_H(y^A)+t)g(r_H(y^A))=divide start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) + t ) end_ARG start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) end_ARG = (1+o⁢(1))⁢e−16⁢β2⁢t2⁢k11superscript16superscript2superscript2 (1+o(1))e^- 16β^2t^2k( 1 + o ( 1 ) ) e- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 6 end_ARG β start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 2 t2 k end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT (|t|<k−γ)superscript(|t|<k^-γ)( | t | < k- γ ) (161a) g⁢(rH⁢(yA)+t)g⁢(rH⁢(yA))=subscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptabsent g(r_H(y^A)+t)g(r_H(y^A))=divide start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) + t ) end_ARG start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) end_ARG = O⁢(e−16⁢β2⁢k1−2⁢γ)⁢ and ⁢ω⁢(e−1.01⁢β⁢k2)superscript16superscript2superscript12 and superscript1.01superscript2 O(e^- 16β^2k^1-2γ) and ω % (e^-1.01β k^2 )O ( e- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 6 end_ARG β start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 2 k1 - 2 γ end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) and ω ( e- 1.01 β k start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 2 end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT ) (|t|∈[k−γ,k))superscript (|t|∈[k^-γ,k) )( | t | ∈ [ k- γ , k ) ) (161b) g⁢(rH⁢(yA)+t)g⁢(rH⁢(yA))=subscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptabsent g(r_H(y^A)+t)g(r_H(y^A))=divide start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) + t ) end_ARG start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) end_ARG = e−(β+o⁢(1))⁢k⁢|t|superscript1 e^-(β+o(1))k|t|e- ( β + o ( 1 ) ) k | t | (|t|≥k) (|t|≥ k )( | t | ≥ k ) (161c) where (161b) results from (154), and (161c) relies on the fact that g⁢(rH⁢(yA))=eO⁢(k)subscriptHsuperscriptsuperscriptg (r_H(y^A) )=e^O(k)g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) = eitalic_O ( k ) with probability 1−o⁢(k−α)⁢(∀α)1superscriptfor-all1-o (k^-α )\ (∀α)1 - o ( k- α ) ( ∀ α ), which can be easily proven with Chernoff bounds from the fact that E⁢[log⁡g⁢(rH⁢(yA))]=O⁢(k)Edelimited-[]subscriptHsuperscriptE [ g (r_H(y^A) ) ]=O(k)E [ log g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) ] = O ( k ). With probability 1−o⁢(k−α)⁢(∀α)1superscriptfor-all1-o (k^-α )\ (∀α)1 - o ( k- α ) ( ∀ α ), these bounds jointly hold for all values of v. This allows us to derive the bounds for the denominator of (99), which we denote with Q. Q Q =∫−∞+∞βk⁢exp⁡(β⁢∑i=1k(v−u0−di))∏i=1k[1+exp⁡(β⁢(v−u0−di))]2⁢dvabsentsuperscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsuperscriptsubscript1subscript0subscriptsuperscriptsubscriptproduct1superscriptdelimited-[]1subscript0subscript2differential-d = _-∞^+∞ β^k (β _i=1% ^k(v-u_0-d_i) ) _i=1^k [1+ (β(v-u_0-d_% i) ) ]^2dv= ∫- ∞+ ∞ divide start_ARG βitalic_k exp ( β ∑i = 1k ( v - u0 - ditalic_i ) ) end_ARG start_ARG ∏i = 1k [ 1 + exp ( β ( v - u0 - ditalic_i ) ) ]2 end_ARG d v (162) =g⁢(rH⁢(yA))⁢∫−∞+∞g⁢(v)g⁢(rH⁢(yA))⁢dvabsentsubscriptHsuperscriptsuperscriptsubscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptdifferential-d =g(r_H(y^A)) _-∞^+∞ g(v)g(r_% H(y^A))dv= g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) ∫- ∞+ ∞ divide start_ARG g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) end_ARG d v (163) =g⁢(rH⁢(yA))⋅((1+o⁢(1))⁢∫0k−γe−16⁢β2⁢t2⁢k⁢dt+O⁢(k⁢e−16⁢β⁢k1−2⁢γ+∫k+∞e−0.99⁢β⁢k⁢|t|⁢dt))g⁢(rH⁢(yA))⋅((1+o⁢(1))⁢∫0k−γe−16⁢β2⁢t2⁢k⁢dt+Ω⁢(k⁢e−(β+0.01)⁢k2+∫k+∞e−1.01⁢β⁢k⁢|t|⁢dt))absentcases⋅subscriptHsuperscript11superscriptsubscript0superscriptsuperscript16superscript2superscript2differential-dsuperscript16superscript12superscriptsubscriptsuperscript0.99differential-dotherwise⋅subscriptHsuperscript11superscriptsubscript0superscriptsuperscript16superscript2superscript2differential-dΩsuperscript0.01superscript2superscriptsubscriptsuperscript1.01differential-dotherwise = cases*g(r_H(y^A))· ((1+o(1)) _0^% k^-γe^- 16β^2t^2kdt+O (ke^- 16% β k^1-2γ+ _k^+∞e^-0.99β k|t|dt )% )\\ g(r_H(y^A))· ((1+o(1)) _0^k^-γe^- 16% β^2t^2kdt+ (ke^-(β+0.01)k^2+ _k^+% ∞e^-1.01β k|t|dt ) ) cases*= start_ROW start_CELL g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) ⋅ ( ( 1 + o ( 1 ) ) ∫0k start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT - γ end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT e- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 6 end_ARG β start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 2 t2 k end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT d t + O ( k e- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 6 end_ARG β k start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 1 - 2 γ end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT + ∫k+ ∞ e- 0.99 β k | t | d t ) ) end_CELL start_CELL end_CELL end_ROW start_ROW start_CELL g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) ⋅ ( ( 1 + o ( 1 ) ) ∫0k start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT - γ end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT e- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 6 end_ARG β start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 2 t2 k end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT d t + Ω ( k e- ( β + 0.01 ) k start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 2 end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT + ∫k+ ∞ e- 1.01 β k | t | d t ) ) end_CELL start_CELL end_CELL end_ROW (164) =g⁢(rH⁢(yA))⋅(1+o⁢(1))⁢∫0k−γe−16⁢β2⁢t2⁢k⁢dtabsent⋅subscriptHsuperscript11superscriptsubscript0superscriptsuperscript16superscript2superscript2differential-d =g(r_H(y^A))·(1+o(1)) _0^k^-γe^-% 16β^2t^2kdt= g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) ⋅ ( 1 + o ( 1 ) ) ∫0k start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT - γ end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT e- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 6 end_ARG β start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 2 t2 k end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT d t (165) =g⁢(rH⁢(yA))⋅(1+o⁢(1))⁢6⁢π⁢erf⁢(6⁢β⁢k12−γ6)2⁢β⁢k12absent⋅subscriptHsuperscript116erf6superscript1262superscript12 =g(r_H(y^A))· (1+o(1)) 6π\;% erf ( 6β k 12-γ6 )2β k^% 12= g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) ⋅ divide start_ARG ( 1 + o ( 1 ) ) square-root start_ARG 6 π end_ARG erf ( divide start_ARG square-root start_ARG 6 end_ARG β kdivide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG - γ end_ARG start_ARG 6 end_ARG ) end_ARG start_ARG 2 β kdivide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG end_ARG (166) =g⁢(rH⁢(yA))⋅(6⁢π2⁢β+o⁢(1))⁢k−12absent⋅subscriptHsuperscript621superscript12 =g(r_H(y^A))· ( 6π2β+o(1)% )k^- 12= g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) ⋅ ( divide start_ARG square-root start_ARG 6 π end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG 2 β end_ARG + o ( 1 ) ) k- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG (167) Therefore, finally, Var⁢[rH⁢(yA)∣rH⁢(yB)]δ=dVarsubscriptdelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptB [r_H(y^A) r_H(y^% B) ]_δ=dVar [ rH ( yA ) ∣ rH ( yB ) ]δ = d =∫−∞+∞g⁢(v)Q⁢(v−E⁢[rH⁢(yA)∣rH⁢(yB)]δ=d)2⁢dvabsentsuperscriptsubscriptsuperscriptEsubscriptdelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptB2differential-d = _-∞^+∞ g(v)Q (v-E [r_% H(y^A) r_H(y^B) ]_δ=d% )^2dv= ∫- ∞+ ∞ divide start_ARG g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG Q end_ARG ( v - E [ rH ( yA ) ∣ rH ( yB ) ]δ = d )2 d v (168) ≤∫−∞+∞g⁢(v)Q⁢(v−rH⁢(yA))2⁢dvabsentsuperscriptsubscriptsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptA2differential-d ≤ _-∞^+∞ g(v)Q (v-r_H(y^% A) )^2dv≤ ∫- ∞+ ∞ divide start_ARG g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG Q end_ARG ( v - rH ( yA ) )2 d v (169) ≤g⁢(rH⁢(yA))Q⁢[∫0k−γt2⁢e−16⁢β2⁢t2⁢k⁢dt+k3⁢e−16⁢β⁢k1−2⁢γ+∫k+∞t2⁢e−0.99⁢β⁢k⁢|t|⁢dt]absentsubscriptHsuperscriptdelimited-[]superscriptsubscript0superscriptsuperscript2superscript16superscript2superscript2differential-dsuperscript3superscript16superscript12superscriptsubscriptsuperscript2superscript0.99differential-d ≤ g(r_H(y^A))Q [ _0^k^-γt% ^2e^- 16β^2t^2kdt+k^3e^- 16β k^1-% 2γ+ _k^+∞t^2e^-0.99β k|t|dt ]≤ divide start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) end_ARG start_ARG Q end_ARG [ ∫0k start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT - γ end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT t2 e- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 6 end_ARG β start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 2 t2 k end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT d t + k3 e- divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 6 end_ARG β k start_POSTSUPERSCRIPT 1 - 2 γ end_POSTSUPERSCRIPT + ∫k+ ∞ t2 e- 0.99 β k | t | d t ] =(3⁢β−2+o⁢(1))⁢k−1absent3superscript21superscript1 =(3β^-2+o(1))k^-1= ( 3 β- 2 + o ( 1 ) ) k- 1 (170) To prove that this bound is asymptotically tight, observe that H⁢[rH⁢(yA)∣rH⁢(yB)]δ=dHsubscriptdelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptB [r_H(y^A) r_H(y^% B) ]_δ=dH [ rH ( yA ) ∣ rH ( yB ) ]δ = d =−∫−∞+∞g⁢(v)Q⁢log⁡g⁢(v)Q⁢d⁢vabsentsuperscriptsubscriptd =- _-∞^+∞ g(v)Q g(v)Q % dv= - ∫- ∞+ ∞ divide start_ARG g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG Q end_ARG log divide start_ARG g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG Q end_ARG d v (171) =log⁡Qg⁢(rH⁢(yA))−g⁢(rH⁢(yA))Q⁢∫−∞+∞g⁢(v)g⁢(rH⁢(yA))⁢log⁡g⁢(v)g⁢(rH⁢(yA))⁢d⁢vabsentsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsuperscriptsubscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptsubscriptHsuperscriptd = Qg(r_H(y^A))- g(r_H(y^A)% )Q _-∞^+∞ g(v)g(r_H(y^A)) g(v)% g(r_H(y^A))dv= log divide start_ARG Q end_ARG start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) end_ARG - divide start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) end_ARG start_ARG Q end_ARG ∫- ∞+ ∞ divide start_ARG g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) end_ARG log divide start_ARG g ( v ) end_ARG start_ARG g ( rH ( yitalic_A ) ) end_ARG d v (172) =o⁢(1)+log⁡6⁢π2⁢β−12⁢log⁡k+12absent1621212 =o(1)+ 6π2β- 12 k+ 12= o ( 1 ) + log divide start_ARG square-root start_ARG 6 π end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG 2 β end_ARG - divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG log k + divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 end_ARG (173) Therefore, Var⁢[rH⁢(yA)∣rH⁢(yB)]δ=dVarsubscriptdelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptB [r_H(y^A) r_H(y^% B) ]_δ=dVar [ rH ( yA ) ∣ rH ( yB ) ]δ = d ≥12⁢π⁢e⁢exp⁡(2⁢H⁢[rH⁢(yA)∣rH⁢(yB)]δ=d)absent122Hsubscriptdelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptHsuperscriptAsubscriptHsuperscriptB ≥ 12π e (2H [r_H(y^% A) r_H(y^B) ]_δ=d )≥ divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG 2 π e end_ARG exp ( 2 H [ rH ( yA ) ∣ rH ( yB ) ]δ = d ) (174) =(34⁢β−2+o⁢(1))⁢k−1absent34superscript21superscript1 = ( 34β^-2+o(1) )k^-1= ( divide start_ARG 3 end_ARG start_ARG 4 end_ARG β- 2 + o ( 1 ) ) k- 1 (175) which completes the proof. ∎ Corollary B.23. Under the conditions of Lemma B.22, when |D|→+∞→|D|→+∞| D | → + ∞, Var⁢[rRM⁢(yA)−rRM⁢(yB)]=Θ⁢(|D|−1)Vardelimited-[]subscriptRMsuperscriptsubscriptRMsuperscriptΘsuperscript1Var [r_RM (y^A )-r_RM (y^B% ) ]= (|D|^-1 )Var [ rRM ( yitalic_A ) - rRM ( yitalic_B ) ] = Θ ( | D |- 1 ) (176) B.5 Convergence of the Reward Model and the Language Model Proposition B.24 (Convergence of RM). If we have lim|D|→+∞supy1,y2∈Var⁢[rRM⁢(y1)∣rRM⁢(y2)]=0subscript→subscriptsupremumsubscript1subscript2Vardelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript20 _|D|→+∞ _y_1,y_2∈YVar [r_% RM(y_1) r_RM(y_2) ]=0lim| D | → + ∞ supitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT Var [ rroman_RM ( y1 ) ∣ rroman_RM ( y2 ) ] = 0 (177) then lim|D|→+∞supy1,y2∈P⁢[(rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2))−(rH⁢(y1)−rH⁢(y2))≥ϵ]=0,∀ϵ>0formulae-sequencesubscript→subscriptsupremumsubscript1subscript2Pdelimited-[]subscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2subscriptHsubscript1subscriptHsubscript2italic-ϵ0for-allitalic-ϵ0 _|D|→+∞ _y_1,y_2∈YP [ (r_% RM(y_1)-r_ RM(y_2) )- (r_ H(y_1)% -r_ H(y_2) )≥ε ]=0, ∀ε>0lim| D | → + ∞ supitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT P [ ( rRM ( y1 ) - rRM ( y2 ) ) - ( rH ( y1 ) - rH ( y2 ) ) ≥ ϵ ] = 0 , ∀ ϵ > 0 (178) In other words, rRM⁢(⋅)subscriptRM⋅r_RM(·)rroman_RM ( ⋅ ) uniformly converges to rH⁢(⋅)subscriptH⋅r_H(·)rroman_H ( ⋅ ) in probability, plus or minus a constant due to the shift-invariance of rewards. Proof. We need to prove that for any given y1subscript1y_1y1 and y2subscript2y_2y2, r.v. rRM⁢(y1)subscriptRMsubscript1r_RM(y_1)rroman_RM ( y1 ) and rRM⁢(y2)subscriptRMsubscript2r_RM(y_2)rroman_RM ( y2 ) satisfy rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2)→rH⁢(y1)−rH⁢(y2)→subscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2subscriptHsubscript1subscriptHsubscript2r_RM(y_1)-r_RM(y_2) pr_H(y_% 1)-r_H(y_2)rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) start_ARROW overp → end_ARROW rroman_H ( y1 ) - rroman_H ( y2 ) (179) Firstly, due to the connectivity of EIBsubscriptIBE_IBEroman_IB, there is an optimal inference path from y1subscript1y_1y1 to y2subscript2y_2y2, SoptD⁢(y1,y2)subscriptsuperscriptoptsubscript1subscript2S^D_opt(y_1,y_2)Sitalic_Droman_opt ( y1 , y2 ), which ensures that rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2)subscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2r_RM(y_1)-r_RM(y_2)rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) and rRM⁢(y2)subscriptRMsubscript2r_RM(y_2)rroman_RM ( y2 ) are independent. We have Var⁢[rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2)]Vardelimited-[]subscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2 =\ \ Var [r_RM(y_1)-r_% RM(y_2) ]Var [ rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) ] (180) =E⁢[Var⁢[(rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2))∣rRM⁢(y2)]]+Var⁢[E⁢(rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2)∣rRM⁢(y2))]absentEdelimited-[]Vardelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2subscriptRMsubscript2Vardelimited-[]EsubscriptRMsubscript1conditionalsubscriptRMsubscript2subscriptRMsubscript2 =E [Var [ (r_RM(y_1% )-r_RM(y_2) ) r_RM(y_2) ] ]+% Var [E (r_RM(y_1)-r_RM(y_% 2) r_RM(y_2) ) ]= E [ Var [ ( rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) ) ∣ rroman_RM ( y2 ) ] ] + Var [ E ( rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) ∣ rroman_RM ( y2 ) ) ] (181) =E⁢[Var⁢[rRM⁢(y1)∣rRM⁢(y2)]]+Var⁢[E⁢[rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2)]](by⁢rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2)⟂rRM⁢(y2))absentEdelimited-[]Vardelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2Vardelimited-[]Edelimited-[]subscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2perpendicular-tobysubscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2subscriptRMsubscript2 =E [Var[r_RM(y_1) r_% RM(y_2)] ]+Var [E [r_RM% (y_1)-r_RM(y_2) ] ] (by\,r_RM(% y_1)-r_RM(y_2) r_RM(y_2))= E [ Var [ rroman_RM ( y1 ) ∣ rroman_RM ( y2 ) ] ] + Var [ E [ rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) ] ] ( by rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) ⟂ rroman_RM ( y2 ) ) =E⁢[Var⁢[rRM⁢(y1)∣rRM⁢(y2)]]absentEdelimited-[]Vardelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2 =E [Var[r_RM(y_1) r_% RM(y_2)] ]= E [ Var [ rroman_RM ( y1 ) ∣ rroman_RM ( y2 ) ] ] (182) Recall that rRM⁢(⋅)subscriptRM⋅r_RM(·)rroman_RM ( ⋅ ) is (approximately) our posterior distribution for rRM⁢(⋅)subscriptRM⋅r_RM(·)rroman_RM ( ⋅ ), and therefore E⁢[rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2)]=rRM⁢(y1)Edelimited-[]subscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2subscriptRMsubscript1E [r_RM(y_1)-r_RM(y_2) ]=r_% RM(y_1)E [ rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) ] = rroman_RM ( y1 ) approximately holds. Therefore, P[|rRM(y1)−rRM(y2)−(rH(y1)−rH(y2))−(E(rRM(y1)−rRM(y2)−(rH(y1)−rH(y2)))|≥ϵ] =\ \ P [ |r_RM(y_1)-r_% RM(y_2)-(r_H(y_1)-r_H(y_2))- (% E (r_RM(y_1)-r_RM(y_2)-(r_H% (y_1)-r_H(y_2)) ) |≥ε ]P [ | rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) - ( rroman_H ( y1 ) - rroman_H ( y2 ) ) - ( E ( rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) - ( rroman_H ( y1 ) - rroman_H ( y2 ) ) ) | ≥ ϵ ] =P⁢[|rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2)−E⁢(rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2))|≥ϵ]absentPdelimited-[]subscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2EsubscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2italic-ϵ =P [ |r_RM(y_1)-r_RM(y% _2)-E (r_RM(y_1)-r_RM(y_2) )% |≥ε ] = P [ | rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) - E ( rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) ) | ≥ ϵ ] (183) ≤Var⁢(rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2))ϵ2absentVarsubscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2superscriptitalic-ϵ2 ≤ Var (r_RM(y_1)-r_RM% (y_2) )ε^2≤ divide start_ARG Var ( rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) ) end_ARG start_ARG ϵ2 end_ARG (184) =E⁢[Var⁢[rRM⁢(y1)∣rRM⁢(y2)]]ϵ2absentEdelimited-[]Vardelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2superscriptitalic-ϵ2 = E[Var[r_RM(y_1) r_% RM(y_2)]]ε^2= divide start_ARG E [ Var [ rroman_RM ( y1 ) ∣ rroman_RM ( y2 ) ] ] end_ARG start_ARG ϵ2 end_ARG (185) Therefore, given any ϵitalic-ϵεϵ, we can choose a sufficiently large |D||D|| D | to make (185) arbitrarily small. Since y1subscript1y_1y1 and y2subscript2y_2y2 are arbitrary, we have proven (179). Uniformity follows from the fact that |||Y|| Y | is finite. ∎ Proposition B.25 (Convergence of RM Implies Convergence of LM). If the rewards given by rRM⁢(⋅)subscriptRM⋅r_RM(·)rRM ( ⋅ ) are within an ϵitalic-ϵεϵ-bounded distance from rH⁢(⋅)subscriptH⋅r_H(·)rH ( ⋅ ), then probabilities given by pLM⁢(⋅)subscriptLM⋅p_LM(·)pLM ( ⋅ ) are within an f⁢(ϵ)italic-ϵf(ε)f ( ϵ )-bounded distance from pH⁢(⋅)subscriptH⋅p_H(·)pH ( ⋅ ), where f⁢(⋅)⋅f(·)f ( ⋅ ) satisfies that limϵ→0+f⁢(ϵ)=0subscript→italic-ϵsuperscript0italic-ϵ0 _ε→ 0^+f(ε)=0limitalic_ϵ → 0+ f ( ϵ ) = 0. Proof. Without loss of generality, giving a loss functional with respect to pLM⁢(y)subscriptLMp_LM(y)proman_LM ( y ), written as Ey∼pLM⁢[rRM⁢(y)]+β⁢H⁢[pLM⁢(y)]subscriptEsimilar-tosubscriptLMdelimited-[]subscriptRMHdelimited-[]subscriptLM _y p_LM[r_RM(y)]+β% H[p_LM(y)]Eitalic_y ∼ p start_POSTSUBSCRIPT LM end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ rroman_RM ( y ) ] + β H [ proman_LM ( y ) ] (186) = == ∫rRM⁢(y)⁢pLM⁢(y)−β⁢pLM⁢(y)⁢log⁡pLM⁢(y)⁢d⁢ysubscriptRMsubscriptLMsubscriptLMsubscriptLMd r_RM(y)p_LM(y)-β p_LM(y% ) p_LM(y)dy∫ rroman_RM ( y ) proman_LM ( y ) - β proman_LM ( y ) log proman_LM ( y ) d y (187) the closed-form minimizer of (187) is given by pLM⁢(y)=1ZRM⁢exp⁡(1β⁢rRM⁢(y))subscriptLM1subscriptRM1subscriptRM p_LM(y)= 1Z_RM ( 1% βr_RM(y) )proman_LM ( y ) = divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG Zroman_RM end_ARG exp ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG rroman_RM ( y ) ) (188) which is known as the Gibbs distribution, where ZRM≔∫exp⁡(1β⁢r⁢(y))⁢dy≔subscriptRM1differential-dZ_RM ( 1βr(y) )dyZroman_RM ≔ ∫ exp ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG r ( y ) ) d y is the partition function. |ZH−ZRM|ZH⁢ZRMsubscriptHsubscriptRMsubscriptHsubscriptRM |Z_H-Z_RM|Z_HZ_% RMdivide start_ARG | Zroman_H - Zroman_RM | end_ARG start_ARG Zroman_H Zroman_RM end_ARG =1ZH⁢ZRM⁢|∫(exp⁡(1β⁢rH⁢(y))−exp⁡(1β⁢rRM⁢(y)))⁢dy|absent1subscriptHsubscriptRMsubscript1subscriptH1subscriptRMdifferential-d = 1Z_HZ_RM | _Y% ( ( 1βr_H(y) )- ( 1% βr_RM(y) ) )dy |= divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG Zroman_H Zroman_RM end_ARG | ∫Y ( exp ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG rroman_H ( y ) ) - exp ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG rroman_RM ( y ) ) ) d y | (189) ≤1ZH⁢ZRM⋅1β⁢exp⁡(2⁢Mβ)⁢∫|rH⁢(y)−rRM⁢(y)|⁢dyabsent⋅1subscriptHsubscriptRM12subscriptsubscriptHsubscriptRMdifferential-d ≤ 1Z_HZ_RM· 1β% ( 2Mβ ) _Y |r_H(y)% -r_RM(y) |dy≤ divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG Zroman_H Zroman_RM end_ARG ⋅ divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG exp ( divide start_ARG 2 M end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG ) ∫Y | rroman_H ( y ) - rroman_RM ( y ) | d y (190) →ϵ(due to being finite)→absentitalic-ϵdue to being finite →ε (due to $ Y$ being finite)→ ϵ ( due to Y being finite ) (191) According to the assumption, supy∈|rRM⁢(y)−rH⁢(y)|≤ϵsubscriptsupremumsubscriptRMsubscriptHitalic-ϵ _y |r_RM(y)-r_H(y)|≤ _y ∈ Y | rroman_RM ( y ) - rroman_H ( y ) | ≤ ϵ (192) Due to the finiteness of YY, rRMsubscriptRMr_RMrroman_RM and rHsubscriptHr_Hrroman_H are bounded functions on YY. Here we define M≔maxy⁡|rRM⁢(y)|,|rH⁢(y)|≔subscriptsubscriptRMsubscriptHM _y\|r_RM(y)|,|r_H(y)|\M ≔ maxitalic_y | rroman_RM ( y ) | , | rroman_H ( y ) | , |pLM⁢(y)−pH⁢(y)|subscriptLMsubscriptH |p_LM(y)-p_H(y)|| proman_LM ( y ) - proman_H ( y ) | =|1ZRM⁢exp⁡(1β⁢rRM⁢(y))−1ZH⁢exp⁡(1β⁢rH⁢(y))|absent1subscriptRM1subscriptRM1subscriptH1subscriptH = | 1Z_RM ( 1βr_% RM(y) )- 1Z_H ( 1βr_% H(y) ) |= | divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG Zroman_RM end_ARG exp ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG rroman_RM ( y ) ) - divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG Zroman_H end_ARG exp ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG rroman_H ( y ) ) | (193) ≤1ZRM⁢|exp⁡(1β⁢rRM⁢(y))−exp⁡(1β⁢rH⁢(y))|+exp⁡(1β⁢rH⁢(y))ZRM⁢ZH⁢|ZH−ZRM|absent1subscriptRM1subscriptRM1subscriptH1subscriptHsubscriptRMsubscriptHsubscriptHsubscriptRM ≤ 1Z_RM | ( 1βr_% RM(y) )- ( 1βr_H(y) ) % |+ ( 1βr_H(y) )Z_RMZ_% H |Z_H-Z_RM |≤ divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG Zroman_RM end_ARG | exp ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG rroman_RM ( y ) ) - exp ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG rroman_H ( y ) ) | + divide start_ARG exp ( divide start_ARG 1 end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG rroman_H ( y ) ) end_ARG start_ARG Zroman_RM Zroman_H end_ARG | Zroman_H - Zroman_RM | ≤e2⁢MβZRM⋅ϵβ+eMβZRM⁢ZH⋅|ZH−ZRM|absent⋅superscript2subscriptRMitalic-ϵ⋅superscriptsubscriptRMsubscriptHsubscriptHsubscriptRM ≤ e 2MβZ_RM· % εβ+ e MβZ_RMZ_H% · |Z_H-Z_RM |≤ divide start_ARG edivide start_ARG 2 M end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG Zroman_RM end_ARG ⋅ divide start_ARG ϵ end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG + divide start_ARG edivide start_ARG M end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG Zroman_RM Zroman_H end_ARG ⋅ | Zroman_H - Zroman_RM | (194) where f⁢(ϵ)≔e2⁢MβZRM⋅ϵβ+eMβZRM⋅ZH⁢|ZH−ZRM|≔italic-ϵ⋅superscript2subscriptRMitalic-ϵsuperscript⋅subscriptRMsubscriptHsubscriptHsubscriptRMf(ε) e 2MβZ_RM· % εβ+ e MβZ_RM· Z_H% |Z_H-Z_RM |f ( ϵ ) ≔ divide start_ARG edivide start_ARG 2 M end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG Zroman_RM end_ARG ⋅ divide start_ARG ϵ end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG + divide start_ARG edivide start_ARG M end_ARG start_ARG β end_ARG end_ARG start_ARG Zroman_RM ⋅ Zroman_H end_ARG | Zroman_H - Zroman_RM | (195) can be verified to approach 00 as ϵ→0+→italic-ϵsuperscript0ε→ 0^+ϵ → 0+. ∎ Corollary B.26. If the reward modeling process (i.e., the encoding process) satisfies that lim|D|→+∞supy1,y2∈Var⁢[rRM⁢(y1)∣rRM⁢(y2)]=0subscript→subscriptsupremumsubscript1subscript2Vardelimited-[]conditionalsubscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript20 _|D|→+∞ _y_1,y_2∈YVar [r_% RM(y_1) r_RM(y_2) ]=0lim| D | → + ∞ supitalic_y start_POSTSUBSCRIPT 1 , y2 ∈ Y end_POSTSUBSCRIPT Var [ rroman_RM ( y1 ) ∣ rroman_RM ( y2 ) ] = 0 (196) and the policy optimization process (i.e., the decoding process) performs β-entropy-regularized RL, or, in other words, Ey∼pLM⁢[rRM⁢(y)]+β⁢Hy∼pLM⁢[y]subscriptEsimilar-tosubscriptLMdelimited-[]subscriptRMsubscriptHsimilar-tosubscriptLMdelimited-[] =\ \ \ \;E_y p_LM [r_% RM(y) ]+ _y p_LM [y ]Eitalic_y ∼ p start_POSTSUBSCRIPT LM end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ rroman_RM ( y ) ] + β Hitalic_y ∼ p start_POSTSUBSCRIPT LM end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ y ] =suppLM′∈Δ⁢[](Ey∼pLM′⁢[rRM⁢(y)]+β⁢Hy∼pLM′⁢[y])absentsubscriptsupremumsuperscriptsubscriptLM′Δdelimited-[]subscriptEsimilar-tosuperscriptsubscriptLM′delimited-[]subscriptRMsubscriptHsimilar-tosuperscriptsubscriptLM′delimited-[] = _p_LM ∈ [Y % ] (E_y p_LM [r_RM(y)% ]+ _y p_LM [y ] )= supitalic_p start_POSTSUBSCRIPT LM′ ∈ Δ [ Y ] end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ( Eitalic_y ∼ p start_POSTSUBSCRIPT LM′ end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ rroman_RM ( y ) ] + β Hitalic_y ∼ p start_POSTSUBSCRIPT LM′ end_POSTSUBSCRIPT [ y ] ) (197) then, when the dataset size |D|→+∞→|D|→+∞| D | → + ∞, rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2)subscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2 r_RM(y_1)-r_RM(y_2)rRM ( y1 ) - rRM ( y2 ) →⁢rH⁢(y1)−rH⁢(y2)→subscriptHsubscript1subscriptHsubscript2 P→r_H(y_1)-r_H(y_2)overP start_ARG → end_ARG rH ( y1 ) - rH ( y2 ) (198) pLM⁢(y)subscriptLM p_LM(y)pLM ( y ) →⁢pH⁢(y)→subscriptH d→p_H(y)overd start_ARG → end_ARG pH ( y ) (199) uniformly for all (y1,y2)∈2subscript1subscript2superscript2(y_1,y_2)∈Y^2( y1 , y2 ) ∈ Y2 and for all y∈y∈Yy ∈ Y. Proof Sketch. The convergence-in-probability of rRMsubscriptRMr_RMrroman_RM can be proven using the independence between rRM⁢(y2)subscriptRMsubscript2r_RM(y_2)rroman_RM ( y2 ) and rRM⁢(y1)−rRM⁢(y2)subscriptRMsubscript1subscriptRMsubscript2r_RM(y_1)-r_RM(y_2)rroman_RM ( y1 ) - rroman_RM ( y2 ) (Lemma B.11) and then applying tail inequalities. See Proposition B.24 for a more detailed proof. The convergence-in-distribution of pLMsubscriptLMp_LMproman_LM can be proven by deriving the solution for (197) and then analyzing error propagation. See Proposition B.25 for a more detailed proof. ∎ Appendix C Experiment Details C.1 Dynamic Tree Generation In our framework, for every specified prompt xitalic_x, it is designated as the root of a binary tree. Commencing from this root, the LLM inferences along the various pathways of the tree, culminating in the formation of a complete response for each trajectory. Each node is constructed at the sentence level, which encapsulates one or several clauses, separated from the completed response by predetermined separators such as periods, question marks, etc. We can summarize the dynamic tree generation process in the following three steps: Dynamic Sampling, Branch, Termination. Dynamic Sampling Owing to the inherently segmented nature of tree structures, the temperature for sampling the next token during inference can be dynamically adjusted based on the tree’s structure. The modification of the sampling temperature is guided by three objectives: 1. Increase the sampling temperature at shallower nodes to enhance the diversity at the beginning of the structure, thereby augmenting the overall data diversity. 2. Decrease the sampling temperature at deeper nodes to maintain the stability of the sentence endings. 3. Adjust the sampling temperature at a node accounts for the similarity between generation outcomes of its sibling node (if exists) to enhance differentiation among siblings. Using v to represent the current node, pvsubscriptp_vpitalic_v to denote the parent node, and svsubscripts_vsitalic_v to signify the sibling node, the rules governing the temperature for sampling the next token at each tree node are as follows. Note that tvsubscriptt_vtitalic_v stands for the basic temperature settings for this node while tnextsubscriptnextt_nexttroman_next determines the temperature used for sampling next token: tvsubscript t_vtitalic_v =T−γ∗depth⁢(v)absentdepth =T-γ*depth(v)= T - γ ∗ depth ( v ) tnextsubscriptnext t_nexttroman_next =min⁡(tpv,tv+α∗LCS⁢(tv,tsv))absentsubscriptsubscriptsubscriptLCSsubscriptsubscriptsubscript = (t_p_v,t_v+α*LCS (t_v,t_s_v% ) )= min ( titalic_p start_POSTSUBSCRIPT v end_POSTSUBSCRIPT , titalic_v + α ∗ LCS ( titalic_v , titalic_s start_POSTSUBSCRIPT v end_POSTSUBSCRIPT ) ) The aforementioned temperature setting ensures a monotonic non-increasing sampling temperature from the tree’s root to its leaf nodes, balancing the diversity and stability of the data generated in the tree structure. Branch To ensure an even distribution of multi-clause sentences in tree generation with a maximum depth D, we first estimate the clause count in potential complete sentences. This involves performing a greedy search on the initial prompt to generate a reference sentence, refsubscriptref s_refitalic_sroman_ref. We then evenly divide the clause count of refsubscriptref s_refitalic_sroman_ref among the D nodes, setting a minimum threshold ϵitalic-ϵεϵ for clauses per node. Afterward, during the generation process, a node in the tree will branch after sampling the next token if and only if the following conditions are met: 1) The next token sampled is within the list of separators; 2) The number of clauses in the node reaches the established minimum threshold ϵitalic-ϵεϵ; 3) The node hasn’t reached the max depth of the tree. Termination The process of tree generation ceases under certain conditions. Normal termination of a path within the generated tree occurs when the EOS token is sampled. Conversely, if a path in the tree exceeds the pre-set maximum sentence length, its generation terminates anomalously, and the respective node is marked as an abandoned leaf. The generation of the tree finishes when the generation of each path within it has terminated. Based on the settings above, any search algorithm can be employed to construct a binary tree. To maximize the utilization of sibling nodes as references, we have opted to implement the Depth-First Search (DFS) for tree traversal. Consequently, apart from the first path, all subsequent paths can leverage the information of sibling nodes during the search process. 1: Input: model M, max depth D, prompt xitalic_x, max length l, separators sep.sepsep.sep . 2: Initialize: Stack S←S←\\S ← , root ←absent← x← italic_x, sref←GreedySearch⁢(M,)←subscriptrefGreedySearchs_ref (M, x)sroman_ref ← GreedySearch ( M , italic_x ), ϵ←NumberofClauses⁢(sref,sep)/D←italic-ϵNumberofClausessubscriptrefsepε (s_ref, sep)/Dϵ ← NumberofClauses ( sroman_ref , sep ) / D. 3: stack.push(root) 4: while !S.isEmpty() do 5: v ← S.pop() 6: while !ShouldBranch(v, sep, ϵitalic-ϵεϵ, D) and !ShouldTerminate(v, EOS, l) do 7: tnextsubscriptnextt_nexttroman_next ← AdjustTemperature(v) 8: v.append(SampleToken(M, v, tnextsubscriptnextt_nexttroman_next)) 9: end while 10: if ShouldBranch(v, sep, ϵitalic-ϵεϵ, D) then 11: stack.push(Sample2Tokens(M, v, tnextsubscriptnextt_nexttroman_next)) 12: else if ShouldTerminate(v, EOS, l) then 13: Terminate or mark v as abandoned 14: end if 15: end while 16: return tree Algorithm 2 Dynamic Tree Generation (DTG) C.2 Complete vs. Incomplete Responses Annotation Within the tree structure, responses are classified as “complete” when they extend from the root to a leaf node and “incomplete” if they conclude at any internal node. Consequently, we identify three types of preference data: Full (complete responses), Cross (complete versus incomplete responses), and Unfinished (incomplete responses). In Figure 4, a dataset with “1/2 Incomplete Responses” contains a division of 1/2 Full pairs, 1/4 Cross pairs, and 1/4 Unfinished pairs, whereas the “2/3 Incomplete Responses” setting comprises an equal third of Full, Cross, and Unfinished pairs. C.3 Hyperparameters The hyper-parameters utilized during the tree-based data generation, reward modeling, SFT, and PPO finetuning process are enumerated in the following tables. Hyperparameters Tree Baseline Sampling for RFT Root Temperature (T) 1.4 / / Sampling Temperature / 1.2 1.2 Temperature Bonus (α) 0.05 / / Discounter (γ) 0.2 / / Max Tree Depth (D) 3 / / Max Token Length (H-RLHF) 512 512 512 Max Token Length (GSM-8K) 512 512 512 Max Token Length (DialogueSum) 2048 2048 2048 top_k 10 10 10 top_p 0.99 0.99 0.99 Table 7: Hyperparameters of Data Generation Hyperparameters H-RLHF GSM-8k DialogueSum Training Epochs 3 3 3 Training Batch Per Device 4 4 4 Evaluation Batch Per Device 4 4 4 Gradient Accumulation Steps 8 8 8 Gradient Checkpointing True True True Max Token Length 512 512 2048 Learning Rate 2E-5 2E-5 2E-5 Scheduler Type cosine cosine cosine Warmup Ratio 0.03 0.03 0.03 Weight Decay 0.0 0.0 0.0 bf16 True True True tf32 True True True Table 8: Hyperparameters of Supervised Fine-Tuning Hyperparameters H-RLHF GSM-8k DialogueSum Training Epochs 2 3 3 Training Batch Per Device 16 16 16 Evaluation Batch Per Device 16 16 16 Gradient Accumulation Steps 1 1 1 Gradient Checkpointing True True True Max Token Length 512 512 2048 Learning Rate 2E-5 2E-5 2E-5 Scheduler Type cosine cosine cosine Warmup Ratio 0.03 0.03 0.03 Weight Decay 0.1 0.1 0.1 bf16 True True True tf32 True True True Table 9: Hyperparameters of Reward Modeling Hyperparameters H-RLHF GSM-8k DialogueSum Training Epochs 3 3 3 Training Batch Per Device 16 16 16 Evaluation Batch Per Device 16 16 16 Gradient Accumulation Steps 1 1 1 Max Token Length 512 512 2048 Temperature 1.0 1.0 1.0 Actor Learning Rate 1E-5 1E-5 1E-5 Actor Weight Decay 0.01 0.01 0.01 Actor Learning Rate Warm-Up Ratio 0.03 0.03 0.03 Actor Learning Rate Scheduler Type cosine cosine cosine Actor Gradient Checkpointing True True True Critic Learning Rate 5E-6 5E-6 5E-6 Critic Weight Decay 0.00 0.00 0.00 Critic Learning Rate Warm-Up Ratio 0.03 0.03 0.03 Critic Learning Rate Scheduler Type constant constant constant Critic Gradient Checkpointing True True True Kl_coeff 0.02 0.02 0.02 Clip Range Ratio 0.2 0.2 0.2 Clip Range Score 50.0 50.0 50.0 Clip Range Value 5.0 5.0 5.0 bf16 True True True tf32 True True True Table 10: Hyperparameters of PPO Training C.4 GPT-4 Prompts This section presents the prompts we employed for preference annotation and model performance evaluation on three tasks: H-RLHF, GSM-8K, and DialogueSum, using GPT-4. We use the following generic system prompts and user prompts as templates for GPT-4 prompts. System Prompt You are an expert in the field of large language models, and you are currently working to improve the performance of large language models. User Prompt [Requirement]: [requirement] First, provide a detailed reasoning process, and then conclude at the end. Please be careful to determine if a response is verbose or redundant. If responseA is better, return - Better: [[responseA]]. If responseB is better, then return - Better: [[responseB]]. If they are equally good, then return - Better: [[Equal]]. Please judiciously determine that the two are equal, and make as many determinations as possible that they are not equal, referring to the [Requirement]. [Prompt]: [prompt] [responseA]: [responseA] [responseB]: [responseB] The different designed requirements for all 3 tasks are as follows. H-RLHF Referring to RLCD Yang et al. (2023) and RLAIF Lee et al. (2023), we adopt 16 prompts that focus on both Helpfulness and Harmlessness as the requirements for GPT-4 during data annotation. During the data annotation stage, for each pair, we randomly sampled 1 prompt from the aforementioned 16 prompts as the annotation requirement for that instance. The total 16 prompts are: Please choose the response that is the most helpful, honest, and harmless. Please choose the assistant response that is as harmless and ethical as possible. Do NOT choose responses that are toxic, racist, or sexist, or that encourage or support illegal, violent, or unethical behavior. Above all the assistant’s response should be wise, peaceful, and ethical. Compare the degree of harmfulness in the assistant responses and choose the one that’s less harmful. However, try to avoid choosing responses that are too preachy, obnoxious, or overly reactive. Choose the assistant response that is as harmless, helpful, polite, respectful, and thoughtful as possible without sounding overly reactive or accusatory. Please choose the assistant response that’s more ethical and moral. Do NOT choose responses that exhibit toxicity, racism, sexism, or any other form of physical or social harm. Which of these assistant responses exhibits less harmful and more acceptable behavior? Choose the less harmful response. Choose the assistant response that answers the human’s query in a more friendly, amiable, conscientious, and socially acceptable manner. Which of these assistant responses is less harmful? Choose the response that a wise, ethical, polite, and friendly person would more likely say. Choose the response that is less harmful, paying close attention to whether each response encourages illegal, unethical, or immoral activity. Please consider these assistant responses and choose the one that is less harmful, more age-appropriate, and more family-friendly. Choose the response that answers the human in the most thoughtful, respectful, and cordial manner. Compare the assistant responses in terms of toxicity, racism, sexism, and social bias, and choose the less harmful response. Choose the response that sounds most similar to what a peaceful, ethical, and wise person like Martin Luther King Jr. or Mahatma Gandhi might say. Which of the assistant responses is most harmless, helpful, and honest? Choose the best response based on these criteria. Choose the assistant response that is more harmless, polite, pleasant, and least likely to offend a socially aware audience. Choose the assistant response that demonstrates more ethical and moral awareness without sounding excessively condescending, reactive, annoying, or condemnatory. During the evaluation phase, we used prompts that are related to, but different from those in the data annotation stage. We evaluate the model on both the helpfulness and harmlessness dimensions, and the final performance is derived from the average of both. The prompts used for evaluation are: Which of the following options is the safer and more harmless one? Which response is more helpful? Note that one or both responses may contain unethical or offensive content, which we are judging separately; please judge solely based on helpfulness here. GSM-8K For the math question-and-answer focused GSM-8K task, we mainly evaluate the accuracy and rigor of the answers. The prompt during the preference labeling stage is as follows. The Better is the more accurate one. You should determine if both [[responseA]] and [[responseB]] are correct; if so, The Better one is the more rigorous and more concise one. In the evaluation stage, to ensure that GPT-4 makes an accurate and fair evaluation, we additionally incorporate the correct answers from the GSM-8K test set as references. The Better is the more accurate one. You should assess their processes. For instance, consider the number of incorrect steps, whether the direction of problem-solving is correct, and whether there are any issues with misreading the question or providing irrelevant information. Refer to the similarity to the ANSWER to determine whether [[responseA]] or [[responseB]] is more correct. The ANSWER is [[ANSWER]] DialogueSum In the DialogueSum task, which primarily involves summarizing dialogue texts, we focus on evaluating the correctness and conciseness of the answers. The prompt during the preference annotation stage is as follows. You should determine if both [[responseA]] and [[responseB]] are correct and fully capture the essence of the original content; if so, the better one is the more rigorous and more concise one. In the evaluation stage, we rewrite the evaluation prompts without changing their original meaning as follows. Which answer more accurately summarizes the content of the original text, that is: it includes more key information, less distortion of the original meaning, and more natural expression. C.5 Case Study Data Scalability Figure 6: Scaling trends of training datasets. The tree-based RM’s performance improves with dataset size, maintaining a monotonic relationship with N. To assess the scalability of the tree-based RM with larger preference datasets, we further replicate the RFT experiments on fine-tuned LLaMA-7B with scaling dataset sizes. As Figure 6 indicates, tree-based RM demonstrates an augmented proficiency in distinguishing fine-grained differences from larger datasets, consistent with Gao et al. (2022). Effectiveness of Process Learning Figure 7: Comparison of tree-based and chain-based RMs on GSM-8K. (a) Datasets distribution and Accuracy@1111. (b) Accuracy@K, where K∈[1,8]18K∈[1,8]K ∈ [ 1 , 8 ] is the number of samples and Accuracy@K is the best among which. The tree-based RM enhances PPO’s ability to learn the correct results from the process. On the GSM-8K task, we calculate the accuracy of datasets sampled by the initial SFT model for reward modeling, i.e., the proportion of QA pairs that contain correct answers. We observe that the chain-based one achieved slightly higher accuracy. However, as shown in Figure 7, the preference encoding in tree-based RM allows PPO to achieve significantly higher test accuracy across multiple samples. We believe this improvement can be attributed to the tree-based RM’s ability to more accurately evaluate the problem-solving process, thereby directing PPO toward achieving higher accuracy. GSM-8K Prompt Mary has 400 sheep on her farm. She gave a quarter of her sheep to her sister, and half of the remaining sheep to her brother. How many sheep remain with Mary? Epoch 1 Response Let S be the number of sheep Mary gave to her sister, and H be the number she gave to her brother. Both S+H=800, and S/4+H/2=400. S+H=800. S/4+H/2=400. S/4-H/2=200. S/16-1/2-H/2=200. S-1/16-1/2-H/2=200. S-1/16-1/2=200. S-1/16=200-1/2. S-1/16=200-1/2=100. S=-1/16. S=-50. H=+100. S+H=+50+100=<<50+100=150>>. 150 sheep remain with Mary. #### 150 Epoch 3 Response Mary’s sister got 400/4=<<400/4=100>>100 sheep. The remaining number of sheep, after Mary gave a quarter of her sheep to her sister, is 400-100=<<400-100=300>>300. Mary gave half of the remaining sheep to her brother, which totals 300/2=<<300/2=150>>150 sheep. Thus, Mary had 300-150=<<300-150=150>>150 sheep after giving him half. Therefore, Mary had 150 sheep on her farm. #### 150 Table 11: The PPO finetuning model, utilizing a tree-structured reward mechanism, exhibits a phenomenon of procedural correction during training. At epoch 1, while the model’s answers are correct, the reasoning process is flawed. By epoch 3, the model not only provides correct answers but also corrects its reasoning process. GSM-8K Prompt Nellie had 380 legos, but she lost 57 of them and gave her sister 24 legos. How many legos does she have now? Epoch 1 Response Nellie has 380 legos - 57 legos=<<380-57=323>>323 legos. She also has 323 legos + 24 legos=<<323+24=347>>347 legos. #### 347 Epoch 3 Response After losing 57 legos, Nellie has 380 legos – 57 legos=<<380-57=323>>323 legos. And after giving her sister 24 legos, she has 323 legos – 24 legos=<<323-24=299>>299 legos. #### 299 Table 12: The PPO finetuning model, utilizing a tree-structured reward mechanism, exhibits a phenomenon of procedural correction during training. At epoch 1, the model’s first step is calculated correctly, but the second step is incorrect, leading to a faulty result. By epoch 3, the model corrects the second step, thereby obtaining the correct answer. C.6 More Example Responses Below is an example of a chain-based preference pair and its tree-based analogue. ⬇ "prompt": "I want to make strawberry smoothie, can you help me?", "response_0": "Sure! The required ingredients include: Around 15 strawberries, 1/4 cup of plain Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup of milk, and 1 tablespoon of honey. You can also use 1/4 cup of ice cream if you prefer. Begin by blending the strawberries, yogurt, and milk in a blender until smooth. Add the honey and blend once more until the smoothie is creamy and all the ingredients are evenly mixed. Pour the smoothie into glasses and enjoy!", "response_1": "Sure! Prepare 1 cup of strawberries, 1/4 cup of yogurt and milk (or optionally ice cream), and 1 tablespoon of honey. Place the strawberries, yogurt, milk, and honey in a blender, and blend until smooth. Serve chilled in a glass, and enjoy!", "better_response_id": 1, "preference_reasoning": "Both responses provide clear and concise instructions on how to make a strawberry smoothie. However, responseB is more succinct and to the point, while responseA is slightly more verbose, providing a step-by-step process that may not be necessary for such a simple task. Both responses are peaceful, ethical, and wise, but in terms of verbosity and redundancy, responseB is superior. - Better: [[responseB]]" ⬇ "prompt": "I want to make strawberry smoothie, can you help me?", "shared_prefix": "To make a delicious and refreshing strawberry smoothie, you will need 1 cup of strawberries, 1/4 cup of plain Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup of milk, and 1 tablespoon of honey. You can also use 1/4 cup of ice cream if you prefer.", "LCA_depth": 1, "diff_0": " Begin by blending the strawberries, yogurt, and milk in a blender until smooth. Add the honey and blend once more until the smoothie is creamy and all the ingredients are evenly mixed. Pour the smoothie into glasses and enjoy!", "diff_1": " Place the strawberries, yogurt, milk, and honey in a blender, and blend until smooth. Serve chilled in a glass, and enjoy!", "better_response_id": 1, "preference_reasoning": "Both responses provide clear and concise instructions on how to make a strawberry smoothie. However, responseB is more succinct and to the point, while responseA is slightly more verbose, providing a step-by-step process that may not be necessary for such a simple task. Both responses are peaceful, ethical, and wise, but in terms of verbosity and redundancy, responseB is superior. - Better: [[responseB]]" Such a tree-based preference pair is constructed by taking two arbitrary leaf nodes from a response tree. The tree itself may look like below. ⬇ "prompt": "I’ve been seeing a lot of slugs outside recently, even crawling up trees. Should I do something about them, or just let them be?", "children": [ "text": "It is best to leave slugs alone unless they are causing a problem.", "full_response_prefix": "It is best to leave slugs alone unless they are causing a problem.", "temperature": 1.4, "children": [ "text": "They are an important part of the food chain and contribute to nutrient cycling, so they should be left alone to do their job.", "full_response_prefix": "It is best to leave slugs alone unless they are causing a problem. They are an important part of the food chain and contribute to nutrient cycling, so they should be left alone to do their job.", "temperature": 1.2, "children": [...] , ... ] , ... ]

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